Apparently his sister took a sudden and fairly long break from getting the castle set up (A [[Home]] needs a bit of loving care when you first move in) fairly soon after John's note.
Said break was due to, as one might expect, the sudden news of so many people theoretically showing up at said castle for a multiple day tournament.
So shortly after John reluctantly merged the 'Field Spells' pool with the 'Spells' one… Which he was completely against because they were NOT the same thing darn it! They should be considered separate, not just all lumped together... Plus, none of those 'Field Traps' had even been put into circulation yet, so those shouldn't even COUNT in the ongoing debate!
…Point was, AFTER he lost that argument, his sister showed up and sort of organized all the chaos, which led up to this sudden deluge of paperwork and 'being responsible' and stuff.
Jessica sighed. "Parking won't be an issue, considering how MASSIVE the underground log parking lot turned out to be… But we need to offer temporary housing for the duration. Both for the competitors and for the audience. Thankfully we can easily enough buy out the properties beyond our swamp and set something up there."
Huh? "What audience?"
Temptation was wearing sexy unneeded glasses as she worked on her OWN set of paperwork next to Grace's massive mountain. "Aside from broadcasting to various stations and selling dramatic recordings of each duel after they occur, both in person and online? I'm setting up a big audience seating area with space for merchandise and snacks to be sold."
His sister pointed at the woman. "That audience. Half the reason my agents were able to get all this approved so quickly was due to how eager the local politicians were to turn this whole chaotic idea into a media fiesta. There's a whole section of the tax code dedicated to encouraging that sort of event in this city, in most cities even… It simplifies a lot of problems to take advantage of it."
Grace hummed as she moved another page of information to a different stack. "I'm thankful this entire endeavor is going so smoothly and streamlined! Arranging temporary city wide transportation stops and advertising has been nearly automatic after just a few fundamental forms were submitted."
Jessica hummed. "Right, we shouldn't forget merchandise opportunities. Temptation, please look into getting licensed approval for us selling plushies of the various Duel Monsters that the Duelists end up playing with during their matches." "Will do!"
John couldn't help but feel a bit surprised as he accepted another form from his sister to sign. "Hey uh… Sis? Why are you so alright with going above and beyond with all this? Like, I'm GRATEFUL, don't get me wrong, but I didn't expect to expand this so much or do all this side stuff as well…"
Honestly he expected to get in trouble for nearly forgetting to tell her about his whole idea, NOT for his sister to jump in with both hands to make everything more epic and awesome!
She chuckled as she noted another form. "We already agreed to 'go loud', yes? And we are being observed by multiple organizations and a few government issues anyway."
Her hand ruffled his hair as she grinned. "I'm not going to stop you from dueling people, especially since Grace thinks it will at least be safe for YOU, if not your opponent… But if my little brother CHOOSES to have all the crazy people show up HERE, in our [[Home]] where I can set up all my agents and security measures? Well, that gets my full support!"
Temptation hummed as she tried to slip the idea of erotic cheerleaders past Grace again. "Plus we can filter out all the weaklings that kept trying to leech onto us every time we walk around the city. It was funny at first, especially since our Master never notices them before they nearly crap themselves and flee, but after a while it's just annoying."
Wait, what now? "I thought people only tried to duel us when we had that picnic at the park?"
Grace gave him a sympathetic smile while his demoness giggled. "No, my Lord. A substantial portion of the pedestrian traffic as we moved about the city was composed of weaker Souled Duelists attempting to overcome your ambient Soul Pressure to challenge you."
That… That didn't make ANY sense! "I shouldn't HAVE any Soul Pressure, my Soul is fully defended! ALL of ours are! That's why we had to set up that ambient resonance effect, so that we wouldn't accidentally crush anyone or something!"
Glancing at the two black and white beauties, his eyes narrowed. "In fact, I bet it was because YOU two were there that we had so many followers! After all, even BEFORE you both 'improved' your Avatars, you were near perfect visions of beauty!"
They paused and went red faced for some reason… Probably because they were embarrassed that he was right! Nailed it! "Yep, I'm sure they were just entranced and followed us like a cartoon mouse floats after a fresh baked cake!"
Temptation recovered first and snorted. "It was BECAUSE all them ignored us and tried to rush at you, clutching their decks and wheezing about defeating you, that we know it wasn't something like that. I doubt half of them even realized we were there in the first place!"
John blinked at that impossible sentence. "No, that doesn't make sense. How could anyone ignore you two?" Hmm. "Maybe they had mental issues… Or our Soul security settings are messed up?" Best look into that just in case.
His sister laughed, pulling his attention from the brightly blushing angel and her proud but still flustered sister. "Alright Romeo, enough flirting: I need you to sign these three documents as part of getting you diplomatic immunity."
Diplomatic… Hang on. "How did THAT make it into our paperwork mountain!?"
Jessica glanced at the pages and shrugged. "One of my agents argued that the Amphibian Alliance counts as a sovereign nation with its capital in your Pocket. As the primary member of their Royal Family, you checked a LOT of boxes and we are taking advantage of them all."
She shrugged at his shock. "It isn't OUR fault they allow this mess. And by the time they fix all the strange loopholes we used we will have likely moved on anyway…"
His sister blinked as another agent mentally pinged her. "Oh right, this changes which tax codes we need to work with, I nearly missed that…"
With growing grumbles, John slumped down and continued working on more and more paperwork.
Why was setting up a few card games so gosh darn complicated!?
~~~Pocket System~~~
"You heard about that frog dude?" "The local guy trending recently?" "Yep." "Oh yeah, what an odd ball." "Meh, I've dueled weirder." "More importantly, I saw his eye candy!" "Those chicks were smoking!" "Yeah, didn't think a girl or guy could rate above a 10 on my hotness scale, but damn."
Joey Wheeler held back a grumble as he tried to focus on his deck once more. He needed to shift it a bit, less of a focus on brute strength and more adaptability… Winning against Yugi might be a reach, but he refused to be curb stomped by everyone else too!
"My little sister won't shut up about it!" "Huh?" "She's a fan of those girls?" "Nah, but that dude, the Frog Emperor guy, he has a website now and she is fangirling all over it." "What, some sort of public idol page?" "I mean, my girlfriend thought he was cute in that goofy outfit, sure! But not enough to go online and obsessively watch the clips over and over again or whatever."
He felt his eye twitch. This was a LIBRARY, gosh darn it! A certain level of volume was expected!
Whatever, he could deal.
Now how could he best support his new Red-Eyes Black Dragon? It had only joined his Deck after a dangerous and risky bet back when he was Dueling against Rex Raptor, and he hadn't exactly had a LOT of time to adjust everything else he was working with back during an active Tournament he was only 'sort-of' participating in.
"Nah, nothing like that, she's too young to care about boys or whatever." "But you said…" "Bro, the website is selling these plush dolls of all sorts of Frog and Toad Duel Monsters! Sis won't leave our parents alone about it!" "What!?" "I think she wants a whole set or something…" "Give me the URL, let me see…"
He still needed to ask Yugi about some of the strange stuff that had been happening to him since that tournament as well…
Like how this card, 'Metalmorph', had ended up in his Deck. And how he just understood on a fundamental level that it could combine with his Red-Eyes to form the powerful Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon…
Which wasn't a real card, but somehow existed when it was needed.
He kept feeling like he should be telling people about this, or asking more questions… But things kept getting out of hand, or issues would come up, or his sister Serenity would need something…
"Holy crap, this online store has SO MUCH STUFF!" "Hey wait, half that wasn't there an hour ago…" "Is that an adult's only section!?" "WHAT!?" "Shit, don't look using MY phone, I don't want that in my history!" "Pfft, like we don't know the kinds of messed up stuff you search on there." "...Fair, but still! Not cool!" "See, they censored that stuff and… Oh my." "Uh, yeah." "I like Duel Monsters as much as the next guy, but it's a bit much to get customized 'toys' like that."
Joey felt his ears redden, but was DETERMINED to ignore the loud morons. Even if the topics got more and more X rated as they continued to scroll… What the hell!?
No. Ignore that.
Anyway, most of his time was allocated to helping his sis, so chances like this to consider his playing style and overall Deck composition were rare.
Not that he cared, of course. She was still recovering after her eye surgery, and anything he could do to make that process less burdensome was worth any hassle… And he'd have to find SOME way to repay Yugi eventually.
Just handing someone who lost 3 million dollars after winning a massive tournament was simply beyond what he could normally consider as acceptable, as his pride could attest.
But for Serenity?
Well, he had swallowed the urge to reject charity. Needs must and all that.
"Hang on! The Frog Emperor is going to do a big tournament!" "Wait, what?" "Yeah, he's going to host a huge competition at his swamp castle!" "Who the hell would have a swamp castle?" "I think it floats or something, hang on it says there is more on another page…" "I don't recognize that place, is it over in Europe?" "Yeah, Europe has tons of castles, right?" "...Shit, I think that's over near Becky's place. I recognize that street." "Hold up, when did Becky move to Europe!?" "Shut up, Gaven." "Shove off, Branden!"
Joey paused, still sorting his deck, as his attention was firmly grasped.
A tournament?
He ignored the bickering as his mind flashed back to the VERY intense recent past… And the dread of inflicting that sort of chaos on himself again. The impossible things he had seen and experienced, those moments of actual terror and fear and tribulation…
"This can't be right, it says the tournament will be here in the city." "Are they renting a stadium?" "No, guys online are claiming they like… Built that castle from the picture. Here. In our City." "...Da fuck!?" "Taking bets everyone! Are these people drunk or high?" "Shut up, Gaven." "I'm betting on high." "Holy SHIT (Shut up Gaven), have you SEEN these prizes!?" "What?" "Hang on! Can we go back to the 'They built a castle here' bit?" "No REALLY, look at this list!" """Daaaaamn…"""
…Yeah, that sounded like something he had to know. "Brandon, could I see that?"
His classmate blinked in surprise. "Holy crap! Wheeler, how long have YOU been here!?"
Since before you idiots came in here like a hurricane of stampeding rhinos, thank you very much. "Just now. You said something about prizes?"
A flicker of sympathy… Ah right, most of his classmates didn't know that Serenity's expensive operation had already been paid for, and they probably assumed he was still frantically searching for funds and loans.
Anyway, Brandon was helpful like usual. "Sure man, take a look! I know your circle of friends Duel a lot, maybe this is something you'll get in on!"
Humming, Joey looked over the prize listing… And blinked. "A million dollars earned after every round victory… Wait, you mean at least HALF the participants are guaranteed AT LEAST a million just for entering!?" Holy. Shit.
There were five rounds, each fight consisting of the best of three Duels between two Duelists.
So the final victor of this event would have what, five MILLION dollars!? And even if he was the runner up this time, that was still a million more than what the LAST Tournament offered!
There was more stuff there, like being able to trade in some amount of the cash prizes for wishes worth roughly the same amount and blah blah blah, but still! "Text me a link to this, would you Brandon?" "Sure man!" "Thanks."
Right! Cut all of his Deck rebuilding plans short NOW, there was no time to allow him to stumble his way through this mess like he so desperately wanted to do. This would require professional assistance.
First: He'd go get Yugi and maybe his grandpa involved with optimizing and customizing his deck. Winning this thing, or at least making it through a couple of rounds, could solve all SORTS of issues AND potentially pay his friend back!
Secondly? Tell the others.
Tristan and Téa needed to know, and his sister would be able to actually ENJOY hearing him Duel when the only thing on the line was a free spending budget and not her future or his death.
As for his own nightmares and dark memories and inner fears? They'd just have to set aside for now, along with his old plans and concerns and self doubt.
For now, it sounded like it was going to be time to Duel!