A short AN at the beginning; for the optimal experience during the duel in this chapter I'd recommend the following music for the background.
- Duel Start: Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel BGM - Keycard Theme #1
- Once Blake plays his 1st high-level Monster: C&C Red Alert 2 "GRINDER" - METAL Cover by ToxicxEternity
Chapter 9:
The day of the promotion exams had finally come. After the students were done with the written part and had a short break, the physical examinations were next. Blake, who performed better in the written exam than he had anticipated – no doubt thanks to the help he got from the Ra students –, excused himself to the toilets the moment their break was over. By now he knew he had no chance of getting around what was coming next, but at least he could make it so nobody else would hear the nurse flipping out, hopefully. So, he told Bastion that he wasn't feeling well and asked him to tell Professor Fontaine that he'd come in a bit later. He waited until he was sure that no one else had remained near her office before he entered.
"Ah, mister Moore, there you are. Your friend told me you weren't feeling well, you should've come to me immediately", the woman told him, guiding him towards her equipment.
Blake followed her, stopping in front of the scales. "Sorry, but my stomach just made some terrible noise. Didn't want the whole school to hear all that."
"You children and your pride, next time you get here, understood?", Fontaine scolded him and took some tools from a nearby table to check his eyes, mouth and ears. "Lack of sleep?"
He grunted in approval, noting just how tall the woman was to give him a check-up without him having to sit down. The only people that were taller than him at this school were Doctor Crowler and Professor Banner, with Professor Fontaine being close in height with his guardian – and in beauty. 'It's no wonder she's so popular with the male students, especially in that outfit. The fact that she's a nurse only makes it worse.' To the question for how long he had problems sleeping, he answered truthfully, earning him another scolding.
"If you're feeling unwell, you're supposed to get an appointment with me, young man. There's even a shortcut on your PDA to reach me, what would you've done if you'd fallen asleep during your exams? Or worse, hurt yourself?", Fontaine shook her head. "I knew you're troublesome, but at least take care of your health. Please undress down to your underwear so I can get your weight and continue."
Blake ignored her lecture and did as he was told. Putting everything aside, he was left standing in his boxers and sweatbands, with a bandage around his neck. But before she could get to those, she looked at him in shock, seeing the scars on his back. She carefully brushed over them with her hand and asked "Those look old … who …"
He really didn't want to talk about any of this, but maybe he could distract her from the rest by focusing on those. "Abusive parents", Blake answered, a touch of venom in his words. "Same reason I limp on my left leg."
Her head snapped up, her eyes looking into his in horror. "What?! How could anyone do this to someone, their own kid no less?!" She crouched down and inspected his leg, finding what she was looking for. "I did notice you walk weirdly during sports classes. It's a wonder you can even run as fast as you do like this. It's like none of these were ever treated."
"Because they weren't", he continued, wincing when the images flashed in his mind. 'I'm only telling her because it benefits me, no one else will know.'
"… are you still living with them?"
"No, they died a few years back. Been living with my guardian ever since. And no, she did nothing to me."
The nurse stood back up and directed him towards the scales, holding her head in disbelief. "You're slightly underweight, have you been eating properly?"
"Yes, but getting an appetite has been a hassle lately."
"Most likely the stress. Lack of sleep, physical impairments, and the psychological impact of what you've been doing these past weeks I wager", she concluded, making notes on her clipboard. She was about to turn away before her eyes noticed the bandage around his neck. "What's that one for? It certainly wasn't done by me."
Inwardly panicking, he tried to come up with something. "Uhm …. Purely cosmetic to … build character?" 'Great idea, good job you idiot.'
With a deadpan look on her face, she undid them faster than Blake could see and stumbled back against the table when she saw what they covered. Her mouth opened and closed a number of times, before she looked at the sweatbands on his wrists. Knowing that there was no way out of this, he took them off with a sigh, and he thought she was about to faint. Instead, she took a deep breath, stood up and became really loud.
"What in the name of all that's holy is this?!", the professor shouted, making him wince. She went right back to her inspection, checking the burn scars and the tissue around them. "Those haven't been treated either! And they almost cover your left forearm completely, not to speak of your neck!" Getting up close in his face, she pointed her finger at him. "Sit down right now!"
Now thoroughly scared of her, her tone matching his guardians when she was angry perfectly, he did as he was told immediately. Fontaine took up some other tools and checked him further. "These scars are way fresher, around one year old. Why has no one taken a look at them?! You should at least have a salve to aid their healing and reduce the pain."
"They don't cause me any pain tho-", Blake blabbed out, shutting his mouth the moment he realized. This made her take a closer look.
"And how could you, when your nerves are this damaged! Hell, how can you even duel like this?! The strain on your left arm must be immense, not to begin with your left hands nerves barely holding enough together to form a fist!", she got up, walked into a neighbouring room and cried out so loudly that the nearby equipment fell down onto the floor.
'Well, this is it. She's gonna rip my head off', Blake resigned, barely able to swallow with how dry his mouth was after her display.
After a few minutes, she came back in, her eyes blazing. "You didn't have any problems with your stomach, you just didn't want anyone to listen in on this because you knew how I'd react, didn't you?" She didn't wait for his reply. "If you think I'm going to let you get away with this, you better pack your things instead. It's bad enough as it is, but I won't let you continue on like this for as long as you're in this school, do you understand?"
Blake nodded, so she continued. "I have an idea of what could've caused these burn scars of yours, and if I'm correct, the way you challenged the whole Obelisk dorm doesn't surprise me anymore. Whether you did this because you needed the money or are just messed up from your childhood doesn't matter in this case; if I see anyone come to office with anything resembling those, I'll have you booted out faster than you can blink. Do we understand each other?"
The dark tone she used kept him silent, his only reaction being a careful nod. "Good. Now how we'll deal with this." She walked around the room, collecting several things on her way back. "First, you're going to put this salve on your burn scars once a day every day. You can keep using the means you had to conceal them, but make sure to do this regularly. Second, you'll take these pills every evening before going to bed to aid your sleep. If they don't work or you suffer from side effects, let me know, so we can get you something else. Third and last, you'll be coming in every weekend for physical therapy so we can hopefully do something about your hand and leg. They've been damaged and unattended for so long I doubt we can get far like this, but it's better than leaving them alone and get completely unusable." She wrote down his prescription on a note and put it together in a little plastic bag with everything else. "The moment you feel unwell or your condition worsens in any way you'll come straight to me, okay?"
By now he felt even smaller than Syrus, so he did the only reasonably thing and nodded in agreement. Fontaine put the salve on his scars before he clothed himself again, even putting a fresh bandage around his neck.
"Oh, and one last thing. I'll have to inform Chancellor Sheppard and your dormhead about this, in case anything happens." She told him. "I won't tell anyone else, of course. You've my promise as a doctor. But I'll call your guardian about this, and she better have some good reasons you haven't been treated yet."
"I understand … thank you." Gulping at the thought of the professor shouting at his guardian, he nodded to her one final time. 'What's it with tall, hot women being so damn scary?!'
"Good. Now go get to your practical exam before I'll confine you to a hospital bed."
Not wanting to test out the truth of that statement, he left as fast as he could. But as soon as he got out of the door, he bumped into someone, sending them to the floor. Already in a rush, he quickly helped that person up, only noticing a lot off blue, before he ran off towards the dueling fields. "Sorry about that!"
Startled by the sudden impact, the other person made their way past the infirmary, a sly smile curling up their face as they followed him.
Blake arrived at the duel fields shortly after the duel between Chazz and Jaden had ended, with the later being the victor. Making his way to the arena, he had a brief conversation with Bastion, who watched from the ranks with the other students, bringing him up to speed regarding what had happened to the rare cards and why Jaden dueled Chazz.
Luckily for him, the card he ordered had its separate packing, otherwise it might've ended up stolen by Crowler, which is why he now had a shiny new boss monster in his deck for this duel. Courtesy of Miss Dorothy handing it to Jaden, and Jaden to him, although he had a weird feeling as if he touched a mix between cold steel and heated metal when he unpacked the card.
Doctor Crowler noticed him and waved him up to the arena. "Signor Moore, it's about time you show up. I was about to end todays exam duels." While the professor hadn't been as hostile towards him as had been to Jaden and Syrus, it was clear he didn't appreciate Blake's rampage through the Obelisk Blue's ranks. Which is why it didn't surprise him when a student in blue entered the arena alongside him.
"Wait, aren't you the dragon guy I've been handing his ass to twice a week since school started?", Blake asked as he readied his deck.
That description didn't sit well with his opponent, but before he could reply, Crowler made the announcement. "Since our missing student has finally decided to show up, it's the for the final exam duel today. As Signor Moore has been, ahem, demonstrating his dueling prowess for quite a while, I arranged a fitting opponent for him." He turned towards Blake, who struggled to hold back on rolling his eyes. "I imagine no one has a problem with that?"
"Not at all, doctor. But I believe my opponent might want to rethink this, before he gets embarrassed. Again", Blake answered with an amused snort, activating his duel disk. 'I'd prefer a smaller audience though …'
"I don't think he will need to; it was him stepping forward to duel you after all. But we've wasted enough time, may the duel between Blake Moore and Shinji Matou begin!" (Blake 4000 / Shinji 4000)
The duel disks shuffled their decks and exchanged an automatic coin-flip, which decided Blake's opponent going first. He didn't know why, but hearing that guys name, which he somehow managed not to for almost a month, had his body revolting.
"My turn! I draw!", Shinji announced, smiling at the card he drew. "First, I activate Graceful Charity!" He drew and discarded, before setting up his field. "Then I set one monster in defence and one card face-down. It's your move, sludge."
The self-assured face and attitude of his opponent was as bad as ever, so Blake retorted in kind. "Not summoning a bunch of weak monsters on your first turn? Colour me surprised. I draw." 'No removal for his backrow but a lot of traps. Going slow it is', he thought. "I summon Dark Valkyria in attack mode!" The form of a female white-haired angel with red eyes and black-plated wings descended upon his side of the field (1800/1050). "Attack his set monster!" His angel shot towards her target, slicing it in two with her wings, destroying the monster which was revealed to be a Masked Dragon.
"Since you destroyed my dragon, I can summon a Dragon-type monster with 1500 or less attack points from my deck! I choose Decoy Dragon!" A small, turquoise and orange dragon appeared on his opponent's side (300/200).
'Decoy Dragon? Better check his GY … and there it is; a Darkblaze Dragon and a Flame Ruler of all things. Definitely won't attack into that.' "I set three cards face-down and end my turn", Blake announced, hoping he'd get some draw power soon.
"Before it's my turn, I activate my Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy the face-down in your middle!" The resulting effect destroyed Blake's set Draining Shield. "No additional LP for you this time! And you'll need them, trust me. I draw!"
With an overemphasized move of his arm, Shinji made his move. "I summon Spirit Ryu in attack position and end my turn. Better use the chance, I almost have everything I need."
"Big talk for someone who hasn't even dealt damage yet", Blake replied, thankful for what he drew. "I activate Pot of Greed, you know how it goes." 'Double Summon and Caius, nice. Gotta save those for when he summons a big one' "I'm afraid your Decoy won't trigger this time. Since my Dark Valkyria is a Gemini-monster, I summon her again, which not only gives her an effect but activates it as well." There were some confused sounds from the audience, but out of the corner of his eye he could see Bastion clearing things up. The red orbs on his monsters' wings began to glow as they charged her Spell Counter and attack points (2100/1050). "She gains a Spell Counter, which boosts her attack but more importantly allow me to remove it in order to destroy one monster on the field." A red glow emanated from his monster, shooting out and destroying the Decoy Dragon (1800/1050).
"With the little guy gone, lets slay some ghosts, shall we? Valkyria, attack his remaining monster!" As Blakes monster rushed forward, his opponent laughed.
"Forgot my monsters' effect already? I discard my Kaiser Glider to boost my Spirit Ryu's attack points by 1000 points!" The dragon swelled up with power, but was destroyed nonetheless, causing its owner to cry out in confusion.
"No, I didn't forget, but it seems like you forgot about my face-downs", Blake taunted as his Valkyrie returned to his side, a metallic film over her (2100/1050). "I activated Metalmorph, which not only boosts my monsters attack by 300, but also gives it points equal to half the attack points of its target when it attacks." With that, he ended his turn. (Blake 4000 / Shinji 2900)
"Argh, this isn't over, my turn! I activate Pot of Greed! Hehe, just what I needed, behold the bringer of your defeat! I summon Lord of D. and activate The Flute of Summoning Dragon!" The spellcaster Blake felt like he already had seen enough for a lifetime appeared on the field, promptly playing his flute. Brought out by its melody were an elusive, snake-like dragon (1600/600) and a not only tall, but powerful looking dragon in knightly armour (2900/2300). "The Mirage Dragon I summoned won't let you activate any Trap Cards during the battle phase, so your set card is useless! Dragonic Knight, destroy his Valkyrie!"
The massive dragon knight sliced Blake's monster in two (Blake 3300 / Shinji 2900), before the other one followed up (Blake 1700 / Shinji 2900). "And with that, I end my turn. With my Mirage denying your precious traps and my Lord of D. protecting my dragons from targeting, there's nothing you can do, trash."
'A Lightning Vortex like the first time would be really good right now.' "You really like to hear yourself talk, don't you? My turn", Blake announced, thinking of a way to out that combo. His best hope lay on drawing something good from his next card, otherwise he'd have to waste his monarchs' effect on his opponents' spellcaster, leaving his big monster on the field. 'Wonder what he got there, maybe a bluff?' "I activate Allure of Darkness! I draw two cards and must banish one Dark-type monster from my hand, otherwise my whole hand goes to the graveyard." He drew and reluctantly banished the Sangan he'd been holding onto since the game started. 'Good thing I have three copies of you in my deck, my fruity saviour. Never thought I'd have to use this combo though.'
"I summon Mystic Tomato in attack mode, but that's not all! I equip it with Megamorph, doubling its attack points since I have less LP than you! Tomato, crash into his knight!" The laughing tomato (1400/1100) inflated to double its size (2800/1100) and bore down on its target, which fought back and destroyed them both. "And since my tomato was destroyed by battle, I can special summon a monster from my deck, so I summon Twin-Headed Wolf!" A green furred wolf with two heads appeared, barring its teeth. "Time to get rid of that pesky lord." His new monster rushed forward and bit its target, shattering the hologram. (Blake 1700 / Shinji 2600)
"And before I end my turn I activate Double Summon! With its effect I tribute my wolf to summon Caius the Shadow Monarch!" The regal form of his by now signature monster entered the field, snapping his opponents remaining monster out of the game. "Since your monster wasn't a Dark-type you won't lose LP for it, lucky you. Your fields empty and you've been holding onto that card in your hand since the game started, sure you don't want to save yourself the embarrassment and surrender?" Blake mocked, hoping his opponent would brick after he had emptied his hand. 'I've had mostly good draws up until now, really hope that won't change. Those dragon of his were either new additions or he never got to use them before.'
"No way I'm going to lose to Slifer trash like you, not again! I draw and activate another Pot of Greed!", Shinji drew and the arena was silent as looked upon his new cards. After a few seconds, he howled in laughter. "And right here is where your luck ends, I activate Monster Reborn and summon back my Flame Ruler! But he won't be with us for long, as I can use him as two tributes for a fire monster. You'll finally be crushed by my ace monster; come forth Tyrant Dragon!" In a flash of lights, a bright ankh appeared and momentarily summoned back the spellcaster who had been sent to the GY when the duel started, only for it to go up in flames and reveal a monstrous dragon clad in bronze scales, a green gem prominent on its forehead (2900/2500).
'That doesn't look good', Blake admitted, knowing he couldn't stall out that one. "Now, reduce that puny monarch to ash!" With a mighty roar, the dragon blew a stream of fire, destroying Blake's last monster (Blake 1500 / Shinji 2600). Now fully back to being overtaken by confidence, which at least this time was somewhat justified, Shinji ended his turn with a smug look on his face as he placed his remaining card face-down. "How the tables have turned. Who's supposed to surrender now? You have no cards in hand and my dragon won't fall for your traps, like the bluff you have laying there. Draw your last pathetic card so I can end this duel." The students in blue cheered loudly for their own, as well as booing and laughing at Blake, as he was nearer to defeat than any duel before.
It took him a few seconds to reign in his twitching hand, the scene in front of him overlaying with one of his first duels in the underground ring. "My deck has no pathetic cards, whatever your name is", Blake countered, ignoring his opponents retort. 'At least not anymore, come on almost perfect deck, gimme something good.' He drew his next card in a wide arc, and once again the stadium was silent. Drawing his card nearer, he slowly looked at it. 'Urgh, don't make it so dramatic, let me brick in peace.' "I activate Upstart Goblin! I get to draw one card; in exchange you get 1000 LP!" (Blake 1500 / Shinji 3600). The scene repeated. 'Oh, come on!'
"Now I activate my second copy of Allure of Darkness!" Blake almost didn't want to look at what he drew but when he did, the tensed shoulders he didn't know he had sacked down in relief. "I banish Giant Germ from my hand, so I get to keep my other card." The setup was there, the damage high enough. It was a good thing his opponent hit his Drain Shield and not the trap he now had in reserve. "You may have stepped up your game today, but you only prolonged your suffering! I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back my Caius!"
A ghostly tombstone appeared, a crack appearing on it as it released the monarch from the GY (2400/1000). His opponent only laughed. "What good is your little monarch, huh?! He can't activate his effect, nor is he strong enough to beat my dragon."
Now sporting his own smug grin, Blake nodded. "You're right about that. But he's not the one who will destroy your dragon. Aside from lending me the power to finish you off, the more important part is that with him on the field, I only have three Dark-type monsters in the GY."
This confused not only his opponent but many others in the arena, until Chazz of all people cried out "No way!". Blake looked up at him and saw Chazz's horrified look, making him grin even wider.
"Oh yes, you're right, Chazz. I special summon Dark Armed Dragon!" With a size rivalling the Tyrant Dragon, Blake's newest addition to his deck appeared out of dark smoke, its spiked tail whipping over the floor as the spikes on its body turned with a screeching noise, the dragon letting out a loud roar once it was completely visible (2800/1000). 'It's about damn time! Let's crush this pathetic little bitch and be done with it!' Blake blinked in confusion as to where the strange new voice was coming from, only noticing both Jaden and Chazz to flinch at it.
Not knowing what exactly Blake had planned, but nevertheless intimidated by the brutal looking dragon, Shinji tried to play it off. "H-hah! Your dragon might be strong, but not as strong as mine!"
'Must be the lack of sleep finally getting to me. Let's get this over with so I can go to bed.' "He's plenty strong enough. You see, my dragons power comes from its effect, not his attack points", Blake explained and snapped his finger, causing a hologram of his Mystic Tomato to appear in front of his dragon, who promptly crushed it between his claws. "By banishing a Dark-type monster from my GY, he gets to destroy one card on the field!" Powered up by the sacrifice, the tail of Blake's dragon started to spin surrounded by dark energy, shooting out a black drill right into Shinji's face-down card.
As his useless Polymerization was destroyed, Shinji cried out in triumph. "You fool! It was a bluff, now you wasted your chance! Ahahahaha!" His laughter stopped once the scene repeated, his mighty dragon reduced to dust. "Wh-wha-?"
"I never said his effect was once per turn, did I?", Blake asked with a sarcastic tone. "Now, Caius attack him directly. Dark Armed, finish him off!" His first monster hit Shinji with its shadow-covered fist, making him fall to one knee in good sportsmanship. (Blake 1500 / Shinji 1200) 'Why else would anyone physically react to a hologram?' Then his dragon quite literally bore down on his opponent, its fist covered by spinning drills, causing loud and unpleasant screeches of metal throughout the whole arena. 'Hell yeah, down you go!' (Blake 1500 / Shinji 0)
As the dust slowly settled and the holograms disappeared, Doctor Crowler stood upon the duel field once more. He had almost been celebrating when Shinji pulled out his ace. But despite his dislike of Blake as a Slifer student, as well as how he made his dorm a laughingstock these past weeks, he couldn't help but be impressed with how his troublemaker of a student turned the duel around. After a moment needed to find his voice, he announced the following.
"The duel is over and the winner is Signor Blake! Please give both our duelist a round of applause for the magnificent duel!" Not only his Obelisk students were surprised by his words, both himself and Chancellor Shepperd, who had been in his ear ever since he let Chazz duel against Jaden, didn't believe what he said. The applause was deafening; mostly coming from the Slifer students at first, the Ra's chimed in once a few of their own cheered loudly. But when the second most prominent first-year of the Blue Girl dorm clapped, even the Obelisk students fell in line, whether for their own or not was up in the air. Something about the scene felt off, however. 'Why does Signor Blake look so uncomfortable? They're cheering for him, but it seems to have the opposite effect on him ...'
After Chancellor Shepperd managed to calm down the crowd, he made an announcement himself. "This truly was a splendid show of wit, skill, and knowledge from both duelists, much like the pair before them. While things weren't exactly according to protocol today-", Crowler winced at the glare he was given, "I believe no one can deny that. And since these duelists not only impressed me, but seemingly everyone in the arena, I grant both Jaden Yuki and Blake Moore the promotion to Ra Yellow. You've more than deserved it."
This time the Ra students started the round of applause, with a duo of girls cheering the loudest. The group of slackers in red, together with the best student in their year, came together at the entrance of the arena, celebrating with a round of cheers and high-fives, before leaving the stadium. They were quickly followed by a bunch of enthusiastic students, who were still loudly talking about the duels that had happened.
It took the Obelisk students a bit longer to leave, the last one being the loser of the last duel. With all of them gone, Doctor Crowler was about to split away as well, but a firm hand on his shoulder stopped him in his tracks. "Now, why don't you tell me why two Slifer students had to go against two Obelisk students in their first promotion exam, hm?", Shepperd all but demanded, causing Crowler to gulp.
Thats all for today folks. Next time will be the after-exam celebration, followed by the introduction to an arc that will span the whole first year, with its first part going up until the happenings at the Forbidden Dorm. While both Anime and Manga have quite a lot of plot (and fillers I will just let happen in the background), there will be original stuff, that will influence the canon story. What would be the point in having an OC otherwise, am I right?
Onto the topic of new/modern cards that came up in the reviews under the last chapter; I'm not planning on bringing in any modern cards (or summoning mechanics for that matter) into the story. The furthest up I'll go are the cards introduced in the Manga like Masked/Vision HERO's and the like. Just a bit of fresh cards that came out in the Synchro-era, so no Structure Deck cards for the Sacred Beasts (which pains me, cause it was the first deck I built in Master Duel), otherwise things would go even more unbalanced than they are by default.
To finish things off a short bit about the characters. Since a trusty reviewer of mine (whom I currently am reading his own GX-FF to, cheers to you LoliSupremeKing) has brought up the topic of how underutilized Blair is in most stories, which I wholeheartedly agree with. I have planned a role for her once the second year comes around (and I'll be aging her up, 'cause whatever the Anime did made no sense if you ask me), but I'm not sure yet about her character per se. Anyone who played the different routes in Tag Force 3 with her knows there is more to her than just her Anime counterpart. That said, I'm open for suggestions. The only thing I already set in stone will be her deck, the serious one, not the one with Maiden in Love. I don't know how big of a role I can manage to give her overall, as I already have three girls and Bastion who will stick with our lovely MC, forming their group like Jaden and Co. And before anyone dreads it; no harem, you're save, everything is fine. There will most likely be some romance, but only one-on-one, and I still have to decide on who's gonna get it in the end.
As always, thanks for reading and until next time.