UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
THIS CHAPTER WAS WRITTEN AND UPLOADED ON JULY 7, 2022. THAT MORNING, THE YU-GI-OH COMMUNITY RECEIVED DEVASTATING NEWS, AS THE FRANCHISE'S CREATOR, KAZUKI TAKAHASHI, WAS ANNOUNCED AS HAVING PASSED AWAY AT THE AGE OF 60. SO BOTH RETROACTIVELY AND CONTINUING ON, THIS STORY SHALL BE DEDICATED TO HIS MEMORY.
REST IN PEACE, MR. TAKAHASHI, AND THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU'VE GIVEN US
The score sat at Yuka with 900 life points, her opponent - a boy named David Draymond, an Ice Barrier duelist - with 1750 life points. Yuka had one monster on the field, Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, a level 12 dragon monster made by fusing three Blue-Eyes White Dragons together, and one face down card, Mirror Force, and all Draymond had on his field was a level 11 Synchro monster: Trishula, Zero Dragon of the Ice Barrier. Thanks to Trishula's effect, it had 3300 attack points while Neo Blue-Eyes had 2250, half of its original 4500.
Yuka's last move was setting Mirror Force face down.
"Here we go, Yuka," David said. "I enter my Battle Phase and Trishula attacks." Trishula's four heads reared back, ready to blast Neo Blue-Eyes with its ice breath.
Yuka grinned. "I don't think so, David," she said smugly. "I activate my trap card, Mirror Force!"
"Oh snap!" David gasped.
"And that is why she didn't put Neo Blue-Eyes into defense mode," Hugo commented.
"Played the boy like a fiddle," Shelly added.
It was too late for David to call off his attack; all four heads attacked Neo Blue-Eyes. This attack triggered the effect of Mirror Force. A transparent force field formed around Yuka's dragon, redirecting Trishula's attack back at her. The attack hit, causing Trishula to explode.
"Uh...Oops," David chuckled nervously. "There's nothing else I can do, so I guess I end my turn."
Yuka drew a card, but didn't bother looking at it. After all, with no monsters on the field, no cards in the back row, and nothing in his hand, there was nothing David could do to stop her attack.
"Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack him directly with Neo Neutron Blast!" Yuka ordered.
All three heads of her dragon opened their mouths, shooting out a beam of white energy that coalesced together, forming a spiraling beam that streaked towards David. The beam hit David directly. He flew back against a nearby tree, hitting it hard, and his life points dropped to 0.
Yuka deactivated her duel pad and hurried over to David. Hugo and Shelly were close behind. David had slumped to the ground, and was breathing heavily from his impact against the tree.
"Are you okay?" Yuka asked. She held out a hand, offering to help David off the ground.
"Yeah, just a bit winded," David answered. He grabbed Yuka's hand and let her lift him to his feet. "You're good. I guess that's to be expected when you run Blue-Eyes."
"I'm good because I practice," Yuka gently corrected him. "But I still make mistakes. I haven't won every duel I've played; I've got one loss under my belt already, and I won't be surprised if there's at least one more loss to come in the future."
"I guess I should be lucky this wasn't an official duel, or it would count against me," David said.
"Yeah, but losing is how we get better," Hugo said. It shows us what we need to improve on."
"I guess you're right," David said. "Anyway, it was nice to meet you guys and that was a fun duel. But I've got to get going. Salamandra City is calling my name. Maybe next time we meet, it'll be in the tournament. See you later."
"Bye," Yuka and her friends all called as David walked off.
"Well, that was a fun little distraction," Hugo said once David was out of earshot. "But I think we need to keep moving. It'll be dark by the time we reach Holdo Cave."
"Then let's stop talking and leg it," Shelly said.
#####################################################
Haschel rode the motorcycle down the road, weaving through traffic on their way to Avis City. They knew Serafino had said that he was going to send Arkhan to meet the interlopers there, at the terminus of the Holdo Cave. But Haschel wanted to be part of that. Or better yet, Haschel was hoping they would be able to convince Arkhan to let them take care of the brats. After all, Haschel had personal history with one of them, the little runaway Shelly Cavanaugh.
They would be entering Avis City soon. After that, it was only a little bit longer before they were at the cave.
#######################################################
Mount Riansares was the tallest mountain in the Patriam Region, at a height of 4,795 feet. The mountain itself was a dormant volcano, its most recent and final eruption occuring two thousand years ago. The volcanic activity of the past helped the Zelenyy Woods grow. And the mountain itself was a popular attraction for hikers and climbers.
The sun was starting to go down as the three friends approached the foot of the mountain. The canopy darkened the forest floor; only a little bit of the waning daylight filtered in through the leaves.
"Okay, this is far enough," Hugo said. "We should make camp. Who wants to be on bonfire duty?"
"I'll get the sticks," Shelly offered. "You two can set everything else up." She dropped her bag and made her way to the nearby trees.
As Shelly went, she took a moment to scratch at the skin under her wrist bands. They could sometimes get uncomfortable, and by this point the average person would have just taken them off. But not Shelly. She had her own personal reasons for wearing them, and it wasn't because they were a fashionable accessory.
The itch relieved, Shelly started picking up some twigs and sticks off the ground. She had to use both arms to carry the amount of sticks she had found. A few minutes later, the campfire was lit and burning brightly. Hugo opened up a bag of marshmallows and started passing it around.
"So, how long do you think it'll take to get through the cave?" Shelly asked.
"I'm not sure," Hugo answered.
Yuka booted up her duel pad and brought up the map function. She searched for Holdo Cave. "Let's see here...If we follow the hiking trail that's been set up in there, I think we can make it through in less than a day."
"And there you go, then," Hugo said.
Yuka closed the map and brought up a duelist database. "Jasper Phoenix."
"Who's that?" Shelly asked.
"Looks like he's the leader of the Avis City duel gym," Yuka answered. "And he uses Destiny Heroes. Says here that's an archetype that specializes in fusion summoning. That should be fun to go against."
"Wait, now I recognize that name," Hugo said. "Jasper Phoenix - he's a teacher at Avis City's branch of Duel Academy."
"You mean that super prestigious duel school that's supposed to be really difficult to get in to?" Shelly asked.
"Yeah. I tried to get in a couple of years ago, but didn't make it past the qualifying entry duel," Hugo said.
"I find that hard to believe," Yuka said as she shut off her duel pad.
"Come to find out that teacher was using a device that messed with my duel pad," Hugo explained. "He was using it to mess with students' spell and trap activation, and when it was reported he was immediately fired."
"And you didn't try to get in again?" Yuka asked.
"Well, some other things happened that kind of kept me from trying," Hugo answered. "But anyway, here's a question that's been on my mind for a bit, Shelly; what made you want to play Shaddolls?"
Shelly was quiet for a moment. She slowly chewed on the marshmallow in her mouth. She swallowed and took a drink of water before answering.
"Well, uh...You remember how I said that my parents were 'taken'?" she asked. "Well, I got to see everything. Including the goons who did it. I guess you could say I chose to play Shaddolls to mock those guys, because, you know, they're all like puppets on strings. You know what I mean?"
"Kind of," Yuka said. "I mean, my dad gave me my deck so it's got sentimental value to me, and Hugo, you told me that you play dinosaurs because they're cool. But Shelly...Every time you bring up your parents -"
"It's fine," Shelly said sharply. "I guess in that way we all have something in common. We've all lost at least one parent to a tragic event."
Yuka nodded her head. "Car accident."
"Plane crash," Hugo added. "Anyway, let's lighten the mood. Favorite card. We'll start with Yuka - go."
Yuka removed her deck from her duel pad and flipped through it until she found the right card. "This one," she said as she held up one copy of Blue-Eyes White Dragon. "Sure, I have three copies of this thing, but this one is special. It's the first card I ever got; my dad got it for me as a birthday gift when I turned nine. It's been with me ever since, and it's going to be with me until the day I decide to stop dueling." She put the card back into her deck. "Hugo?"
"I never really had a favorite until recently," Hugo answered, "but lately I'm going to have to go with Evolzar Dolkka. Shelly?"
"I've been in love with El Shaddoll Construct ever since I first saw it," Shelly said. "I guess it's just the way it looks, you know."
Yuka shuffled her deck and put it back into her duel pad. The pad was still active; she brought up her duelist profile. Her name, age, and deck name were highlighted, and there were three illuminated spaces on the badge row. She was just under halfway done with qualifying for the Duel Monsters Championship League tournament. Outside of that brick hand during her first duel with Cole, these first three gym leaders were fairly easy to beat.
But she knew she couldn't get cocky. Getting cocky was part of the reason she lost to Cole, even though that was what Hugo and Shelly had warned her against. She knew that if that happened again, there was the possibility that she would get knocked out of the qualifying round.
The next five gym leaders were probably going to be much more difficult. Especially this Jasper Phoenix guy, if he was a teacher at a duel school - an official duel school, not like the one they had encountered earlier today. It would be neat to visit, and not just to challenge Jasper; sure, she wasn't a student of Duel Academy, but maybe she and her friends would be allowed to at least tour the school.
"We might as well get some sleep," Hugo said. "We'll have to get up pretty early tomorrow; it'll take us most of the day to get through the cave."
"I thought you said you've never been through the cave," Shelly said.
"No, I said I never went to Avis City through the cave," Hugo corrected her. "Doesn't mean I never went into it. Also, we'll need to make sure we stay on the set path. There are a lot of other paths in the cave that branch off and lead to dead ends and drop offs. So we need to be careful."
"That makes me feel a lot better, knowing we might get lost forever," Yuka said sarcastically.
Twenty minutes later, everyone had gone to sleep.
######################################################
Holdo Cave was named by an explorer, Onaka Holdo, who first mapped it a hundred years ago. It had taken him several yeas to map it, as many paths led to dead ends and sheer drops that fell deeper into the earth. Until then, it was hard to determine how many people may have gotten lost and perished in that earthen labyrinth.
Once a path had been mapped, the cave needed a name, to help differentiate it from all the other caves. Onaka Holdo decided to name it after himself, feeling that the man who mapped a route through the cavern should have the honor of naming it. A bit of nepotism? Possibly. But since then, the cave has become a popular tourist attraction and hiking route. It helped that the cave connected the Zelenyy Woods to the nearby Avis City, making it a faster route than going north of Salamandra City and then turning west.
Onaka Holdo would pass away a few years after mapping out the cave due to a brain aneurysm. The cave was dedicated to him a few days later.
#####################################################
Holdo Cave was actually a lava tube, formed during Mount Riansares's final eruptions before the volcano went permanently dormant. Formed over the course of several hundred years of lava flow, the cave went through the entire base of the mountain. The nearly perfect circular entrance met them, along with a plaque on the left side of the entrance that read "IN DEDICATION TO ONAKA HOLDO, WHO GAVE HIS NAME TO THIS LANDMARK."
A chainlink turnstile started about a hundred yards from the cave's entrance. If it weren't for this guide, anyone going through the cave would get lost and probably never be seen again. The electric lights that had been strung to the cave's curved roof helped with illumination, otherwise it would have been pitch black inside.
The three stepped through the threshold, leaving the warm and dry forest for the damp and humid cavern air. The gravel floor crunched under their shoes with each step. As they went, they looked around at the walls - some of the walls were rough, some were smooth, but the one thing they all had in common was the growing stalactites from the roof and stalagmites from the floor. Some stalactites looked like stone icicles, some looks sharper and more jagged, like shark's teeth. Many of the stalactites joined together to form various patterns, some like waves, some like spirals.
In a way, it was one of the most naturally beautiful sights any of them had ever seen.
Shelly looked around as they walked down the path. "You know, it's funny. I would have thought there'd be more people here, but it looks like it's just us."
"It's also still early," Yuka replied. "I mean, it's not even nine o'clock yet."
"Then we'd better get going before the crowds show up," Hugo said.
They walked in silence for what felt like several hours, though it had only been less than one. It was estimated that it would take them ten hours to walk from the forest entrance of the cave to the Avis City exit.
A voice could be heard up ahead, around the corner.
"You guys hear that?" Yuka asked.
"Yeah. I guess we really aren't alone here," Hugo answered.
"You think it's them?" Shelly asked.
"I don't know," Hugo said. "But we need to be ready."
They slowly, cautiously, moved forward and rounded the corner.