Chapter 16: The Haunted Hotel
Bryan had expected to go to the rooftop lounge to grab lunch, but somehow Katerina had convinced him and Matt to join her for lunch in a whole other restaurant. Actually, it was no surprise why Matt agreed to go. Dude was absolutely obsessed with breasts, and hers were definitely there, even though she showed minimal cleavage. More surprising was that an older woman apparently picked up two American kids for a lunch date. No matter how attractive she was, Bryan was not willing to have a threesome with Matt.
Despite the chill air, the patio restaurant at the back of the Denkard was filled with diners drawn to the appeal of eating Italian food while overlooking the Arno River. There were tables indoors, but Katerina insisted that eating outside was the only way to get the full experience. Bryan was mostly okay with it. His Duel Academy uniform covered his whole body, plus the sunlight partially countered the air temperature in the early afternoon. Matt never seemed to get cold, so he was fine. They found an open table where all three of them could face the river.
The patio was a pebble walkway style, kind of like they took a bunch of colorful rocks and glued them to the ground. There was no real fence to mark the restaurant grounds. Pedestrians were close enough to look for a table, but they usually kept going. The waterfront was clear and bright blue. It would have been the cleanest water Bryan had ever seen if not for his time at Duel Academy, or even on the cruise ship that transported him there. But this river was a close third in beauty. Small boats moved through the water at a leisurely pace that didn't disturb the surface too much. Several of the surrounding buildings had covered patio extensions where people could actually sit over the water like they were on a dock.
The patio where Bryan sat was dotted with flowering plants in a variety of colors. He couldn't believe how vibrant they were at this time of year. "You like the flowers?" asked Katerina.
Her voice bubbled as she asked, which prompted Matt to say, "I can only think of two more beautiful buds." Bryan blushed from secondhand embarrassment and would have slapped him if doing so could be subtle.
But Katerina either didn't notice or didn't care about the innuendo. She pulled both of them from the table. "That's because you need to see them up close." She walked them up and down the patio, showing off the purple pansies, the yellow daffodils, the white snowdrops, the pink camellias, and the ugliest plant in Bryan's view: the witch hazel. Not that it was ugly ugly, but the flowers were wispy on bare branches, so it looked like it was dying. Katerina assured him it was thriving, and he had to take her word for it. She walked them through even more flowers in various shades of yellow, pink, white, and black.
The tour finally ended when a waiter approached their empty table. Bryan guessed it wasn't the first time patrons stood to admire the plants because the waiter seemed to know exactly where to look as they returned to their seats. He spoke in fast Italian. Or maybe slow Italian. Bryan would never know the difference. Katerina jumped in to reply, also in fluent Italian. Bryan started looking through the menu while Matt seemed to be paying attention to the conversation.
Bryan whispered to him, "Dude, there's no way you learned Italian at the library."
"Shut up. I'm trying to listen." Bryan just rolled his eyes. Matt read a ton and knew everything there was to know, but there's no way he learned multiple languages just from reading. And there was no one in their backwater town who could speak anything other than broken English.
Finally the waiter walked away and Katerina sat back down. "Our food is on the way."
Bryan said, "We didn't get a chance to order."
"I picked for you. You'll love it," she beamed.
"But what if we have food allergies?"
She made a face. "Do you?"
"No. But how could you know that?"
"I can just tell things like that!"
Bryan's turn to make a face. Even to him, that response sounded flippant.
Matt asked, "Are you vegetarian?"
Katerina grinned at first, but then she pouted. "Why do you think that?"
He held out a copy of the menu. "Because nothing you ordered for us has any meat in it."
"You speak Italian?" she asked.
"No way," said Bryan. "That's not possible."
Matt smirked and looked bashful. "I just listened carefully and matched what you said to items in the menu. Eggplant rollatini, ravioli, cherry tomato and basil focaccia, tortellini with spinach cream sauce, artichoke caprese, and grilled bruschetta, if I heard you correctly."
Katerina didn't answer except with a smile. "I promise you'll love it."
"Not a big eggplant fan," said Bryan. "Give me spaghetti and pizza any day."
Before Katerina could complain, Matt said, "You don't come to Italy to eat American food. Or at least, eating one meal of local cuisine won't hurt you. Branch out a little."
"You eat the eggplant," said Bryan.
"I will. I plan to try a bit of everything."
Eggplant did not sound appetizing. Neither did focaccia, bruschetta, or caprese, but those were mostly turn-offs because Bryan didn't know what they were. He forgot about the "artichoke" part until it arrived at the table. It looked like tomatoes and egg whites surrounded by green and yellow lettuce stalks. He would have skipped it entirely in favor of the bruschetta—grilled bread—until Katerina was so eager for him to try it that she offered to feed him. Bryan didn't actually want that, but he relented mostly because it made Matt jealous. The egg whites turned out to be mozzarella cheese. And while strong, the artichoke was surprisingly tasty. Probably the olive oil and salt is what made it palatable. Bryan ended up disappointed when the caprese was gone.
He found himself with a similar reaction to everything else. Well, not the eggplant. The rollatini looked more delicious than it actually was, but he had to admit the eggplant wasn't nearly as bad as he expected it to be. He chalked it up as something he was happy to have tried but he wouldn't want to order it a second time.
"See? Not bad for a vegetarian meal, right?" asked Katerina.
He conceded. "It was delicious. Part of me is still craving a big slice of salami, but I'm too full to eat it right now."
"Head up to the rooftop lounge for your late meal," she said. "They'll fill you up."
Bryan chuckled. "You aren't going to berate me for wanting meat?"
She looked offended he even asked. "No. That's not what I'm doing. Did you think I was angry with you?"
"Just trying to share your favorites with us," said Matt. She smiled at him again. Apparently Matt understood her perfectly. But Bryan had assumed that she would be a militant vegetarian, the kind to scold him for wanting pepperoni on his pizza.
"The best ingredients make all the difference," said Katerina. "You can eat meat if you want to, but only because you've tasted how delicious your meal can be without it. Now you can make a more informed decision."
Bryan frowned, mostly from confusion. "I don't understand. Did you just give us permission to eat what we want?" Even asking the question upset him so much that he wanted to eat a big slab of meat just out of protest. He looked to Matt for solidarity, but Matt was staring off toward the river. "Probably too cold to swim. Plus you have to wait at least an hour."
"Did you see that guy walking on the water?" he asked. But his voice was filled with concern, not sarcasm, which stopped Bryan from making a Jesus joke.
"Maybe there's another pier just below the surface?"
Matt said, "Except he also just disappeared in the middle of the water."
"Probably just dove in," said Bryan. "Or maybe the water dissolved him like the Wicked Witch."
"Must be it." His phone beeped.
"Kasumi finally text you back?"
"Nope. An alert for the Round 2 announcement." A second later, Bryan received the same message. "Let's get back and find out what I have to do to my deck next time."
Katerina said, "That's right! You need to go. Thank you for eating with me."
Bryan looked around. "Where's the check?"
"It's on me," said Katerina.
He said, "But we can charge it to our room. Our expenses are covered already."
"I know that."
Just as Bryan assumed she used them for a free meal, Matt said, "Because she works for the hotel. Going out on a limb, but I'd guess she's the gardener."
Katerina's smile beamed brighter than the sunshine. "You're very perceptive. I hope I will see you both again later. My work should be quick enough to watch Round 2." She bounded off into the hotel.
Matt's grin was obnoxious. "I like her."
"You can have her," said Bryan.
"You're just upset that she was right about the food."
Bryan said, "It was kinda deceptive not to tell us in advance."
"Would you say that if all she ordered for you was pizza? Because if the answer's 'no', then you're literally upset over a salami."
"I'm more concerned that those artichoke hearts are giving me artichoke farts," said Bryan. Maybe too loudly because he elicited a few looks of disgust from other restaurant patrons.
Matt said, "Maybe you stay outside for now. I'm going to go figure out how to properly hobble my deck."
They arrived back to the ballroom with just a minute to spare. Leona's presence commanded the room, which was slightly less crowded than it had been in the morning. "Congratulations to everyone for completing Round 1. Every duel showed how clever you are as duelists when your dueling resources are constricted. Everyone who was not successful is still welcome and encouraged to observe the remainder of the tournament."
Just like last time, the wall monitors presented the next limitation word-for-word as Leona spoke. "Round 2 will require you to special summon all monsters you wish to see on the field. You will be restricted from using normal summon, normal set, and flip summons."
Bryan turned to Matt. He personally felt amused and relieved, but Matt's expression reeked of confusion. "Why do you look upset? This rule should work out even better for you than the last one did. You rarely normal summon the Dark Magician anyway," said Bryan.
"I don't like coincidences." Without addressing the rule itself, Matt said, "Both of the first rounds attempted to limit our decks by imposing rules that have no earth-shattering impact on the Dark Magician. Even the Elemental Heroes would have been okay. And that's great news for us since we don't have enough spare cards between us to make a new deck of any real quality."
"So why is this a bad thing?"
"It isn't. We are the luckiest duelists in here, I'm sure." He didn't say anything more than that. His gaze continued toward the stage, even though he would need X-ray vision to see through all the people standing in front of him. By the time people shuffled out of the room, Leona was gone. "Let's just go put my next deck together."
Matt had forgotten about the weird feeling in the air during the morning duels until he walked back to his scheduled ballroom and saw the technicians running their little quality checks. They hadn't fully engaged the hologram projectors yet, but every button they pressed sent a shiver through Matt's skin.
The ballroom was still mostly empty as they claimed their seats in the back, but people were starting to return in larger numbers. As soon as he saw Leona Moxley walk in with her assistant in tow, he said to Bryan, "Count how many people are in here."
Bryan was shocked. "What? Why?"
"Just a hunch. You take the easy part. As soon as the screen comes on, count how many people enter through any of the the doors." Bryan somehow twisted 360 degrees in his seat just so he could point out there were six doors and one of him. "Just try. Please?"
"Please? You really must have some weird idea going," said Bryan. His sarcasm wasn't helpful, but his counting at the door would be. Matt could quickly count the rows of chairs and subtract the number of empties in his head as long as Bryan gave him a number to adjust by.
Four columns of four chairs meant there were sixteen in a row. With twelve rows, that was 192 chairs total. Right now, he counted out three rows totally empty, four rows had only two people in each column for eight total, and the five rows up front were completely full. That's 112 people, just in time for the technicians to start the hum of the hologram projectors.
In the blink of an eye, Matt realized there were no longer any empty rows. Every row had a maximum of one empty seat, and he only counted four of those.
As Leona Moxley stepped up front to kick off Round 2, Matt asked Bryan, "How many?"
"Looked like twenty-two, but there was a cluster of people who came through the lobby doors at the same time as someone snuck in through the hallway next to the other ballroom," he pointed to opposite walls as he spoke, "so it might be twenty-three or twenty-four."
"Even if you missed ten people, that would only be 144 out of 192 chairs. But suddenly only 4 chairs are empty."
Bryan was speechless for a moment. "So you mean…" He did some mental math. "Forty-four people just appeared out of nowhere?"
"Yes. I think they might be holograms."
"Really?" He started looking around, peering at the people sitting on his other side as if they might not be human. "Everyone looks pretty normal."
"I'll bet that's the point," said Matt. "Maybe they're pumping up the appearance of the ballroom to make the crowd look bigger than it is. Maybe it helps them sell ad time for broadcasting this tournament." And that's what his logical brain said was the most likely explanation for all the extra people. But there was a conspiratorial side that wondered…
Matt was on the schedule for the penultimate duel in this round, but there were half as many duels to play, so there was no guarantee how much time he had to dawdle. Darcy Purves was in the second duel, this time facing off against Hyuuga Hiro, a programmer for a technology company. But this guy didn't program duel technology—just regular IT stuff that keeps the internet operational.
As soon as Darcy Purves went on-stage, Howard Urizar walked back and squatted at the end of the row next to Matt. "Hey guys. Darcy has a long-distance meeting to prepare for pretty much right after this round ends, and I have to help her get her ducks in a row. I'll be on my own for dinner though and I'd like to chat about Duel Academy if you guys are free?"
Matt said, "Your social media account has ducks? I need to start following her."
Bryan said, "Ignore him. Ducks aren't even his favorite water fowl." That was actually funny. "Yes, we're free." He and Howard exchanged numbers.
"Cool. I'll text you when we're done prepping and we'll figure out where to eat," said Howard.
Matt shook his head. "No, we'll figure out where to eat while you prep and then meet you there. We eat faster that way."
"Sounds good," said Howard with a chuckle.
Before Bryan put his phone away, Matt caught sight of the screen. He thought he saw Justin's name, but also Dave. He pulled out his own phone and realized that Bryan was using the Guard Trio group chat to complain about the eggplant. "Dude. It was not 'like chewing on a tire tread'."
"Leave me alone. I'm allowed to feel my feelings."
"And lie about them for a laugh. Not even a laugh. An amused exhalation, more likely."
Matt could not be more bummed to find out that Hyuuga Hiro chose not to play a Hero deck. Not even one of the variants. He started off by playing Red-Eyes Fusion. Either he and Denise Verdin knew each other, or Red-Eyes cards were a lot more common outside of professional dueling than Matt ever realized. Just like Denise, Hiro summoned the Meteor Black Comet Dragon (8: 3500|2000), the same powerful, fiery monster that threatened the field once before. A low rumble in the crowd indicated a lot of people were surprised by that move. And just like when Denise summoned it, the giant Dragon threw a lava ball that dealt the damage of half a regular Red-Eyes (2400).
Hiro: 4 cards, 8000 LP
Darcy: 5 cards, 6800 LP
Turned out that Darcy was up to show something new to the crowd. She played Toon Table of Contents. Toons were another legendary card type that Matt never saw played without loads of mockery attached. Some people liked Toons because of the legends of Maximilian Pegasus. Others thought he, like Yugi Mutou and Seto Kaiba, were just marketing devices used to promote a card game.
Either way, Darcy's card let her pull a Toon monster from her deck to her hand. She also played One for One so that she could discard a monster from her hand to special summon The Black Stone of Legend (1: 0|0) to the field.
And once again, someone else was playing Red-Eyes cards. Matt wasn't sure whether he had ever given Kasumi a hard time about those cards, but he made a mental note not to do so in the future, at least.
The only purpose for The Black Stone to be in a Toon deck was so Darcy could use its effect to pull Red-Eyes Toon Dragon (7: 2400|2000) from her deck to the field. It was like if the menacing lava dragon across the field had gone to one of those street caricaturists and had a cartoonish portrait made. But this silly-looking dragon had the ability to pull another familiar face: Toon Dark Magician (7: 2500|2100). Aside from having a head too large for his body, this Dark Magician was also greener than any of the ones Matt had ever summoned. And once again, the monster gave Darcy the ability to summon Toon Cyber Dragon (5: 2100|1600) from the deck. Toon Cyber Dragon was actually pretty cute albeit mischievous-looking, what with those giant eyes.
Another duelist might have called that enough, but Darcy chose to play Instant Fusion. At the cost of 1000 LP, she pulled Panzer Dragon (5: 1000|2600) to the field. But that was just so she could overlay it with Toon Cyber Dragon (5) and Xyz Summon the Cyber Dragon Nova (5: 2100|1600). Her cute, silver dragon was replaced by a sleek, black dragon with red highlights. Not as magma-like as the Meteor Black Comet Dragon, but there were similarities.
That wasn't enough, either. She further overlaid her cards to play Cyber Dragon Infinity (5: +2700|1600). The color scheme didn't change much, but the dragon was bigger and looked like its scales were rows of knives, especially when it gained attack points because of the three cards used to summon it. Darcy had a thing for overlays, too, because she piled up her other Toons to play Number 11: Big Eye (7: 2600|2000). It looked similar to a silver version of the cones Matt and Bryan used to do running drills with back when they played football.
"Those were orange and didn't have a giant eye leering at you," said Bryan.
Matt said, "Except that one time, remember? Scared our equipment manager shitless."
Big Eye had the ability to lose one of its overlay materials and take control of the gigantic lava monster on the other side of the field. Sure, it couldn't attack anymore, but Darcy still had Meteor Black Comet Dragon (3500) and Cyber Dragon Infinity (2700) to deal a bunch of points all at once.
Hiro: 4 cards, 1800 LP
Darcy: 1 card, 5800 LP
Hiro tried playing Gospel of Revival, but Darcy used Cyber Dragon Infinity's (-2500) effect to lose one overlay material and negate the card altogether. Maybe that was okay because he played Mind Control to take back his Meteor Black Comet Dragon (3500) long enough to attack and destroy Big Eye (2600). Since Mind Control only lasted for one turn, he ended up banishing his dragon to summon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon (10: 2800|2400), another sleek, metallic dragon that brought with it a free summoning of Red-Eyes Black Dragon (7: 2400|2000) straight from the Graveyard. Too bad Hiro couldn't have a second Battle Phase, but at least he was back in the game.
Hiro: 2 cards, 1800 LP
Darcy: 1 card, 4900 LP
Unfortunately for Hiro, Cyber Dragon Infinity could just grab any attack monster on the field and absorb it at no cost. The Darkness Metal Dragon disappeared while Cyber Dragon Infinity (+2700) grew stronger. In a silvery blast, it obliterated the Red-Eyes Black Dragon (2400) Hiro had left. Darcy set one card to end her turn.
Hiro: 2 cards, 1500 LP
Darcy: 1 card, 4900 LP
To draw more cards, Hiro played Allure of Darkness. Twice, in fact. But none of the cards he drew was enough. He ended up with nothing to defend his field. Rather than letting Darcy blast him one more time, he forfeited the duel.
Hiro: 2 cards, 0 LP
Darcy: 1 card, 4900 LP
Matt didn't have any particular opinions about the other competitors. After all, he didn't know any of them, and luck played as big a factor in dueling as skill did. But even without clear expectations of how she would play, Darcy was already exceeding them. Her profession was only a social media manager. Sure, she had to be able to plan ahead and anticipate backlash with any given post, but there were other professions whose skills translated more directly to dueling. Clearly she would be a more difficult opponent than Matt originally expected.
Speaking of difficult opponents, Vladimir Dmitrovitch found his chance to get even with Ash Staotar. Matt wished he could be a fly on the duel station or one of their arms or someplace close enough to hear what they were saying. So he did the next best thing.
"Help me imagine their conversation," he told Bryan. Before Bryan had a chance to figure out the game, Matt started talking at the same time Ash's lips moved. Too bad Ash was facing another direction so Matt couldn't just read his lips.
"I always welcome a rematch," said Matt, mimicking Ash's accent badly enough to issue an online apology for it.
Bryan stuttered when Vladimir started talking. "Uh, this time I'll win my money back."
"A thousand dollars isn't noticeable for either of us. Make it a million."
"A million? Why stop there? You work at a bank."
"Fine. For the whole bank."
"And the life of that child who humiliated me," said Bryan. That comment was enough to make Matt flinch. "What? Just punching up the villainous dialogue."
Matt said, "All the way to eleven. Maybe chill on the murder jokes while we're in a foreign country."
Vladimir went first and demonstrated the same way around the normal summoning Limitation that Matt envisioned Bryan doing if he had the chance to participate: He played Polymerization to fuse two monsters from his hand into Lubellion the Searing Dragon (8: 2500|3000). The field exploded in a fiery blast as an armored dragon emitted fire from its very scales. Too bad he couldn't attack on the first turn.
But Vlad kept playing. This time it was Frightfur Patchwork, a spell card that let him fish out another Polymerization along with Edge Imp Chain to his hand. He immediately played Polymerization to fuse his Edge Imp Chain with Lubellion into Predaplant Dragostapelia (8: 2700|1900), a dragon that finally deviated from the black-and-red color scheme that plagued dragonkind. This one was half succulent, covered in thorns and flower bulbs.
That was a lot of cards to have only one monster on the field, so Matt was eager to see what it could do. Vlad set one card face-down.
Vladimir: 1 card, 8000 LP
Ash: 5 cards, 8000 LP
Ash started his turn with Pot of Extravagance, which sort of combined the golbin-like Pot of Greed with a hideous version made of gold and jewels. It let Ash banish cards from his Extra Deck so he could draw more cards from his Main Deck. He proceeded to set five cards face-down and end his turn.
Vladimir: 1 card, 8000 LP
Ash: 2 cards, 8000 LP
"Oh shit," said Bryan.
"Right?" said Matt. That utterance said everything it needed to about the fact that Ash was still avoiding the Limitation by running a deck with no monsters. But maybe this time he had a few trap cards. Just to keep everyone on their toes, perhaps?
Vladimir's hand was slim already, so he simply started the turn with a direct attack from Dragostapelia (2700). As soon as the thorny dragon smacked Ash, Ash replied by summoning Mahaama the Fairy Dragon (5: 0|2500) to the field. Apparently that silvery dragon could only be summoned by battle damage. In retaliation for the attack, Mahaama absorbed and redirected the ambient energy so that both players suffered 2700 points of damage.
But that wasn't enough. Ash also activated Secret Blast so that a construction crew of goblins set a blasting cap next to Vlad's field. He also played Ceasefire and watched two men from either side of the field start drafting an agreement to stop the battle. But they didn't have any effect on Chain Strike, which just sent loads of chains out of the darkness to wrap around Vlad. And then Ash activated a second copy of Chain Strike.
Bryan started to ask what was about to happen, but Matt told him to "just watch" while the chain of cards resolved. Chain Strike activated as the fifth card in a chain, so it dealt 2000 points of damage. The other Chain Strike was fourth, so it dealt only 1600 points. Ceasefire dealt 500 points of damage per Effect Monster for on the field, and each player had one. Finally, Secret Blast dealt a more modest but noticeable 300 points of damage for each of Vlad's two cards.
Vlad was down to only 100 points.
He reeled momentarily, but he didn't quit yet, to his credit. He activated Branded in Red so he could fuse Predaplant with the Maxx C and Tri-Brigade Mercourier in his hand to summon Guardian Chimera (9: 3300|3300). The monster was a massive fusion of a beast-demon, a griffin, and a dragon, decked in black-and-gold armor.
Because Vlad banished his fusion cards, and one of them was Tri-Brigade Mercourier, he was able to move Fallen of Albaz from his deck to his hand.
But at the same time, Ash activated Gravedigger's Trap Hole. It was the perfect card for that moment. Not only did it negate Mercourier's effect, it didn't even have to because it also dealt 2000 points of damage to Vlad. That ended the duel without resolving the rest of the chain.
Vladimir: 1 card, 0 LP
Ash: 1 card, 5300 LP
Bryan whistled. "That man sure knows how to use a burn deck. No wonder he's the favorite to win this tournament."
Matt rolled his eyes. "Is he?"
"Being sarcastic won't win you a duel against him."
"You don't know that."
As soon as the next duel started, Matt felt the familiar hum of the hologram projectors. At the same moment, he watched two people walk straight up to one of the ornamental lanterns. When he blinked, the people were no longer there. His focus left the duel arena as he turned his whole body to look around the ballroom.
Several of the seats that had filled up earlier were empty now, but there were also people lingering by the walls. Those two facts might have made sense if the people by the walls were looking in the direction of the duel arena. Most of them stood by lifelessly, often facing away from the stage. Matt's curiosity took hold of him.
"Hey, where are you going?" asked Bryan.
"Just going to go ask one of these people a question."
Bryan pointed at his phone. "You duel soon. Like, three more duels."
"Look who can read the schedule all of a sudden. Three duels is tons of time."
"Not if they duel like Ash," he said. "Besides, I'm about to step to the other room to catch Fasheng's duel."
"If he lasts another round, I'll watch his next duel," said Matt.
He really didn't plan to go far. He only went as far as the first person he didn't recognize from that morning, standing near the dividing wall, far from the doors between ballrooms. Her outfit appeared to be Middle Eastern, from striped trousers and a wide dress to a triangular cap and a large shawl that covered her torso.
"Excuse me," he said, but she didn't budge. "Are you participating in this tournament?" He already knew she wasn't because he had seen all the duelists from Round 1, but he wanted to hear her answer. And she left him wanting more because she didn't even acknowledge him.
He started to lean closer. Personal boundaries just left his thought process because he had an inkling about the woman, but the ballroom was too dark to be certain. The closer he came, the clearer the woman's body became. Literally clear, like maybe he could actually see through her.
Something loud happened on-stage, and the woman's body reacted in kind. She seemed to transform in less time than it took to blink. If Matt had been recording her, it would have lasted exactly one frame. And he couldn't quite tell what she transformed into except that it was big and monstrous, taller and wider than he.
After that instant, the woman shifted toward the stage and then changed her mind to walk toward the nearest lantern on the wall. Matt stayed where he was and watched her. She walked right past the exit door until she stood in front of the lantern. She stared as if daydreaming, tilted her head slightly to the side, and then seemed to rise from the ground. In the next breath, she was gone.
"Okay, what the fuck," said Matt with no question mark at the end. Now he desperately needed to know more about those lanterns and what the hell was going on with the holographic spectators.
As he approached, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. It smelled slightly herbaceous, but he wouldn't have noticed a scent at all if he weren't specifically looking for one. As far as he could tell, it was just a candle inside an iron sconce. The outside design looked like scales, or maybe feathers. Smoked glass let the candlelight enter the room without the chance of looking directly into the flame. At his height, the only options for Matt to check the candle directly were to break the sconce or to stand on a chair.
Matt was quiet to avoid drawing attention to his dragging a chair toward the wall. Up close, he found the lantern lid was firmly attached. He figured out the trick from remembering what the old woman had done earlier: The spiral piece at the top was a screw; removing it loosened the lid. The candle's scent was still faint, even unblocked. Maybe it was a bit deeper, a hint of woodiness. Nothing he knew what to do with. More research was needed. When he noticed Dexter coming his way, he replaced the lid and climbed off the chair.
"You like the scent, Mr. Luther?" he asked.
"I can't quite place it."
"It's impressive you noticed it at all. Care to venture a guess?"
Shaking his head, he said, "Smells just a little bit like asparagus. I'd almost say it smells earthy. Or like earth-sappy. But that description feels too strong. It's too faint."
If Dexter was upset about his messing with the lanterns, he hid it well beneath that amused smirk. "It's nettles, from the genus Lamium. Trace amounts. Enough to derive the benefit without risking physical reaction."
"What benefit is that?" asked Matt.
"Reduces anxiety. Wards off evil."
"Both useful applications for a dueling tournament."
Dexter nodded. "Indeed. Pardon my interference with your exploration, but as your chaperone in this locale, I'm required to ask that you not put risk to the hotel decor."
"No problem. I made sure to keep my feet on the outside edges on top of the metal chair frame so I couldn't break through the seat. And I'm pretty sure the lantern is none the worse for wear."
"Your care is appreciated." But the subtext wasn't that subtle. Matt took the hint and promised not to climb on the chairs again without telling Dexter first.
Matt asked, "There's no other purpose for the lanterns?"
"Such as?"
"Breaking holograms?"
Dexter made a face that was hard to read. He was mostly amused, but there might have been a hint of concern. "Is that an American aphorism?"
"Forget it." Matt waved him off and carried his chair back to the prepared rows. It sounded like Dexter didn't see the disappearing woman. But how could he learn more about who she was and what happened to her?
Bryan came back to his chair a moment later. "I didn't miss your duel, did I?"
"Not yet." Matt checked out the schedule on the display wall behind the duel arena. Still two more duels to go. "How was Fasheng's duel?"
"It was intense. I almost think he's more likely to win than Ash is."
Matt winked. "Not more likely than I am, though."
"Don't wink at me unless you can win in one turn like Ash did. It's stressful and upsetting otherwise."
When Matt was finally called to the stage, he found his opponent to be Faye Olivo. She was a talent acquisition agent from a consulting firm called Strong Roots. Her entire job was finding other people with talent in the fields her clients were looking for. Matt secretly thought it would be appropriate to showcase his own talent on the duel field.
Unfortunately, his opening hand seemed to punish him for his confidence. He had wanted Magician's Rod to come out of his deck, but he didn't have the cards to replace it, so it was just a dead draw unless he found a way to special summon it.
"I'll settle for two cards face-down," he said.
Matt: 3 cards, 8000 LP
Faye: 5 cards, 8000 LP
Faye said, "I have Cosmic Cyclone. I'll banish one of your cards." At the cost of 1000 of her LP, a wormhole opened up out of thin air and released an electrical burst at Matt's Illusion Magic card.
For only an instant, he thought he saw a person's face inside the wormhole, but it disappeared even before the card's hologram dissipated.
Matt was momentarily distracted, but his Duel Disk continued to ping, reminding him that he had to choose whether to play his other face-down card. "I'll chain Eternal Soul to I can summon Dark Magician (7: 2500|2100) from my hand," he said as his magician in black clothing took the field.
For a moment, Faye seemed unsure. "Foolish Burial moves Fishborg Archer (3: 300|300) to the Graveyard, but then its effect summons it to the field." Matt saw nothing fishy about that monster. At all. It was just a robotic centaur with a fishbowl for a head and crossbows for hands. If anything, the pilot inside the fishbowl looked like a seal, which is famously not a fish.
"Also, Supply Squad, just in case," said Faye. It was wooden cart filled with a variety of supplies—mostly explosive—dragged by goblins. The effect said it would let Faye draw a card when Matt destroyed one of her monsters.
Matt: 2 cards, 8000 LP
Faye: 2 cards, 7000 LP
Whatever Matt did to upset his deck seemed to pass. "I'll use Eternal Soul to summon another Dark Magician (7: 2500|2100) from my hand, and then I'll play The Eye of Timaeus." An emerald dragon burst onto the field and combined its energy with Dark Magician to become Amulet Dragon (8: 2900|2500)—literally just Dark Magician riding on the back of an emerald dragon. Checking his Duel Disk panel for info, Matt said, "With his effect, I'll banish all three of our Spells from the Graveyard to give Amulet Dragon (+3200) more power.
"And then I'll have Dark Magician (2500) destroy Bob the Killer Goldfish (300), then Amulet Dragon (3200) attacks directly."
Matt: 1 card, 8000 LP
Faye: 3 cards, 3800 LP
Faye drew her card for Supply Squad, but she had to ask, "Who is Bob? Fishborg?"
"Sorry. Old cartoon reference. It's your turn." So far so good with three special summons despite having no ability to normal summon his Magician's Rod.
Faye said, "Here's Salvage." A salvaging crew dove off the back of a whale to recover a couple of monsters from Faye's Graveyard. "Then here's Lemuria, the Forgotten City." It felt like the first time Matt had seen a field spell in forever, even though he actually saw one in an earlier duel. Large, marble buildings rose from the ground in front of Faye, but both sides of the field flooded with water. It was like standing in the ocean, except much drier. It did smell salty, though. Was his brain playing tricks, or did the hologram projectors go a step further than just projecting images?
"I'll put Kaiser Sea Snake (-4: -200|+1200) on the field and then summon another one." She didn't describe it well, but Kaiser Sea Snake was normally 8-star with 2500 attack points. Using its ability to special summon itself cut its level in half and removed all original attack points—just the 200-point bonus from the Forgotten City. The second Sea Snake (-200|-200) lost its attack and defense points except for the Forgotten City's effect.
In other words, nothing for Matt to worry about overall, but it presented a roadblock for ending the duel. She had two monsters in defense mode, and he only had two monsters to attack with.
"I'll use Eternal Soul again to re-summon my Dark Magician (7: 2500|2100) to the field." The same one he used to fuse Amulet Dragon. Now Matt had an army.
Matt: 1 card, 8000 LP
Faye: 2 cards, 3800 LP
"For my next trick, Eternal Soul brings me Thousand Knives, which my Dark Magician can use to destroy one of your sea snakes." After Dark Magician made sashimi from the giant eel, Matt was poised to win. "Now, Dark Magician (2500) can attack your other Kaiser Sea Snake (200), and then my other Dark Magician (2500) and Amulet Dragon (3200) can attack directly."
Matt: 1 card, 8000 LP
Faye: 2 cards, 0 LP
Matt didn't want to say it out loud, but maybe Faye should have scouted some better talent to take her place in this tournament.
When he sat back down in his chair, Matt said, "I couldn't get the one-turn kill, but I didn't lose any Life Points. That has to bode well for me, right?"
Bryan made a face. "Ash keeps playing Burn cards, and Fasheng is at least as good with the Dark Magician as you are." Matt reacted with pretend shock, so Bryan changed his statement to: "Okay. Almost as good as you are."
"No, you were probably right. He's a Kaiba Corp dev. He probably knows the game inside and out," said Matt. No reason a guy like that wouldn't win the whole tournament unless he just got unlucky.
When the final duel ended, Leona announced, "That concludes Round 2. Thank you all for fantastic dueling. For those of you continuing to the next round, be here at eight o'clock. Commencement was optional today, but tomorrow it will not be. If we do not see you before Round 3 starts, you will be disqualified no matter what time your duel is scheduled."
A low rumble passed through the room, but mostly people were ready to leave. Dinnertime, bedtime, casinotime, whatever.
Standing and stretching, Matt asked Bryan, "What do you think all that's about?"
"Who knows? I'm more worried about finding out what the next Limitation will be."
"Dude, I made it through Day 1. Just be happy."
"What if you don't have enough cards to make another qualifying deck?"
Matt rolled his eyes. "Then we'll head out to Ponte Vecchio and buy a few more cards with whatever's left of Vladimir's money. It'll be fine. Seriously, try harder to relax during this trip." Bryan didn't look any more relaxed, but at least he pretended.
"Howard will be occupied for an hour, he says." Bryan put his phone back in his pocket. "What do you want to do while we wait?"
Matt said, "Let's go check out the fitness center."
"Oh, duuude! Who works out on vacation?"
"Weren't you just realizing that you've become tubby this semester?"
Bryan shook his belly, which lasted longer than it used to. "Fine. Just to check it out. Maybe just enough exercise to warm up."
"What good is a warm-up if you don't use it?"
He was sounding really snobby considering he was just a scrawny little kid when Bryan first met him and convinced him to play football. "Just let me enjoy my vacation."
While Matt had several gym-appropriate outfits on-hand, Bryan only had one, and he preferred the term "pajamas". But since Matt was kind of right about Bryan letting himself go, he agreed to at least see what kind of equipment was set up. After all, most hotels had the bare minimum, right? So it's not like Matt could go super-overboard.
The fitness center was located right under the top floor, underneath the rooftop pool. Bryan always thought it was weird to put a weight room anywhere but the ground floor, but then again, they didn't have any free weights to throw around. Everything was either cardio equipment or resistance cables, plus some stability balls and foam rollers for stretching. There was no other person in the room at all. The hotel didn't even staff a trainer to keep an eye on the place, deferring instead to the security camera by the door.
Matt claimed one of the cable crossovers and pulled a bench under it so he could set up an inclined chest press. Bryan grudgingly completed a set after Matt finished his. Bryan even managed to put the weight a lot higher. His muscles screamed when he finished, but he just grinned.
"Looks like I'm still the strong one."
"You weigh twice as much as I do and push an extra twenty pounds," said Matt.
"Numbers don't lie, dude."
"Numbers lie all the time. You can make data say literally whatever you want them to say. You say you push twenty pounds more weight, I say I push forty percent more body weight. We're both right despite very different phrasing."
They traded places to rest between sets, eventually working their way through a decent full-body workout. Bryan couldn't keep up with the exact numbers he pushed last year when football practices had been part of his routine, but he was still able to lift a decent portion. Overall, he ached at the end, but he felt good.
Bryan was texting with Erica about how weird the tournament deck builds were when an older lady entered the fitness center. She lugged a heavy jug of colored water behind her. Her other hand carried a smaller bottle. By the time Bryan noticed the jug, the woman had already reached the water cooler, removed the empty jug, and replaced the full one she brought. So she was old but still capable. The jug likely had some electrolyte concoction in it. It was common knowledge on the football team that it was cheaper to buy electrolyte syrup in bulk and mix it with water directly instead of purchasing bottles of Gatorade or Powerade or Brawndo.
After swapping the big jug, the lady walked straight to the ornamental lanterns on the walls. He finally recognized her as the same lady who filled the lanterns in the conference room. The lady jumped when she saw the two boys. Bryan smiled back, hoping to look harmless. At first she smiled, but then she stepped back and dropped her head, almost like she was hiding but very, very poorly.
"Hello," he said, trying to sound non-threatening. Then he remembered they were in Italy. "Do you understand English?"
The lady nodded, which caused her name tag to bounce. Melody, it said.
"I know a few words." Melody sounded more confident than her statement portrayed, and her accent was barely there.
"Do you need any help?" he asked
"No." But obviously that wasn't accurate or else she wouldn't stay frozen like she was.
Matt finally looked up when he finished his rope press. "We saw you this morning. What are you putting in the lanterns?"
Melody finally looked up brightly. "Oh! These are wards. I put special oils to settle the restless spirits."
"Ghosts? Not holograms?" asked Matt. Bryan prepared himself for whatever insulting nonsense Matt was about to spew. "What kind of oils do you give ghosts?"
Borderline. Not outright insulting, and he hid the sarcasm really well.
"Special formula that relaxes the spirit and relieves their fear."
Matt stepped closer. "Do you mind if I smell it?"
"The scent has no effect to real space," said Melody, but she still held the bottle so Matt could sniff. After nothing happened to him, Bryan leaned in for a whiff. The scent was almost like polished iron and spring water, reminiscent of essential oils or laundry detergent. "I formulated it for imaginary space. It's almost like, uh… pheromones. It changes the mood for restless spirits."
"Do you have a lot of restless spirits around here?" asked Bryan.
"So many. Spirits like this hotel. It has strong energy that draws them here."
"Really? What kind of energy?"
"Life energy. Absence scares them, so I use oils to settle them and make them not scared." Melody made a face. "I am sorry. Do you know what imaginary space is?"
Matt smirked. "Seems like the hotel is haunted."
"Not haunted. Full of energy."
Bryan texted Erica to let her know about the haunted hotel as he asked, "Where do the spirits come from?"
"Oh, everyone has spirits. You do. I do. When your body dies, your spirit…" She motioned by pressing her fingers together and then separating them. "…detaches. Becomes loose."
"That happens to everyone?" asked Matt. "Why aren't there 98 billion spirits wandering around?" Bryan wondered where he got that number.
Melody answered, "Spirits hear the song of the Collective. They go and become one again. Some reject the song and wander."
"What Collective?" asked Matt.
"The Collective Consciousness. Source of all spiritual life?" Melody seemed baffled that Matt didn't understand what she was saying. "Are you still asleep?"
Matt chuckled. "I must be. Can you explain the Collective Consciousness to me?"
"Hmm. Some call it the Overworld or maybe the Spiritual Realm. It is a tangle of spirituality that birthed the beginning of time. Like the primordial chaos from which the universe spawned—not quite an entity of itself, but also the source of all life. When you're born, your spirit sprang from the Collective Consciousness. It connects you to the universe."
The story was getting more metaphysical than Bryan was ready for. He wondered whether Melody might not have a bit of dementia going on upstairs. Or she could be flat-out lying for the attention. He'd have to ask Matt to verify her story later.
"When attached to a container, spirits have individuality. Containers die, and spirits remember the Collective. Sometimes spirits keep their individuality, then they fear losing it. They don't like the Collective and remain in imaginary space—the existence in between real space and the Collective. Nothing to do there but wander, wallow, and wither." Nice use of alliteration for someone who claimed to barely speak English. Now Bryan was sure she was making this up.
But Matt just nodded along. "Okay. So ghosts are spirits that are afraid to become one with the universe, and so they wander imaginary space. Consistent with the so-called 'tortured spirits' that a lot of ghost stories use to describe them. Some kind of strong emotion tethers them to real space?"
"Exactly!"
"And your lantern oils are supposed to soothe their restlessness. If they relieve their negative energy, do they join with the Collective?"
"Sometimes. The spirit must accept the Collective. Oils sometimes convince spirits to succumb to the song. Others are more scared by oils and stay away from the lanterns."
"Also beneficial, though in a different way," said Bryan.
Melody was hesitant to respond. "Eh. People don't like to see spirits, but still best if they join the Collective. If all spirits rejected the Collective, we'd run out of life energy. The universe would stagnate, shrivel, or shatter." Still really good with the alliteration.
"That makes sense," said Matt. He even sounded sincere. "So you're just doing everything you can to make sure that doesn't happen."
"Exactly!"
"Is there any more effective way you can appease these spirits and make them join the Collective?"
"Me? No." Melody shook her entire body so hard Bryan worried she might dislocate her hip. "Oh! But that's why I must return to my lanterns."
Bryan asked, "Is that what you do for the hotel?"
"Staff nutritionist. I combine nutrients to ease burdens in both real space and imaginary space. When you complete your workout, try the hydration multiplier." She pointed to the jug of electrolyte juice that she had brought into the fitness center with her. "Three times more hydration than water. Non-GMO, no dairy product, and gluten-free. Improves performance, enhances mental clarity, and slows aging."
Matt said, "That explains how you stay strong enough to replace that jug all by yourself." Okay, that had to be sarcastic, right? But he sounded so… friendly?
Melody smiled. "You have things to do better than to flatter an old woman. I leave you alone now." She made it sound like she was doing them a favor by leaving, but she actually looked awkward, like she just wanted to leave no matter how…polite?… Matt was to her.
"What was that all about?" Bryan asked his friend.
Shaking his head, Matt said, "I kept seeing stuff today. Like people appearing out of nowhere and disappearing just as quickly."
"Is that why you climbed onto the chair to mess with the lantern in the ballroom? Oh! Is that why you had me count the people in the ballroom?"
"Yes and yes. I had the inkling this morning, so I tried to check it again after lunch. The number of people in the room always changes when the hologram projectors turn on."
Bryan nodded. "Obviously, you considered whether the extra people were just holograms."
"Obviously. And that remains the most logical solution. But Melody's story really resonates with me. I can't tell if I actually believe her or if a part of me just wants to believe her. But if the disappearing people really are spirits, then something about hologram projectors suddenly makes them visible."
"Do they stop being imaginary at that point?" asked Bryan.
"I don't know if I'd go that far. Imaginary space is just the term they gave for theoretical phenomena, intangible objects not affected by the laws of physics as we understand them. Like people walking through walls. Or people being see-through."
"Like the lady you said disappeared in front of the lantern," said Bryan. He hadn't seen the lady Matt was talking about, but he wanted to believe she had been there.
When Bryan rubbed his head, Matt said, "Don't hurt your head. Let's go get some food in that belly."
"Really? You're not going to obsess over this and forget to eat?"
"No. How's it going to help to deprive my body of nutrients? We'll eat, we'll rest, and all the answers will come to me in the shower, just like they always do."
Normally I try to limit the number of people I introduce in any given chapter. (You wouldn't expect that from something based on anime, but I have a hard time with names, even with tons of repetition.) But it felt more realistic to have separate hotel staff members doing separate tasks instead of one staff member who's all over the place and keeps running in to Bryan and Matt. I have another reason, too, but that's in spoiler territory, so the explanation can wait. Suffice it to say that everyone will have more than one appearance... But that rule doesn't necessarily apply to opposing duelists. Some of them might return, but most of them only get a name because of how tiresome it would to keep calling everyone "the other player".