Yu-Gi-Oh! Skies [IC]

[a coffee]

 

"The start of another school year... my dormitory is still far too small." Elizabeth had been staring at her ceiling for what seemed like hours, laying belly-up on her stiff bed, a single pillow supporting her neck and displacing the waves of straight, platinum hair she had only taken a short time to brush today. She hadn't slept particularly well the night prior, so her blinds were cracked only slightly to let a sliver of light through, revealing the swirled outlines of smoke in the air from her cigarette. She was not to be smoking inside of the dormitories by strict instruction of the community leader last semester, but Elizabeth knew full well that no more than a slap on the wrist would occur for doing it again; the school didn't have the heart to bring down any real punishments on her since the incident, and she never did anything too awful anyhow.

 

Elizabeth had spaced out for a while now; mindlessly smoking until the embers brushed up against her skin and burned her slightly. She sharply took a breath in, as pain rushed to her fingers, and ash fell against her brilliant, white teeth. She stomped out the cigarette against the ground and sputtered a bit as she attempted to remove ashes from her mouth while making her way to a washroom to cool down the burn between her two fingers. Only after the cool droplets of water coagulated on her slight burns, bringing a rush of relief to her aching fingers, did she become aware of the thunderous noise coming from the campus. Elizabeth gently groaned as she examined the now tender skin at the tip of her forefinger and middle finger as she made her way towards the window. She pulled up on the strap of her camisole lightly, making sure everything was appropriate before pulling up her blinds and looking to the ground below. From the looks of things, it was a duel, and one everybody wanted to see. She couldn't quite make out who it was from her distance, but for people to have gathered around, even on their own monsters, it was clearly important. 

 

"I guess I had better check up on the duel; Father would be upset if he's to find out I'd been lazing about again." Elizabeth sighed; she hadn't done any cleaning yet; her clothes were still inside of the bins and things associated with moving back into a living space. She pulled a sun dress out of her bin, laying it against her bed and lightly brushing the wrinkles out of the soft, white fabric with her fingers. The dress was littered with small red streaks and swirls that gave the image of twirling wind pushing red petals through the air; it was her favorite dress, and probably the only part about summer she truly enjoyed. Elizabeth would make the necessary wardrobe adjustments, topping off her outfit with matching white sandals. Pulling her hair back into her classic ponytail, with bangs gently placed around the curve of her face, she made her way out of the dormitory, deckbox placed gently into her plain, black, backpack.

 

 

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By the time Elizabeth had made it down to the duel arena, she had only seen Kimiko play her Shiranui Samuraisaga. Elizabeth quirked an eyebrow as she made her way through the crowds of students; some were delighted to see her out and about, some were not so pleased to see the mopey senior, as is typically the case with popular people, whether it be formerly or otherwise. Elizabeth never stopped to talk though, she would make her way right up to the front of the action, making sure she got a good view of the duel, both studying them and to get a profile on these two students she had never seen before. To her, it was amazing how much she had missed over the course of the last 2 years of hiding and introversion; she had hardly recognized most of these kids. Maybe some of them were familiar from a class or in passing, but many new faces surprised her.

 

Elizabeth took a long gaze at both combatants individually; the girl, which she had derived from the cheering crowd was named Kimiko, took her by surprise especially; not only was she incredibly small, but her deck featured quite the vicious archetype, "A Shiranui deck? So aggressive for a girl so young." Elizabeth silently thought of the strategies she would employ against a deck of this particular type, soon looking over to the equally young boy with partially dyed hair. What reason could these two have for dueling so early in the year? It's been no time at all and already it would appear these two have taken some sort exception to each other. Still, even if Elizabeth found it to be needlessly dramatic, it did get her out of her dormitory, so perhaps she should be thankful for all of this. She looked on, waiting for either someone to approach her, or for Yushiro to make his move.

[VCR_CAT]

Katsu was wondering where a lot of people had gone that afternoon, and it wasn't before long that she had learned that there was a big duel going on at one of the duel fields; apparently Yushiro and some rich girl. Katsu eventually made her way over to where it was going on, and wasn't surprised at all to see a Shiranui on the field already. Yushiro wasn't an idiot; he wasn't one to just go ahead and challenge one of the school's better duelists like that. Unless...

 

Katsu's eyes wandered over to Yushiro's side, and spotted Akira's familiar mug. Of course.

 

Katsu pushed her way through the crowd, making sure not to bump anyone too hard, but not exactly apologizing for her rather aggressive method of transportation through the crowd. Very quickly, she came up to Akira from behind.

 

"Hey Akira," Katsu called out from behind him. "You put Yushiro up to this, didn't you?" Her arms were crossed and she definitely didn't look terribly pleased with him. "You know better than to just throw your friend into a big duel like this in front of everyone!"

[King K. Azo]

"Hey Akira," Akira nearly flinched at that voice. Oh Susanowo, she had found him. Looking behind him, he could see Katsu approaching him like a train plowing through the land. "You put Yushiro up to this, didn't you?" Her arms were crossed and she didn't look happy with him. In fact, pissed was a good word for how she looked at the second. "You know better than to just throw your friend into a big duel like this in front of everyone!"

Akira knew Katsu... decently well(?) due to being part of rival dojos, and having competed in events before. Of course he won every time... is what he would like to say, but the truth of the matter was that he had won and lost against her so many times it was a damn near blur. He wasn't even sure how many times they've dueled.

He also had no idea why he kept running into her in life. He thought he had an escape at this school, but as surely as the sun rose and set, she was here. Was life hinting at something? Was he stuck with her forever or something like that?

"I'll have you, the woman Katsu, know that this was in no way I, the man Akira's, fault," Akira commented back. "Yushiro made a bet, lost, and it somehow spiraled into the spectacle you see before you. And how many times has Yushiro done this to me? You've never been concerned during those times!" He was a bit upset at the second, being accused falsely, so much so, he was slipping in his speech patterns. 

[BANZAI!!!!]

Yushiro closed his eyes and listened intently as Kimiko took her turn, blocking out as much of the sound from the audience as he could. The less he thought about all of those eyes on him, the better he would be able to think. Her opening hand was a decent one, which unfortunately for Yushiro meant he was staring down a 2500 ATK monster before he’d even drawn his first card. What luck he was having today.

 

After a few moments had passed, he opened his eyes and drew his first card, wordlessly beginning his turn as the standby phase indicator lit up on both players’ duel disks. He looked over the six cards in his hand, and began walking forward down the massive staircase into the temple complex. He kept going until he was out of Kimiko’s direct line of sight, then pressed himself up against a large mechanical looking obelisk. She wouldn’t be able to see him from here.

“Alright then! I’ll start by activating the effect of Speedroid Terrortop in my hand, which lets me special summon it to my side of the field!” A long centipede-like chain of bladed spinning tops appeared a few feet away, making its way between the various pylons that composed this part of the temple complex. A large “1200” indicator appeared over it. “When Terrortop is Special Summoned, I can add a Speedroid from my deck to my hand!”

Yushiro began searching through his deck. Speedroids were a Synchro engine, and so he naturally had plenty of Tuner options to choose from. The problem was, of course, that the Synchros in his extra deck were mostly outgunned by Samuraisaga’s 2500, and so he only had one or two viable options.It took him a bit, but he finally selected a monster. It wasn’t the play he wanted to open with, but it would do. He revealed Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice.

“Next, I’ll activate a spell card: Dangerous Machine Type 6!” A panel in one of the Temple’s larger towers opened up, revealing Dangerous machine within it, in plain sight of all present. “This should make the game a little more interesting, wouldn’t ya say?”

“This game was interesting from the moment you tried stepping up to my level,” Kimiko taunted. “It’s still not too late to quit~”

 

Yushiro shook his head. More to psych himself up than anything else. She wasn't having any of it, was she. “I already told you I wasn’t the type of guy to back down, didn’t I?!” He Normal Summoned Red-eyed Dice, which unlike Terrortop, appeared floating in the airspace above. “How about I prove to you how serious I am?! I tune Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice with Terrortop, in order to Synchro Summon a level 4 monster!”

 

Yushiro ran out of his hiding place as Terrortop spun up and flung itself into the air, diving into the synchro ring created by Red-Eyed Dice as it disappeared. “Place your bets! Lets take a spin, Hi-Speedroid Puzzle!” Terrortop was replaced by the larger, more humanoid machine in a flash of light, and indicator of 1300 hovering over its head as it landed atop one of the towers and pointed its blade at Kimiko’s field.

“Wowee,” Kimiko said sarcastically. “You summoned a 1300-ATK monster. That’ll definitely get over my monster...except it won’t! Did something in your head break or something?”

Yushiro called back from the alleyway he was currently in. “You sure about that, Kimiko? Puzzle, attack her Samuraisaga!” the Battle Phase indicator lit up as Puzzle dove off the tower, blade outstretched, and lunged at Samuraisaga.

[Super Chaos Sonic]

“Alright then! I’ll start by activating the effect of Speedroid Terrortop in my hand, which lets me special summon it to my side of the field! When Terrortop is Special Summoned, I can add a Speedroid from my deck to my hand!”

 

"Speedroids...?" Roy said aloud, scratching the side of his head. So the Yushiro kid was running a machine based deck against zombies. Now that was something he wasn't really expecting for Kimiko's opponent. "Well...I suppose this duel might actually be an interesting one after all!" he chuckled lightly.

 

He watched as this young man prepared his turn. He took Terrortop's ability to Special Summon it, then activated a spell. Roy wasn't exactly sure what this spell card: Dangerous Machine Type 6 did exactly, but he hoped for Yushiro's sake that it did something good.

 

“It’s still not too late to quit~”

 

Roy huffed slightly, shaking his head at hearing Kimiko's response. "Jeez Kim. Ya just gotta keep eggin' people like that." he rolled his eyes, only to see Yushiro's field now. A newly summoned Red-Eyed Dice appeared but it wasn't for long. That's when he saw the Synchro monster standing there: Hi-Speedroid Puzzle. "He runs Synchros as well? Hmm..."

 

“You summoned a 1300-ATK monster. That’ll definitely get over my monster...except it won’t! Did something in your head break or something?”

 

He had to admit it, Kimiko had a point. What was the purpose of Yushiro performing a Synchro Summon on a monster with such low attack? What was more, it seemed that Yushiro knew exactly what he was doing. And apparently to everyone's surprise, he declared an attack. Is he crazy? Roy thought, staring intensely at the Speedroid Synchro, waiting to see what was going to happen.

[Draconus297]

Emma watched carefully from Delta Flyer, high above the field. Kimiko was all-out, absolute aggression going straight for a massive beatstick on the first turn. By comparison, Yushiro seemed determined to counter her- calmer, for sure, but less immediately sure of himself.

 

But that was mere surface observations. The Decks the pair of Duelists used, the way they stood, who they apparently associated with . . . the past few minutes had been a goldmine of information for the would-be analyst's profiles.

 

In fact, there had been so much for her to take in while watching the Duel that she had nearly missed the fact that Elizabeth Hall was walking around.

 

The short redhead had initially pursued the older girl as just another project, another attempt to analyze and pry. Quiet Elizabeth had, however, been a tough nut to crack with the blunt force approach, and had required a slower and more methodical attempt at getting information- less a sledgehammer, more a hand drill.

 

Over the course of this, however, the two girls had become what could vaguely be called friends- Emma pushing Elizabeth to open up and slowly dragging her into normal society, Elizabeth helping Emma to slow down and not immediately try the sledgehammer approach when seeking information.

 

Of course, Emma would never admit to this.

 

She shook her head, her gaze returning immediately to the Duel in progress. A 1300 ATK Synchro 4, attempting an attack on a 2500 ATK Synchro 6. There was something that wasn't adding up here, at least as far as Emma saw it . . . and then she nearly hit herself. Speedroid Puzzle had an effect that specifically helped it deal with situations like this, although Emma couldn't remember exactly what it was.

 

The redhead smirked, and watched in eager anticipation of the next move either Duelist would make.

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

Takara Fujimoto was just inside the library catching up on her homework. She didn't take the time to know her classmates all that well, since she wasn't that type of person but, just after she finished what she wanted to do, she decided she'd best see if any of them were still around. It turned out that almost every single one of them had been standing around and spectating the duel between a Yushiro Midori and a Kimiko Hatakeyama. No doubt Takara would find herself following suit, and she'd have no trouble seeing over the crowd due to her sheer height over many of the other students.
 
Speaking of students, Takara found one that stood out from the crowd. He was a younger boy, who had heterochromia and was wearing a burnt scarf that had looked tacky on him. Realizing that she had to start somewhere, Takara gulped nervously as she approached the boy and tapped on his left shoulder.


"Tch; damn it all to hell," Shoraku had just got off the phone after trying to contact the hospital. Apparently they wouldn't let him see her sister Mami for another hour or so, and at first, he'd have nothing to do but twiddle his thumbs. But after hearing some rumors that a Yushiro Midori and a Kimiko Hatakeyama were gonna duel each other, he figured... why the heck not. Hopefully this would pass the time that he needed it to so he'd spend less time at the hospital.
 
...
 
It turned to be a bigger spectacle than Shoraku could've imagined, and not just because of the sheer size of the crowd either. There were a couple of cameras roaming around the place trying to get some good shots. One of these was wielded by Emma, which wasn't surprising, but another couple were going in between the two duelists themselves. If this ended up being uploaded to DuelTube, one of them was going to be embarrassed into oblivion, that was for sure. Being sick of seeing cameras, Shoraku scanned his surroundings to see if he could recognize some of these chumps not named Emma. He found all... two of them. The female of the two was all the way over talking to a big stocky guy, and Balthazar was talking to someone else, who seemed rather meek.

"All I wanna do is have a bit of fun, show these goons my Pendulum Summon," Shoraku had overheard. He then began to muse...

 

'Pendulum Summon, huh? And to think I have a counter anywhere near my locker. Go figure. Hmm; now that I think about it, I should probably...'

 

It was then that Shoraku had felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see a girl that he'd never seen before, who had short silver hair, navy-framed glasses and yellow eyes, and wearing a white shirt and black trousers. Or rather, he found himself staring right at the girl's breasts. He hadn't expected the girl to be as freakishly tall as she was, but Shoraku couldn't be bothered correcting his eyesight to match hers. Not yet anyway.

 

"What do you want?" he asked in a disinterested mood.

 

"I, um..." Takara blushed as she'd noted where exactly Shoraku was looking, and stepped back a little before saying anything more, "M-my eyes are up here."

 

"For your information, I'm looking directly where I'd normally make eye contact with a girl of average height," it was only after saying this that Shoraku finally showed enough courtesy to stop looking at Takara's chest and look straight at the girl herself, "It's your own fault for being so impossibly tall."

 

If she were any other girl, Takara would've most certainly jabroni-slapped Shoraku by now if not the moment she realized he was staring at his breasts. But Shoraku could already tell that Takara was a shy one. As such, he supposed he should cut her some slack. But only some.

 

"Now again, what did you want?" Shoraku asked.

 

"I... look, I'm just trying to get to know some of the other students here," Takara stated, "Could you... maybe point me in the right direction,"

 

"I mean, I don't know all that many either, but... I suppose I can try," with that, Shoraku used his eyes to gesture for Takara to look over to the ugly girl and the big guy that were talking to each other, "See that pissy little jabroni over there? Ignore her completely, for starters. The guy next to her has this annoying speech pattern, where he says things like 'he, the man' this and 'she, the woman' that. It's already starting to get on my nerves, personally, but you'll often find him next to the guy that's dueling at the moment, so keep that in mind. Him, I don't know, her, I don't know. Oh right, that shrimp flying around all over the place."

 

Here, Shoraku was of course referring to Emma.

 

"She's a stalker, so it might be wise to watch your back and make sure she's not following you or something," he told Takara, before looking back at Balthazar, "Now him I only met at lunch time, so I still don't know him all that well unfortunately. But he doesn't seem too bad, I... guess?"

 

"Well then... I guessing I should...?" Takara pointing to Balthazar himself, about to ask Shoraku if she should start by saying hi to him when...

 

"Yeah sure; go knock yourself out," with that, Takara made her way over to Balthazar and the guy he was talking to a while back, while Shoraku returned his attention to the duel at hand. It looked as though this Yushiro guy was about to make a play, but Kimiko scoffed at it... causing Shoraku to facepalm immediately.

 

'Idiot!' Shoraku had half a mind to call this out to Kimiko, but opted to hold his tongue... for now.

[The Warden]

The Champion of Strangeness

 

"Heyheyhey, hands of the merchandise" Salem scolded, slapping Balthazar's hands away from his camera. "Jeez," he grumbled to himself as he realigned his equipment, "weirdo" he added under his breath.

 

"Jutte jutte" one of the Jutte Fighters sniggered.

 

"Juttejuttejutte" the other tittered.

 

"Okay you two, get in place" Salem ordered as the Lunar Shrine appeared. Aiming the camera into the action, the young creep activated the microphone option. "Well Dueltube, we got ourselves a pretty good duel today between Kimiko, the queen of Blue Yonder, and some random called Yushiro who challenged her" he commentated as the duel progressed.

 

"My turn! First, I activate the spell card Foolish Burial, to send one monster from my deck straight to the graveyard! I choose Shiranui Spiritmaster! Next, I activate my field spell, Shiranui Style Synthesis! Next, I'll activate the effect of my field spell by discarding Shiranui Spectralsword! This let's me Special Summon one Zombie-Type monster with zero defense from my graveyard, and I'll summon Shiranui Spectralsword! Next, I Normal Summon Shiranui Smith from my hand! Now, by tuning my Level 2 Spectralsword with my Level 4 Smith, I synchro summon! Synchro Summon: Shiranui Samuraisaga! And that's not all! When Shiranui Smith is used as a synchro material, I can add one Shiranui card from my deck to my hand! I choose Shiranui Sage! I end my turn!"

 

Salem chuckled to himself. "She's set herself up strong, but she didn't try to defend the Samuraisaiga. That might cost her" he smirked as he ate up all of the footage. Muting the close-range mic, Salem pointed at one of his Fighters. "Get a good shot of of the synchro" he told it.

 

"Jutte!" it saluted, floating into the duel.

 

Hovering nearby, it kept a watchful eye on Kimiko's field. "And you," Salem continued, pointing to his other Fighter, "watch Yushiro!"

 

"Jutte!" the Fighter sighed, floating over close to Yushiro. It kept a firm eye on him as the young man began his turn.

 

[insert Yushiro turn here]

 

"Interesting," Salem grinned as Puzzle began its assault on Samuraisaiga, "you'd think that attacking with a low attack monster would be dumb, but if I know low attack monsters, that Hi-Speedroid will have a trick up its sleeve" he mused.

[Alaina]

Meiko nodded at Leona's predictions on the match's outcome. "Well put, Leona-chan." With that slight attempt at banter of commentators, the duel seemed ready to get underway as the duelists determined who would get the first move. Once Kimiko had set the stage with the action field, Meiko shouted into her mic, "and now folks, with all the smack talk out of the way let's get down to the moment you've all been waiting for. Action Duel! Start!" After she had exclaimed this to the crowd, Kimiko took the first move and showcased where her abundance of confidence came from. 

 

Paying attention to what the girl was doing, it appeared that she had a deck capable of synchroing and it was made of all flaming sword ghost people too. While just paying attention to the duel like a spectator would, Meiko soon remembered that she was supposed to be commentating this match, and as Kimiko's turn ended, she recognized it at the perfect opportunity to do so. "And just like that on her first turn, Kimiko was already able to bring out a strong synchro monster with little effort. However, because she took the first turn, Kimiko can't use that big monster to attack Yushiro just yet. Now, let's see what our challenger here will do!" Everyone here was probably well aware of the very basic rules of the game, but Meiko had to make 100% sure

 

With that, Yushiro began his turn and seemed to try and get away from Kimiko. She wasn't exactly sure what he was trying to accomplish in doing so, but she watched diligently alongside the rest of the crowd as the he began his turn. The challenger boy started his play in a somewhat similar manner to Kimiko's, bringing out two monsters with one of them being a tuner, going immediately into a synchro summon. "And our challenger responds with responds with a synchro monster of his own. But wait, it only has 1300 attack, it can't beat Samuraisaga with that little." As she stated the obvious, she only went on to exclaim what everyone else was thinking as Yushiro made his attack. "Ehhh? Has Yushiro lost it? Hi-Speedroid Puzzle doesn't have nearly enough to win!" Of course, coming from a deck with fairly low attack extra deck monsters herself, Meiko knew that Yushiro probably had some kind of effect waiting, but appearing oblivious was a commentator's duty! And one she would definitely uphold.

[King K. Azo]

Sai sighed and placed his deck on top of his bag, rubbing his eyes. It seemed while he was speaking to Balthazar, the duel had started. The loli had a great opening hand, using her zombie type deck (Which... they weren't zombies...) to summon something she called Shiranui Samuraisaga. The guy named Yushiro managed to summon... a monster called Hi-Speedroid Puzzle... but it looked like a person. Man, people ran strange decks nowadays.

He sighed as he watched Puzzle attack. Normally, he would really be into this duel, studying them and how the crowd reacted. That always helped him figure out what people did and didn't like, and he could apply that to his own dueling, but... he couldn't get into it today. He was way too nervous about his duel. 

He started to look around, his mind drifting... wait... was that a girl...? She was headed towards him and Balthy... she was really tall, about a good six inches taller than him. She had a nice figure as well, and her navy glasses were... kinda cute, the way they were framed on her face. His heart was thumping for some reason and he could feel his face heating up... Okay, what was going on...?

Was... she Balthy's girlfriend? Man, if that was the case, Balthy was one lucky guy... at least in his opinion. Oh crap, was he staring? Not good, not good! That was really rude! That's a horrible first impression!

"Um... h-hi," He mumbled to the giantess as he waved shyly. "Smooth Sai... really smooth. You must look and sound like an idiot...," He just wanted to go home and and hide under his bed covers forever now...

[~Faytl~]

"Loli? HA!" Balthy guffawed at Sai's joke. "She IS a little one, eh?" he asked, contemplating Sai's words. He reached over, clapping a hand on the boy's shoulder. 

 

"You listen to me, Sai-san," he said good-naturedly, holding up a thumb encouragingly. "Any gang of "lolis" you come across give you a hard time, you bring them to ME, aight?" He grinned happily. "I'll stomp 'em nice and flat, I will. They can't contend with my dino-powered deck," he assured Sai, waving the arm his Duel Disk was attached to pointedly. "Now... Looks like the duel's starting," he commented, leaning back against the seat behind him, hands behind his head as he looked at the expanding Action Field. 

 

He immediately sat bolt upright, enthralled. "Oooooh, outer space!" he cried out excitedly, taking in the stars above them. "I like her style, this one," he said, as Kimiko began dueling. "Shiranui?" he asked as she played her first few cards. "Never heard of these guys before... But her own Field Spell, on top of the Action Field that's already here? She's got guts, I give her that."

 

As Kimiko's Synchro Monster appeared, Balthy nodded, making a "hmm" of thought. "Ah, Synchro user, is she?" he asked, looking over at Sai. "Interesting... Those Shiranui monsters are Zombie-Type, and Synchro Summoning puts a lot of monsters in Kimiko's graveyard," he commented. "She's smarter than she looks, I admit." He shrugged, realizing he might be depressing Sai with all his talk of Kimiko's dueling ability. "Eeeeh, it's fine, though. Yushiro has this one in the bag!" He stood up, putting his hands up to his mouth as Yushiro began his turn. "Go, Yushiro-san!" he yelled enthusiastically. "Kick her scrawny butt! You got this!"

 

His yelling turned to excited jumping as Yushiro managed a Synchro Summon of his own. "Ha ha! A duel between Synchro users, is it?" he asked, returning to his seat, leg jumping up and down an inch at a time in his glee. "This is really turning out grea-" It was then he saw the attack points of Hi-Speedroid Puzzle. He stopped, tilting his head to the side. "Eh?" he asked, puzzled (no pun intended). "1300 points? Why is Yushiro summoning a monster that underpow-" He cut himself off in horror as Yushiro actually declared an ATTACK with Puzzle.

 

"Yushiro-san, what are you DOING?!" he yelled, jumping up again and waving his arms hysterically. "Don't attack Sausage Gravy or whatever it's called!" It was as he was jumping up that Takara was coming up to them, looking like she was trying to say something or other. Balthy reached out on reflex, putting a finger to the mouth of the girl without taking his eyes off the action (duel) and yelling "This is not the TIME! Yushiro's walking into a deathtrap! He-" He only then realized that his hand had gone far further up to reach Takara's lips than he would have guessed. He paused in his excited babbling, turning his head to look up at the very tall girl before him who's mouth was blocked by his gloved hand.

 

"... Hello," he said casually, as if he had not just silenced her with no preamble. "Name's Balthazar Gilliad, or Balthy, rather." He retracted his hand quickly, palming the back of his neck with embarrassment, grinning apologetically. "Sorry bout that, got all excited," he said, he said by way of explanation, pointing at the duel. "This here's Sai-san." Sai had introduced himself in a far less ostentatious way than Balthy had, but the excitable boy wasn't going to pay that any mind. First impressions were lousy, anyway. "Don't believe I've met you, have I?"

 

- - - - - - - 

 

"Ehhh? Has Yushiro lost it? Hi-Speedroid Puzzle doesn't have nearly enough to win!"

 

"Idiot."

 

Blythe Pendleton had been behind Meiko and Leona for a while now, sitting with crossed arms in the stands two rows above them and slightly to their left. She had been watching the duel quietly up to now, but noticeably gritting her teeth whenever either of the girls spoke their commentary. It was Meiko's most recent words that had finally caused her to speak up, plenty loud enough for the two to hear her. 

 

"Don't you kids know anything?" she asked, the senior not even bothering to look them in the eye, keeping her gaze on the duel. "Midori may be a wimp, but even he isn't going to just throw his Life Points away." She closed her eyes, her next words spoken as if she were speaking to a young child. "Hi-Speedroid Puzzle has a useful effect, despite it's weak power... Every turn, when battling a Special Summoned monster, it's power will double once. That means Puzzle will have it's attack points rise to 2600... You would think a commentator would know that." She smirked now, condescension in her eyes as they flicked open to glare scornfully at Meiko.

 

Blythe would likely be known to the pair. She had developed a very unsavory reputation among the students in the three years she had so far completed at Blue Yonder, many of them losing harshly to the merciless duelist, and losing much more than just the duel. Ranked high in her class and being a harsh presence altogether, Blythe Pendleton was already a subject of unease for much of the student body.

 

"The fact that he chose Puzzle to Synchro Summon, of all things is interesting, though..." she said. "After all, he could have Synchro Summoned almost anything, and he chooses that... Hmph. Typical." Smirk renewed, she looked down at Yushiro from her place high in the stands. "Midori Yushiro..." she reflected, Meiko and Leona the only ones able to hear her, naturally. "Your Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice has the ability to reform the level of another Speedroid to anything between one and six. With it and Terrortop, you could have Synchro Summoned anything from Level 2 to 7, and your first choice is a level 4 Synchro Monster..." She chuckled. "That tells me all I need to know... Your Extra Deck doesn't contain any other monsters capable of defeating Samuraisaga... and that's just a fraction of the power Kimiko has. Once Hi-Speedroid Puzzle is destroyed, you won't have any monsters able to defeat Kimiko's Shiranui." Blythe scoffed, turning her gaze back to Kimiko, watching closely. "I was right... he IS a waste of my time," she decided.

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

As she began her approach towards the two boys, Takara glanced over to her left one more time. She watched on as her fellow classmate had conducted a Synchro Summon of a Level 4 monster, which... was an interesting choice, no doubt. It looked weak at first glance, but Yushiro seemed so sure that it would suit his current purposes that no-one would be in any position to question. That didn't stop people from trying though.
 
It was as she turned away from the duel again that Takara noticed someone greet her. She supposed she should return the favor, but before she had the chance...

"This is not the TIME! Yushiro's walking into a deathtrap! He-...!" sure enough, Balthazar had pressed a lone finger right up to Takara's lips; another situation the gentle giantess found herself in in which any other girl would probably jabroni-slap the culprit. And yet once again, Takara remained still, overwhelmed by so many feelings at once and a lack of any idea what to do. It was a brash thing for Balthazar to have done, but it was clear that he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing.

 

"Sorry bout that, got all excited," Balthazar was quick to retract his hand as he said this, "Don't believe I've met you, have I?"

 

"I, um..." Takara paused nervously, still trying to process the whole finger-to-lips thing; she shuddered what she would end up doing if the boy had left the retraction a second too late, but shook the thought out of her head, "We definitely haven't actually spoken before, I know that much. Fujimoto Takara. Nice to meet you."

 

She tried to put on a brave smile but, failing miserably at pulling it off, she instinctively turned away again and focused her attention elsewhere. However, rather than observe Yushiro directly again, her eyes darted all over the place, taking note of all the people that had turned up for the duel between him and Kimiko.

 

"Sooo... why are there... so many people here?" she hesitantly asked Balthazar and Sai.

[Yui]

---

“You sure about that, Kimiko? Puzzle, attack her Samuraisaga!”

 

“You really are stupid,” Kimiko muttered. First this boy challenged her to a duel, and now he was attacking with his monster when it was clearly at a disadvantage against her own. If she didn’t know better, Kimiko would swear Yushiro was trying to make a fool of himself. “Alright then, enjoy your damage, you masochist!” the girl taunted.

Of course, things didn’t turn out quite the way she expected.

Puzzle extended its blade as it closed in, impaling Samuraisaga in the chest. A twist of its wrist and a slash later, and Samuraisaga exploded, with puzzle jumping out of the dust cloud and back up to the roof of a nearby pylon. The next sound she heard was the sound of her LP indicator decreasing.

For a brief moment, Kimiko had this look of total confusion on her face. That didn’t make sense at all. Her monster had more ATK, so it should’ve been Yushiro taking the damage, right? There was only one reasonable solution. “Cheating, are we? Really?”

“Don’t they teach you to read your opponent’s cards in class? Puzzle can double its ATK when battling a special summoned monster. 2600 isn’t a number to laugh at!” Yushiro was still staying out of sight. Puzzle could be strong, but at present he had little else to depend on. Best not to clue Kimiko in on that fact though. “After that, I’ll set a card and end my turn! Your go!”

“...hmph! My turn, draw!” Kimiko didn’t even need to make a second guess about her strategy this turn. It was all very simple to her. She’d teach this boy some manners once and for all. “First, I use the effect of Shiranui Style Synthesis! I’ll discard the Shiranui Sage in my hand, to Special Summon it from my graveyard!” The image of a long-haired man with a short beard and a long staff entered the field as it stepped forth from a ghastly white flame, with an ATK indicator of 500 floating over his head. “Next, I Normal Summon Shiranui Samura from my hand!” From above, a young swordsman - clearly the same person as her synchro from not long ago, but a bit younger - entered the field. His ATK was displayed as 1600.

“We’re only getting started! At least have the guts to come out from your little hiding place and face me!”

“Why don’t you come find me instead?!” was his reply.

“So be it! I activate the effect of the Shiranui Sage! By tributing him, I can Special Summon any zombie-type tuner monster from my deck, as long as it has 0 DEF. I summon another Shiranui Spectralsword!” The image of Shiranui Sage was soon engulfed in a bright red flame, which burned for a short moment before the fire died down, revealing the familiar ghostly samurai in his place, with an ATK indicator of 800. “He’ll be banished when he leaves the field, but I can live with that. For now, I activate the effect of the other Spectralsword, in my graveyard! By banishing itself and a zombie from my graveyard, I can summon a zombie-type synchro!”

“Crap… This is gonna be something big…”

“I banish Shiranui Spectralsword and Shiranui Samuraisaga, to summon Shiranui Shogunsaga!” A faint image of Samuraisaga appeared, holding up the red sword forged for it not long ago. It wasn’t long at all before, from thin air, another hand appeared, taking the sword for itself before the full monster stepped on the field. The visage of an aged warrior stepped onto the field, casting a cold glare at Yushiro’s monster as the ATK indicator of 3000 appeared over his head. “And this is where a lot of things happen to make your duel miserable. For starters, I activate the effect of Shiranui Shogunsaga! When he’s summoned, I can banish any zombie-type monster from my graveyard to increase his ATK by that monster’s ATK, and I choose Shiranui Sage!”

“Oh, but Kimiko,” she continued, with a rather poor impersonation of her opponent’s voice. “That monster only has 500 ATK. Wouldn’t Smith be the better option? Nope! But we’ll come back to that later. Before Shogunsaga’s effect finishes, the effect of Shiranui Samuraisaga activates! When it gets banished, I can reduce the ATK of one monster by 500. Let’s make that tiny 1300-ATK thing even smaller, shall we~?” Blue flames appeared around Puzzle, singing its armor and apparently causing the machine pain, bringing it to its knees and lowering its ATK to 800.

“How can she summon something so large so fast?” Yushiro was off running while Kimiko continued her move, making his way closer to where Puzzle and Shogunsaga were staring each other down.

“But wait, there’s more! When Shiranui Sage is banished, I can summon one banished Shiranui monster that isn’t Shiranui Sage! And, if I have Shiranui Style Synthesis active - I do - I can summon an additional monster! I summon my banished Samuraisaga and Spectralsword to the field!” Two of the spectral white flames floating around Kimiko turned a burning red, and from them, the images of Samuraisaga and Spectralsword entered the field, with respective ATKs of 2500 and 800. With one explosive move, Kimiko had gone from no monsters at all to a full field. “Lucky for you, I can’t summon another Shogunsaga...yet. But what I can do is activate the effect of Shiranui Samurai! By banishing Shiranui Smith from my graveyard, Samurai gains 600 ATK and banishes any monster it battles, for the rest of this turn!” The young Samurai lifted the distinct red flame-shaped sword at his hip upward, and what seemed to be the ghost of Shiranui Smith appeared briefly before entering the sword, giving it a bright red glow. “Oh, look at that, another banished monster. When Smith is banished, my zombie-type monsters can’t be destroyed by battle this turn! Not really something I need, seeing as you’ve lost already.”

“Gotta do something quick!”  Yushiro was nearby now. He could see Kimiko’s field of monsters looking up at a rather helpless Puzzle on the roof. Unfortunately, his face-down card was of little use, and nothing he had in his hand could-

“Battle! I don’t want your little jigsaw thing getting its ATK back up, so let’s attack with my normal summoned Samurai!” The Samurai gripped the katana on his hip opposite the glowing flame-shaped sword, and charged at Yushiro’s Puzzle, ready to kill. “Hope you brought a paper bag to wear on your head after this!”

“I wouldn’t count on it!!!” Yushiro appeared from a nearby alley, slapping a card onto his duel disk just before Shiranui Samurai struck Puzzle. Instead of the typical monster-destruction explosion though, a pale blue force field appeared to block the strike, glowing more intensely with each passing second. “Activate Action Spell! Backlash Pulse!” As if on command a bolt of energy erupted from the force field, striking Kimiko directly and dealing 800 damage. “That spell card ends your battle phase, in addition to saving my Puzzle! Don’t expect a win that easily, Kimiko!”

[King K. Azo]

Akira chuckled as he saw the crowd was completely dumbfounded by Yushiro's move. Sure, Puzzle looked weak, but it was a lot like Yushiro; he didn't look dangerous, but if you underestimated him, then he would beat you and leave you wondering what happened.

"Attaboy!" Akira shouted. "Knock the harpie off her perch!" Speaking of the harpie, she didn't seem to happy about what happened. She drew and began what really was a convoluted move, at least by his standards. Then again, his moves usually consisted of 'summon big thing that most people couldn't counter because all their counters were based off attack and smack them hard with a big stick'. Maybe this was how people played nowadays?

Then again, this deck couldn't have been cheap. She must have just bought all her cards... he shook his head. He couldn't judge based off that. His deck was, after all, a deck passed on from generation to generation, with little tweaks made by each wielder of the mighty deck, truly making it the deck of his dojo.

In a blink of an eye, the harpie had managed to go from an empty field to a full one. It was crazy, but the proof was right in front of him. With a screech (to his ears anyways), she went to attack Puzzle. Yushiro had only one move to pull, one that both pleased and troubled Akira.

He used an Action Card that not only ended the battle phase, but dealt damage to Kimiko, like a more powerful Negate Attack. He was glad Yushiro wouldn't lose from one attack... but it was an Action Card. He really didn't like them, as they just seemed to be random asspulls the field made, letting people escape from things they otherwise couldn't. He supposed he would just count Yushiro's blessings for now and keep quiet. He had done enough yelling for now.

---

 

Oh god, Sai felt really sorry for Balthy right at the second. He touched the girl, right on the lips to... he had accidental run-ins with girls before, and it usually ended up with him being slapped, beaten up by a boyfriend, or both. Considering how big she was, Balthy would probably be feeling that for awhile...

 

Except it never happened. 
 

"Sorry bout that, got all excited,"Balthazar quickly retracted his hand like she was made of fire. "Don't believe I've met you, have I?"

 

"I, um..." the tall girl paused. Ah, she must be taken back by Balthazar's... 'Balthazar-ness'. He didn't have any other way of describing it. He was tall, just a little shorter than the girl standing before him, had good looks... compared to Sai, anyways, he was sure that some of the heartthrobs in school probably looked better... but unlike them, he was also nice. That was a lot more going for him than what Sai had... no wonder why she ignored him. "We definitely haven't actually spoken before, I know that much. Fujimoto Takara. Nice to meet you." She looked at the crowd once more. "Sooo... why are there... so many people here?"

 

"I-I'm not exactly sure," Sai managed to get out. He didn't want to look rude on top of pathetic. "From what I c-can gather... The guy challenged the rich girl, and everyone lost their minds a-and wanted to see this duel," He sighed. "I just hope everyone leaves a-afterwards...," He didn't want people seeing him duel a teacher... god, the butterflies refused to go away.

[Alaina]

As Meiko was awaiting the attack to go off, it seemed that someone had appeared from behind. And not just any person, at that. Someone who had a naturally condescending tone in their voice, as she seemed to give off the explanation behind Yushiro's attack at samuraisaga, only to then seem to further insult her. The commentating girl put her mic to the side, with clear annoyance in her eyes, as she said to the girl, "well duh. But where's the dramatic tension if I just tell the audience everything going on inside the duelist's heads?" She then waved her away, like one would due to a misbehaving dog, before saying, "now shoo." When she looked back at the scene, it appeared Yushiro's turn had already come to an end, and Kimiko was already on her way to giving out long winded explanations of everything her cards did. 

 

Before long, one couldn't help but look in awe at the field that the young female duelist had but on display. "Whooooa," Meiko had said into the mic, trying to vocalize the reactions of the crowd. "And just like that, Kimiko shows off her skill to us all, going from a barren field to one that's completely full! This is looking troublesome for our young challenger here, as he's now staring down a field of large monsters ready to attack." And just like that, Kimiko entered the battle phase and it seemed grim for Yushiro. Meiko was practically on the edge of her seat, trying to think of how the challenger was going to get himself out of the bind he was in, when suddenly he had managed to pull just the thing he needed. 

 

"And with that Action Card, it seems that Yushiro is out of the proverbial pickle he found himself in! But don't rest easy just yet folks, because the challenger still has to find a way out of this predicament his turn, or else it'll be all over." Meiko was starting to get a bit worried over the situation herself, but she had faith that her friend would be able to pull something out here and turn it all around. Probably...Hopefully. 

[Super Chaos Sonic]

Roy's eyes were glued to Yushiro's monster, watching it strike at Kimiko's Samuraisaga...before watching watching an explosion and hearing the Life Point counter go off...but it was Kimiko's and not Yushiro. He was, no doubt, surprised at this along with everyone else.

 

"Don't they teach you to read your opponent's cards in class? Puzzle can double its ATK when battle a special summoned monster. 2600 isn't a number to laugh at!"

 

Upon hearing this, Roy hit his hand on the railing. Not in anger, but in amazement! It doubled it's attack! Of course...it should've been obvious. he thought, smirking. This kid might actually give Kimiko a run for her money...buuut...it's far from over.

 

"Attaboy! Knock the harpie off her perch!"

 

Roy heard the voice of a student that would be known as Akira, but Roy didn't know him by name. Regardless, he heard this and shook his head, trying not to snicker. Once Yushiro ended his turn with a face down, it was already Kimiko's turn. And like he called it before, she was indeed setting up for later.

 

However, Roy watched Kimiko use Shiranui Style Synthesis to discard then special summon her Sage. Then after this, Samura and then Spectralsword swarmed the field.

 

Doesn't seem like Kimiko is playing around any more. Roy thought, sighing as he continued to watch how this played out.

 

"I banish Shiranui Spectralsword and Shiranui Samuraisaga, to summon Shiranui Shogunsaga!"

 

Shogunsaga. Roy let out a sigh as he looked at the monster that was brought forth. It basically was able to banish a zombie monster and it gained an attack boost until the end of turn. That wasn't all it could do...

 

"Holdin' no punches back now..." Roy sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. "Yushiro...I hope you got something planned. Otherwise your going to get it."

 

To his surprise, however, Yushiro surprised him once more. First one of the game that was used: an Action Card! Blacklash Pulse, an Action Spell which stopped the battle right there. He couldn't believe it...now Roy's grip on the railing grew tighter. This was a match he was invested in now. Not since himself had he seen a Duelist going toe to toe with Kimiko...and he had to give him props for this.

[VCR_CAT]

--Katsu

Akira had been Katsu's rival for quite some time; the two had been the only finalists in the recent dojo tournaments, each one just barely beating the other an even number of times. Some say it's poetic justice that their schools remain rivals like this; between Akira's defensive Steadfast style and Katsu's incredibly aggressive  Relentless style, nobody could ask for more opposite match-ups. The two of them were often butting heads, and today was no exception.

 

"I'll have you, the woman Katsu, know that this was in no way I, the man Akira's, fault," Akira commented back.

 

"So you're both morons," Katsu muttered to herself, paying more attention to the duel.

 

"Yushiro made a bet, lost, and it somehow spiraled into the spectacle you see before you. And how many times has Yushiro done this to me? You've never been concerned during those times!" He seemed more upset at this point, and a pang of guilt shot through Katsu at hearing this. However, her reaction wasn't according to this.

 

"Hmph! Our schools are rivals, if you hadn't forgotten! What concern is it to me if you make a fool out of yourself?" Ouch, that was probably a bit too harsh; but at this point even Akira knew it was true. They only had their backs when someone else was trying to rig a tournament against one or the other; to give themselves a shot at the finals instead. Yet, that was more out of fairness for the competition than concerning over the other's reputation.

 

"You should be relieved, though," Katsu added, watching the match. Yushiro was holding his own in the duel against the rich girl. This was both surprising, as well as good. Kimiko had a lot of rare, strong cards at her disposal; and too often would other students lose to her because of that. "Yushiro's actually holding his own; maybe he won't be making a fool out of himself this time after all."

 

--Hiraku

A large crowd had gathered outside; word on the street was that there was a big duel going on. A shorter, skinnier boy with fairly long, white hair pushed his way to see what was going on; eventually hopping up to sit on a railing in order to get a better look. The boy studied the two duelists; Yushiro and Kimiko. Both synchro users; one piloted the Speedroid deck. Speedroids were fast-paced; focused on getting out its materials fast in order to conduct early synchro summons to overwhelm and overcome the opponent. Kimiko used Shiranuis; a zombie deck that also relied on synchro summons. Shiranuis focused on balancing their graveyard, their banished cards, and their field in order to support individual monsters to make them as strong as possible in order to overwhelm the opponent through sheer power alone.

 

"How's the match going?" The boy asked another student in front of him. The other student turned around, surprised to hear a voice behind him.

 

"Ah, Hiraku, didn't see you there. It's Yushiro versus Kimiko, and they're really going hard at it! They've been trading back and forth, and I'm really excited to see what happens!" The boy answered before turning around to watch the match. Hiraku was smiling as he spoke with the other boy, but the smile quickly faded as the boy turned around; his expression more serious as he watched the duel unfold.

 

“How about I prove to you how serious I am?! I tune Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice with Terrortop, in order to Synchro Summon a level 4 monster!”

 

A two material synchro summon; monsters from the field. A simple move; opponent makes a play, you summon something to counter and hope to maintain your advantage. A short-sighted solution with no weight on the late game.

 

“You summoned a 1300-ATK monster. That’ll definitely get over my monster...except it won’t! Did something in your head break or something?”

 

She doesn't read the cards, does she. Pitiful that someone would rely on strong cards to win them their games over cunning and strategy.

 

“Don’t they teach you to read your opponent’s cards in class? Puzzle can double its ATK when battling a special summoned monster. 2600 isn’t a number to laugh at!”

 

Of course it worked; what fool summons a weaker monster and attacks with it without knowing what was going on.

 

“He’ll be banished when he leaves the field, but I can live with that. For now, I activate the effect of the other Spectralsword, in my graveyard! By banishing itself and a zombie from my graveyard, I can summon a zombie-type synchro!”

 

A synchro summon from the graveyard. Maybe she's not a total amateur after all.

 

“That spell card ends your battle phase, in addition to saving my Puzzle! Don’t expect a win that easily, Kimiko!”

 

So, a lucky card gets him away from utter destruction.

 

"Hey Hiraku, what do you think of the match so far?" The other student asked, looking back at Hiraku.

 

"Ah? Oh yeah, it's pretty good so far," Hiraku replied. One may say it's pretty good.

[The Warden]

The Champion of Strangeness

 

The Jutte Fighter getting a good look on Samuraisaga had to duck out of the way of the Hi-Speedroid's attack. Salem snickered as Puzzle 86'd the errant ghost samurai, his hand clicking the close-range microphone back on. "Well, you saw it first here watchers; the wonders of underestimating a weak monster, only to get jabronislapped for it. Kimiko underestimated Hi-Speedroid Puzzle, and paid the price as she lost her monster, leaving her with nothing but her field spell. Of course, knowing zombie types she won't exactly be left wanting," he chuckled to his "audience", "although I gotta say it was pretty mature of her to accuse him of cheating when it's not even hard to check monster stats during a duel. I guess Princess here might need to take a few more classes," he snarkily addendumed before switching off his Salem chat.

 

 

He kinda wished he had a chair to sit just to enjoy the show, but he needed to keep the cameras on the action, especially since Princess was about to have her turn. He could only chuckle to himself as it panned out in the expected manner. "Well folks, that's to be expected of a zombie player, they just don't die. As you may know zombies have a habit of having as many revival cards as dragons do, Shiranui especially. They feed off of being banished and spamming, with Synthesis being good for when you're losing. No wonder she made good use of it huh? Also she was pretty fortunate to having pulled that all off without having searched anything either. Seems the queen of Blue Yonder has luck riding in her carriage."

 

It only got better when, for all her spamming, she got cockblocked by an action card; it was almost poetic. "Oooo~ hard blow for Princess with that action card ruining her practically guaranteed oh tee kay. But that's the luck of the draw, and seems Fortune might be two-timing her with the young challenger with the toys."

[BANZAI!!!!]

 

 

“Mmmm...just give up already!! Turn end!!!” The repeated surprises of this duel were clearly getting to Kimiko.

“What makes you think I’d ever give in without finishing the game, huh? You think you’re better than me just because your deck’s stronger than mine?”

“I think I’m better than you because I am! Somebody at the bottom like you wouldn’t get it! Just take your turn already so I can finish this duel!!”

That… was not the answer Yushiro expected. Was this girl really that full of herself? The thought stirred up an emotion that Yushiro rarely felt: anger. Sure, he was accustomed to being looked down upon, as wallflowers like him often were, but being insulted like this was… different. Half the school was watching her call him worthless, and she did it with such a callous sense of superiority. He didn’t matter at all.

The nervous look on his face disappeared, replaced by one of determination. He’d challenged her because he lost a bet, but now he had a real reason to play.

And come hell or high water, he was going to win.

“Fine, Kimiko! I’ll show you just how wrong you are! DRAW!” Yushiro was out in the open now, and Puzzle regained its footing and jumped down to his side. “You remember my Dangerous Machine Type 6, don’t you?” He gestured to the odd looking contraption jutting out of the temple wall some yards away. “During each of my standby phases, I get to spin the machine, and activate an effect based on the number it lands on. Tell me, do you like games of chance, Kimiko?”

“I never was good at those...good luck, boy. You’ll need it.”

“We’ll see about that, won’t we?” Spinnn!” The lever on the side of the machine moved downward, as if pulled by an unseen hand, and the wheels within it began to spin rapidly, gradually slowing down before finally stopping and landing on the number 3. “Three. That means I can draw a card.” He did so, then smiled. “Would you look at that.”

“First, I normal summon Speedroid Double Yoyo!” As he placed the card on his disc, the weaponized toy appeared on the ground in front of him, spinning its blades as if it was ready for a fight. “Do you know what it does, or do I have to explain its effect to you like I did Puzzle?”

“Go ahead and fill the school in. I’m sure somebody doesn’t know.”

“I’m sure you knew this, but when its normal summoned, Double Yoyo lets me special summon a Level 3 or lower Speedroid from my graveyard... And I choose Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice!” Sure enough, Dice returned to the field, right between Puzzle and Double Yoyo. “This time though, I’m going to activate Dice’s effect, allowing me to change Double Yoyo’s level to 3.” Yushiro took a deep breath and pressed a button on his duel disk, flipping out his extra deck slot. Red-Eyed dice disappeared, forming a synchro ring that Yoyo and Puzzle lept into. “It’s all riding on this! One chance is all I need! SYNCHRO SUMMON! THE WINGS OF FORTUNE! STARDUST DRAGON!” On command, a ray of light erupted from the ring, out of which flew Yushiro’s ace monsters, it's orbs ablaze with an emerald light. Stardust landed just in front of Yushiro, staring down Kimiko’s field with a look equally as fierce as its master’s.

“That’s really something,” Kimiko commented with a tone of false interest. “Too bad it can’t get over my Shogunsaga, huh?”

“Who said I was finished?” Yushiro placed another card in his monster zone, and subsequently a familiar looking bug-eyed robot appeared next to Stardust Dragon. “I can summon Taketomborg here if I control a WIND monster like Stardust Dragon.” Yushiro’s smirk returned. “And guess what Dangerous Machine gave me… Its a spell card! Speed Recovery!” Yushiro played it, and for the third time this duel Red-Eyed Dice appeared on Yushiro’s side of the field. “That card lets me special summon another speedroid from my graveyard, and it’s exactly the card I need to win. This. Duel.” Dice became a synchro ring once more.

“Got lucky, huh? Alright, humor me.”

“Synchro Summon! Armory Arm!” Taketomborg entered the ring and disappeared behind another beam of light. This time, a clawed gauntlet appeared, and attached itself to Stardust Dragon’s right arm. Dust’s ATK indicator shot up to 3500. “I’m sure you’ve seen an Armory Arm before, right? It increases Stardust’s ATK by 1000 when it’s equipped, and it also has a handy ability that allows me to inflict more damage when Stardust Destroys one of your monsters.”

“Oh no, I’m scared,” Kimiko sarcastically responded. “That dragon’s got so much ATK, and it’ll deal so much damage in one turn...too bad it can only attack me one time before I turn the board around and beat your precious Stardust into actual dust!”

Then Stardust Dragon’s wings began to glow gold.

“Wipe that smirk off your face. This duel’s over! Activate Trap! Tyrant Wing!” The 3500 became 3900 as Stardust’s wings became nearly blinding. The dragon extended its arm, clenching its fist with each talon in sequence. “Tyrant Wing gives Stardust Dragon an extra 400 ATK, and it also lets it make two attacks on monsters during each battle phase… and you’ve got a field full of them!”

Kimiko remained silent, watching the dragon intently. Stardust took off, ascending several meters before diving toward Shiranui Shogunsaga. “Attack! Nebula Knuckle!” The Dragon obeyed, landing a diving, energized punch right in Shogunsaga’s face, destroying it and dealing a combined 3900 damage to Kimiko’s life points.

“Now once more! Attack Samuraisaga! Nebula Knuckle!” Stardust came charging out of the dust cloud formed by Shogunsaga’s destruction, landing a seemingly more powerful strike against Samuraisaga and sending it flying into a nearby wall, severely denting it with the impact. Another 3900 damage went to Kimiko, and this was enough to reduce her life points to 0. Stardust Dragon roared triumphantly as Yushiro walked up to it.

“Nice job.”

Dragon and Duelist fist bumped.

[Super Chaos Sonic]

Roy's smile from watching the duel turned into a frown when he heard Kimiko's response to Yushiro, about him being someone below her. His grip on the railing grew tighter, as he began to shake his head. That was one thing he truly detested of the Hatakeyama girl: her over zealous thinking that she was above others. However, he shook the feeling off himself, only to continue to watch the duel.

 

And then...that's when things got interesting.

 

BGM

 

"I'm going to activate Dice's effect, allowing me to change Double Yoyo's level to 3. It's all riding on this! One chance is all I need! SYNCHRO SUMMON! THE WINGS OF FORTUNE! STARDUST DRAGON!"

 

"No way...Stardust...Dragon?!" Roy watched in awe as Yushiro's monster filled the arena with its stardust, before returning to his master's side. Speedroids...and Stardust Dragon? I wouldn't have ever thought a combination like that would work. he thought, smirking widely.

 

However, the duel didn't stop there...especially for Yushiro.

 

Upon the Duelist's field, the Synchro Monster Armory Arm appeared. Roy knew what it did, though yet again he was surprised that this would've been in a Speedroid deck. Nevertheless, the Armory Arm quickly equipped itself to Stardust Dragon, increasing its power. Things were shaping up nicely...however...

 

"It's not going to do much good though..." Roy said, rubbing his chin slightly. "He's saying he's going to end the duel here. But Stardust, even with Armory Arm can only attack once...it'd take a miracle for Yushiro to even pull a victory off."

 

"Oh no, I'm scared. That dragon's got so much ATK, and it'll deal so much damage in one turn...too bad it can only attack me one time before I turn the board around and beat your precious Stardust into actual dust!"

 

"Wipe that smirk off your face. This duel's over! Activate Trap! Tyrant Wing! Tyrant Wing gives Stardust Dragon an extra 400 ATK, and it also lets it make two attacks on monsters during each battle phase...and you got a field full of them!"

 

Yet again, Roy was colored impressed by this Yushiro kid. He seemed to plan right up to this point here from the beginning. Luck or not...Roy knew this Duelist had skill.

 

"Attack! Nebula Knuckle! Now once more! Attack Samuraisaga! Nebula Knuckle!"

 

In a literal flash, Kimiko's Life Points dropped straight to zero. Roy stood there speechless, seeing both Stardust Dragon and Yushiro bumping fists as the duel came to a close. He soon couldn't help himself, as he began to applaud for the duel. His eyes, however, were glancing over at Kimiko. Roy ended up sighing slightly, seeing her in this defeated state. You underestimated your opponent...a thing you never learn from. he thought, shaking his head slightly.

[a coffee]

 

“Tyrant Wing gives Stardust Dragon an extra 400 ATK, and it also lets it make two attacks on monsters during each battle phase… and you’ve got a field full of them!”

 

 

Elizabeth watched the fallout of the duel, and, needless to say, she was not too impressed. A crowd large enough to think a movie star had just come through, all for a duel where extreme luck triumphed over genuine skill? At least that kid could perform just fine under pressure; if he managed to get luckier than he did just now, anyway.

 

"An action card, that machine, and what a convenient set monster... I wonder what his deck building grades are; that kind of luck cannot be replicated reliably." Elizabeth said aloud, perhaps loud enough for the people around her to hear, but she didn't care much for who heard; she was right, after all. You cannot possibly build a deck expecting these things to pan out regularly and yet.... here he was, doing just that. "Sure hope I see him in my tutoring sessions; that deck could use some work."

 

Elizabeth looked around her as the various spectators reacted; some were lauding Yushiro's play as if it were actually intended, others were angry that Kimiko lost. She couldn't help but reflect on her time at the top in her previous years at the school; did her classmates ever react the same way? Did people ever care about her duels that much? It always seemed like, to her, that even the most high profile duels were just about her brother, and she was the supporting act. After what seemed like an eternity of being stuck in her own thoughts, Elizabeth looked into the sky, noting the Emma was sitting in the air; Elizabeth wondered if Emma had noticed her.

 

Emma was always a strange one to Elizabeth; at first Elizabeth found her kind of annoying, what with the constant prying and contesting against her self-defeating emotions. It took a while, but Elizabeth eventually found the ever-inquisitive Emma to be sort of soothing; it was nice to get out of her own head every once and a while, and Emma was better than anyone at getting Elizabeth to be distracted by something or someone. She only wish she had a chance to talk more.

 

Elizabeth would eventually sigh, disappointed by the outcome of the duel, and begin to wander around. She slowly followed the flow of the crowds out from around the arena towards the side Yushiro was on, opening her backpack's front pouch to reveal a small box of cigarettes and a lighter with an angel on the front. She turns the wheel of her lighter a few times, revealing light sparks, but no flame. She groaned, "Guess I'm out of fluid." She kept mindlessly walking towards the side where Yushiro's field was set while tucking her cigarettes back into her bag, not really looking to the path in front of her, but assuming nobody would be rude enough to bump into her while she was fiddling with her bag...

 

[King K. Azo]

The crowd was stunned for a few seconds. Akira only chuckled to himself. He stood up out of his seat and headed down to where his best friend was. He could hear the crowd exploding into cheers behind him. Why wouldn't they? The underdog had triumphed over the rich girl, one that so brazenly declared her victory. 

Akira's reaction was rather subdued. He never doubted his friend for a second, not even when the odds where against him. Yushiro had dueled out of tighter spots before anyways. With a chuckle, he slapped one of his large hands on Yushiro's shoulder.

"Good job, buddy. I knew you could do it,"

 

---

 

Sai only watched in quiet awe. Yushiro had managed to get over a field that most people would have found impossible. He was surprised that he had Tyrant Wing in his deck though. It seemed... unreliable. Then again... he had about nine cards in his deck that people could believe were unreliable as well. He sighed. That duel was over... his would be next. He quietly grabbed his bag and headed off, slinging it over his should.

It was time to get ready.  

[Yui]

---

Meiko, and likewise most of the audience, was a bit stunned, yet not entirely surprised, at the response that Kimiko gave to Yushiro. “Well, it seems that Kimiko has already declared her victory folks, but it isn’t over yet as our challenger seems quite fired up and ready to go.”

“Her field is set up, but the low-power tuners also mean she’s wide open to more attacks from Yushiro’s Puzzle.”

 

“But it’ll take more than just a pick here and there for Yushiro to get victory out of this one. Let’s watch what our challenger will do here for his turn.” Yushiro’s turn came about, and with it the activation of his spell he had placed the turn prior. As the number seemed to land on what the boy needed, Meiko exclaimed out, “Would you look at that folks! Yushiro here took a chance with his card and looks like it paid off wonderfully. But what kind of card do you think he’d need to draw in order to turn this around, Leona?”

“Something to get rid of Kimiko’s monsters would obviously be best, but she could probably just fill up the field again. Yushiro needs a way to get her monsters down and keep them down, or something that could let him win this turn.”

Meiko nodded at what her co-commentator had stated before saying, “Yes, yes. Well, let’s see if Yushiro has drawn just the card he needed to change this duel around.” With that, Yushiro’s turn continued on as he managed to showcase why his roids had “speed” in their name. Bringing out a few monsters, Yushiro performed a synchro summon causing Meiko to exclaim out once more. “And there it is folks! Stardust Dragon, our challenger’s ace monster. But what can he possibly do with it against something as big as Shogunsaga?”

“He looks like he’s got a plan,” Leona commented. She could tell. And sure enough, Yushiro soon began playing and equipping cards to Stardust Dragon, boosting its ATK to a level that could trump Shogunsaga and end the duel that turn. The dragon was set loose, attacking Kimiko’s monsters and tearing through her Life Points! “And that’s the game!” Leona exclaimed once Kimiko’s Life Points hit zero. “Yushiro suddenly turns the tables on Kimiko and snatches the win right out of his darkest hour! Talk about an underdog to root for. Do you have anything to say now that the duel’s over, Meiko?”

Meiko was watching in awe as Yushiro had managed to turn the entire situation around, and nearly one turn kill his opponent with his chain of cards. As the duel ended, her face was quite clearly one filled with excitement. “Well, I must say Leona, this has been quite the duel. I’m sure we can all say that none of us saw something like that coming. Truly a great way for us to kick off our school year, wouldn’t you say?”

“It’s definitely going to be something people will talk about for a little while. Thanks again for tuning in to watch our End of Summer School Duel, everybody!”

[Draconus297]

Emma Pathos could only smile as she slowly urged Delta Flyer to the ground. This had been quite enlightening indeed . . .

 

Kimiko Hatakeyama, a girl with massive fortune and ego, had been challenged by Yushiro Midori, a boy notably lacking in both. Yushiro emerged the victor, through a turn of events that was both luck and foresight given form, even with a disadvantage in terms of monster power and output speed. However, with Yushiro, Emma got the sinking feeling that what she saw was what she got- skillful and lucky Duelist, rather uninteresting otherwise. With Kimiko, however, the lashing out was not typical of someone with that kind of social standing . . . Emma made a note to look more into the rich girl later.

 

"She might prove quite interesting," Emma murmured to herself, half unaware she was speaking aloud instead of in her mind.

 

However, the short redhead shook her head, retracted her Duel Disk (dispelling Delta Flyer in the process), and kept her eyes peeled for Elizabeth. If the older girl had seen this, Emma needed some assurance she'd made noteworthy progress regarding opening up- talking to someone else in the crowd, cheering for one side or the other (however subdued), something.

 

Pocketing her notepad, Emma rushed in the direction of the last place she'd seen Elizabeth.

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

"Well that happened," Shoraku said flatly as the duel came to a close. Yushiro had won. True, he won via a massive lucksack, but he won nonetheless. And while it was too lucksacky for Shoraku's tastes, it was still well justified, as Kimiko deserved to lose that duel for being a complete boob. Unfortunately, on top of Yushiro being a total lucksack, the duel was way too quick... and Shoraku hated quick duels. He was hoping it would take more than four turns, but it was over in seconds.
 
There were mixed reactions throughout the whole crowd; some of them were laughing at Kimiko for failing to survive that turn and live up to her name miserably, and others booed at Yushiro for lucksacking his way to victory. But in all honesty, both of them were as bad as one another. Shoraku wasn't the only one to think that.
 
"An action card, that machine, and what a convenient set monster... I wonder what his deck building grades are; that kind of luck cannot be replicated reliably," a girl had said aloud, not really caring who heard her. Naturally, Shoraku felt the need to correct the girl.
 
"It was a trap, for one, and for two, no sheet; luck in general can't be reliably replicated. But hey," he shrugged his shoulders in his pause, "Less humiliating to lose to a lucksack than to lose to a complete boob that can't even read card effects... or won't, one or the other,"
 
It was then that Shoraku had noticed that the girl was trying to light a cigarette, but couldn't get her lighter going. It was a good thing Shoraku smoked as well, or else the girl would be sheet out of luck. Sighing, Shoraku reached for his own lighter which he'd kept in one pocket, and flicked it a couple of times, a small flame erupting in its wake, and held it in front of the girl at a respectable distance; close enough that she wouldn't have to lean into it, but not so close it was in her face.
 
"Here," he said nonchalantly, "You might wanna hurry up though. This thing's pretty low itself."


"I-I'm not exactly sure. From what I c-can gather... The guy challenged the rich girl, and everyone lost their minds a-and wanted to see this duel. I just hope everyone leaves a-afterwards..." Sai seemed to be nervous, but was able to give the lowdown nonetheless. Though Yushiro, challenging that Kimiko? Not the type of thing Takara was expecting from him, given how she'd seen him interact with the other students. If she had to guess Yushiro was dared into challenging Kimiko.
 
"Er... I see..." that was all Takara had said in quite some time. She had always preferred to keep her interactions brief, with what never been sure how she'd hold up long conversations. However, Takara had noticed a change in Yushiro; it was almost as if he had a killer instinct of sorts.

"SYNCHRO SUMMON!! THE WINGS OF FORTUNE!! STARDUST DRAGON!!" it was at this moment that Takara was completely transfixed on the duel at hand.

 

'Wow... that really is a beautiful monster...' Takara thought to herself, 'It's a shame it doesn't have much power behind..."

 

"Synchro Summon! Armory Arm!"

 

'Another Synchro Summon; can he even do that?' she then found herself scratching her head, 'Well, the software would've given warnings all over the place if he couldn't, so...'

"This duel’s over!"

 

'...he can't be serious.'

 

"Activate Trap!"

 

'Ring of Destruction?! Are you kidding me?!'

 

"Tyrant Wing!"

 

'...oh. Not the finisher I was thinking. I guess that rich girl might turn this back around after...' Takara had been looking up what Tyrant Wing actually did on her smartphone just to make sure what she was thinking was correct... only to be proved dead wrong as she looked at the effect closely, "No way..."

 

It was safe to say that Takara was in an overwhelming shock. Even as rest of the crowd cheered or booed at the representative parties, the gentle giantess still remained completely frozen in place, barely able to process what she had just witnessed. Did Yushiro really just cleave through over 7000 Life Points in one fell swoop? And without even taking any damage himself either? It had only been a grand total of four turns as well; most duels weren't decided until thrice that many.

 

...

 

Takara turned to see that Sai had left, though Balthazar was still there. Then she turned back to Yushiro, contemplating on approaching him but still unable to shake her nerves. Takara would remain on the spot for quite some time, continuing to remain still until she could make something of this clutch play Yushiro made.