#Boy am I glad it'll take some time before this series is pure Duel Monster battles

[jhessail]

This took forever but here’s another part!

https://jhessail.tumblr.com/post/179884933509/quick-disclaimer-i-do-not-own-yu-gi-oh-do-not Part 1 https://jhessail.tumblr.com/post/180390075874/httpjhessailtumblrcompost179884933509please Part 2 “https://jhessail.tumblr.com/post/190212985974/chapter-1-chapter-3-a-card-a-card-a-card“ Part 4

“Is he going to be okay?” One of the boys that carried Stephan asked the nurse, a young-looking man with pink hair and a scruff of hair on his chin. Yuna faced the nurse with concern from the boy’s question. The man looked at the group of teens in front of him and rubbed his hairy chin.

“You’ve done well to bring him here, I’m sure once the ambulance gets here, he’ll be perfectly fine.” The teens shared an exhale of relief. “What happened?” The nurse asked seriously.

“He just showed up like this Mr. Cameron.” One of the other boys spoke. Mr. Cameron studied the group closely but Yuna turned away to look over Stephan. Who would do this? Yuna had to turn away as she could feel a gurgle of anger swirl around her shoulders, the eyes answering her rage at the injustice of the collapsed boy’s injuries. Yuna knew she couldn’t actually do anything to avenge this incident, but she still couldn’t help but feel like she could. She knew none of the details behind what happened but Stephan had the courage to come to school even after his obvious pain.

She couldn’t do anything to ease that, but she could offer her friendship after he recovered. She wasn’t going to join the Duel Club but she would offer to play a match to help Stephan get better for his tournaments when she had free time. Thinking of matches…“Hey Tatsumi, did Stephan send you anything about this?” Yuna shook her head, rage still massaging her shoulders tensely.

“No this morning was the first I saw of him since yesterday.”

“Is there a reason he would contact you...Tatsumi, was it?” Mr. Cameron quirered. Yuna frowned, breathing through her nose to calm down, her hand gripping her duel card. The girl turned back around to see the boys who helped her and Mr. Cameron staring at her.

“He was supposed to answer a riddle I gave him, but we didn’t exchange phone numbers so he wouldn’t have had any way of contacting me…” She should have thought of that. Why didn’t she give him her cell? Mr. Cameron tilted his head,

“Are you not registered on the grid?” Yuna blinked, mimicking the nurse and tilting her head.

“Grid?” She was suddenly surrounded by stunned stares and Yuna suddenly felt nervous.

“You really weren’t joking about not owning a deck!” Said one of the boys, standing out with his spiky black and red hair. Yuna’s face must have shown an incredibly amount of confusion as the boy continued, “Anyone who has a deck is registered to a grid system in city hall.” Okay? “It makes it so we can pretty much duel anywhere and anytime, our decks and a lot of information is paired together, so if you were registered he’d be able to contact you through that.” Huh...Yuna wasn’t aware of that. Was that how it worked back in Neo Domino as well?

“Hello! We’ve come to take the injured!” Yuna jumped at the loud voice that erupted in the room, four men marched in, guiding the students away so they had room to maneuver and take the incredibly injured Stephan. Yuna watched, misery churning as the professionals started to set off, an audience gathering to watch. Yuna squeaked as they passed, Stephan gripped her elbow. At her shriek the carriers paused, one of them grabbing his hand softly. He wasn’t letting go.

“Miss, please follow us for now, we don’t want agitate the patient.” Yuna helplessly looked down and frowned as Stephan was crying again, his hand gripped her harshly but shook at the same time. Yuna nodded and kept pace with the EMTs and even found herself climbing into the back of the ambulance. Oh she hoped someone told her teacher she wasn’t purposely skipping class. The ride was smooth, one of the EMTs worked furiously to heal Stephan. His bandages got replaced, an IV was set up and Yuna watched with horror.

“W-why…” Stephan started to speak. Yuna forced herself to focus on the young man, she could feel her hands starting to shake. “Why haven’t you taken one of my cards?” Yuna could feel the EMT’s eyes piercing her core, but she ignored him. Yuna sighed and answered,

“That was something Tsukasa came up with. I didn’t want to take any cards in the first place.”

“I thought...you liked Duel Monsters…” Yuna nodded.

“I do. I love it so much, but I love the Kings even more.” She flushed a little, her hand moving to softly grip Stephan’s hand, rubbing her thumb on the top of his hand. “I live my life by what I think they would do. At the end of the day, if they had the choice, I think they wouldn’t take a card from a fellow duelist.” Yuna smiled, her heart feeling exposed with that truth. Of course the Kings had taken cards from fellow duelists, but often through rules or necessity but not from a second thought prize. “If you really want me to take a card, I was going to go for cards you don’t put in your main deck.”

Stephan watched her through her tiny speech and while he stopped feeling the pain of the stabbing sharpness from his outer wounds, there was a part of that terrifying goop that had attacked him yesterday still smashing his insides. He felt guilt from seeing what kind of girl she was. Stupid and cute yes, but also sincere. He gritted his teeth in pain from both how earnest the girl was and the goop of what was surely the shadow realm mashing up his organs, the painkiller rushing through his veins doing nothing to aleve the terror.

He hissed and gripped Yuna harshly, earning a gasp of pain from the girl. He could get rid of the goop inside of him, he could feel it. Like he felt earlier he had to let the girl tell him the answer to the riddle, now he had to get her to take a card. He coughed and both Yuna and the EMT gasped as blood inched its way out his mouth. “Stephan!” Yuna cried as the EMT started to take measures to help the young man. He opened his mouth to plead but the EMT must have put something other than pain killers in his veins, because his vision became black and his words incomprehensible.

“Everything will be okay miss.” Yuna nodded as Stephan’s grip finally slackened and she could pull away. Sympathy crossed her expression and she looked away as the EMT started to do tests. Yeah, she would definitely offer her friendship.

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“Hi big sis!” Claire greeted her enthusiastically and Yuna gave her a short awkward smile back.

“Are you bleeding?” Ms. Mokfu asked alarmed as Claire grabbed the tri-colored teen’s hand. Yuna frowned, looking down at the hand that Claire held. The blonde looked up at her incredibly concerned.

“No I’m fine. This came from...a friend.” Yuna smiled sadly down at the girl, rubbing off the crusted blood she hadn’t realized was there. “But don’t worry about that either, he’s going to be fine.” Yuna reassured the children who stared at her. Ms. Mokfu studied the young woman and watched the children crowd around her.

“Are you sure you’re fine? If you need to take today off it’s okay.” The teacher offered. It wouldn’t be a big deal, the kids in her classes were used to the shenanigans of the children and the lessons that Ms. Mokfu would end up circling around their actions. Yuna shook her head,

“No, I really need to be around my other friends.” Yuna finished and her face transformed, flushing with embarrassment. “I-I mean with them! It’d be irresponsible of me to take this duty and take off the third day!” Ms. Mokfu watched as the teen yelled at her very animated, then continued to watch as Yuna grabbed Ryu and Claire in her arms and fled, more words to defend her decision were spoken as she went into the side building. As they closed the doors of the building, Ms. Mokfu turned and looked at one of the two spirits that was always with her.

“Could you keep an eye over here?” Guardian Angel Joan smiled at her gently, then shook her head. The teacher scoffed, “Oh come on!”

“Sky Scout isn’t here, you need protection with you.” The Duel Monster bluntly stated, no compromise was in her voice. The teacher rolled her eyes, stomping her way to her classroom. Ugh, she was lucky most of her students were lax and go with the flow kind. Tsukasa being the heavy exception to that rule. The blonde teacher made her way to her classroom, pointedly ignoring the Duel Monster flouting behind her, hoping she offended said Duel Monster. She could hear the students from outside her classroom, which is what she was hoping for, for more potential answers of the mysterious blood on Yuna.

“Hey did you hear about what happened at Seawynne High?”

“Yeah, and I heard it was Ayumu’s fault.” Ms. Mokfu frowned. She knew Tsukasa was cold around the edge but he had never physically hurt someone. No he gladly always volunteered to duel his problems away. Something Ms. Mokfu knew all too well.

“I heard it was over a Duel Monster’s card.”

“Well that’s no surprise, there’s no one who’s more obsessed over Duel Monsters than Ayumu.”  

“Is it true Ayumu?” One brave soul asked. “Did you start a fight over a card?” Ms. Mokfu couldn’t stop herself from peeking into her classroom, seeing a yellow-coat dark-haired girl towering over the sitting brunet. The young man looked up at the girl and said nothing. A harsh tension sifted through the room and the girl, Ms. Mokfu recognized her as Bethany Oliver, stood where she had asked the question, frozen like an icicle.

“Well Ayumu?” A boy wearing a red coat asked, walking up behind Bethany and pushing her to the side slightly to become the new focus.

“I did nothing wrong.” Tsukasa simply stated, and his gaze went back down to the book that was open on his desk.

“Aha, of course not! C’mon Beth, let’s go.” The boy pushed Bethany back to their desks, chastising the curious girl. Tsukasa was the only blue coat in Ms. Mokfu’s room, but he also did not wear said blue coat. The dividing classes between the red, yellow, and blue coats existed but because this was a cram school instead of a full academy the focus on superiority wasn’t as focused on. Ms. Mokfu tried to listen a little harder, hearing harsh whispers of gossip of what happened but Tsukasa’s voice interrupted in spying,

“Ms. Mokfu.” She jumped, her cheeks flushing as Tsukasa continued, “If you are not going to teach us today, I could go to Dr. Horai’s classroom today.” The teacher paled and opened her door,

“No I’m here! I can teach you all amazing card techniques!” The teacher started to charge into the center of the room and yelled as she tripped over her coat, falling flat on her face, giving the kids a much appreciated round of laughter from everyone except Tsukasa. Ms. Mokfu moaned as her nose started bleeding. When she got up, holding her nose and praying inwardly it would stop from just her plugging it up, she jumped when Guardian Angel Joan shifted in front of her. The teacher bit back the words she wanted to tell her worried spirit but then realized the angel wasn’t even facing her.

“Ms. Mokfu do you need a tissue?” A considerate yellow-coat boy asked, walking up and phasing through Guardian Angel Joan to give the teacher a handkerchief.

“Thank you Sam.” She unceremoniously stuffed the handkerchief in her nose and studied the duel spirit, seeing she was focusing on Tsukasa. Weird. “Alright class, today we will go through some of the rarer counter trap cards and how they can-”

“Ms. Mokfu...please go to the nurse’s…”

“You’re bleeding from your mouth now…” Her students bluntly remarked, worry in their tone as the blood from the stuffed nose just traveled to exit her mouth when she spoke.

“Oh...I suppose I should.” She saw Tsukasa roll his eyes, “I will be back in a minute children.” The rest of her students continued gossiping as soon as she left the room. She wasn’t stunned when Guardian Angel Joan appeared by her side. “You alright?” The teacher asked, marching instead to the bathroom to clean her face.

“...I will not lie to you, I am fine.” Ms. Mokfu rose an eyebrow, “Something’s bothering you though.” The angel turned to look back at the room the two had left.

“I am unable to exactly figure it out...but there may be something coming...regardless, I will continue to protect you.” The teacher rolled her eyes.

“That something gotta do with Ayumu?” Guardian Angel Joan gave her a meaningful glance that of course told the teacher nothing. The teacher cleaned her face and worked on making her nose stop bleeding while pondering what could have possible happened. She’d just have to keep an eye out on Tsukasa, because surely the gossip was exaggerated.

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“NO! WE’RE DUELING TODAY!” Kayo’s voice somehow echoed in the small building.

“I’M NOT GOING TO DUEL A LOSER LIKE YOU!” Sakura yelled back even louder. Yuna covered her ears as Claire started to join in the shouting match with obnoxious giggling. How did they even get like this? Yuna had answered Claire’s incessant questions about what happened to her today when they started to argue. As though to answer her thoughts, Ryu pulled his sketchbook up to Yuna’s easy to spot level and it remarked,

“Kayo challenges Sakura to duels often because Sakura’s a better duelist than him.”

“Oh? You’re a duelist Sakura?” Sakura scoffed at her question, banishing Kayo away with her hand. Kayo bared his teeth at her for the motion,

“Yes but I find dueling boring.” Yuna felt offense creep on her face and Sakura glared at her with disdain, which told Yuna that her third eye likely peeked a little out from her forehead while Kayo hissed,

“If you find it so boring hurry up and give someone else your cards!” Sakura faced the pink-haired boy with an ugly look. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t just hear you say that.” Yuna blinked, seeing Kayo bit his lips tight and tears starting to fill his eyes. Sakura’s eyes also looked bitter with the sting of liquid. Yuna had no idea what just happened so her next words came out slowly,

“Um. Could I see your cards?” She hadn’t asked to see Kayo’s deck before because she had been preoccupied with reading the children stories and making sure they got their stupid delicious food on time and of course the unfortunate game between her and Stephan. Sakura and Kayo shot her dirty looks so she continued waving her hands awkwardly, “I mean if you don’t mind. I don’t want to use your decks or anything…” She rubbed the back of her head shyly, “I’m just curious about what kind of cards you have.” She continued to be stared at harshly by the two when Ryu wrote something new in his sketchbook,

“Come on guys, if you’re going to spend time yelling at each other than you can let Yuna look at your cards while you do that.” At the words, Kayo’s gaze became softer and he dug into his backpack with a sigh.

“I’m sorry Sakura.” Kayo muttered, moving things around his backpack and keeping his face hidden away from the white-haired girl. Sakura tensed and turned away, quietly muttering back,

“It’s fine.” Yuna tilted her head, wondering what exactly what that was over. Her confusion was interrupted when Kayo drew out a fancy tin box and pulled it open. Yuna stared at the deck in the tin with fascination and wonderment.  

“Oh they’re all so cute!” Yuna started to softly touch the cards, her hands practically feeling like static electricity ran through them, spreading them carefully. This was the first time she had ever gotten to directly touch a deck. Back in Neo Domino, nobody ever offered her the chance to touch or even look at their cards. “Most of these are Madolche cards…” Yuna muttered to herself. It took a determined mind to successfully pull off the combos that could win the duel with these. They were cute cards that didn’t mostly didn’t have high attack or defense, but they were hard to keep down if you got the Queen out. “Do you like cute things Kayo?” Yuna cheerfully asked. Kayo glared at her and grabbed his cards, putting them back in his tin.

“I don’t care that they’re cute.” Yuna tilted her head in a confused way. “I can’t lose by deck out with these.” Huh...It was true that it was quite difficult to deck out with them but was that really a big deal? Most duels didn’t last long enough to be a deck out loss unless someone had actually built their deck that way. Dishonorable in Yuna’s opinion, but it was an option. The young woman pondered inwardly if Kayo lost by deck out a lot.

“Here.” Yuna blinked as Sakura brought out her own box. It was better decorated and reminded Yuna a little of the description of King Yugi's millenium box. Yuna glanced at Kayo to see the boy shuffle off next to Ryu who wrote something to show Kayo. Yuna then focused on Sakura’s cards as the girl opened the box.

“A fusion deck!” Yuna recognized the uniquely colored monsters immediately. “Crystal Gem Knights…” she muttered like she had earlier noting Kayo’s deck. Sakura puffed her chest out proudly,

“I’ve never lost a duel.” Kayo made a short displeased sound from next to Ryu.

“Do you want to see my deck big sis?” Claire asked, holding her hand in the air as Yuna kept staring cheerfully at the cards in front of her.

“You have a deck too Claire?” The blonde nodded cheerfully. “Kayo why don’t you challenge Claire to a duel?”

“Because I can’t get better dueling Claire.” Kayo sneered as Ryu put his sketchbook in the boy’s lap. Yuna looked over at the girl who just giggled at the remark. Well if she wasn’t offended then Yuna shouldn’t have to worry about it.

“Well okay then, sure Claire, I’d love to see your deck too.” Yuna turned her attention back to the fusion deck, the cards looked incredibly well-kept and all of them were shiny. They must have been a stupidly expensive set, “Man no wonder you’ve never lost before Sakura, this is a great deck.” Sakura beamed smugly at her. Yuna put the cards back carefully in the fancy box, “But don’t get overconfident, if someone gets rid of your fusions you could lose.” Yuna winked at the dark girl whose face transformed immediately at the insinuation. Claire burst between the two before Sakura could start yelling at the older girl,

“Here’s my deck!” Claire had hers in a normal deck holder and she beamed cheerfully as Yuna looked through her cards. Ah, she could understand now why Kayo wouldn’t want to duel Claire. It was an unbalanced deck with low powered warriors and mis-matching robot cards that didn’t affect each other. She had very little trap cards and a few equip spell cards, her strongest monster was the Puppet King but with what she had she wouldn’t be able to get him out short of pure luck. Still,

“These are awesome Claire.” Yuna smiled at the young girl. A deck was a person’s soul and if Claire’s soul was a low powered deck right now, then that’s just who Claire was, and there was nothing wrong with that. Claire beamed and giggled cheerfully.

“I have an idea!” She suddenly burst after taking a few moments of giggling and bragging while Kayo and Sakura just stared bluntly at the blonde. “I challenge you to a duel big sis!” Yuna gave the girl a shy smile,

“Sorry. I don’t own a deck myself.” Now knowing that people were registered to a grid system for some reason, she wasn’t surprised when the children gave her shocked looks. Claire was the first one who shook off the shock and remarked,

“Well that’s okay! There are training decks inside the cram school.” Claire beamed. “You’ll even be able to use some of the old duel disks too.” Yuna felt her heart race.

“Old duel disks?” Claire nodded and Kayo spoke,

“Yeah, they’re sometimes used as a cap since a lot of the newer rules aren’t programmed into them. I’ve heard they’re also used for the history lessons at the cram school.”

“Oh you know quite a bit Kayo.”

“That’s all Ms. Mokfu.” Kayo replied with disgust on his face.

“And because the duel disks work from the older rules, the decks they have prepped are specifically for them!” Claire cheered, as though she was finishing a thought she was trying to speak earlier. “So come on,” the blonde grabbed her hand, “I challenge you to a duel big sis.” Yuna felt a rush of adrenaline flow through her and she stood up immediately. Stars and hearts felt like they were flouting from her aura as she bounced in place to be led to this amazing place with old technology and a deck she could duel with.

“Wait a minute, are we allowed to use that stuff?” Ryu’s sketchbook flew into her gaze and immediately Yuna felt despair creep down her spine.

“We’ll be fine.” Claire waved Ryu’s worry off. Sakura brushed her hair and said, “If we get caught I’ll just say mommy said we could.” Even Kayo cheered from that, confusing Yuna for a moment, but she threw any questions because who cares? Dueling! Dueling! Claire led the older girl with the other three children following them as they creeped into the Duel Cram School.

Every time they entered this school, Yuna always felt a form of exhilaration enter her. It didn’t seem to be that big a deal the earlier times, but today she was going to duel! Ah, who knew babysitting her new friends could come with more benefits than friendship!? The group entered a room that didn’t look like it had been opened in a while, when the lights shot on Yuna could swear she saw dust particles float in the air.

Duel disks were behind a glass display and behind them were decks. This place had one heck of an honor system because they weren’t already taken...or perhaps most people didn’t consider them as good cards. Regardless, Yuna could feel herself bounce in place again, patiently waiting for permission from the children to charge in.

“What are you doing here?” Yuna screeched, jumping forward into the room, then turning to the voice. Seeing him instantly made her eyes reappear, she may have pushed thinking about what she would do the next time she saw him to the back of her head, her body apparently did not. Her body was tense and she glared at the brunet who stood in the doorway. Yuna twitched when Claire touched her hand,

“Big sis are you okay?” Tsukasa just stared at her with a blank face. As confusing as his non-reaction was, Yuna was still incredibly angry at him. He was acting like nothing had happened, like he hadn’t disregarded Stephan’s life for a card earlier. Yuna marched towards him, standing up as straight as she could, feeling a strange imposing nature overtake her as all the eyes focused on the brunet.

“I asked you a question.” Her irritation must have flowed into the air because Tsukasa’s face morphed slightly in response. Otherwise he didn’t budge and seemed to patiently wait for a reply. Claire spoke from Yuna’s side, having followed the intimidating getting more upset woman,

“I challenged big sis to a duel.” Tsukasa looked down to the blonde and understanding crossed his eyes. He moved to position his hand against his face remarking simply,

“Pretty sure you don’t have the clearance to use this equipment.” Yuna felt conflicted, she was still incredibly upset by Tsukasa’s regard for human life but it was hard to stay angry at someone who wasn’t reacting to her scary eyes. He wasn’t even asking the same questions the kids did. Did he just not see them? 

“But...you were going to use one of those decks?” His eyes met Yuna’s own.

“Of course I was, I don’t have one remember?” Yuna felt a strange feeling cross the air as soon she spoke. Tsukasa smiled at her, and suddenly Yuna’s anger fled for a replacement of fear.

“Then...why don’t we duel instead of you and her?” He seemed too excited for this. “You’ll be dueling an actual student of this school.” He came closer to her, it took all of Yuna’s willpower to not shift backwards. “We can even make it an Intention duel.”

“Intention?” Yuna asked nervously.

“You don’t know?” Tsukasa tilted his head momentarily, passing by Yuna to open the glass panel to the duel disks.

“Well it is only a regional rule.” Kayo offered, shifting to be by Yuna, nervously Yuna noted. “I wouldn’t do it if I were you Yuna.” She looked down at the boy,

“Why not?”

“An Intention duel lets a person decide a rule in the duel. Like...they can forbid magic cards being able to be played, it’s just to spice up the duel…” Kayo looked away nervously for a moment as Ryu and Sakura moved close to him. “But I have heard it being used for gambling and other things.”

“What do you mean for gambling and other things?” Yuna asked, flinching slightly as a loud screech echoed in the room as the glass panels hadn’t been maintained for a while. Heck of an honor system.

“An Intention duel can also be used for bets. Like a duelist could say they intend to win someone’s wallet.” Sakura helped, her hands gripping Yuna’s skirt with tension in her grip.

“Are you right or left-handed?” Tsukasa’s asked.

“R-right.” She answered.

“Anyway, yeah, Yuna don’t do an Intention duel with Ayumu.” Kayo insisted, this time also gripping Yuna’s skirt. All of the children were gripping her skirt now, all of them looking incredibly nervous. “He’s a blue coat who’s never lost a duel before.” Sakura nodded to his words with complete agreement. Tsukasa faced the group, a duel disk on his right arm and he had another duel disk in his hands.

“These disks will only allow tribute, fusion, and ritual summons.” Ah it’s true they looked the oldest brand of the dueling disks in the room. “So that will cap the duel perfectly for someone who’s never dueled before.” He sounded smug, but hearing that he’s never lost a duel before he may have earned that smugness. And if ‘blue coat’ meant Obelisk like in the stories than yeah, dueling an Intention duel against him was probably a bad idea. Yuna wouldn’t mind just dueling in general but…

“You want to do an Intention duel with me Tsukasa?” He just smiled at her for an answer. A part of her shook because of how confident he was, but another part of her, the loudest part of her, was shaking with excitement. She’d be able to duel someone, using the same technology of the oldest Kings. She almost felt like someone was whispering in her ear, enticing her to react to her deep inner thoughts. Right, what would a King do here? “Alright. I accept your challenge!” Yuna pointed at Tsukasa, her stance shifting to stand tall. Tsukasa presented her the duel disk, like a peasant to a king.

She felt Ryu pull her skirt particularly hard, and when she turned to him he gave her a worried look. A smile that was not her own but inspired by the Kings she loved spread across her face. “Don’t worry guys, everything will be okay. I just have to believe in myself and in my cards.” She saw Sakura grit her mouth and was a little surprised when Kayo tensed. If she had enough time she would have asked why they were all so scared, but she accepted Tsukasa’s challenge. Yuna walked forward to the still presenting Tsukasa, the children let go of her skirt.

When she slipped the disk around her left arm, it felt like the first breath of life one took after being underwater for a long time. She wasn’t sure, but it also felt like she could feel every cell in her body bursting with energy. Despite herself, she took a deep breath and spotted Tsukasa at the glass panel again. Despite being a jerk earlier, he was abnormally patient and gracious about this. It was definitely conflicting.

“I’ll be using one of these decks as well.” Tsukasa remarked, grabbing one of decks from inside the glass panel. “You can look over these if you wish.” Yuna stared at the deck Tsukasa grabbed, wondering if he had taken the time to look through the decks like he was offering for her. If they were doing an Intention duel, it was possible he was thinking of manipulating the duel to help the deck he had picked. Yuna shook her head and grabbed the deck closest to the opening, momentarily thinking before she spoke that the deck she picked looked like it may had been moved up for her to specifically grab,

“No. I’ll go with this one.” She moved towards the wall, giving enough space between the two for the holograms to pop up between the two for the duel ahead. “So tell me how do we make this an Intention duel?”

“Well it won’t be registered because these disks are a bit too old to do that so we’ll just go with using our eyes and common sense to not place the cards down.” Gosh, he was incredibly smiley now. It was so unnerving in it’s own way. “My Intention is that dragon type monsters can not be played.” Uh-oh. His smile shifted almost darkly as Yuna quickly frowned. It wasn’t her imagination, the deck she grabbed must have had a load of dragon monsters in it and Tsukasa had planned for it. She knew she shouldn’t assume that was the truth, but her eyes appeared without prompt as she gritted her teeth. “And you?”

“...” Yeah. She knew what she wanted to say and what at least ONE of the Kings would do. If a person could make their intention be for their wallet then she could make hers, “I intend to teach you a lesson Tsukasa!” She boasted but froze when something strange surrounded the two. A dark burst of energy surrounded the duelists, becoming an arena of darkness. “What the-”

“Yuna!”

“Big sis!”

“What’s going on? Is this normal for an Intention duel?” Yuna looked at the children outside the arena, barely making them out from the shifting wall of terror. Tsukasa burst out laughing maniacally and Yuna realized something horrifying through his laughter. She touched her forehead, feeling the eye big and wide without her anger. What was going on?

“I knew something was up with you.” Tsukasa finished laughing, and Yuna felt her nerves light up as his eyes looked a little mad. “I can finally start my journey…”

“Your journey?” Yuna stepped backward, flinching as the black aura smacked the back of her ankle. Ow that hurt. Wait, ow that hurt?

“I told you before didn’t I? I’m the future king of duel monsters.” Yuna nodded, hoping her confused look helped him continue. He brushed back part of his hair, “I will be a light that will destroy a great darkness.” His smile was maddening, and staring into his eyes was like looking at a black hole, all-consuming and eery. “Don’t worry,” The crazy smile seemed strangely gentle, “I will free you of your curse and continue to cleanse the darkness.” Okay. She never thought he was this sort of person in a million years. Then again, if he really was to be a new Duel King then he would have a fantastical adventure ahead of him, and Yuna supposed it could be possible that a King would know at least a little of what he had to look forward to.

“Big sis be careful!” Claire’s voice cut her internal thoughts.

“Maybe you should stop the duel, we don’t know what this is, Ryu says!” Kayo shouted, pointing at Ryu’s sketchbook that was near impossible to read from where she was.

“I draw!” Tsukasa interrupted. At the mention Yuna felt her body click to paying attention to him, her blood rushing with adrenaline, and her normally hateful eyes focused on their opponent. She had no time to think about all of this insanity of Intention, her eyes, or Tsukasa’s destiny. Right now she was about to have her first duel, and she may have started at a serious disadvantage. Tsukasa looked down to his cards and threw two cards on the duel disk. “I lay two cards face down and end my turn.” Two big flat cards appeared in front of him, one in the monster zone and the other in the spell/trap zone. He either didn’t get a good hand or he was luring Yuna into a false sense of security. He stared at her confidently and Yuna found herself frozen by his stare. What if by losing this duel she DID actually lose her eyes? He said something about cleansing her darkness and he seemed so sure and he wasn’t freaking out because of the weird darkness around the two.

No. It didn’t matter. She said all she had to do was believe in herself and in her cards and that’s what she would do.

“I draw!” Yuna declared, drawing from the deck and stared down at her hand for the first time. A strange amount of clarity flowed through her, that feeling of taking a deep breath from being submerged into water for so long overcame her again as she looked at the cards. Her first duel, her first hand, and despite all the questions and her lack of experience, her face shined with a grin. Elation at the amazing fact that she was doing something she had wanted to for so long. This was dueling!

Staring at the cards quietly she tilted her head at one of them. She had never seen or heard about this card before so she couldn’t help but ask, “Um. Sorry, I know this is probably really ignorant but the duel disks won’t use a card it can’t read, right?” Tsukasa blinked at her question and approached it politely,

“If it’s not registered in its database there shouldn’t be any way it can play it no.” Yuna nodded. “You shouldn’t have any cards in that deck that can’t be read by the disk.” He finished, looking slightly annoyed at reiterating the point. Yuna nodded again,

“Okay then, I put two cards face down and end my turn.” She slapped two cards in her trap/spellzone and stood with a fixed grin.

“Is that all? No monsters to place down?” Tsukasa taunted.

“Nope, not this turn.” Yuna couldn’t help but answer back. A genuine back and forth with someone. Despite how angry and upset she was at him earlier, she could feel something from this. Was this the beginning of a connection? Understanding how some of the Kings felt came to her easier now. She had two dragon monsters in her hand but she was forbidden from using them. Tsukasa drew his next card, playing it up flashy and Yuna could understand. It was part of the fun.

“I tribute summon to bring out Summoned Skull (2500/1200).” The monstrous arch-fiend emerged and Yuna felt an amazing amount of glee bloom at watching the hologram come to life in front of her. “Go Summoned Skull, attack her life points directly!”

“I use my trap card,” the flat card in front of her flipped, “Mirror Force!” It would destroy Summoned Skull and hopefully she would get the lead on her turn from his empty monster zone.

“Too bad for you, I had Trap Jammer waiting for that.” He smirked and Yuna gasped as the card dispersed in front of her and braced herself as Summoned Skull continued charging to her. Bone connected to flesh and Yuna flew back, hitting the black aura and she couldn’t help the screech of pain from exiting her mouth. The black and dark area that surrounded the two physically gripped her with a monster like hand, squeezing her to aid her scream of pain. She fell to the ground, when the monster hand let her go, panting heavily to catch her breath. Her life points flew from 4000 to 1500 in a single blow. The tri-hair colored girl pushed herself up, spotting Tsukasa staring down at her with an irritating smugness.

That jerk!

“Yuna are you okay?” Sakura asked. Right. She wasn’t by herself here. She glared at ground to try to focus. Her normal eyes felt dizzy and sick from the pain she hadn’t expected, and her stomach churned with a queasy motion that made her want to vomit.

“Big sis?” Claire called through the barrier.

“I’m fine!” She lied. She shot the children a huge grin. “I’m having a ton of fun.” Her ribs felt the worst, it felt like that monster hand had pierced through her flesh to scratch her bone. Her clothes and lack of blood disagreed with that thought. She finally forced herself up, doing everything she could for the smile not to budge off her face. Now she was worried though, what would happen if she did a direct attack against Tsukasa? Would he experience the same thing she just had? Yuna wanted time to stop and be given time to think but Tsukasa seemed entirely focused on dueling no matter the circumstance,

“I activate Galaxy Cyclone.” The card popped on the field, “Destroying that card on your side of the field, say goodbye to-”

“Perfect!” Yuna managed to lean into her grin. Her spell card popped up in reaction to its destruction, “Change Of Intention’s effect activates.” She pointed to the card and was surprised when even Tsukasa’s face morphed,

“Change of what?”

“I’ve never heard of that card before.” Kayo remarked.

“When this card is destroyed on the field it forces a player to change their Intention for the duel.”

“What?”

“There’s no way that card should work or exist!” Tsukasa yelled and Yuna stared at the hologram ahead of her, expecting it to just burst at his words. It did no such thing and just glowed brilliantly. “I end my turn.” He hissed but she didn’t budge. “Draw your card you cheater.” Yuna growled,

“I’m not a cheater! You told me that I shouldn’t have any cards that couldn’t be read by the duel disk! And look!” Yuna pointed at the card still glowing to finish its activation, “You wouldn’t be able to see the card if the disk couldn’t read it, now change your Intention Tsukasa!” His face shifted to look a bit nasty and Yuna felt her forced smile falter a little at the darkness in the other boy’s face. 

Oh gosh.

“Fine.” Tsukasa’s eyes narrowed. “My new Intention is spell cards cannot be played.” Yuna nodded to this, wondering if her deck’s second highest card count were spell cards. His own deck must not have had that many considering that would be a huge disadvantage for any duelist except a for power house. He no longer had a smug face, but his grimace reminded Yuna of a determined warrior that would do anything he could to win the battle. He really wasn’t worried about her pain or this situation at all. He was more angry at what the thought she was a cheat than fighting the ‘darkness’ that was inside her supposedly.

“I draw.” The young woman did as she said and her grinned bloomed. Perfect! “I put a monster down and end my turn.” Tsukasa scoffed at her move.

“Yuna you need to stop making those amateur moves! You need to find a way to attack back!” Kayo yelled from the sidelines and Yuna did her best to not shout back, she didn’t want Tsukasa to have any idea of what she had planned. Tsukasa didn’t even comment and drew his card, his disgruntled expression told the young woman he was all business now. He looked down at his cards and played a monster, Archfiend Soldier (1900/1500) came out standing menacingly next to Summoned Skull.

“Attack her face down monster Archfiend Soldier.” Tsukasa’s tone was full of contempt. Yuna’s monster was revealed, Snowman Eater (0/1900), and Tsukasa scowled. The clash between the two monsters left them both standing and Tsukasa verbally growled.  

“I activate Snowman Eater’s flip effect!” Yuna cried cheerfully, “Snowman Eater destroys one face up monster, say goodbye to Summoned Skull.” Yuna’s grin became more genuine and she could hear the children cheer in the background. The monster broke apart like her earlier trap card and Tsukasa continued to frown.

“Don’t get cocky just because you managed to get rid of one monster, you cheater.” He simply said. Yuna bit back her words of anger. “I end my turn.” He shut his eyes with the irritation of a person who was getting a massive headache. Yuna found her forced smile leaving and she stared hard at the boy across from her.

“Tsukasa.” He opened his eyes at her call. “Are you having fun?” He stared dully at her. “I don’t know what’s going on here,” she stated and she took a deep breath, her nerves wiggling on her tongue as she continued to speak, “but dueling is supposed to be about having fun.” He made a noise.

“Should someone who believes in the Duel Kings say that?” She flushed and grabbed her arm, jumping at the feeling of her eyes flinching from her touch. It was like touching a scab, you wanted to pull it off because it interrupted the texture of your skin. Because it was there. Gosh there was so much weird happening here!

“I can say that because I believe in the Duel Kings.” Yuna could feel the eye on her forehead react to her words, an unbidden amount of courage swelled inside of her heart. “They go through such hardships and adventures but one of the most important lessons to take from their legends is to try to have fun with dueling. If you don’t then can you really say you’re a true duelist?” Tsukasa looked bored with her statement and she couldn’t help the blush of embarrassment cross her cheeks. She even heard one the kids make a remark of how lame her statement sounded. Darn it, but it was true and she wasn’t going to let anyone shame her for thinking it.

“I can’t have much fun going against a cheater.” Tsukasa replied finally, “Now take your turn.” Yuna bristled at his response and couldn’t help but yell,

“Why the heck are you calling me a cheater so much?”

“Because I KNOW that Snowman Eater wasn’t part of that deck. You’re not only a cheater but a liar because you obviously have duel cards to exchange with that deck.”

“Excuse me?” Her face grew red with rage.

“Oh there’s more eyes.” Claire remarked loudly but that didn’t interrupt Yuna’s stride.

“I am not a liar, and I’m definitely not a cheater! This is the first time I’ve ever dueled and look around us Tsukasa! There’s obviously some weird magical stuff happening to us, what if THAT’S why a card got in my deck, huh? What if YOU have cards that weren’t in your deck?” She didn’t feel strong or powerful but she couldn’t help but continue spitting out her words full of venom. “And aren’t you the cheater if you knew what my deck was made out of? Your first Intention was for no dragon cards could be played after all.” Yuna drew a card from her deck, “I sacrifice Snowman Eater to bring out Chthonian Emperor Dragon (2400/1200), a dragon card that I’ve had since I first drew my hand.” The dragon emerged, roaring unto the field.

Tsukasa’s expression moved between confused and annoyance. He must have recognized that this was part of the original deck. That didn’t matter to Yuna now, she was too angry at being called such rude things to give him a chance to back pedal. “Attack Chthonian Emperor Dragon, destroy Archfiend Soldier with empiric flame!” The dragon spread its wings and a fireball erupted from its mouth, destroying Archfiend Soldier effortlessly. The flame continued and Tsukasa screamed as the fire surrounded him his life points cutting down to 3500.

Seeing his pain Yuna’s rage faltered. Right, while he didn’t blast off into the arena around the two, that didn’t mean he didn’t feel like the pain of the flame. Something sinister and magical WAS happening to the two of them, and no matter how angry she was at him, she didn’t want him to get hurt. “Tsukasa are you okay?” She asked. As the steam faded from his body, Yuna was taken aback as Tsukasa started laughing maniacally once again.

“Was Ayumu always this crazy?” Sakura asked Ryu who shook his head.

“That felt real.” Tsukasa gave a crazy grin to his opponent.

“I could have told you that. Are you ready to stop the duel now?” Maybe he finally would have enough sense to consent to quitting the duel. “You’re not having fun-”

“Wrong.” Tsukasa’s grin spread and now his entire face lite up with insanity. “This is just more proof.” Yuna found herself paling, “There’s nothing more fun than becoming a king!” Oh no. “Go on Yuna, end your turn and I’ll turn this duel around with one card!” He certainly held the confidence she would expect from a king, and she certainly wasn’t sure she could beat him even though she held the stronger monster now. He was determined, she could see that. Yuna frowned, she really didn’t want to continue because she didn’t want to find out when EITHER of them hit 0 life points.

“I put one card face down and end my turn.” Unfortunately Tsukasa would know immediately what kind of card she put down was because of the no spell rule, but if she was lucky he wouldn’t be able to get rid of her trap card, at least she didn’t know of another trap card that could do that on the turn it’s put down from the top of her head. Tsukasa continued to grin and drew his card with a flourish and Yuna tensed, expecting that what he said was true, that he would reverse the duel with the draw of one card. It was a King’s strongest gift.

“I put two cards face down and then end my turn.” His grin was bright and confident. Whatever that trap card was, it made Tsukasa sure he would win, that much Yuna could feel exuding from his stance.

“Careful Yuna!” Kayo called from the sidelines.

“We’re with you! You can win this Yuna!” But did she WANT to win? It was nice how encouraging they were at least. One thing she knew for certain if she could avoid getting thrown into the dark arena around them she would be happy with that. Yuna stared at his side of the battlefield nervously and drew her card. A quick look down told her best move to do,

“I summon Soldier Dragons (700/800).” The bunch of dragons piled together roared. “Attack his face down monster.”

“Yuna that monster is way too weak!” Sakura scolded her and Yuna squeaked. That was true! She got a bit too caught up in the moment, but to Yuna’s surprise the monster that flipped over was weaker than hers...but with a terrible effect for her. Penguin Soldier (750/500) squealed as it was destroyed but,

“Penguin Soldier’s flip effect activates! Soldier Dragons and Chthonian Emperor Dragon are sent back to your hand.” He grinned victoriously and Yuna paled. He could take her out with one monster.

“Yuna you can use Soldier Dragon’s effect!” Kayo yelled over the dark wall. Soldier Dragons effect? Oh right!

“Because of your activation I can use Soldier Dragons to bring out a level 2 or lower dragon type.” Yuna opened her deck to actively see what her cards actually were for the first time since they started the duel. Oh whoa, more magical spooky stuff. The pictures on her duel cards resembled the darkness that surrounded the two duelist for their Intention duel. There was only one card that she could make out so she had no choice. “Here comes Troop Dragon(700/800) in attack mode!”

“Yuna that’s a dumb move!” Kayo shouted from the sidelines. “You’re not going to do enough damage with that lousy 700 attack points!”

“Yeah, he can easily take you out you idiot.” Sakura hissed in agreement with the pink-haired boy right next to her. Yuna frowned staring anxiously at the trap card on Tsukasa’s side of the field.

“Attack with multi-army stab!” Yuna encouraged the gathered dragons who charged under her command. Tsukasa groaned with pain as his life points flew down with the stabs of their sword and spears to 2800. Yuna held her breath, expecting Tsukasa to activate his trap but he just stood up from the attack and waited patiently. “I put one card face down and end my turn.” Tsukasa drew his card and his cocky expression burst all throughout his body.

“I summon Vorse Raider (1900/1200)-”

“I activate my trap, Chain Destruct-”

“And in return I’ll activate mine! Heavy Storm Duster!” A burst of wind swirled around Yuna, she yelled as both her traps dissipated in front of her. “The problem with activating that card is I won’t be able to attack this turn, I put one card face down and end my turn. How lucky for you.” Yuna stared helplessly at her graveyard. Tsukasa was really good at countering her traps, he really was a strong duelist. Yuna stared down at her cards, she only had the two dragons and two spell cards. She could sacrifice her Troop Dragon to bring out her Chthonian Emperor Dragon again and that would probably be the best move.

Her hand wiggled to the card, a heavy cloud of tension surrounded her. She didn’t want to get hurt again. She didn’t want to lose her eyes if they were her ‘darkness’. She didn’t want to hurt Tsukasa anymore. She could feel an awful feeling swirl with the decision, her eyes darting back to Tsukasa’s trap card being bold and plain on the field.

“Yuna don’t forget to draw.” Kayo shouted. Right. Yuna’s hand trembled to the deck.

This is how some of them felt.

At the realization Yuna felt an energy she wasn’t sure really belong to her flow inside her heart. Right, there was so much going on and she had no way of understanding or knowing how to deal with it, but she could do at least one thing again. She had been constantly saying it, but she hadn’t really FELT it until that very moment. She gave her opponent a genuine smile. He looked slightly taken aback by it. She would believe in herself, and in her deck, no matter what. The young woman drew her card.

“I tribute summon to bring out Fortune Lady Earth (???/???)!”

“What?” The monster appeared with a flourish of a flying creature despite being a spell caster.

“Her strength is based on her level, so this turn she’ll be a 2400 attack and defense creature because she’s a sixth level monster.” The monster on the field reacted to the positive boost by flexing and despite her face being heavily masked, she gave Tsukasa a confident grin.

“These duel disks are busted! There’s no way they should have been able to read and play that monster!” Tsukasa yelled, it felt like there was a lot of that today.

“Why’s that?” Claire looked over at Sakura and Kayo for an answer.

“I don’t think that card was released until past these kind of disks history.” Kayo gave her, “I would agree with Ayumu if it wasn’t for the fact there was this stuff,” he waved at the arena in front of them, “around. For all we know the normal rules could still be in play, they could probably xyz, synchro, or any of the other ways to summon if they have the cards.”

“Go Fortune Lady Earth, attack with foruteous earth smack.” Tsukasa scowled as she smacked Vorse Raider and the young man hissed as his life points fell to 2300. The active duel monster blew Tsukasa a kiss with confidence before returning to Yuna’s side. “I end my turn.” Tsukasa’s mood wavered and he glared at her with pure fury. Yuna did not budge. She was going to have fun and trust in herself, it didn’t matter if she won or lost, she would adapt and adjust to whatever happened at the end of this duel.

Tsukasa grit and bared his teeth at her and drew his card. He looked down at his card and trauma seemed to fill his face.

“Why...why is this happening?” He asked out loud, glancing down at his duel disk. Yuna kept silent, not wanting to push the brunet in front of her. He seemed far into this, and while Yuna was pretty excited at the thought of any proof of the existence of the Duel Kings, she wasn’t entirely happy about the circumstances behind it. Heck, Yuna still had no idea how this was happening at all. “I should have drawn a card that will end this in one turn.” His body swayed slightly as he continued. “I’m going to be the next Duel King.”

“I believe you.” She bit her lips nervously. This is far more talking then she ever really did with another human being and it was weird, but she could really feel part of his heart through the duel. His expressions came easier for her to read than anyone she had ever got to talk to and throughout the duel she could feel his anger and his glory. He was really a good duelist. “But here’s the thing about the Duel Kings Tsukasa...they all had to learn something important either through losses or draws.”  He glared at her. Yuna frowned in response, yeah. She needed to stop talking, this was going into her Intention in the first place.

“I end my turn.” It seemed like there was a part of him that gave him, but at the same time, Yuna could feel that he held a true anger towards her.

“I draw,” Yuna drew another card and blinked at it. “I activate Fortune Lady Earth’s effect,” she pointed to her monster who flexed once again as her level went from six to seven and added another 400 attack points making her a 2800 monster. Tsukasa screamed, “Her second effect activates and you get 400 points of damage for her boost in attack.” His life points went to 1900. “I now summon Dark Blade (1800/1500).” Yuna stared at the glaring boy, waiting for either a quip or a demand or the activation of his trap card, and she got one of those things.

“Hurry up and end this duel cheater.” Whatever Tsukasa’s trap was, it apparently didn’t matter because Yuna pointed up to her strong monster. A part of her wanted to ask again if he just wanted to end the duel but another part of her acknowledged his determined stance. He was going to go down with pride.

“Attack with forteous earth smack.” The active duel monster smacked Tsukasa directly and Yuna flinched as he flew into the black dark ominous wall and she ran at him quickly as the wall gripped him harshly as it had done the same to her earlier. The children gasped in the background and Yuna gripped the monster’s claw as Tsukasa’s scream echoed in the air. “Let go, let go!” Yuna demanded, trying to feel the hand away.

“Your...Int…!”

“What?” Yuna looked up at him, flinching as his skin started turning into a different color. Why wasn’t the strange thing fading? The duel was done! Tsukasa couldn’t word anything more as his mouth was occupied by his screams. Yuna started to beat on the monster claw, her fists starting to feel sore and bruised instantly. Her int? What did, oh! “Oh that’s right! My Intention!” Tsukasa struggled as hard as he could. “The lesson I wanted to teach you is that people’s lives matter more than Duel Monsters Tsukasa!” He glared down at her. “Really, that’s all I wanted to tell you.”

Yuna felt frustration crawl into her eyes, “I’m scared of people like you Tsukasa. You’re so sure of yourself and you’re a great duelist, but a person’s life matters so much more.” Yuna slammed her fist against the monster aura continuing to crush Tsukasa again. “I just thought I’d be like a Duel King myself and try to help you.” Tsukasa grit his teeth, his eyes closing, the monster hand not paying any attention to her words. What could she do? Yuna jumped when someone touched her back, she turned to see Fortune Lady Earth was still there.

The monster gave a playful laugh and guided Yuna away from the hand. With a flourishing gesture, the monster hit the strange hand and it disappeared, Tsukasa dropping in the quick to move Duel Monster’s arms. The Duel Monster gave Tsukasa a playful kiss and laid him to the ground, waving to Yuna as she faded. Yuna dropped to the ground in front of the passed out young man, the arena disappearing around the two and suddenly she felt an immense amount of pain course all across her body. Yuna couldn’t stop herself from falling on the ground next to Tsukasa, the last thought she could comprehend was every spot that hurt was where an eye was.