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The Raging Raptor

Itsuki heard some of the patrons...who seemed pretty drunk already. Jeezuz...drunk at this time of day? That's a surprise. he thought, overhearing them with a bit of a smirk. Don't think I'll take the tournament? They'll figure out I'm a formidable opponent that shouldn't be taken lightly...

After a moment or two, Itsuki found himself a nice area...specifically in the corner, so that seemed to help Cid out a bit. He ordered a drink for himself, and of course whatever Cid wanted. After all, this was his treat anyway. "So Cid...gotta ask, one Duelist to another...how's it feel to be back in the saddle as it were for a tournament like this?" he asked with a smile. "Like, I've seen you Duel...okay rather I've seen videos of your Duels. You were quite the competitor."


The Blazing Squire

"Wow, look at me go having all these people wanting to take me on. Though I gotta admit there is someone else I'm more hyped to take on. Actually on that note once I'm done here I was gonna meet up with her. So I suppose I'll see you two later, maybe even in the dueling ring."

"You can count on it!" Richard said with a smile, watching Gabby now walk off to greet some of the reporters. Now, that only left Richard and...

"I'll admit, I'm at a bit of a disadvantage. I've been out of this game for some, oh... fifty years, now? The game is still the same, but it feels so different today. So, what say we take this inside and have a bit of practice? Give those media types what with their noses in their notepads something to write about and all."

The young man whipped his head around in a swift motion, although it almost felt like he just gave himself whiplash because of it. Richard stood there with a huge grin on his face beginning to form, his heart was pretty much fluttering at replaying that one line over and over again in his head: "What say we take this inside and have a bit of practice?". He couldn't believe his ears or his mind at this point, but after just standing there for a few moments looking like a fool, Richard cleared his throat and regained his composure.

"A practice match against you? Wow...I get a chance to Duel you early...I mean who wouldn't take this once in a lifetime chance?" Richard said with a firm nod, as he punched a fist into his open palm. "I'd be both delighted and honored to give you a practice match, Julian sir. Just know, I'm not gonna go easy on you!"

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Talking to Leila was more frustrating than Zoe had expected. She had essentially been told yes, it was pretty tame considering all, but it was definitely possible that it doesn't stay that way. However, on the bright side of things, Leila was incredibly easy to talk to about food with.

"Well that is nice to know. It at least it has the potential to be better."

She took another bite of the Cherruberry Croissant. "Wow, it's a strangely named pastry, but it is good."

She was then given a question of what she was doing, specifically pointed at restaurants. "Well, finding a few places to eat here might be nice. But no, I was planning on going to the beach. It's a place I like to collect my thoughts. I was planning on getting a coffee before going there, and here we are. I didn't really expect to meet someone on the way. So, if you don't mind, let's pick up this conversation after I grab a coffee."

She then turned to try and walk past Leila into the cafe, but she noticed a pair of girls sitting outside facing the street. They appeared to be conversing and staring at her and Leila. This bothered her a bit, so she walked over to the pair to ask about the purpose of their gaze in her direction.

"Excuse me, you two. I saw your attention was focused on Leila and I. I was wondering if you wanted to ask or tell us something. If it's about food, perhaps she would be a better person to ask then me."

She waited for an answer to her question.

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Iris continued to stare at the new duo as Yuliya went on to explain who one of them was. The girl had figured that she had seen both of them around before, and being confirmed that at least one of them was as well a competitor here certainly helped the girl realize why. Being made curious about what the two of them were doing, beyond what appeared to be a friendly exchange (and perhaps exchange of food,) the girl continued to listen to her own friend. She then gave a slight nod at the mention of going to their own linner plans, saying, "I must admit, I have been made most curious about this new meal as well. So perhaps..." She trailed off, as she noticed that the two they were watching were now in fact watching them. 


"The beach, hm." Leila seemed to go deep into thought about the place in question. She had always been fairly neutral to the beach as a whole, though thought it was an awful place to actually eat at. In spite of that, she knew of several stalls and restaurants set up on or near the beach as well as knowing that there were always people looking to sell food on the go there. And she never had any complaints with the food there to begin with, so as Zoe seemed ready to get her coffee Leila nodded saying, "good plan." It was then that Zoe had called out to others, apparently those who had been watching them. Turning around with the speed and shock equivalent to one who had just figured out that they were suddenly being tailed by a pair of assassins, Leila seemed to be suddenly incredibly alert and on her toes. Literally. This lasted for barely any time at all, though, as she happily waved to the two and seemed to instantly relaxed as Zoe said her name, giving a wave to the two to confirm that she was indeed Leila. 

Iris's felt somewhat embarrassed being suddenly approached and called out in the attention they were giving, but her face as well perked up as the girl told them to bring all of their food inquires to the other, Leila. "Well, that is precisely what my friend and I were wondering about. Is it, well, food?" Leila, with a proud look on her face, nodded. "All of it?" The girl nodded proudly once more. Her curiosity piqued even more, Iris asked, "so, what do you have?" 

Walking over to the other two, Leila enthusiastically shoved the bags in their faces as she began rattling off each and every thing that she had in them. The bag from the current cafe they were at was as expected, being a collection of various pastries - muffins, bagels and cookies. Then she shifted around to show them the two others, one from a convenience store and the other from a grocery store. The convenience store had seemed to be filled with nothing but junk food, with a few flavors of sodas and chips that Yuliya would know were limited to only the Blue Rose Tournament time of year. Conversely, her grocery bag seemed to be filled with nothing but vegetables and fruits. After showing off her food, the girl added, "fufufu, my shopping is far from over. We're going to the beach and then..." the girl paused for a moment, looking up to the sky. As excited as she had just been, it all seemed to vanish in an instant as she continued to space out and stare off. Then, after a few more seconds passed she looked back down to the pair.  Bluntly, she stated, "I don't know how to get to the beach." 

Iris blinked at the girl, unsure of what to make of her, but said, "well, much as I'd like to be of assistance, I don't know the city very well myself. Oh, but Yuliya here is a local, so perhaps she could help."

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"So Cid...gotta ask, one Duelist to another...how's it feel to be back in the saddle as it were for a tournament like this?"

Cid's jaw tightened ever so slightly. It sounded to him that this guy was implying that he hadn't been dueling recently. Was it because he hadn't done anything big lately? Not being able to travel much really hindered his ability to join the larger tournaments but he was still getting by with smaller ones. Really they were the only reason he has been able to make any sort of living. Not that he wanted to tell this guy that.

"Like, I've seen you Duel...okay rather I've seen videos of your Duels. You were quite the competitor."

Cid groaned. "Those old things...I don't even use the same deck you know. And stop talking about me like I'm some retired grandpa alright?" He grumbled. "Honestly I don't see the big deal. Small or big the goal of the tournament is the same. Maybe more people are watching but why would I give a damn about that? Doesn't change how I play all it means is that it'll take longer." He paused a moment, looking at the flickering shadow from the hanging lantern above the table, and frowned. "I guess that's kind of annoying. Would much prefer to just win a few quick duels and be on my way but." he shrugged.

"Anyway if you're asking me this I'm sure you have some opinion so go ahead and knock yourself out." He raised a hand towards a server to get their attention and get a soda brought over as he prepared to probably tune out what this guy had to say.

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Well, it was the worst possible people-watching outcome, getting confronted, but at least Iris had seemed to anticipate such a timeline, immediately taking charge deflecting whatever anger the two onlookees might have had, turning the focus back onto them with questions about what they had in their bag. It turned out the bag only belonged to one of them, though, so Iris and Yuliya had been looking at a surprise encounter instead of the third of the intentional duelist pairs they’d come across (including themselves).

What did she have in her bag? Food! All kinds of food, from the “obvious since she’d just come out of a bakery” kind to the “whoa how’d you manage to score so much of this stuff this close to the tournament?” kind, with some extra fruits and vegetables thrown in for good measure. Honestly, it was amazing how much stuff you could fit in one bag when you were good at space management. “Fufufu, my shopping is far from over,” the woman said, and that was when Yuliya realized the bag could have so much more stuff if. “We’re going to the beach and then… I don’t know how to get to the beach.”

Even as Iris was exulting Yuliya’s praises, saying how fortunate it was that they’d run into a local then, Yuliya’s mind was already racing, trying to compile the best possible directions. “Well, if you want to get to a beach, like, where the ocean meets the land, you could probably just pick a direction and start walking. I mean, closest then is probably uhhhh that way?” She pointed West-Southwest. “But if you want to get to The Beach -- that’s ‘The’ with a capital T and ‘Beach’ with a capital B, the kind of beach that anyone who’s anyone on this island would say is the beach to go to -- well, first you gotta take this road a bit, then hang a left when it gets to Tappan Street, then turn right when you get to, like, the one light that road has, then another right once you pass the park, and around there, there should be a sign, but it’s easy to miss so what you want to do is keep a lookout for the cemetery and turn just before that, um…” She trailed off, brow furrowed like she’d just gotten lost in her own mental map because she had. She brought a hand up and started tracing the path that way, but that didn’t really help, it turned out.

“You know what?” Yuliya eventually said, standing up. “It’s probably easier for me to just show you, really. I mean, I can carry my drink and I assume you can too, Iris? There’s gotta be a restaurant serving linner there I bet. Do you mind?”

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The Raging Raptor

"Those old things...I don't even use the same deck you know. And stop talking about me like I'm some retired grandpa alright? Honestly I don't see the big deal. Small or big the goal of the tournament is the same. Maybe more people are watching but why would I give a damn about that? Doesn't change how I play all it means is that it'll take longer."

"Right, right...I apologize." Itsuki laughed, waving his hand dismissively. "Wasn't meaning to make ya out to be some sort of fossil, Cid. Honestly that honor goes to the actual fossil in the tournament...Julian or whatever his name is." He laughed again and took a quick sip of his drink and nodded. "I also figured you didn't use the same deck as you did prior, though it's a little sad. Seeing you in the roster really made me wish I'd be able to go against your Monarch deck...oh well, I guess that'll just have to happen another day."

Itsuki seemed quite laid back, just taking it all in stride as he just

"I guess that's kind of annoying. Would much prefer to just win a few quick duels and be on my way but...Anyway if you're asking me this I'm sure you have some opinion so go ahead and knock yourself out."

"Win a few Duels and just be on the way out? I mean that's one way to do things...though you have to admit, Dueling in a tournament of this magnitude is pretty exciting, so taking your time and enjoying each Duel is something that's needed, wouldn't you think?" Itsuki smirked, shrugging some. "My thought on this whole tournament...it's a giant litmus test for a Duelist like us to truly test ourselves. Think about it, the best Duelists from different areas in the regions...it's truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. And for some of us...it definitely means a lot more to us..." Itsuki moved slightly and pulled out a small card from his vest pocket: Jurrac Meteor.

"...tell me Cid...why do you Duel?" he asked, wistfully looking at the card he held..

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God he was such a boy scout. Cid tried for all of two seconds to not give him a pitying look but he couldn't help himself. The way he apologized for something that Cid didn't really care that much about was just too much.

"If you want to face Monarchs who knows someone else might use it. Hell my own deck is probably floating out there somewhere after I sold it."

"Win a few Duels and just be on the way out?"

Oh yeah, this guy was most assuredly a super nerd. Exciting? A test? What did he think dueling was anyway? It was a game yeah but if he wanted to just play a game he wouldn't go through the hassle of a whole entire tournament just for that.

He had already thought he wouldn't see eye to eye with this guy but it was being made painfully clear the more they talked. But hey, maybe he'll leave him alone if he realizes how little they had in common.

"...tell me Cid...why do you Duel?"

"It pays the bills." he said bluntly. "Why else would I be doing all this troublesome work? I win a few of these and then I get through another month of bills and food cost. I don't know where you get this test stuff from but it's not for me no way." He frowned down at his drink and waved off a fly that was getting a bit too close for comfort. "What do I have to test anyway; I already know I can win these things just fine."

That's right. Just go through the motions, win, get paid, and move on. That's all there was to it. No room for anything else, least of all doubt, and no other reason needed.

Spoiler

I'll just put here btw chaos if you at any point want to do more stuff or change things up here mention it and we can figure something out I'm sure. Unless the host has something in mind.

 

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The Raging Raptor

"If you want to face Monarchs who knows someone else might use it. Hell my own deck is probably floating out there somewhere after I sold it."

This intrigued him...but at the same time, sort of had him disappointed to hear that Cid sold that deck off. Itsuki supposed that to some people, their deck was just a means to an end and whatnot.

"It pays the bills. Why else would I be doing all this troublesome work? I win a few of these and then I get through another month of bills and food cost. I don't know where you get this test stuff from but it's not for me no way. What do I have to test anyway; I already know I can win these things just fine."

"Honestly, I think your the first Duelist I've talked to that simply sees Dueling as...well basically a normal 9-5 job." Itsuki chuckled, taking another sip of his drink as he put Jurrac Meteor back in his vest pocket. "It's a mindset I never thought about before, quite frankly. It's either they want to test their own abilities on a larger tournament scale...or to help their fame star rise...or even just because it's fun." Itsuki smirked, pointing a finger at Cid...though it wasn't in a condescending way. "You sir...you are quite the interesting guy."


The Blazing Squire

Both Richard and Julian made their way back inside for the practice match, with of course, the media following them. The two took their positions and once the Duel Disks came to life, both shouted "Duel!"...and the game was on.

Richard was pumped up, his blood boiling with excitement. This was the first Duel since he got here...and this wasn’t even the true start to his tournament matches. Once things were in their place, the young man smirked and drew his hand from the deck. “If you don’t mind, I’ll start this Duel off. Firstly, I play the Field Spell...Noble Knights of the Round Table! Now for the moment, this doesn’t exactly help me...but trust me when I say that it’s true worth will be shown down the line.”

With another card grabbed from his hand, Richard quickly put it on his Duel Disk. “Next up, I summon Infernoble Knight Ogier in Attack Mode!” he said, watching a knight adorned in white and red armor appeared on the field, surrounded by what could be seen as fairies. “When he’s Summoned, I can send a Noble Arms card or a Fire Warrior from my deck to the graveyard...and for the moment, I’ll send...” Looking at his selection, he nodded. “Noble Arms Gallatin to the grave. After that, I’ll set one card face down.”

INK - Ogier: Level 4 | Fire | Warrior/Effect | 1500/2000

"Very nice. Decks certainly seem more streamlined nowadays. Now then, let's see if I've still got it. I draw!" Julian surveyed the six cards in his hand. As one may have guessed from his comment about streamlined decks, the cards in his hand were... not the most elegant of sorts. But he could still work with it.

"I'll start by activating two spell cards. The continuous spell Teleport, and the field spell Brain Research Lab. Let's start with Teleport. If you control a monster and I do not, I can pay 800 life points to summon a psychic-type monster from my hand. I'll pay the fee to special summon Esper Girl! If you're a fan of my duels like you said, perhaps you recognize this card."

Julian: 8000 -> 7200
Esper Girl: Level 2 | EARTH | Psychic/Tuner/Effect | 500/300

Content with the presence of the tuner on his field, Julian moved on to the next order of business. "Next, I'll normal summon Mind Protector, but don't get too used to him. By tuning my level 2 Esper Girl with my level 3 Mind Protector, I'll synchro summon a level 5 monster, Magical Android!" The two monsters Julian had previously summoned were promptly removed from the field, replaced by a tall red-haired woman equipped with a white sword and shield.

Magical Android: Level 5 | LIGHT | Psychic/Synchro/Effect | 2400/1700

"Which brings us to Brain Research Lab. While I have this field spell up, I can normal summon one more psychic per turn, then place a counter on the field spell. We'll worry about the counters later. For now, I'll use this effect to summon Silent Psychic Wizard, and activate his effect. When normal summoned, this monster banishes a psychic from my graveyard. I'll be banishing my Esper Girl for the time being."

Brain Research Lab: 1 Psychic Counter
Silent Psychic Wizard: Level 4 | EARTH | Psychic/Effect | 1900/0

"And now, the battle phase. I'll attack your Infernoble Knight Ogier with Silent Psychic Wizard."

"Oh man...man this is so AWESOME!!" Richard said with a wide grin on his face. "But I'm not going out so easily! Trap Card Activate! Battleguard Howling!!" The card flipped up, revealing the Trap. "Since my Warrior was targeted for an attack, I get to target one monster you control, inflict damage to you equal to the original attack of said monster...and I return it to your hand!"

He looked at his Duel Disk and at the two monsters on Julian's side of the field. "And while I can't exactly stop two...I can at least stop one. With Battleguard Howling, I shall select your Magical Android for the effect! I may lose my Ogier, but in the process, you'll lose your Android!"

Julian: 7200 -> 4800
Richard: 8000 -> 7600

"Oh my." As the two duelists moved their respective monsters, Julian questioned if removing Magical Android was truly the correct choice. Probably. Against a deck like his, cutting off one's supply of life points was a huge priority. But that didn't mean Julian didn't have other plans. "And finally, I'll set the last card in my hand face-down, and end my turn. Go ahead."

"That was an impressive first turn there...honestly, didn't expect that much of an explosive turn...but now it's my turn to show off." Richard nodded, quickly drawing for his turn. "Alright, I'll summon Infernoble Knight - Maugis in Attack Mode...and then, by a Quick Effect due to me having a Fire Warrior on the field I control, I then Special Summon Infernoble Knight - Renaud!"

INK - Maugis: Level 4 | Fire | Warrior/Effect | 1500/1000
INK - Renaud: Level 1 | Fire | Warrior/Effect | 500/200

Now two different monsters appeared before Richard, both in red and white armor, but while one looked wizard-like, the other seemed to seem much more like a traditional knight. "Due to Renaud being Special Summoned like this, he's now treated as a Tuner. In which, I'll happily demonstrate my own Synchro Summon! I tune my Level 1 Renaud with my Level 4 Maugis to Synchro Summon...Infernoble Knight Captain Oliver!"

INK Captain Oliver: Level 5 | Fire | Warrior/Synchro/Effect | 2000/500

"Next, Heritage of the Chalice! I'll take my Gallatin Noble Arms from the grave now and equip it to Captain Oliver! Now he has 3000 attack." Richard smirked. "Now, Captain Oliver will attack...but before that, his skill activates! Meaning I can target a card on the field and destroy it...provided it's face-up. And right now, your Silent Psychic Wizard is face-up...meaning by my Captain's effect, it's destroyed and before the Battle Phase!"

"So it is." As Julian moved his monster to the graveyard, he added "But in doing so, the effect of Silent Psychic Wizard is activated. When moved to the graveyard, the monster banished when he was summoned is special summoned. In this case, that means the timely return of Esper Girl. In defense position this time, of course. Furthermore, her own effect activates. When summoned from the banish zone, Esper Girl banishes the top card of my deck face-down." Julian moved the top card of his deck, before nodding to his opponent. "Go ahead."

"Not bad...keeping me from a direct attack...heh, honestly, I can't tell if you were anticipating that due to your long Dueling history and knowledge or if you actually have some sort of ESP." Richard joked, before nodding. "Either way, Captain Oliver, raise Gallatin up high and dispatch of Julian's Esper Girl!" Captain Oliver obliged this, rushing forward and taking Gallatin in his hands and was in the process of striking down Esper Girl.

As the small girl monster was shattered to pieces, Julian unceremoniously moved the card to his graveyard, before announcing "And in doing so, activating the second half of her effect. When Esper Girl is sent to the graveyard after banishing a card as she did earlier, that card gets added to my hand." A brief flash of excitement sparked across the old man's face as the best way to use this card appeared in his head. "With that, my turn begins, unless there are any objections." When he received no such objection, Julian drew his next card.

"First thing's first. I'll use the effect of Teleport again, paying 800 life points to summon Psychic Emperor. And when he's summoned, I gain 500 life points for each psychic monster in my graveyard. With three of them in there, that's 1500 points."

Julian: 4800 -> 5500
Psychic Emperor: Level 6 | LIGHT | Psychic/Effect | 2400/1000

Richard's face definitely seemed puzzled by this little move. "Huh...ya know, that's a move I don't think you've done before...least to my knowledge." he said, pretty much on the edge of his proverbial seat.

"Not this early in the duel, no. But don't get used to the Emperor here, because next I play the continuous spell Future Glow. By banishing a psychic from my graveyard, all my psychics will gain attack equal to its level times 200 as long as this card remains on the field. I'll be banishing Esper Girl again, so that's a 400 point boost to all my monsters."

Psychic Emperor: 2400 -> 2800

"Next, I activate my face-down card, Brain Hazard, which summons a psychic monster from my banish zone. Such as Esper Girl, who once again banishes a card face-down from my deck." Returning the tuner to his field once more, Julian then said "And now, I synchro summon again. By tuning my level 2 Esper Girl with my level 6 Psychic Emperor, I summon the level 8 Thought Ruler Archfiend!" As Julian removed the two monsters from his field - moving his face-down banished card to his hand in the process by the grace of Esper Girl's effect - the two were replaced with a large green and yellow demon.

Thought Ruler Archfiend: Level 8 | DARK | Psychic/Synchro/Effect | 2700 -> 3100/2300

"Thought Ruler Archfiend...oh man...that...well that definitely is a turn." Richard let out a nervous chuckle. "...yeah I don't think Captain Oliver can do much there. Even with Gallatin equipped. Not a bad move there. So that'll mean if you attack my Captain...you'll get 2000 back in Life Points. Pretty genius play there...wouldn't expect anything less from one of the Top 3 Gatekeepers."

"You're giving me far too much credit; I had to cobble this turn together in the heat of the moment. Now then, battle phase. As you've observed, I'll be attacking your Captain Oliver with Thought Ruler Archfiend, destroying the monster and regaining some life points in the process." The fiend set forth, gliding through the space between the two duelists before bringing its claws down upon the knight opposite it, cleaving through sword and armor alike and destroying the monster entirely.

Richard: 7600 -> 7500
Julian: 5500 -> 7500

"Lastly, I'll set one more card face-down, and end my turn."

"...yikes, that thing is pretty terrifying, if I do say so myself." Richard drew his next card, looking at it and what he had left in his hand. "However, I didn't get this far by not facing some terrifying monsters. Either way, due to my Captain Oliver and Gallatin being sent to the grave by battle, I choose now to activate Heritage of the Chalice's effect. If my Noble Knight that was equipped with a Noble Arms card was destroyed by battle and sent to the grave...I get to add it to my hand." Taking the card from the graveyard, he added it to his hand.

"Next, I summon Blue Flame Swordsman in Attack Mode!" Richard declared, watching the swordsman with a sword of blue flames emerge before him.

Blue Flame Swordsman: Level 4 | Fire | Warrior/Effect | 1800/1600

"I wouldn't worry about him for very long...since I'll be using him for something else. I now activate Captain Oliver's effect! With Blue Flame Swordsman on the field, I now use him as an Equip Spell which will now allow me to Special Summon Captain Oliver back to the field, provided I equip my Blue Flame Swordsman...like so!" Richard moved the monster into the Spell and Trap Zone, before bringing Captain Oliver back to the field, now with 2500 ATK. "Then...I use the skill of Fire Flint Lady in my hand...since I control a Warrior, she gets Special Summoned to the field!" he smiled, watching the adorable little monster appear on the field in a cute fashion. "And now...her second skill...by sending her from the field to the grave, I can now Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Warrior from my hand...which it so happens to be, I do. Come forth, Infernoble Knight - Ogier!" The two knights now stood side by side, Fire Flint Lady smiled and disappeared in quite the impressive fire display. "Julian...the fact that I'm about to summon this next monster against you so soon...it's got me all fired up."

"By all means," Julian smiled. What could have gotten this boy so fired up just over being able to summon it?

BGM

With smirk, Richard began. "Now...I tune Level 4 Ogier with my Level 5 Tuner, Captain Oliver!" he said, closing his eyes, exhaling slowly. "Your blade delivers your decrees and your spirit burns with a strong fervor! Enter the fray of battle and lead your knights to victory! Synchro Summon!! Let your blazing chivalric spirit ignite the battlefield, my ace! Infernoble Knight Emperor Charles!!"

In what could only be described as a beautiful display of fire, the two monsters became one...and blond haired knight emerged from where they once were...Emperor Charles descended onto the battlefield.

INK Emperor Charles: Level 9 | Fire | Warrior/Synchro/Effect | 3000/200

"This is where the real battle begins, Julian!" Richard smirked, a fiery look blazed brightly in his eyes.

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"You sir...you are quite the interesting guy."

His concern that this guy was trying to hit on him intensified. It was pretty uncomfortable if he was being honest. Especially given how the young man basically told him that his reason was strange. "It's just a card game; you people really need to chill out." He grumbled. It was frustrating how big of a deal everyone made about this game.

It was the same back then, when he was actively trying to be the best, every play had so much weight that it often felt like too much for most people to handle. Maybe if everyone didn't take it so seriously he would feel like he could enjoy it now and then. But as it was it was just a way to get by.

"Listen I don't know what your interest in me is all about but I'm not all that interested in you. I have no plans to try and 'have fun' or 'test myself' with this tournament and that's not gonna change. I..."

His phone went off and he answered it within seconds of seeing who it was. "Yeah? Hold on, hold on...yeah, okay, okay yeah I'll be over there. Just wait and...what do you mean you're already walking? Where...okay I'll be on my way." he hung up and sighed. It seemed her sister had gotten into a fight with her friend and was walking home all on her own. Standing up he muttered "I don't know where she got this habit of going off without warning." He looked at the guy whose name he still didn't actually know and said "I gotta go. I'll pay on my way out."

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The Raging Raptor

"It's just a card game; you people really need to chill out."

"I'm as chilled as they come, honestly." Itsuki chuckled with a slight shrug.

"Listen I don't know what your interest in me is all about but I'm not all that interested in you. I have no plans to try and 'have fun' or 'test myself' with this tournament and that's not gonna change. I..."

This seemed to stop right there, as Cedric was in the midst of a call and seemed to go in this direction now. Itsuki couldn't help but wonder why this guy seemed to be...well...it was just a card game? Not wanting to have fun or testing himself? Then honestly what was the point, other than a simple cash grab and an overly boring 9 to 5 job? People like this were an enigma to Itsuki...

"I gotta go. I'll pay on my way out."

"No need. It was my treat, remember." Itsuki waved this thought off. "Go off and enjoy the rest of your day, Cid. It was nice getting to know you...look forward to facing off against you in the tournament."

Once Cedric left the establishment, Itsuki would only sigh and shake his head. "...and here I thought I found a worthy Duelist to call my rival in this tournament. Nope, not one iota of care or excitement in that one. Buuuuuut perhaps he might still prove a challenge...maybe." he mused, downing the last bit of his drink.


The Blazing Squire

"This is where the real battle begins, Julian!" Richard said, taking the last card in his hand...which was of course: "I equip Emperor Charles with Noble Arms - Gallatin! Same as before, it'll gain 1000 ATK, each of my Standby Phase it'll lose 200 ATK."

INK Emperor Charles | 3000 ATK -> 4000 ATK

"But the fun doesn't stop there! When a card gets equipped to a monster on the field...I can destroy one card on the field. And mind you: that's even before the Damage Step!" The fired up Duelist smirked and pointed directly at the Thought Ruler Archfiend. "I think you knew that was going to be the target...so by Emperor Charles' effect: I'll have Thought Ruler Archfiend slain!!" And like that, Thought Ruler Archfiend was set ablaze.

"So you will." That was something to watch for in the future. Julian moved his monster to the graveyard, leaving his field quite devoid of monsters. "Very well then."

"And like that, the field is wide open for a direct attack." Richard said triumphantly, slightly flicking his thumb under his nose. "Emperor Charles! Raise your blade alongside Gallatin...attack Julian directly!!" The blonde haired knight nodded, before raising both blades into the air, before rushing towards the old man. "GO! Blazing Imperial Assault!!!"

Julian: 7500 -> 3500

"And that'll end my turn...well, at least to the End Phase. Which now will allow me to do this..." Richard began to explain. "My Noble Knights of the Round Table Field Spell...let's see..." he paused, now checking something. "The Field Spell, Emperor Charles, Captain Oliver, Oliger, Renaud, Magius...that's a total of six different cards with Noble Knight in their names. And unfortunately, I can't activate the 6+ portion of the Field Spell, but I can do this...I send Noble Arms - Clarent to the grave. But now that I've done that...Emperor Charles' second ability!" The card he immediately had sent to the grave, he now fished back out. "I now equip Clarent to my Emperor and then...from the deck, can equip a Fire Monster to him...and we'll choose...my second Maugis! Now Charles will gain an extra 500 ATK due to this, but also thanks to Maugis, he can't be destroyed by battle!"

INK Emperor Charles | 4000 ATK -> 4500 ATK

"Now my turn is done!"

"I draw." Julian assessed his hand. Then his field, which wasn't exactly doing him any favors. Then that enemy Synchro. 4500 ATK and an immunity to being destroyed by battle. Frankly, there was no getting over that in a timely enough manner to turn this around. Returning the cards to his deck, Julian sighed. "This isn't for keeps, so I'll save us both a bit of time, and reluctantly admit defeat. I'll have to keep these monsters of yours in mind, should we face off for real in the tournament." Theoretically, if Julian could just make it past that first round in the real deal, he could possibly pull it off. He just needed to know his competition. That first round was going to be a hurdle, though.

"That also makes you the first person to beat me in a duel in some... oh, what, fifty or sixty years? Well done!"

Richard seemed a bit saddened by the immediate end of this game, noticing Julian putting the cards back in his deck. But at the same time, while doing the same, still had the brightest smile on his face. "Oh no...I couldn't take that as a real win. The saying is, it isn't over till the last card is played...as well as it isn't over till the Life Points hit zero. So I definitely wouldn't call that a win." he said, immediately moving towards the older man, extending his hand. "But having that much high praise from you, it's a real honor, sir."

Julian smiled, taking the hand and giving a firm shake. "There's no need to go calling me 'sir'; we're all equal here. Old veteran or new rising star, we're still just pro duelists at the end of the day." Thinking back to that final turn, Julian eventually retracted his hand and said "Those monsters of yours though! We certainly wouldn't have seen anything like them back in my time. Perhaps I should consider a bit of deck shopping..."

"Heh, very well then." Richard chuckled, the firm handshake being struck. "But yeah, the game certainly has evolved to a different level, but with moves like yours out there...I'm sure some may not even be able to compare. But then again, a Duelist does know how to improve and prepare for all sorts of situations. So maybe some deck shopping for some more Psychic Type monsters and support might be in order." The young man flashed a smile. "If you do, I can't wait to see what you'll do!"

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With Yuliya's help, Iris, Zoe and Leila had all managed to get to the beach easily enough. Once there, they were free to split up and do whatever it was that they had seen fit to do to spend the rest of their day on. Once that was all done, they all went back to their lodgings to spend the night how they saw fit. Airing that night on several different stations was a brief story on a duel that had happened between two of the duelists in the Blue Rose tournament. Supposedly the duel itself was entirely unofficial and conveniently when the duel had ended security in the building had been asked to escort both the duelists and reporters out of there. All the same, despite with how casual the duel might've seemed to any onlooker, this didn't stop the various news stations and forums from blowing up with predictions, conclusions and somehow judgements on the strength of every duelists based on this singular duel. Regardless of whatever wild claims were being made, though, one thing was clear and that was that the public's excitement for the tournament was only growing. 


May 2nd, Monday, 2:00 PM 

The night had come and gone, heavy rain during it but leaving only a small drizzle to continue into the next day. In spite of the weather, the people were still a bustling about and it was clear that the tournament venue - the Aspect Stadium - was already filling to capacity. The duelists themselves, though guaranteed seats inside if they so wanted to watch, had found that if they didn't come early enough they would have to wade through a sea of people to get anywhere while the crowds were still buying refreshments and finding their seats before the duel actually started. Even if they did come earlier then the crowds it wasn't as if there weren't people still there either, and no matter what time it was the likelihood of them being asked questions on sight was always high. 

All the same, once the time had come for the duel, all the lights dimmed. Then, a spotlight appeared towards the center where a woman - noted to be the person currently in charge of heading the event - stood, sunglasses on even still indoors. "Helllooooo everyone. To all of you who have been here before and all of those fresh to our event, those casually into dueling, aspiring pros themselves or people who are here on a whimsy. I, your host and commentator Ai, am here to welcome you all to the Aspect Stadium. And more importantly, to the opening duel of the Blue Rose Tournament!" The crowd cheered as the woman took a brief pause. As they died down again, Ai continued. "I've already stood on ceremony enough yesterday, so instead, let's get straight into the duel!" 

Music started to play across the stadium, as the enormous display behind the woman lit up. "Coming in as Camellia's own second seed, playing her Thunder Dragon deck. We have Yuliya Sekelsky!" The crowd's cheering was only growing, as Yuliya's profile shot appeared on the screen, her deck and placement being noted alongside it, with a trail of lights leading from the stage to the door that Yuliya would emerge from. "And her opponent, the first seed of Empiria, sporting her Zombie World deck. It's Arden Fitzory." Similar applause and fanfare would be met for Arden's appearance. As the two made their way to the stage, Ai said, "now, I give both of you the honor to start this tournament off properly." As she gave the floor to those two, Ai quickly pivoted away from them and broke out into a full sprint, presumably needing to make it back to the commentator's box for the actual duel itself. 

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As he was leaving the bar he had been so distracted that when whatshisname asked for his phone number he gave it without thinking. Only partway to picking up his sister did Cid realize what he had done. He could only hope that this didn't bite him in the rear anytime soon.

When he picked Heather up he found her to be rather impossible to talk to company. For the rest of the night she refused to tell him what had gone down in specifics. He had tried to ask but she told him "We had a fight. I'm mad at her." and left it at that.

Cid figured that she'd be over it by the morning but, when he got up and, surprisingly, found her already awake she was still pouting about whatever it was.

"Hey what do you want for breakfast?" he asked her while passing by the couch on the way to the kitchen.

"Don't feel hungry." she muttered.

This caused Cid to raise an eyebrow in surprise but, shrugging, he said "Well alright then. Guess I'll just make my own." Usually he didn't make much for breakfast for himself, often just toast and maybe a couple eggs, but today he went more all out. At least as all out his budget let him. Bacon, eggs, and sausages creating a tantalizing aroma. As he went about cooking he kept an eye on Heather, sitting grumpily on the couch, and saw as she stole a few glances over towards the kitchen.

When he was done he had a couple plates full of food. Going into the living room and setting them on the coffee table he said "May have made too much. Don't know if I can finish this all myself." and started to dig in.

Not long after he saw Heather uncross her arms and go for the other plate "Guess I'll help." she said and he looked away to hide his smirk.

As she finished up he glanced over to her. She was still in her pajamas and it was almost time for school. "You should probably change. You don't want to go to school wearing that."

"Not going to school." she muttered and Cid turned to face her fully. "Jennifer will be there."

Cid sighed. "You can't just avoid her forever. Especially not if it means skipping school. What happened anyway?"

"Not telling...and don't gotta be forever. Just not today."

Cid watched the girl for a while. Despite her usual attitude she tended to be a good student. Good grades, on time, well liked. So this was unusual for her. Though it also meant that missing one day wouldn't be the end of the world. Maybe it was a bad idea but... Cid shrugged. "Alright, just today. But you're not gonna just sit around doing nothing. You can start by doing the dishes. I'll go call the school for you."

As he stood up he felt her grab at his shirt. "Hey, um...I wanted to watch the tournament later..."

"You know how to use the TV. If you finish up with chores by the time it starts go for it."

She stared at him a moment then, "I still don't get everything about the game...could you watch with me to help me understand?"

He'd have liked to say no, it sounded like a hassle, but he didn't want her feeling worse. Not like he had anything else to do. "Fine, remind me when it's time." He then left the room to place a call with the school telling them that Heather was feeling unwell.

Then, once finished, he made another call. "Hello, Ms Hurst? Yeah it's Cid I....Yes, I am gonna be in...ah you saw that...Yeah, yeah thanks. Anyway I wanted to ask you something about Jennifer, you see..."

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They spent most of their respective mornings just lazing around.


That was by design, of course. Even after years -- almost a decade and a half now! -- of work in the entertainment scene, Lailah was still an introvert at heart, and the day before had been particularly extrovert-y. That was the understanding she had with her agent, one that she’d established so many years ago, that the off days were just as important as the on ones. Sure, she could be flexible -- she wouldn’t have gotten to where she was without bending her own rules at least a little -- but today of all days was not one of those exceptions. There was an offer for her to help commentate with some high-profile streamer co-streaming the tournament, but even that got put on hold. “Let’s see how I do in the tournament first, hm?” had been her response there.

No, her plans for the day involved waking up at a generous hour and only really doing things when necessary. Her idea for breakfast (okay technically brunch by the time she got around to making it) was eggs-in-a-basket, a recipe she’d picked up from her high school dorm life involving over-easy eggs cooked inside toasted bread. Between that and a glass of water, it was all she really needed.

Gabby entered the kitchen just as Lailah was serving everything up, and Lailah gave her girlfriend a quick peck on the cheek as she passed her her own plate. “Good morning, your majesty,” she teased. “What are your plans for the day? I was hoping to go for a nice long walk while everyone’s inside watching the show.”


Yuliya hadn’t, like, meant to laze about, of course. It just sort of happened. She could have done other stuff and been productive, maybe clean the apartment a little or a least empty the dishwasher, but there was always a constant “Duelist check-in is at one-thirty” in the back of her mind so even when Yuliya woke up at six in the morning out of fear of oversleeping and didn’t dare go back to sleep for that same reason, the only chore she did was make breakfast.

In fairness, it was an impressive breakfast, as was tradition for her the morning before a tournament: A banana, yogurt, granola, a dash of honey, all stirred up, and a glass of juice to go along with it. Yuliya ate with one hand, the other glued to her phone as she scrolled through the morning chatter. Apparently, two competitors had used the empty arena for an impromptu duel? That actually got her blood boiling, her hand gripping her phone all the tighter. Despite what they seemed to frame it as afterwards, a little skirmish between old and new generations, Yuliya knew what it really was: They were stealing her thunder.

Pun intended, obviously.

She just barely managed to avoid posting anything herself. Instead, she shoveled the rest of her yogurt/granola mixture into her mouth, chugged her juice, and flopped back onto the bed to continue hatescrolling. How dare they? Now she had to find all the takes she agreed with and read through them again and again. That exhausted quickly, though, even the grifters whose job it was to be mad at things all day hadn’t caught up just yet. 

It took a bit, but Yuliya eventually calmed down and went back to scrolling through other things. Around noon was when she started actually getting ready for the tournament, first by showering and generally making herself presentable, then making sure she had everything she needed -- deck, disk, headphones, umbrella etcetera -- then double-checking that all the cards in her deck were still there because she wasn’t making that mistake again, and she was out the door by one o’clock give or take a few minutes, determined to make the strongest first impression she could even despite yesterday’s circumstances. There was still a spotlight on the inaugural duel, after all, Dick and Julian be damned.

Yuliya had been hoping to get a chance to catch up with her opponent, Arden, before having to be escorted off to her green room but it was not to be. The walk had taken longer than she’d hoped -- which meant she’d either taken too much time getting ready or spent too much time on her phone, whichever was worse -- and she just managed to arrive at the nick of time, earning a good tsk-ing from several members of the broadcast crew.

“Sorry! Sorry. But I’m here now, and I’m ready on my end,” Yuliya said, though she was still putting on her duel disk as she said it. “What do you need me to do?”

There really wasn’t much. They went over the procedures, things like quickly cross-checking her infographics for typos; got her mic’d up so everyone at home and in the stadium could hear her awesome plays; and introduced her to the crewmember, Jenny, who’d be giving her her entrance cue. And that cue was coming soon. Yuliya could already hear the announcer giving her opening spiel.

“Go in five… four…” Jenny said.

Meanwhile, outside, the music was kicking up. “Coming in as Camellia's own second seed,” Ai said, “playing her Thunder Dragon deck, we have: Yuliya Sekelsky!”

“one… go!” It was all Yuliya needed to hear. She strode forward confidently, trying to own the spotlight as best she could. She smiled, she waved at the crowd, she felt a pang of nervousness, but it was only a pang. She was as ready as she could be, and had something to prove, too.

After Arden came out the two met in the middle of the arena for shuffling and the coin toss. “How’s tricks, Arden? It’s been a bit,” Yuliya said as she presented her deck. “I mean, I guess you’re well enough to make it here as a one seed, nice job, but I meant besides that. Oh, and I bet the coin’s going to land tails, I know the higher seed gets to make the official call there; I’m just telling you what you should pick.”

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The Blazing Squire & The Raging Raptor

The opening Duel of the Blue Rose Tournament...this was definitely to show the world that these Duelists were fierce competitors that were putting and betting everything on winning the whole shebang. Aspect Stadium was bustling with excitement and enjoyment, and in the middle of this in the stands was Richard Wallace. Sure, he could've watched from any other spot in the stadium, maybe even the area that was usually marked for the tournament competitors themselves...but there was something about being out there in the stands watching a Duel...something about being in the crowd and getting all worked up and excited...it made his blood boil with excitement.

"Oh man...this is sooooooo exciting!!!" Richard muttered, almost bursting at the seams. The greatest Duelists from all over, a chance to Duel them...what more could anyone want?


Right now, it was Thunder Dragons vs Zombie World. A match-up that certainly would make for an interesting spectacle...at least to Itsuki. The young man stood in the designated area for the competitors to watch the Duel and was leaned up against the wall.

"The first seed of Empiria and the second seed of Camellia...a pretty steep match-up." Itsuki mused with a smirk. "Honestly, this seems to be the best way for them to start this tournament off..." He paused, before shaking his head. Then again...that attempt of just an unofficial Duel between two of the competitors was kind of interesting as well...wonder if I'll have the honor of Dueling either of those...

First thing was first, however...observing the first match and seeing how the competition held up.

OOC

Spoiler

So basically this is broken down like this...

Yes, both my Duelists are at the stadium. No, they aren't in the same location: Richard is actually in the stands watching to watch the Duel and Itsuki is in a place where the competitors can watch (took the liberties of doing this cause, ya know...most tournaments have something like that). So if you wish to interact...by all means go for it!

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Blue Rose Tournament, Round 1, Duel 1: Yuliya Sekelsky vs Arden Fitzroy

After Arden came out the two met in the middle of the arena for shuffling and the coin toss. “How’s tricks, Arden? It’s been a bit,” Yuliya said as she presented her deck. “I mean, I guess you’re well enough to make it here as a one seed, nice job, but I meant besides that. Oh, and I bet the coin’s going to land tails, I know the higher seed gets to make the official call there; I’m just telling you what you should pick.”

"Always a pleasure, Yuliya," Arden smiled as the two duelists met at the center of the stage. Presenting her deck, the girl shrugged and said "Living the life, as always. Thought about relaxing down by the beach last night, but that didn't pan out. Yourself?"

"Oooh, I was at the beach yesterday!" Yuliya said. "I was with Iris -- you've met Iris, right? -- and then she and some other cool people, we all went to the boardwalk and hung out. Shame we missed you, really. Have you had linner by the beach before? Five out of seven, would recommend. Maybe after this we can go on a little celebratory slash commiserating trip, how's that sound?"

"Oh, that sounds wonderful! My treat." Out of the corner of her eye, Arden could spot one of the tournament staff, gesturing at the duelists to get on with it. Only very briefly sneering at them in exchange, Arden brought her attention back to the matter at hand. "Let's make our plans a bit later. Right now, we have a score to settle. I think I'll go with calling it tails after all."

At her call, the coin was flipped up into the air, spinning gracefully as it ascended and promptly returned downward, back into the referee hand that had flipped it. When the referee's hand was opened, the coin was revealed to have landed on...

Yuliya was actually shocked. "Oh, heads? Unlucky, though I guess since I also said tails that's both of us unlucky. Hopefully that's all the unlucky out of the way, and Gee Ell Aitch Eff, Arden, or whatever the kids are saying these days."

"And good luck to you as well. Let's get this show on the road. And afterward, you can tell me all about that place you ate at."

"It's time to duel!"

Yuliya went through her opening five cards with a look of curiosity on her face. “Well, it’s not the luckiest hand, but I think I can manage a few tricks,” she said. “First, though, I’ll activate the effect of my favorite card, Thunder Dragon!” She held up the card and, out of the corner of her eye, saw the monster appear on the arena jumbotron along with many smaller LED screens along the perimeter. “You probably know what it does at this point, but for our dear viewing audience, I can discard it to search for up to two more copies. Thankfully you only shuffled one to my hand, so I’ll just get the other two now.” She slid the card into the Graveyard slot of her duel disk and the machine immediately spit out the two others.

“I’m not done pulling cards out of my deck just yet, though,” Yuliya said. “I’ll also activate the spell card Allure of Darkness. This one’s got a pretty simple effect too: it lets me draw two cards from my deck and add them to my hand. But! There’s a catch, of course. If I don’t banish a DARK monster, I have to discard my entire hand.”

Another two cards, these ones randomized, popped out and Yuliya surveyed them both, shuffling them into the rest of her six card hand. “Don’t worry, I’ve got one. I’ll banish Thunder Dragondark, and the rest of my hand is safe and sound. It’s also getting one more member, since when I banish Thunder Dragondark, I get to do just that. I think I’ll add…” She paused, but only briefly. “I’ll add Thunder Dragonlord to my hand, that sounds good. Especially since, because I used Thunder Dragon’s effect this turn, I can already summon it! All I have to do is banish another Thunder Dragon from my hand, and…”

She placed the monster right in the center slot of her disk. “I Special Summon Thunder Dragonlord!”

Thunder Dragonlord: Level 9/LIGHT/Thunder/3000ATK/2000DEF

The monster that came out was more like a writhing serpent than a dragon, though Yuliya supposed some dragons just looked like that. Really, dragons could look however they wanted, and this one just wanted to be coils on coils, wrapping around itself before staring down at Arden’s empty side of the board. “Unfortunately, I can’t attack what with being the first turn and all, but that doesn’t mean this bad beast doesn’t have a few nifty effects, one of which that matters on your turn, and one that matters on my End Step. I’ll explain that one in a moment, just let me set a couple cards… Alright.”

A pair of facedowns appeared behind Thunder Dragonlord, and the monster let out a roar. “So what happens at my endstep is I can send a Thunder Dragon card to the Graveyard from my deck. Pretty simple, I think. I’ll send another Thunder Dragondark, I think. You saw how useful that last one was, right? I want another right where I can see it.”

The card popped out of her deck and, after briefly showing it to her opponent and the crowd, she tucked it into her Graveyard. “After that, I mean, that was my End Step. Show me how a one-seed does it.”

“A one-seed needs a bit of setup first, I’m afraid,” Arden commented, drawing her card and surveying the contents of her hand. There was definitely something she could do here, but at the moment, the plays just… weren’t there. “First thing’s first. I don’t like all these Thunder monsters being… you know, alive. So I’ll activate Zombie World, changing all monsters on the field and both of our graveyards into Zombies.” As Arden set down the card, the hologram of Yuliya’s monster lost much of its saturation and some parts of itself entirely, and the area between the two filled with stacks of bones and other unsavory bits.

“Wow, that’s not cool.” Yuliya tried to play it up for the audience. “But hold on, I’ve got a little bit of time before you completely undead-ify me, Thunder Dragonlord’s other effect is that I can banish two cards in my Graveyard to make it untargetable as long as one of the cards banished is a Thunder monster. Since they won’t be Thunder monsters soon, I guess I’m going to do that now.” Allure of Darkness and Thunder Dragondark popped out of the Graveyard slot and Yuliya flashed them to her opponent. “See? Thunder. Still says it on the card. That lone Thunder Dragon left behind, that can be a zombie, I guess. But hey, since that’s Dragondark banished, I guess that means I get to find another Thunder Dragon, huh? I’ll find Thunder Dragonhawk.” Another card shown to everyone, another infographic on all the screens. “Anyway, sorry, yes, Zombie World. Gross, but you got it.”

“And now, at the risk of sounding anticlimatic after all that, I set one monster face-down.” The hologram of a face-down monster appeared in front of Arden as she placed the card on the Duel Disk. Giving her arms a quick stretch, she commented “Like I said, a one-seed needs a bit of setup. That should be just about it. Do your worst, Yuliya.”

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Zoe had gotten to the event venue early to get the perfect seat at an equal distance between the opponents and at a decent height to get a good look at them. Sure, she had to deal with a few people asking questions about many different topics, which was a non-issue. A few reporters did pester her, which was annoying, but she answered a few questions and they finally left her alone. This turned her attention to the field in front of her.

In Zoe's opinion, the best outcome of this match for her is Yuliya, because the debuffs that Zombie World imposes on her deck would make her strategies difficult. From what she knew, Thunder Dragon's were hyper-aggressive, which could easily be stalled out, but Zombie's were slower, which give them a better shot against her. However, she had yet to see how they played, so that would have to wait.

Then, the spotlights turned on and the opponents entered the arena. They seemed to be old friends, and friendly rivals at that. The two played very differently. Yuliya was playing aggressively, focusing on banishment and discarding to activate her effects. She also was confident, barely pausing between cards played. She also seemed to play up the theatrics a bit, but that just might just be her brand of style. Arden on the other hand was focused on defense, setting a few cards with Zombie World. Either way, this duel was far from over, and Zoe started to get why some of these duelist did it, it certainly was exciting. Only a little though.

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So, like, her worst didn’t have to be that bad, did it? A field spell and a face-down certainly wasn’t very threatening, like, yeah the former shut down half of her big monster’s effect, arguably the more important part, even, but at the same time, a big dumb dragon was still big, it was still a dragon, and she had loads of gas in the tank still to come. After her draw step, she’d have five cards in hand again! That was as many as she had started the duel with! As Arden passed the turn back, Yuliya couldn’t help but announce it to the crowd. “Well, I’ll certainly try, I can promise you that much. And, like, the good kind of worst. The kind that’s good for me. Draw!”

She shuffled the card into her hand and glanced through her newly-replenished grip. It wasn’t a bad draw -- it wasn’t like her deck had any bad or pathetic cards in it or anything -- but she’d already made plans and it wasn’t like the fresh card did anything to change them. Besides, “I actually have a trick on board I’d like to play first. I’ll activate one of my face-downs, Thunder Dragon Discharge!” She almost added “which charge?” but managed to hold the dad-level joke in and instead continued to narrate her actions. “It’s a continuous trap and it’s got an effect I can use when I summon a Thunder Dragon. Which I haven’t yet, but I will! Remember that Thunder Dragonhawk I added to my hand last turn? Well, if I discard it, I can get back either a Thunder Dragon in my Graveyard or one that’s been banished. I’ll choose Thunder Dragondark, and summon it right next to my Dragonlord. That sounds good.”

Thunder Dragondark was only about half the size of her Dragonlord (and the 1600 Attack kind of reflected that) but half of “massive” was still pretty imposing, Yuliya thought. It certainly towered over her, anyway. “So, now about Discharge. Since all that happened, I can banish a Thunder Dragon from my deck to destroy a spell or trap card. You’ve only got one over there, so I think you know what I’m going to target. For that, I’ll banish Thunder Dragon… roar.”

A more transparent hologram of the monster emerged from Yuliya’s continuous trap, clawing its way out of the art like it was determined to break free from some invisible shackles holding it back. Unlike the other two more serpentine or wyrmlike dragons on the field, Thunder Dragonroar was more chimeric in nature, clawing at the ground until it escaped from the Discharge entirely. “Obviously that’s got an effect coming up, but for now let’s just bring everything back to the land of the living,” Yuliya said. “Or, I guess,” she gestured towards Arden’s set monster, most everything.” At this, the phantasmal Dragonroar leapt high into the air, almost threatening to escape the arena entirely, but it soon came pummeling back down, building up both speed and electricity until it crashed into the center of the field. The impact sent illusory dust everywhere and sounded like a thunderclap, and when it all settled, the dragon was gone, but so was every trace of Zombie World’s effect.

“Oh dear.”

Yuliya stuck her tongue out. “How’s that for worst?” she said. “I’m not finished just yet, though. Like I said, Thunder Dragonroar has its own effect for when it’s banished: I can Special Summon a Thunder Dragon from my deck!” She selected another Thunder Dragonroar and showed it off. “There are a few caveats for this summon, though. The first is that it has to be in Defense Position, which kind of stinks since this one has exactly zero of that. But that doesn’t really matter since the other caveat is that it goes back to my hand at the end of turn. I kind of just want it there, you understand. We’re not quite there yet, though. I’ve still got a Battle Phase!

“Thunder Dragonlord! Whatever she’s got set over there, it’s not beating us!” The dragon didn’t even uncoil from its position; it already loomed large over the simple image of a set monster. As soon as the card flipped over, giving the image of some undead creature holding a cutlass just enough time to manifest, Thunder Dragonlord reared its head back and lunged forward, crashing through the image with an almighty bite.

“Alright, you’re going to have to tell me what that was, ‘cause I barely saw it,” said Yuliya.

“That was a Goblin Zombie,” Arden explained, moving her thoroughly eviscerated monster to the graveyard where it belonged. “And by making a snack of it, you’ve activated its effect. When sent from the field to the Graveyard, I’m allowed to take a zombie with 1200 or less defense from my deck, and add it to my hand. I’ll go with this Plaguespreader Zombie.”

“You’re not going to tell me what Plaguespreader does until next turn, huh?” Yuliya said. She was pretty sure she’d seen the card before, but she still had to ask.

“I won’t,” Arden smiled. “That’s how this game is supposed to be played, after all.”

“Uh huh,” Yuliya said, a bit nonplussed. “Well, regardless, you’ve got a wide-open field now, and I just so happen to have another monster to attack with. Thunder Dragonroar, show her what you can do!”

The smaller serpent roared and did what it was told. Unlike its larger cousin, it flew up and arched backwards, looping back around to fly into its target. There was another crash, another thunderclap, and all the scoreboards said ARDEN LP: 8000 -> 6400. The jumbotron even had a “FIRST BLOOD! (brought to you by SprecholaⓇ)” graphic that was a little gauche but the fact that it was showing in Yuliya’s favor made it okay in her eyes.

“There are a few things I have to do at the End Step, and then I’ll pass it over to you,” Yuliya said. “The first one is, I mean, second verse same as the first, right? Thunder Dragonlord will send… I’ll send another Thunder Dragonhawk to the graveyard, I think. And the other, like I mentioned, this Thunder Dragonroar comes back to my hand. You’re up, Arden. And hey, give us a show this time, huh?”

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"Why's the other girl not doing anything?" Heather asked after the first turn passed in the starting game of the tournament.

She had been silent for the start and Cid admittedly had been more watching her than the game. It was odd. She seemed so intent on it. If she had pen and paper he wouldn't be surprised to find her taking notes.

"Huh?" Cid looked back at the TV and scanned what he could see of the field. It looked like the Thunder Dragon girl was much better off. To a lot of people it would look like she was in total control but was that the case? "Ah, well, some decks just are more immediately aggressive than others." Cid said. "It looks flashier but it only takes a couple of cards to turn things around. Can't say for sure how it'll go just from this." Though he admittedly, if he had to bet, would put it on...Yuliya, that was the name, on her winning this one.

Heather nodded and Cid brought his attention back to her. "Why are you so interested, anyway? You're more into this than you usually are." Could she perhaps be thinking about going down this route herself? Honestly he'd prefer she found something more stable than card games to base her future on. Should he try and steer her away?

But she didn't really answer. She pulled her legs up and put her chin on her knees and muttered, "No reason." Which was obviously not true. But he wasn't about to try and dive into this right now.

A moment later Heather spoke again. "Um...In the past I sorta remember you were...more excited to watch matches. But I had to ask you to watch this one."

Cid grunted. He thought he knew what she was getting at. "Well, you know, it's just sorta my job right? It's not really a game anymore so...I dunno guess it's weird to watch it like one." he shrugged.

There was a pause and then the girl asked, "can people not enjoy their job?"

He flinched at that. This wasn't a conversation he wanted to have right now. Especially not with his kid sister. "It's not...I mean, I dunno, some people do I guess." He thought back on what that guy at the bar had said. Did they consider this their job? If so how were they able to enjoy it besides that? "Listen, uh, we should focus on the match. This next turn is going to be important I bet. You shouldn't worry about all that stuff right now."

"Mm." she said and returned focus to the TV.

Cid nearly let out a relieved sigh. He knew he couldn't get away from that one for long but hopefully her child-brain would be distracted enough that it wouldn't be for a while.

"Come on, zombie girl," he thought, "counting on you to make this next one interesting."

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Iris had been seated in the reserved area for the competitors, chilling as it was more colloquially referred to, watching the ongoing duel. Normally, Iris would've probably stayed in her room to watch these, or find a nice cafe of some sort to sit down and eat at while watching. But as Yuliya was dueling today, and opening the tournament off no less, Iris had decided to be there in person to watch it to either congratulate or console her friend depending on the outcome. Of course, Iris had every bit of faith that Yuliya would win this, even if her opponent was technically more favored to do so. Only adding to this confidence, as the girl had struck Arden with her dragons Iris let out a rather loud cheer. From a seat nearby, she heard the scoff of a pink haired male with a beanie, saying, "she got first blood, big deal." 

Raising an eyebrow, clearly irked by this boy, Iris retorted, "what do you mean 'big deal'? She cleared her opponent's board and blocked out her set up. All while still having the resources to deal damage. I would say that's cheer worthy," and in fact she had verbalized it so. 

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure the zombie player is super on the ropes now with having more things thrown in the grave," the man sarcastically retorted. 

Iris's frown only grew as she glared at him, he glaring back at her, before a third voice joined in. "Now, now, let's not get worked up here." The voice belonged to a purple haired woman wearing a nice hat - not so nice that everyone would be inclined to call it as such though, but still nice enough. Hat not withstanding, the woman as well was easily recognizable to anyone who had been even remotely interested in the dueling scene for the past few years. The third place of last year's Blue Rose tournament, and having placed second many times before that, was a woman by the name of Furiko Hoshizora. Giving a smile to the both of them, prompting the boy to click his tongue and frustratingly look away from her, she then looked back to Iris. "It's true though, she has bought some space for herself at the very least. And now Arden's the one who has to be mindful of a continuous card..." Furiko put a hand to her chin, thinking for a moment before she looked over to someone else. 

"How about you," she called out to Itsuki. "What do you think of this match so far?" 

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Arden, now without a field and down some LP, drew her card. Then she stretched her arms and neck, looking more alert by the time she’d finished. “That’s on me. I played my Zombie World too early. Now that I’ve got a workable hand, we can really Duel.” This was far from the first time Arden and Yuliya had dueled, but to have it be on the greatest stage Persica had to offer shot a spark of excitement through Arden’s body.

“First, I’ll activate the spell card Foolish Burial, sending a monster from my Deck to the Graveyard. Let’s go with this Mezuki.” No sooner than her monster reaching its destination, complete with a hologram of the card being dropped into an open grave, did Arden place another monster down, this time from her hand to the field. “Next, I summon Zombie Master from my hand.”

Zombie Master: Level 4/DARK/Zombie/1800/0

“And then I’ll activate its effect, which lets me discard a monster, then target a Level 4 or lower zombie in my Graveyard to Special Summon. What’s interesting about this effect is that since you discard and then choose a target, the monster you discard and the one you summon can be the same. So, I’ll go ahead and discard this Gozuki from my hand, to summon the very same Gozuki.”

Gozuki: Level 4/EARTH/Zombie/1700/800

“Oh, that’s cute,” Yuliya said. “I don’t think any of my ‘discard to do a thing’ effects do that.”

“Not many do,” Arden shrugged. “In any case, with Gozuki now on the field, I’ll activate his effect, to send a zombie from my Deck to the Graveyard. I’ll be sending Uni-Zombie to the Graveyard, and activating that Mezuki from earlier afterward. By banishing itself, Mezuki can summon any zombie monster from my Graveyard, so I’ll bring back the Uni-Zombie I just set up for.”

Uni-Zombie: Level 3/DARK/Zombie/1300/0

“And this is where things get really interesting. Next, I activate the second effect of Uni-Zombie. It lets me send another zombie from my Deck to the Graveyard, but it also increases the level of one monster on the field by one. In exchange, however, I can’t attack with anything that isn’t a zombie for the rest of this turn. I’ll increase the level of Gozuki.”

Gozuki: Level 4 -> 5

“Now, with all the setup finished, we can get to the main event! If nothing else, I like to think I’m about to make it into this tournament’s highlight reel, because I Synchro Summon. By tuning my Level 3 Uni-Zombie with the Level 4 Zombie Master, I summon a Level 7 monster. Rise, Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon!”

BGM

As Arden removed her two monsters from the field, accompanied by a graphics animation on the screens above the duelists and a hologram to match on the field, the two zombies were soon replaced by a much bigger one. A black dragon, eyes aglow and body wreathed in ghastly blue flames, appeared behind Arden. No sooner than its appearance, however, did Arden make her next move.

“Now, I activate the effect of the Mezuki I sent to the Graveyard just a moment ago, banishing it to bring back Zombie Master, and then activate his effect as well. I’ll be repeating that trick we talked about, this time discarding the Plaguespreader Zombie from earlier to summon him!”

Plaguespreader Zombie: Level 2/DARK/Zombie/400/200

“And then we… Synchro Summon! By tuning my Level 2 Plaguespreader Zombie with my Level 5 Gozuki, I’ll summon another Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon!”

Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon: Level 7/DARK/Zombie/2400/2000

“Almost done! When Gozuki is sent to the Graveyard, I can activate its second effect, banishing any other zombie from my Graveyard to special summon any zombie monster from my hand. By banishing the Goblin Zombie you destroyed last turn, I’ll summon Vampire Grimson from my hand.”

Vampire Grimson: Level 5/DARK/Zombie/2000/1400

“Don’t get used to him; he won’t be here very long. I still have one more card left in my hand, and I’ll be using it to activate Plaguespreader Zombie’s effect. Now I can tell you what that does. If it’s in the Graveyard, I can put a card from my hand on top of the Deck to summon it. Which I will. And by tuning my Level 2 Plaguespreader Zombie with… you get the idea. Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon!” Having started from an empty field and six cards in her hand, three of the same undead dragon now loomed behind Arden, growling at the dragons assembled on Yuliya’s side of the field.

Yuliya grimaced. “I don't think I've seen this one from you before, Arden. Well, you’ve got three of them now and you haven’t even told us what they do yet.”

“They do two things, though one of them doesn’t matter very much right now, with Zombie World gone. However, the other thing they do is gain 100ATK for every zombie in both of our fields and Graveyards, including itself.”

Yuliya brought out the fingers, counting through the turn. It had been a complicated one, though, so she did it again. “So that means…”

“Indeed. With four zombies on the field, and four more in each Graveyard, each copy of Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon has 3200 points to strike with! Just a little bit more than your own monster.”

“Ah! Well math’d”

“Thank you, thank you. Without further delay, let’s put those points to use! First, I’ll use one of my dragons to attack Thunder Dragonlord!” The center dragon of the three reared its head back, raising its long neck upward and taking in a deep breath. Before suddenly slinging its head forward, aimed directly at the larger of Yuliya’s monsters and spewing out a stream of blue flames not unlike the ones shrouding its own body.

Yuliya: 8000 -> 7800

“If Zombie World were still active, this would be the part where I go on about its other effect, but I suppose I got a bit too eager playing that before having a major play ready.”

“Yeah, well, against a worse opponent you might have still gotten some use out of it.” Yuliya stuck her tongue out, mostly playful, but with a hint of upset as she moved her monster to the graveyard, dead for real this time instead of just pretending to be because of a field spell.

“Against a worse opponent, I wouldn’t have realized I need to actually do something like this,” Arden retorted. “But enough about us, because it’s time to deal with a worse opponent for my dragons. Using the second Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon, I attack Thunder Dragondark!” The process repeated, this time washing away a considerably smaller - though still large - dragon in fire.

Yuliya: 7800 -> 6200

“Yah, well, you’re smart enough to attack the reinforce effect second,” Yuliya said. “Dragondark has the same effect when destroyed as it does when banished, after all, and who knows what tricks I might have in here.” She patted the deck slot on her duel disk. “I guess I have to actually choose what that is now, though. How about something as innocuous as a spell card, hm?” A card popped out, Yuliya showed the tell-tale green border to everyone, and “Thunder Dragon Fusion” showed up on all the screens in the arena. “Look forward to that,” she said.

“I don’t have much of a choice, do I? I can’t quite end the duel this turn, but I can attack directly with both my third dragon and Zombie Master!” At her cue, a third gout of flames - now accompanied by a significantly less threatening purple bolt of magic - fired off in Yuliya’s direction, knocking her Life Points down, quickly bringing them close to 0.

Yuliya: 6200 -> 3000 -> 1200

“Ugh. Well, ‘close to zero’ isn’t the same as ‘at zero.’” Yuliya said. “And you’re handless now, right? Are you doing anything else over there besides beating a poor girl half to death?”

“Goodness me, you make it sound so violent. Unfortunately, as you’ve observed, I have no cards left in my hand.” Arms crossed, Arden nodded in Yuliya’s direction. “And having already attacked with everything I can, my turn is now over. The floor is yours, dear friend. You’d best stage a comeback real quick if you want to win.”

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The Blazing Squire & The Raging Raptor

Richard is still getting excited and cheering in the stands while watching the match...nothing more to report...hooooooowever.....


"How about you? What do you think of this match so far?"

"As I live and breathe...an honor to finally meet you, Hoshizora." Itsuki gave a two fingered salute at the young lady, smirking and then turning his attention back towards the Duel at hand. He was silent for a moment or two before finally speaking up again.

"Yuliya is currently down to 1200 Life Points. While she did do quite the bit of board wiping at the beginning, it's coming back to bite her." he began, holding up a finger. "Zombies in the right hands can be quite detrimental to an opponent. After all, a good portion deal with swarming the field from the graveyard, which can be deadly if done correctly. The same could be said for the Thunder Dragons which specialize in quite the aggressive play with certain combinations or even just utilizing every single effect via being sent to the grave or by being banished. In actuality, it depends on the style of the Duelist."

"And as you can see here...Arden here has a total of three Red-Eyes Zombie Necro on the field." he said, glancing back at the three Duelists. "And with all three having 3200...and there only being four monsters on the field...the moment he summons one more, along with the fact of in both graveyards...the numbers will continually stack up. Yuliya may have Thunder Dragon Fusion, sure...but as of this moment, I'd believe the Arden may have it. But, Yuliya didn't arrive here because of things like this...I'm sure she also has something up her sleeve."

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The new graphic on every screen in the arena read “Danger Zone (brought to you by The Ol’ Pickaxe Hardware StoreⓇ (“When you’re in trouble, a swing by The Ol’ Pickaxe helps get the job done”),” and the start of Yuliya’s turn was punctuated by a guitar riff that sounded almost but not quite like an actually famous song the arena managers couldn’t get the rights to. Whatever the song was, Yuliya didn’t know it, and besides, she had more important things to think about. She was in the Danger Zone, after all.

Still, after her Draw Step, she’d have seven cards in hand to Arden’s zero, and both of those numbers in their respective positions were good numbers to have from her perspective. And she was already developing a plan -- that was why she’d searched out the card she had. Yuliya looked at the Thunder Dragon Fusion one more time as if to confirm it was really going to do what she said it would before mentally checking herself -- she still needed to go through the turn as though it were any other. But a comeback Arden had asked for, and who was she to turn down such an offer?

“I guess I should’ve been careful what I wished for, Arden, but I could extend the exact same warning to you as well,” Yuliya said. “Draw!”

BGM - Hotblade - Showdown

Yuliya’s poker face was not very good -- her eyes must have lit up the moment she laid them on the newest addition to her hand. Even if they didn’t, everyone must have heard the “Oooh” that escaped her lips. “I’m at… twelve hundred Life Points, yeah?” She checked the number on her wrist, though she just as easily could have checked any pulsating number in the arena. Either way, she was correct. “Okay, cool. That’s, like, doubly not zero, then. But I’ll leave you in suspense as to what this mystery card is, I have a fusion summon to do first. I’ll activate Thunder Dragon Fusion!”

Even as she slid the card briefly into a slot, the arena began to darken. The field was preparing for something massive. “What makes this particular fusion spell special is that instead of using monsters from my hand as material like a normal Poly, this one uses Thunder Dragon cards in my graveyard or banished and shuffles them back into my deck. The card I want needs three, so I’ll choose two of these Thunder Dragons proper and… I think this banished Dragondark would like to be in my deck also, that sounds good.” The cards popped out of their respective slots, and, as Yuliya moved them back to her deck, afterimages of the three monsters started swirling around above the field, spaghettifying more and more as they neared the center of the spiral. 

A new card fired out of her duel disk and into the air, and Yuliya snatched it. “I summon Thunder Dragon Titan!”

The distorted monster images started to mesh together, changing in shape and size with every convulsion, until it became a mass of light and sparks. One head emerged, then another, then a third, and the Titan flew out of the glowing mass and landed in the center of the field. As befitting a monster worthy of such a title, it announced its presence with a roar that sounded like a thunderclap.

“Thirty-two hundred attack, same as yours. Or --” she glanced at the Zombie Master still hanging out amongst the dragons “-- same as your big guns,” Yuliya said.

“Most impressive. Just take care not to destroy my dragons by battle, or else they’ll get back up. But surely, you already knew that.”

“Sure, sure,” Yuliya said. “I mean, zombies, right? Even if I didn’t know that I think I’d be able to assume. But I’m not done summoning yet -- I haven’t even explained Titan’s effect yet! It comes in three parts, though one of them isn’t going to be too important, I don’t think. The first is how to summon it, ‘cause I don’t have to use a fusion spell if I don’t want. I can just banish another Thunder-type fusion monster and a Thunder-type monster in my hand and skip all that other stuff. That being said, obviously, it won’t let me just replace this one with another, that’s where this nifty card I just drew comes in: Instant Fusion!”

The image on the card was that of an instant noodle cup, and so too was its holographic representation as Yuliya slid the card into a slot. It rattled around like there was something alive inside, and underneath the INSTANT FUSION logo, it had a little slogan. Yuliya read it aloud. “‘All the fun in fusion, without any of the work!’ Okay, that’s not entirely true. I have to pay a thousand life to use it, like, now I’m only at two hundred, and the monster has to be level five or lower, and it can’t attack, and it gets destroyed at the end of turn. That’s not a lot of fun. But it just so happens that there is a level five Thunder fusion that’s perfect for my purposes. Come forth, Kaminari Attack!”

It was kind of a weird name to say since there was a verb in there -- a verb commonly used to describe a Duel Monsters action, even! -- but the thunder spirit still erupted from the insta-cup and immediately started working on forming a stormcloud. It wouldn’t say for long, though. “Like I said, I can banish it and a monster in my hand to summon another Thunder Dragon Titan. I’ll just banish this Thunder Dragonroar. I won’t even use its banish effect, I’ll just get right to the good part. Thunder Dragon Titan!”

As one might expect, instead of several monsters like before, only the image of Thunder Dragonroar appeared above the field, hovering just above the Kaminari’s cloud until another flash of lightning and subsequent thunderclap replaced both of them with a second copy of the tricephalic monster.

“If nothing else, you’re certainly coming out on top in how many heads you can field in one turn.”

“They do say six heads are better than two, so yeah. Should be enough, I think, because of these Titans’ second effect: Whenever I activate the effect of a Thunder Dragon in my hand, I can destroy one card on the field, and that’s for each effect I activate and for each Titan. So, if I, say, use this O.G. Thunder Dragon to search out one of the ones I just shuffled back in -- fun fact! Did you know Thunder Dragon says ‘up to?’ -- I can plink off two of your Necro Dragons, just like that. That sounds like a good idea, I think I’ll do it.”

All twelve eyes on all six dragon heads on all two Titans glinted, fueled by the Thunder Dragon going to the graveyard as they zeroed in on Necro Dragons One and Two. They flew forward and began coiling around the two zombified dragons until the Titans had their prey almost completely enveloped, a process that only took a few moments, and, just another one later, they had shattered the two holographs into shards of light.

“Well, that was fun,” Yuliya said. “Wanna see me do it again? I only found one of those Thunder Dragons last time, remember. There’s still one more in the deck, so yeah, let’s do it again.” The two Thunder Dragon Titans didn’t even return to their original positions on the field, they simply turned on Arden’s two remaining monsters. The Titan dealing with the Zombie Master didn’t even have to fully envelop the thing, it simply sent the monster on its way with a flick of its tail. Only then did they return to Yuliya’s side. 

“Now it’s my turn to do some maths,” Yuliya said. “Two thirty-two hundred attack monsters, minus zero monsters on your side, or spells, or cards in hand, compared to your six thousand four hundred Life Points…” She brought out the fingers again, but they were for show this time, so only for a moment. “That’s exactsies, I think.”

Arden LP: 6400 -> 3200 -> 0

The crowd had already erupted into cheers even before both Thunder Dragon Titans had delivered their final attacks, and as soon as they had, a massive “WINNER: YULIYA SEKELSKY” appeared on the arena Jumbotron accompanied by chibified versions of her, blue hair and all, jumping for joy in a cute two-frame loop. Yuliya took a moment to take it all in -- she was one step closer to ultimate victory. She hoped she’d set the standard for future duels in the tournament, too. Obviously, they couldn’t all be as good as hers, but they could be close.

They met back in the center of the field for congratulations, commiserations, and general sportsmanship. Arden was the one who spoke first -- she certainly didn’t seem too fussed in Yuliya’s eyes. “A comeback with wonderful execution, if I do say so,” she said.

“Hey you surprised me with that previous turn enough that I had to do something,” Yuliya replied. “Good game, well played. And fortunately for you, I was going to suggest ‘winner pays’ no matter what result, so linner is on me.”

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As Arden had finished her battle phase, the pink haired lad briefly got up from his seat, an excited look on his face as he said, "hell yeah." Furiko turned and glanced at him, their eyes meeting for a moment before he sat down, clearing his throat and having his natural scowl return back to him. A single chuckle escaped her as she looked back to the duel and listened to what Itsuki had to say. 

As he mentioned Yuliya likely having a trick up her sleeve, Furiko added, "and Arden has none." The duel had played out from there, with Yuliya initiating her big move to suddenly bring out her two fusion dragons, combined with the destruction of all of Arden's monsters all at once. After Arden's turn a majority of the crowd had been left breathless, tensing up as to see how the one they were rooting for would possibly be able to turn this around, with the rest of the crowd loudly cheering. Now that had shifted, and all those who had been making noise before were silenced, the rest of the crowd erupting into a deafening cheer across the stadium.

With Yuliya's victory cemented, Furiko gave a small applause, looking over to Itsuki. "All Arden had was a big field of monsters and if anything went wrong this turn, she had nothing to fall back on. Well, I suppose she still would've won like that anyway since Yuliya didn't have much defense herself, but that's what a single turn too early will do to you." Going over the duel in her head again while listening to the crowd, the girl sighed saying, "well, I'm certainly in the mood to duel now." 

Iris, meanwhile, had practically leaped for joy as Yuliya had won her duel. Letting out her own cheer, the girl looked smugly over to the pink haired boy, pointing at him. A haughty tone in her voice she said, "well, it would appear that it did matter after all!" 

The annoyance on the boy's face only grew as he looked away from her. "Whatever, it's not like I cared about this duel anyway." 

"Oh?" Iris raised an eyebrow, but before pestering him any further simply said, "well no matter. Oh, I should think of a way to celebrate this win. Perhaps another trip to that delightful bakery. It would make sense that I would be paying this time were that the case, though, and..." Iris got lost in her own thoughts as she tried to remember the costs of their last outing as well as how her finances were doing at the moment.

 


 

"And with that, everybody, Yuliya Sekelsky is the winner of our opening duel! And what a showing that was, if I do say so myself. Nothing like dragons obliterating one another to really get the blood pumping. Well, I hope you folks at home enjoyed that. Normally I'd talk about the duel with my co-host, but of all the rotten luck she just isn't in yet. So when we get back from this commercial break I'll instead be discussing it with my audio guy instead! Hope to see you soon!" 

After Ai's message, the staff around the dueling area had motioned for the two duelists to vacate the premises. They didn't really care which exit they used, just that they needed to get off the field.  

Edited by Skaia

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"Thanks zombie girl." Cid thought as the next turn served to distract Heather from her uncomfortably serious questions. While Cid was paying some attention to the duel, to see how they played, to answer any questions Heather had, he was more focused on Heather herself.

She was intently focused on the screen. He could tell from her narrowed eyes, and the way she leaned forward slightly, that she was absorbing all the information and thinking hard on everything going on. Which she usually reserved for when wildlife documentaries were on.

Some would say it was odd for a kid to be like this but it's how she had been ever since she was old enough to think about focusing on anything.

Cid knew that if this kid decided to go down the path of dueling she'd do well. Whatever it was that she chose she'd do incredibly at. That much he was sure of. But, if she did follow him in this career, would she also lose her interest in the game side of things?

He wasn't sure when he had himself so he had no way of knowing how to prevent it if she did start taking this more seriously.

A particularly loud cheer brought his attention back to the screen and he was able to see Yu-something's big play. He gave a half smirk at the realization that his initial instinct was spot on. She had won this in the end after all.

"I thought you said that it wasn't sure she'd win." Heather said.

Cid glanced back at her. "Well, that's still true. Can't say anything too soon but you can figure out how possible the outcome is."

"What did the other girl do wrong do you think?"

Cid frowned, thinking back on what of the duel he had actually seen, wishing sometimes she wasn't so inquisitive. "Well, I suppose one mistake was using Zombie World before she really had anything to go with it. She was basically asking for it to be destroyed."

There was a brief silence and then Heather said another loaded statement. "You didn't seem very excited about the duel."

"Well..." What was he supposed to say? He was sure it was an interesting duel but he had been in enough duels to not really get worked up about them anymore. His youth of having duel after duel really wore down the excitement fast. But how could he say that to a kid?

"Well actually I'm more curious what you thought about it."

Heather looked at the screen again. "She's kinda cool....Her deck could be cuter, though..."

That got a laugh out of Cid. "Nothing can stand up to Unifrog right?" he said, referring to her favorite card. He hesitated for a moment and then stood up. "Go get dressed, we're gonna head out."

"Where are we going?"

Cid pointed at the TV "You want to see this up close right? Come on, hurry up and maybe I'll buy you some popcorn too."

"And soda?"

Cid winced. "Alright, one soda. Now chop chop."

---

He was used to the roaring crowds, the noise of many people speaking up at once either talking about the match or simply cheering, but he knew Heather wasn't so before they left he had grabbed her a pair of earmuffs to help with the noise. Which meant whenever she spoke she said it louder than her normal practically whisper voice.

Which, while amusing to Cid, also meant that if there was anyone that might recognize him in the stands her voice would draw them to look over.

"When's the next game!" she half-yelled at him. She was clutching not only popcorn but also a soda, corn dog, and some candy.

Glancing at his phone he shrugged. "I dunno, soon I think. You better not tell me you have to use the bathroom again, already." Even as he spoke Cid nervously looked around. And was frustrated to realize there were, in fact, some in the vicinity who would notice him if they looked this way.

Maybe this was a bad idea.

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Well, she had lost, and that was that. Losing a duel first thing was far from promising, but she wasn't terribly concerned. If it had been anyone else on the bracket, perhaps the outcome would have been different, but there was no point reflecting on this duel. Its flaws and misplays were clear as day, after all. What interested her more was that final turn. If she were being quite honest, Arden hadn't fully expected such a swift and decisive comeback. A shift in momentum to put her on the ropes for a turn, maybe, but not an outright win. And as the two duelists left the stage, Arden commented as much once they were free of the roaring crowds and flashing lights of the arena.

"Losing then and there like that was quite a surprise. I had expected to be thrown on the ropes, draw the card I placed on top of my deck with Plaguespreader Zombie, and not be able to fully stop your momentum with that alone, but not to just have all my life points taken away at once. Well done once again, Yuliya."

"Yah, Instant Fusion was a lucky draw," Yuliya said. "I dunno, glad it happened or the audience might've gotten bored right where the climax was supposed to be. Good job with the lead-up to all that, too, by the way. I'm sure a bunch of people were wondering just what was up."

"Oh, it was just a matter of a lucky draw, not unlike yourself." Stretching her arms as she removed the Duel Disk from one of them, Arden asked "I know this isn't your first time at the Blue Rose, but I can't seem to recall how many times you've made it this far. Would you mind jogging my memory?"

"First time on this stage," Yuliya said. "I mean, you gotta spike a qualifier to get here right? You've seen the size of those things, and the one here in Camellia is especially big what with being the main city and all. So I've done other tournaments and done well at those but not something like this, no." She took her hat off and scratched her head. "And it's the same with you, right? 'Cause we see each other all the time at the inter-region-level stuff but, like, I think I'd remember if I'd seen you on TV."

"Yes, it's my first time making it here as well. I don't fully expect to win, but getting all caught up in needing to win wouldn't make this a game anymore, would it? Not my cup of tea at all if that were the case. Ah, speaking of tea, it's just instant stuff from a convenience store, but I was thinking of making a cup after this duel. Would you like to join me?"

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