Points of Authority :: Chapter 6 -- Battle City Begins!
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"My name is Mako Tsunami," he declared boldly, gazing beyond the sky. It reminded you of cheesey valor. "And it has been my dream of six months to meet you, Miss Kenzie Ray!"<
.: Points of Authority
.: Chapter 6: Battle City Begins!
"Where in the heck did she go?!"
Today was the day of the Battle City Tournament; a day to excite any duelist, and definitely a day for Kaiba to just have another reason to be obnoxious. Of course, you were very excited about this as well, but it seemed you had lost the only person that could get you to the opening ceremony.
"Mai?!" you called through your hands in exasperation, the weight of the duel disk also causing some of the irritation. "This isn't funny! MAI!"
Apparently, Mai really hadn't duped you this time just to get a rise out of you. You had genuinely lost Mai.
"This is utterly ridiculous," you spat venom, not caring if passers-by were giving you strange looks. "How the hell am I supposed to win this tournament if I can't even get there?!"
But as the streaming queues of people rapidly went by, like new water in a stream your frustration and embarassment increased. Your fists clenched in aggravated thought, jaw setting, and your feet locking onto the ground.
"It figures," you mocked in a dangerous jeer. "The one time Kaiba could help me out and BE flashy, he isn't doing it."
Your head dipped further signaling that you had passed "just thinking" and slipped into "sulking."
"I can't believe this," you said aloud but switching back to thought after it. "I'm gonna fail before I even get a chance to change everything..."
Unknown to you as you were still sulking in self-pity, a voice had started to call out to you in the inundated sidewalk.
"Miss? Excuse me, Miss! Miss? Miss? MISS?!" After being roughly shoved in the side, the black-haired youth became a little dazed, and more timid at trying to get your attention. People on the go had very short fuses and he had just learned the hard way.
In reluctant resolve you decided to head back to Mai's apartment. Something, apparently, did not want you to win this tournament let alone enter it. Of course, you had the inkling ever since you were offered the chance to go...
Turning heavily on your heel, you fought the majority of the trafficed sidewalk. Ironic. Hadn't they been going the other way when you were trying to get to Battle City?
"Miss!!"
You cringed. WHY did people yell out in public like they had no sense of decency? Huffing through your nose, your back straightened in regal air, making your walk more prominently.
A gap in the trafficed sidewalk eased your anger and you quickly flowed through the meld...but it just as quickly went back to the slow drag it was before.
"MISS!!"
For some reason the urgency in the young man's voice had reached yours ears; be it from your habitual retail work or actual intuition, you stopped and turned around -- searching for a face.
As if stroking your simmering frustration you found no face; it also seemed that the voice had stopped as well. You let off a stream of choice curses, demanding why Fate seemed to not only be ruining your life, but screwing with you just to rub it in.
Your eyebrow began an incessant ticking as you began to turn back around. Just as you had turned about five degrees there was a voice that resonated loudly in your ears.
Shock overwhelmed your skin. The tingly feeling of knowledge had been smacked across your face without warning and run down every nerve in your body. You were sure your body temperature had lost a couple of degrees from the surprise.
Somehow, the young man that was calling your name had gotten right beside you without your knowing.
Jumping around to face this man in a recovery-state of shock, your hand to your aching chest (your heart was demanding you to never NOT be on alert ever again), you were able to give the intelligent answer of, "GEEZE!"
The young man in front of you had spiky black hair -- some of it in an unruly tail behind his head, piercing curelean eyes that were accented by some blue bandana above them. He was wearing what looked like spandex shorts and a half gi with no sleeves and it was all kept together by a sash tied on his waist.
And above all else he looked like some giddy, ten year old kid, waving at you with a subdued enthusiasm.
You didn't say "hi". In fact, you were actually greeting him with a suffocating aura of impending doom.
He sweatdropped uneasily at you, his smiling face wavering but his hand kept waving.
After a while longer of the "waving hello" charade you gave a plain "right" and went to walk past him.
"Wait!" he called desperately. "Don't go! I was just a little nervous when I approached you!"
Halting for some odd reason you asked in plain exasperation, "What the heck do you have to be nervous about?"
The young man carefully closed some of the gap that you had formed, bringing a hesitant hand to the back of his head. "Well, I'm a big fan..."
You stared blankly at him. He had just said it like you knew what he was talking about. You glanced around, thinking maybe he was talking about something around here... Then glanced at your wardrobe to see if you were wearing any of your logo shirts from your wardrobe, but then you remembered you only packed one and that was your night shirt...
Mentally shaking your head clear, you answered, "Big fan of what...?"
He promptly made contact with the concrete but recovered quickly and said with much vigor, "Of you! I'm a big fan of YOU!"
Your blood flow seemed to stop for a few seconds. "Wha...? But..I-"
"And so modest too!" A flowery background had crept its way behind the young man's head. "You really are the perfect duelist!" He commenced mumbling incoherent things, most likely about you to himself as your anger just slowly began to boil...
"Ex-CUSE me, but just who-"
He grabbed your hands gently, causing you to flush a tad at his proximity and your anger dissapating to nothing. What was wrong with this guy?!
"My name is Mako Tsunami," he declared boldly, gazing beyond the sky. It reminded you of cheesy valor. "And it has been my dream of six months to meet you, Miss Kenzie Ray!"
You sweatdropped, unprepared for anyone like this...Mako Tsunami. You just weren't armed for such..."special" people. "Uhh...," was the only intelligent reply you could give.
Mako continued his rant to your dismay as he pierced you with determination/admiration in his eyes. "You were my favorite from the beginning in the American Tournament. I watched the coverage everyday! It's a shame you were cheated so horribly; I would have liked to see someone like you win. With the passion you duel with, I bet you duel for a very important reason."
You stared at him blankly. You still didn't get it exactly.
"It reminds me of myself, actually. I duel for very important reasons as well; it's why I admire you so much as a duelist. Someone with the courageous efforts like yourself has actually managed to win a tournament!" He went on, starting to get a whimisical look on his face. "It gives me hope that one day, duels won't be decided by cheating and bribery, but by determination and fortitude!"
"What is WITH these people?! I won by default! That's not even considered a win! Besides, it's not like I duel for altruistic reasons..."
A sudden wave of embarassment ran through you because you felt undeserving of such words. "Su-surely you haven't drawn that just off my dueling..."
"I know you don't mean that!" He said confidently, waving you off with a laugh. "By the way, I realized that you were going the wrong way. Battle City is that way."
Mako had kindly pointed you in the direction of Battle City, but you looked at it whimisically in a hint of despair and apprehension. You covered that up quickly, plastering a hesitant smile on your features. "Um, well, actually, I was going back home real quick because I forgot something, you see..."
"What for? It looks to me that you have everything you need for this tournament right here," Mako's hands had found their way onto your shoulders, spinning you around to the direction of Battle City and he began to generously push you in that direction. "After all, you really just need your Duel Disk and your deck, which I see you have. This isn't Duelist Kingdom where you'd have to stay overnight and need other essentials. Battle City has set hours for each day until finalists are determined."
Your face scrunched in slight bewilderment. How had you forgotten such a fact?
Your face promptly sunk into a sulk once Kaiba came into your mind.
That's right -- you couldn't have forgotten if you were never told.
"You know Mai Valentine, right?"
Falling out of your thoughts your head popped right up to Mako's. "I'm sorry; what was that?"
Mako chuckled lightly for some reason...you had a feeling that it had something to do with you. Was he mocking you too?
"I saw you with Mai the other night at the pre-opening, and I was wondering if it was correct if I assumed you knew her?" he asked you sincerely. His smile slid into a poorly masked mischief. "Is that why I saw you going the opposite way of Battle City? Did you get lost?"
Suddenly feeling disgusted by Mako you slouched your shoulders away from him violently, breaking the slow, steady pace to Battle City. A tepid anger swept through you but not enough to produce any venom. You knew Mako was just teasing, it was obvious, but it still hit you somewhere...
Even though you looked like you were about to say something scathing you didn't; you just continued on in the direction of Battle City that Mako had pointed in earlier, leaving an almost wimpering Mako behind.
Until he got his bearings back.
"Hey, wait! I didn't mean anything by it!"
**********
There were a lot of people gathered in the Battle City area. They were either duelists or curious people who just wanted to see what was going on. Either way, it was becoming increasingly hard to walk and not touch or brush up against someone else.
Battle City's center was apparently in the heart of downtown Domino. You could get a good look at the top of the KC Tower just on a glance...
Your face began an automatic twitch.
Amongst the CEO's blatantly egotistical building were other smaller buildings, but taken out of comparison of the tower, they were still huge buildings. Obviously, downtown Domino was home to some rather important companies.
As you were exasperatingly oogling through the other buildings Mako came up behind you and gently lead you to the middle of the crowd.
"Do you see them yet?" you asked plainly, politely shoving the back of someone off of you.
He paused a bit before answering, caught up in trying to spot anything he recognized. "No, I don't see much of anyth-Wait. Hey! YUGI!!! YUGI MOTO!!!"
Swaying your head back and forth impatiently you finally caught sight of the same thing Mako did...
...Yugi's five-pointed star hair-cut.
Sweat. Drop.
Mako practically had to drug you over to where Yugi was when you noticed that Mai happened to be as well. You were none too-thrilled to say the least.
You faced away from the group, standing as far as you could and acted like you hadn't seen them. Not like that worked. You could practically feel Mai's mischevious smirk gracing her lips...
If just to spite you Mai didn't say anything, but you knew once you got back to her place tonight she'd never stop.
"Kenzie...? And Mako...?" Yugi stated in mild surprise. "I would have expected you to come with Mai. How do you know Mako?"
You only pouted in spite, giving Yugi a glare. You didn't want Mai to have anything else to laugh about later...
...But it seemed that Mai wasn't saying anything because she knew Yugi and Mako would make up for it.
You could hear Mai snickering from trying to not laugh out loud when Mako spoke up. "It seems that our little American Duelist here had lost her way to Battle City," he explained, gesturing to you with a display of his arms.
"But luckily, I was there to save her!" He posed dramtically, his bold thumb pointing on his chest.
You gave one sulky look of irritation at Mai...and she burst into a fit of obvious-prankster-like giggles. Not only did Mako and Yugi look at her strangely, but about half the downtown area had given "what a weirdo!" glances.
"Well, glad to see you're okay, Kenzie," she managed inbetween laughter, taking off while giving a cheeky wave at you and the others. "But I'll see you guys around; I've got some duels to win!!"
Broken off by the strange silence of Mai's antics was Mako's voice. "Yugi, it's good to see you again. I take it we missed Kaiba's opening remarks."
Yugi smirked in devlish fun, crossing his arms playfully. "It was more like a speech, but yes, you did miss it. The tournament's begun, and I'd like to find Joey. Apparently, a gang has stolen his prized card, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and I plan to get it back for him."
Mako seemed genuinely surprised but immediately went into an aggressive stance. "There's a gang of card thieves here?! I should have known this tournament would be no different!"
"Even so," Yugi seemed to cut Mako off before he began his righteous speech. He looked off towards an alleyway whimsically, almost as if he had seen something over there, "they seem to be quite dangerous even by one person, so please, I'd like for you two to be careful here."
Mako gave a smug look. "You don't have to worry about me, Yugi. You know I'd give them a run for their money."
Smiling in confidence, Yugi nodded his head but then gave a poignant look at you. You answered with your recently habitual, tepid look of indifference.
"Don't think I'm easy prey just because this is my first time to a tournament like this, Moto," you warned in thick resolve. You then gave a light sigh of exasperation and went to find someone to duel.
**********
Roughly forty-five minutes later you found yourself without any luck on even getting a chance to duel. The irony was that your wonderous reputation of 'Default Duelist' had preceded you here in Japan -- it was actually keeping people from coming near you.
Even some without Duel Disks.
Your mind seemed to run away with you... Something that Kaiba had said to you earlier in the week had stuck with you...
"It's already been established that your deck is worthless."
Your eyebrow began to tick deeply and fast. It was amazing that you hadn't got a muscle cramp from the action. Especially when your face was tensing to such a degree.
"You're not even a real duelist..."
A fresh wave of hot blood ran through your veins and made your skin tingle in subdued rage. Automatically, your fists clamped into a feverous clench.
"You're nothing."
Everything suddenly went numb in white anger, your teeth clamping down in bristled fury.
And then it erupted into a...
You were vastly unaware of the crazed aura that you were scaring the onlookers with but you were obviously NOT paying attention to that...
The first person you saw with a duel disk made you poise your finger at him dramatically, the sheer will of a challenge being channeled through your pointed finger, and making the surprised duelist actually turn around and face you.
"You there!" you called in vigorous resolve. "Duel me now!!"
The disturbed duelist looked at you, aghast, searching around to the onlookers for some kind of support on what to do...
...And when he got no answer he promptly ran the hell away from you.
**********
Around another hour later, you had still been without a duel on the first day of Battle City. You had seen countless other duelists with two and three locator cards by now. And what did you have...?
The one that you had been given from the start.
Your back sank a little lower in defeat. It seemed that wherever you went, no other duelists were around you anymore. At first you ran into a lot, even if they refused to fight you, but at least you had some prospective challengers to look at!
"HAHAHAHAAA! AND THAT'S WHAT YOU GET, LOSER!!"
Breaking you out of a despaired trance was a a boy with an ardent voice...and as you came to notice, flaming, red hair. It was more of an orange than a red. His shirt was a cool green, with a sleeveless black blazer with gray trim, and blue jean shorts. Next to him, whimpering pathetically on his knees was some kid...the dark aura of defeat actually too tangible for you too make out what he looked like.
You locked onto the boy with astonishment. He looked no older than you and he was acting like this...?
Said boy whipped around dramatically, putting in some fancy posing, and the first thing that flashed before you was his fervent amber eyes, demanding to the world that someone look at him.
The boy's posture seemed to relax in enlightenment...however, you were a little late in realizing why.
"Hey, YOU!!" He pointed at you profoundly, smirking as he did.
As if suddenly kicked in the backside you fumbled a bit, pointing to yourself gingerly with your non-disked hand. You looked around just to make sure though. "Wh-ha...? Me...?"
"Yeah! You in the turquoise shirt! Get yer sorry ass over here and duel me!" he demanded roughly. Your eye twitched. "Hey! You heard what Kaiba said...no one can refuse a challenge unless they wanna get kicked out!!"
Your eye ticked a few times more. "That didn't stop all those other people I tried to duel..."
Your back snapped in regal air, crossing your arms in dignity. "Puh, why would I duel a kid with no manners?"
Smirking after he reacted violently to your comment, he mashed his sandals on the ground as he stomped up to you in a thunder of rage. Compacting the space between your faces, he yelled loudly, making it almost impossible to breathe as he did so: "I'M NOT SOME LITTLE KID, WENCH!!! I'M MORE TALLER THAN YOU, AND THAT ALSO MEANS I CAN BASH YOUR FACE IN!!"
You waved off the kid in an exemptoraneous manner, raising an eyebrow. "You really don't act like it. If you aren't serious about your age, how can I be sure you're also serious about dueling?"
His face scrunched in contempt, albiet, it was subdued from your somewhat berated reasoning. "Alright, fine. But when I BEAT you, then you'll see that age doesn't matter!"
"I'm sure," you huffed as you both set up the distance you needed to project the duel disk hologram-generators. On que by each duelists, the generators launched about a meter or so away, and the Life Points flashed to life (4000).
Somehow, you were able to feel the jeer he had physically attributed to your appearance...
Twitch.
He'd already made a customized sneer just for you.
Your eyebrow still ticking at the manner, your careful resolve about this boy in front of you never wavered. "Just because he acts like a kid doesn't mean he'll exactly duel like one. He could actually be using it as a front to throw duelists off..."
You both drew a hand of five cards, yours accounting for: Coffin Seller (cont. trap), Chain Destruction (trap), Book of Moon (quick spell), Morphing Jar #2 (effect monster), House of Adhesive Tape (trap).
"Not a bad hand if I do say so myself." You scanned over your cards, thinking of the many ways you could put them together for the most devasting hit later on.
"HEY!!!" the boy called out to you. When he caught your attention, he had lazily began to rub that back of his short, messy, red-orange hair. "I ain't tryin' to seem better than you or nothin', so you can go first. I don't really care."
What the heck was this boy talking about? And his wording of it...? Wait. He was trying to be polite. You raised a peculiar eyebrow at the teen. He was acting kind of strange after your few choice words.
...And just when you thought he had changed for the better, he struck another dynamic pose, challenge emanting from his poised finger, and his face plastered with determination. "Alright! Before the formalities are over--"
Face. Fault.
He called what he had just said, "formality"?!
"--My name is TOMI TAKI!!" He posed again, this time with his one leg on a mini-mountain that he had searched out of his vest-blazer, and his un-disked hand pointing to some far away place.
You blinked ignorantly (that could not be helped), a somewhat thoughtfully confused finger by your cheek. "'Taki'...?" you repeated slowly. "You mean 'tacky' like your poses?"
Tomi promptly kissed the pavement and recovered in lightening speed, pointing a threatening finger at you and crushing his mini-mountain under the weight of his anger. "My poses are NOT 'tacky,' BITCH!! You're just jealous 'cause you ain't got any!!"
You played another exemptoraneous hand at Tomi, saying sarcastically, "Right, right. I'm in denial that you are the most 'awesomest duelist' because I don't have physical movements to parade my stupidity with."
"THAT'S IT!!! DRAW YOUR CARD, AND I'LL BEGIN TO MURDER YOU!!!"
You repressed a snort as you drew Nightmare Wheel (cont. trap) from your deck. You commenced to set Morphing Jar #2 face down, along with three magic/traps (Coffin Seller, Nightmare Wheel, Chain Destruction).
"What's with all the frickin' face down cards?" he mused aloud. "Well, two can play that game." Following his card draw, he set one monster card and one maigc/trap.
Your brows furrowed a bit. "If he thinks he's gonna bring me out and trap me through impatience he's got another thing coming."
Drawing Witch of the Black Forest (effect monster) from your deck you decided to skip your turn. There was no use in putting down more cards if your original cards hadn't been activated yet; what you had was sufficient enough for now.
You could practically feel Tomi's aura flare in offense. "Skipping your turn, huh? You've got a lot of nerve to do that so early in the duel..."
Tomi drew his next card with a sense of promised wrath. "Now, I'll set another monster card on the field, and activate Jar of Greed! I get to draw one card from my deck!"
He paused to see if you flinched at all. It was a known fact that cards that could help a duelist draw more cards from your deck would always help a duelist and give them the advantage, but doing that against your deck would prove to be suicide.
When Tomi saw that you hadn't even jerked an eyebrow, he just about growled. "Then I flip summon my UFO Turtle! And it's effe-"
"-Before you go any farther," you cut him off almost pompously. "I activate this face down card: Chain Destruction. It lets me get rid of the rest of the UFO Turtles in your deck, and to chain that effect, I'll activate my OTHER face down card, Coffin Seller -- which docks you 300 Life Points for every monster card that goes to your graveyard."
Tomi's eyes twitched violently.
"You're now down to 3700." (from the docking of the one extra UFO Turtle in Tomi's deck)
"ATTACK HER FACE DOWN CARD, UFO TURTLE!!!"
You smirked lightly, wanting to keep control of your pride. The wrinkled turtle in the metal, pointed, shell attacked your face down monster head on, sticking his pointed shell into the card. He had just revealed...Morphing Jar #2.
Obviously too angry to say anything, Tomi just followed what the card effect said; however, your Morphing Jar effect didn't do much damage at all. He only discarded one magic/trap (which didn't get any consequence from Coffin Seller), and he had another monster set on his side of the field. Tomi ended his turn quickly after that.
You drew Gravekeeper's Servant and activated it immediately. Not wanting to put down your Witch of the Black Forest down right away you ended your turn. You were well aware you had no monsters on your side of the field, but you were confident in your combo of Gravekeeper's Servant and Coffin Seller. Besides, you still had another set trap card on your end.
You just wanted to see if he'd take the bait that you were a "bad duelist."
"How nice of you," he mocked as he drew his card. "...But I'm not THAT stupid!!"
Your face melted into disbelief. "Could have fooled me, Tacky."
"And JUST for that, I'm gonna do this!!" He slammed a magic/trap card onto his duel disk and flip summoned one of the set monsters on his field. "I flip summon Poison Mummy! You take 500 points of Direct Damage!"
The Poison Mummy came to life from it's card sanctuary, a moldy, decaying smell filling the area. Your nose cringed in violation as the garment-tattered mummy lunged at you, opening it's mouth too wide for that of a human and spat a nasty-smelling dust at you. Coughing, your Life Points retreated to 3500.
After recovering from your coughing fit you initiated your draw phase, gaining another Book of Moon (quick spell) from your deck. You then decided to set Witch of the Black Forest and end your turn.
It turned out to be a quiet and tense turn. Tomi set one monster and a magic/trap on his turn and upon your next turn (drawing Cyber Jar), you set that as well. But all this was acting like a time bomb...
"I flip summon my Lady of Assailant Flames!" Tomi announced theatrically. "You have to discard three cards from the top of your deck, and for each card, you get docked 300 Life Points."
You felt your lips pucker in distaste. You were down to 2700 Life Points after that.
"But that's not all!" He was starting to remind you of those cheesy, stereotypical car salesmen back home... "I activate Torrential Tribute, wiping the field of all monsters. THEN, I activate my other Jar of Greed, drawing from my deck again!"
You licked your lips, nonsensically. "Not only does Coffin Seller deal 900 points of Direct Damage to you, but my face down card was Witch of the Black Forest. I'm pretty sure you know what that means." (Tomi's Life Points = 2800)
You took your deck out of your duel disk and thumbed through it, deciding on one card that would be nice to use against him: Needle Worm (effect monster). Showing it to Tomi before putting it in your hand you inserted your deck back in the duel disk and watched Tomi end his turn by placing a set monster on his side of the field.
You picked up a Hiro's Shadow Scout (effect monster) on your next turn. Briefly scanning over your cards you decided, "I'll set one monster and these two face down cards." They were Needle Worm and your two Book of Moon cards.
"Alright!" he started as he drew his next card. "I flip summon Fire Princess and activate the Gift of Mystical Elf! My life points will go up by 300 for each monster on the field, bringing me back to 3400 Life Points! And thanks to Fire Prnicess' effect every time I gain life points you lose 500 Life Points!"
Your mouth suddenly had a distaseful residue in your mouth and you made the appropriate face for it. "You know, for such a self-proclaimed 'macho' man, you sure use a lot of girly cards. You really are 'tacky'."
Steam blew out of his ears. You couldn't help but smirk; this was actually kind of fun!
"Oh YEAH?! Well why are YOU losing life points then, HUH?!?!!"
Eyebrows dipping in determination, your steady resolve came back. "Don't get all excited yet! I activate Nightmare Wheel and attach it to your Fire Princess!" You smiled slightly. This was one of your favorite cards, and if you knew this guy well enough he'd keep Fire Princess on his side of the field for the effect. "Now, for every one of your standby phases you'll be docked 500 Life Points as long as that card is on your--"
"--What was it you said about getting excited...?" Jeering, he slapped a card elegantly (for him, anyway) onto his magic/trap card field. "I activate Giant Trunade. Looks like your combo of magic and trap cards go 'bye-bye'!"
Tomi's eyes glinted from the sun, his stance radiating confidence. Your mind reeling from such a surprise, you could only watch in mild slack-jaw as Tomi finished his turn by summoning Cure Mermaid to his field in attack mode.
"Aww...did I string the little baby girl for a loop...?"
You positively wanted to slap his face silly.
"You didn't string me anywhere, moron!" you retaliated, more than a little heated. You were NOT going to be kicked out of the tournament in round one by this...this, child. "Or are you not aware that I can re-set everything on my next turn?!"
"No," he snorted, bemused. "I was aware. That was just to let you see that your deck is not totally invincible."
"I never said it was." You drew from your deck with conviction, your face not faultering from its current feature. Ah, another Gravekeeper's Servant. "I activate two Gravekeeper's Servants and place three more face down cards on the field, filling up my magic-trap zone. Then I'll flip summon my Needle Worm, initiating its effect -- which means, you discard five cards from the top of your deck to your graveyard!"
"Now, now," he ridiculed with his voice and free hand. "No need to get upset over my words. I was just giving a little advice from one duelist to another."
You became rigidly steady from Tomi's seemingly familiar attitude towards you. Your face becoming decreasingly expressive. "Look, Taki. You challenged me to a duel not a battle of wits and principles. If I wasn't so focused on this duel, I'd say you were trying to play with my mind and win this duel under-handedly."
As Tomi sat there looking a little sick you activated your quick-play spell card, Book of Moon. "I use my Book of Moon on Needle Worm, flipping it back face down."
Tomi grumbled a bit after your sharp comments, initiating his draw phase. "My Cure Mermaid adds 800 to my Life Points for every one of my turns it stays in face-up attack mode," he said plainly. "And you get hit another 500."
You stoicly gazed through Tomi's monsters. "I activate my Coffin Seller and put Nightmare Wheel back on your Fire Princess."
Something about Tomi's earlier comment bugged you... In fact, it was bugging so much to where you couldn't even enjoy this duel anymore.
"...your deck is not totally invincible."
The comment had made your blood run surprisingly cold, but more like, a foreboding kind of warning...
The score was currently you, 1700, and Tomi, 4200. Truth be told, anyone else would probably have given up with those odds, but you still felt like you could win. You had to.
Upon your next draw you picked up your Penguin Soldier. Immediately after, your Nightmare Wheel took its effect during the standby phase on Tomi, docking him 500 Life Points. Then, on your main phase you conducted your regular plays.
"I flip summon Needle Worm again. Discard 5 cards from the top of your deck to the graveyard."
Tomi complied sullenly, getting docked twice by your Coffin Seller trap from the two monsters he discarded.
"And to end my turn, I'll activate the second Book of Moon from my hand, flipping Needle Worm face down again. Then I'll set one monster face down." It was your Penguin Soldier; you were going to make him pay...by forcing him to discard the rest of his deck. With Penguin Soldier now on the field, you could create and infinite loop of the Needle Worm effect until he couldn't draw anymore cards.
Score recap: You - 1700, Tomi - 3100.
Tomi's next turn was far less than spectacular; he just drew his card and let his Cure Mermaid combo take its toll. Now the score was you: 1200, and Tomi at 3900.
On your draw phase you picked up Dark Snake Syndrome (cont. spell). Giving a slight "tch" at the unuseful card, your Nightmare Wheel effect came into play again.
"I flip summon my Needle Worm again! And my Coffin Seller docks you 3 times for that discarding," you stated. "You know, if you can't find a way to knock my Needle Worm lock you'll lose this duel."
"What're you talking about?!" he mocked irately. "You don't have any more of those stupid Book of Moon cards on your side of the field! In fact, you don't have anything face down in your magic-trap card zone!!"
You smiled. "True. But I do have this..."
You flip summoned Penguin Soldier. "Penguin Soldier allows me to return two monsters on the field back to their designated players' hand. First I'll send back Needle Worm...and then I'll send back Penguin Soldier."
Tomi practically growled at you in retaliation. He knew he was done in if he couldn't find a way to get rid of that combo. You had really locked him into this one now. As long as you had that Penguin Soldier card you'd be able to use Needle Worm infinitely.
Sticking your nose up a bit, hands on your hips, you commented, "Looks like your deck slot is a little meager from what I can see. I'd say two more run-ins with my Needle Worm's effect at the most, and you'll lose this duel."
Tomi's face sneered in disgust. "Shut up!! WHAT DO YOU KNOW?! It's not like you've counted the cards discarded this whole duel and you don't even know THE NUMBER OF CARDS MY DECK HAS EITHER!!!"
"I don't need to given the set ratios for decks in this tournament," you informed him. "An average duelists' deck is around 45-50 cards, and you've been hit by my Needle Worm three times -- that's almost half of your deck in the graveyard on that card alone." You put a hand on our hip almost arrogantly, dropping your disked hand momentarily. "I don't think I need to remind you the number of trap cards you've sent to the graveyard either.
"Basically, I don't need to count how many went in your graveyard to know that you're riding on your last few draws. My deck will do you in before your stupid Fire Princess effect kills me."
"SHUT UP!! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!!" he yelled back, trying to pick up his shattered ego. "I'll show you...! I'll show you!!"
Drawing his card, Tomi did nothing in defense and looked even more pissed off because of it. His Cure Mermaid combo went to work again leaving you at 700 and Tomi at 3300.
"He must not have anything good to lay down," you thought, initiating your draw phase. "Of course, with what I just told him, he must realize it's true; with my Gravekeeper's Servants on the field as well, he'd still have to discard even if he did attack..."
From the draw, you picked up Hiro Shadow Scout (effect monster). You couldn't exactly use it right now, so you just added it to your hand, letting the Nightmare Wheel take effect again.
"I set this monster card face down," you looked up at him stoicly. "Not that I have to tell you what it is... And I end my turn."
Tomi became fearfully quiet all of a sudden. Maybe, you thought, he had just realized that he was going to lose by nothing to draw. In fact, he didn't do anything during his turn except draw his card and let his Cure Mermaid combo take place.
Now at 200 Life Points, you became a little jittery drawing your card. What if you were wrong? What if you had put that part of the match too much on chance?
"No!" you shook your head. "I can't think like that. Not now."
You had drawn Jinzo -- your deck's big hitter. Jinzo was actually one of your back up cards for when your strategies didn't set off, but given the indefinite outlook of the duel...you wouldn't be able to get him out there as your back up plan in time to save your Life Points.
"I set one monster card, flip summon Needle Worm, and end my turn," you stated emotionlessly, too strung up to get into the duel now.
This time, you watched as Tomi discarded five cards from the top of his deck to his graveyard...and you saw...!!!
THERE WERE NONE LEFT FOR HIM TO DRAW!!!
You had won the duel!!
Hearing a disgusted groan from Tomi, you let out a huge sigh, wiping your brow of some tense sweat that had stayed their on the later half of the duel.
You began to clear your field of your cards, grabbing the cards in your graveyard, and put them in your deck. Just before you had a chance to begin shuffling them again Tomi had come up to you. He looked...humbled in a way.
"Hey, good duel," Tomi said sincerely, holding out his hand for you to shake. However, he looked a little reluctant to do so.
You accepted his hand, giving a small smile of appreciation. "Thanks. You kept me on my toes I have to admit."
Tomi gave a snarky sneer. "You serious? You're a sneaky kind of wench, aren't ya?"
"Well, I just try to keep that confidence of mine up," you rubbed the back of your head sheepishly. "I've learned that if you show any sign of weakness you'll never live it down."
Tomi reached into the deep pocket of his blue jean shorts and handed you one locator card and one of the rarest cards from his deck.
"No!" you said sternly. "I won't take a card from your deck."
He looked at you like you were crazy. "What're you, stupid? Those are the rules. I would've taken your rarest card if I'd won."
"I know you would have, Tacky," you rolled your eyes to a deadpan look, "but that's not the point. I don't break duelists' decks up when they've worked so hard to get those cards and practiced with them for so long."
"Tch, whatever," he rubbed his hair in mild confusion, "but I don't look a gift horse in the mouth."
Tomi started to leave but suddenly stopping and looking back at you. "'Confidence,' eh? That's a nice way of putting it -- you're more like an arrogant wench, if you ask me."
Your eyebrow ticked. "You know, I could just take your card to spite you!!"
Tomi pulled his bottom eyelid down and stuck his tongue out. "No way! No take backs, Ms. Arrogant!" And then he promptly ran off.
"God, that childish--"
The sound of dull clapping broke you out of your rising fume-rage state; it almost sounded like it was mocking you.
Turning around, eyebrow ticking incessantly at the thought of someone's nerve to do that to you when you had just won...
It had to be Kaiba. You just knew it...
...But it turned out to be a very smug-looking Yugi, his back drapped against a light post.
