What an interesting start to the tournament this was, as Yusei was left to quirk up an eyebrow as he watched the rest of the duel behind Jaden to find that… Dorothy was most likely dueling for the very first time tonight. That was… wonderful. It was somewhat amusing, and amusing to others as laughter filled the stands every so often, to see Jaden have to coach Dorothy into doing something as simple as playing a card. While it may have been amusing to see Jaden have to deal with someone who had no idea what they were doing… his demeanor wasn’t amusing in the least.
Still remembering the person Jaden was before their third year, he was sure that he would have just laughed with everyone else and still offered friendly advice – maybe even actually told Dorothy that strategy that he decided to keep to himself for the sake of… winning, it seemed. Jaden’s new way of dueling was far more savage and unforgiving, as was easy to see with how he summoned Darkbright without a second thought, and took the advantage of Dororthy forgetting to put Marshmallon in defense mode to slice their life points down immediately.
Using De-Fusion to finish the job in one turn? That was the cruelest move he had seen Jaden make in the duel, and left his eyes wide as Dorothy fell backwards and into the Chancellor’s arms. It seemed as if they were a couple meant to be, as the Chancellor had to be reminded how the game he ran a school to teach worked.
“Uhh… You don’t have a next turn. Your life points are already at zero.”
“W-What?!”
At least the Chancellor and Dorothy were able to laugh their mistakes off with the crowd, causing an uproar throughout the entire arena that it seemed like only Yusei and Jaden themselves didn’t join in on. Yusei released a chuckle as they laughed at their mistakes with everyone else. His humor was short lived, though, as he couldn’t ignore Jaden walking away from the podium in silence, blue eyes staring at him with every step he took.
The gaze wasn’t returned, and that didn’t help things. First duel done and over with, and it seemed that Yusei’s message didn’t reach Jaden at all. Naturally, considering he didn’t even check the card he placed face down on the field. To the point where Jaden didn’t even pick it up for him, apparently. He he took a step to get his Junk Barrage card off of the podium before the next match started, he stopped in his tracks with wide eyes at the fact that Jaden… spoke to him.
Things really had changed when that was a genuine surprise.
“I guess I’ll see you in the next round.”
The tournament continued on after their victory – many duelists won and lost, and the next round was set to begin just as the last one had; with Jaden and Yusei taking center stage. Yusei was able to leave the stands to find Jaden waiting behind the duelists currently on the podium they had used before, waiting for the next round to begin.
He was able to greet Jaden just in time, as the team that had already had a decisive lead struck the finishing blow to the Ra Yellow that stood on the podium with his Obelisk Blue partner.
It didn’t take long for Hasselberry to take to his usual announcing, making it loud and clear across the arena that the Ra Yellow boy and Obelisk Blue girl had lost their chance at winning and were gone as the final match of the first round.
“Now to kick off our second round with a bang, we’ve got Yusei and Jaden goin’ up against Virgilius and Temo!”
At the next duel being called, Yusei decided to go ahead and step up to the podium, sure to be the one to go first between them. While Jaden probably just had a good hand last turn, and was sure of himself that he didn’t need whatever Yusei had placed before him, he wasn’t going to be tossed aside like last time. He was sure of it.
He was going to make a play that would allow his outstretched hand to reach Jaden with no questions asked. He was determined on that.
He did his part and greeted Virgilius with honor, and echoed his determined banter in kind. With that tradition done, it was time to properly start the next match.
“I’ll take the first move! I draw!” With a fwip, Yusei added another card into his hand, finding himself satisfied with both his draw, and of what cards he held in his hand to help him out.
Yes. With these, reaching Jaden would be much easier than the last duel. With his faith in his cards, they would never let him down.
“I summon Speed Warrior in Attack Mode!” With a raise of his arm, he threw the card down onto his Duel Disk, allowing the warrior in dark green armor to appear from a hole that formed on the battlefield, appearing out of it with a rotating flip, landing skillfully on his feet with a shout. But even after such a skillful entrance, Yusei brought a card to his face.
“He won’t stay. I sacrifice Speed Warrior to special summon Turret Warrior by effect!!”
Speed Warrior seemed to acknowledge his fate as he stood upright as a light engulfed him, turning him into a ball of light that shot into the sky, eventually exploding out to expose another warrior-type monster that had it’s card on Yusei’s duel disk in place of Speed Warrior’s own. His arms were made up of towers and wood armor, with cannon sitting on the top of the shoulders that were far above his helmeted head. He fell to the duel field with his own battle cry, landing on the metal surface with a thud that, if it wasn’t for it being a hologram, would have shaken the ground he stood on.
“Turret Warrior’s effect! Through sacrificing Speed Warrior to summon him, he gains Speed Warrior’s Attack Points!”
The monster clenched it’s hands clad in metallic armor as it let out yet another battle cry as it’s effect powered it up. The Obelisk Blue that stood on the other side of Yusei swallowed.
“A–… A 2100 Attack monster on your very first turn…?!”
Yusei nodded to his opponent.
“Yes. I can’t attack, however. I place one card face down, and end my turn.”
With that done, he unplugged his duel disk and allowed Jaden to step forward. The card he played last was Card Rotator. Judging by Virgilius’ reaction to the monster he had summoned, he was probably going to play something in defense mode to defend himself. With Card Rotator, Jaden would easily be able to switch it into attack mode by just discarding some card he didn’t need at the moment, and even if he got a bad hand this time, he had Turret Warrior on his side.
Good. He had set up a play that no matter how good Jaden’s hand was, he wouldn’t be able to continue without at the very least using Turret Warrior to finish the job.
Now, it was all a matter of seeing if his instincts were right, and if Virgilius would play exactly as Yusei expected.
“O-Okay… my turn now…! I draw!” The boy took his time analyzing his cards, clearly nervous with such a strong monster on the field. “O–.. Okay.. I summon Stone Statue of the Aztecs in defense position!!”
Another portal, much like the one that brought in Speed Warrior, appeared; letting through a creature with a face, shoulders, and hands all made out of emerald stone, bellowing out a deep, resonating sound upon appearing in full on the field.
Yusei had made the correct play, it seemed. He was going on the defensive, just as he expected, and with defense and attack points that weren’t enough, it was all the boy had.
This duel was theirs; especially if Jaden kept playing like he had thus far.
“A-and before I end my turn, I play the spell card Mist Body and equip it to Stone Statue of the Aztecs!!”
The monster of emerald stone faded until he was a translucent form, bellowing much quieter this time in response.
“So… how was that? You may be able to attack me, but you can’t do damage and you can’t destroy my monster by just attacking! It’s the perfect impenetrable defense!”
Well, Virgilius had most of it right; it was a mostly impenetrable defense. Mostly. Mist Body didn’t protect his monster from card effects, and while it wouldn’t destroy it with just card effects alone, little did his fellow Obelisk Blue know that Yusei had set Card Rotator. Once the boy had exclaimed that his turn was over, and let his female partner take the stand, Yusei knew that no matter what Jaden did, he was certain to use his cards to his advantage.
Take my hand, Jaden. Let me help you.
And, to help him in his mission, to perhaps… encourage him to open himself up to his message, before Jaden began his turn…
“Jaden.” He spoke aloud, with his arms crossed as he stood just about a foot away from his partner. There was a silence, for a time, before Yusei let a smirk come onto his features.
“Show them what you can do.”
Jaden once again let Yusei take the lead as they came face to face with Virgilius and Temo. He was fine with sitting back and watching the duel for the moment. Thanks to everything that had happened over the last couple of years, he found observing his opponents' strategies to be extremely helpful in assuring his own victory. It only made things easier when his opponents were very predictable. Setting up a strong defense against Yusei's monster was a typical move – one that would be their downfall against Jaden's own strategy.
He had to focus on his turn in this duel... it made him too anxious to focus on anything else – like how there were so many people in the room watching this duel... watching him. This was the first time Jaden had made such a public appearance; of course, people wanted to watch what would happen in the duels to come.
But... did it have to be this many people? There were so many... The crowd made it hard for Jaden to think… hard for him to breathe. He just wanted to get this over and done with so he could curl back up in his bed – back in the darkness where he finally felt safe.
... well, as safe as he could possibly get these days, anyway.
The gentle hush of his name quickly brought the Slifer duelist out of his panicked thoughts, a soft gasp leaving his lips as he saw who had called out to him.
"Show them what you can do."
Hesitant chocolate brown eyes gazed up at the Shooting Star of Obelisk as Jaden opened his mouth to try and say something in return, but... what could he possibly say to him right now? Jaden had lost the right to talk to Yusei with such heartfelt words the moment he had started ignoring him and treating him like dirt. What could Jaden do now to make that up to him? ... Nothing, probably. Surely it was too late.
So with a soft sigh, Jaden closed his mouth and the sadness in his eyes returned as he took a few steps forward without saying a single word to Yusei. His heart ached at his own actions, but he did his best to ignore it as he tried to focus on the duel before him.
“Alright, it’s my turn! I draw...!" Jaden finally announced, drawing a card from his deck. He let himself gaze over it for a moment before deciding that it would work perfectly towards his strategy. Well if Yusei wanted Jaden to show everyone what he could do, then he was going to be in for a big surprise with what plan he had in store for their poor opponents.
"I summon Neo-Spacian Flare Scarab!" He called out, setting his card down on the field so a portal could open up and bring his monster out onto the field. "But that's not all! I activate the spell card, Fake Hero! This lets me special summon one monster from my hand that includes the words "Elemental HERO" in its card name. So, I choose Elemental HERO Neos!"
"Y–You brought out your ace card on your first turn?!" The girl gasped out as Neos appeared through his own bright portal, quickly landing next to Flare Scarab.
"I'm not done yet! Now I'll use Contact Fusion to bring out Elemental HERO Flare Neos!” With a raise of Jaden’s hand, both Neos and Flare Scarab jumped into the air, a determined cry leaving both their lips as they combined their powers into one, a bright flame taking their place that soon faded away to show Flare Neos on the field. “Then I’ll activate the field spell Neo Space!" As soon as the card was placed down, everything surrounding the four duelists started to shift; the crowd and the rest of the dueling arena faded away and was replaced with a range of different colors as if they were all caught in some kind of cosmic wave. While the field spell may have been new for some to experience, Jaden was already far too used to it, and he took their moment of awe as a chance to fill his sudden need to win – to get this over with and finally be alone and away from the crowd.
"And with Neo Space activated, I'll add H – Heated Heart into the mix! With both of those effects in play, Flare Neos gets 1000 attack points!" Despite the anxious aching in his chest that begged him to hurry up, Jaden waited until the fire that burned around Flare Neos ceased, watching the monster's attack points rise. It was only until the system had finished registering it did Jaden take another card out from his hand.
"If you think I'm done with you, then I've got some bad news for you because I activate Gift of the Martyr! This lets me send Turret Warrior to the graveyard and their original attack points are given to Flare Neos until the end of this turn!"
And that... was the mistake Jaden hadn't even realized he'd made. Maybe if he hadn't been so focused on just trying to win as desperately as he was, then he would have noticed the confused aura coming from both Flare Neos and Turret Warrior. Destroying one of Yusei's monsters for his own gain without even asking for consent? Jaden had never done anything so cruel... outside of being the Supreme King, of course.
But he was desperate. If he didn't finish this now, he was sure he'd fall into a panic attack right on the spot. And having it happen in front of everyone? Yeah... no thanks.
So as Turret Warrior shattered into pieces and disappeared from the field, Jaden lifted his hand up once again, "Now I'll activate Flare Neos' monster effect! For each spell and trap card on the field, Flare Neos gains 500 attack points!"
Virgilius and Teemo took a step back, their eyes widening in shock as soon as they realized just what kind of trouble they were in.
"N–Now Flare Neos has a total of 6500 attack points...?!" They cried out, but Jaden wouldn't give them a single shred of mercy as he gave his monster a determined look, knowing all too well what it was time for.
"Let's battle! Flare Neos! Attack Stone Statue of the Aztecs!"
With such a harsh command leaving Jaden's lips, Flare Neos jumped up and sent a fireball straight for Virgilius' monster, sending it up in flames before watching it explode, the force knocking Virgilius right off his feet as his life points with Teemo went straight down to zero. Once again, a beep from their duel disks signaled the end of the match, and the field spell around them faded away, returning them to their original setting.
A few pants left Jaden's lips as he placed a hand on his heart, trying to get it to calm down before he looked over at his opponents. Crap... did he really just pull another one turn kill? Damn it. So much for not wanting to make a scene; as chocolate brown eyes looked up at the audience, he was met with... everyone staring. Shit. He needed to get out of here.
"Hey..!" Jaden quickly called out to his opponents, "You guys alright? Sorry about that...!" Hopefully, the crowd would be satisfied with that short apology. Jaden didn't have the time to give a proper one right now. So instead of sticking around, he turned the other way and tried to make a subtle break for it.
Of course Jaden forgot one crucial detail – one that would put a harsh halt to his escape plan.
