Chocolate brown eyes gazed over the duel before him, watching the Chancellor make his move. The moment he saw his headmaster use Polymerization, he felt a chill down his spine, causing him to shudder slightly. While Jaden was glad that he could once again use his normal fusion summoning that he held dear to his heart, the card never failed to send that first wave of fear through him. These days Jaden was just a whole lot better at keeping it under control. He couldn’t be weak - not anymore.
Once the Chancellor finished his turn, Jaden watched Yusei step to the duelling podium, making his first move. He doesn’t react to any of his moves or to the monsters summoned, nor does he comment on it either. As long as this duel was over and done with, Jaden didn’t care what Yusei played. He just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
After Yusei played his final card, Jaden took a deep breath and stepped up to the duelling podium just as Dorothy stepped up to hers. It was rather unusual to have Dorothy be a part of this team and the Slifer student was curious about what kind of deck she had, considering he had never seen her duel before. Who knows? Maybe she had some sort of secret talent that he didn’t know about or-
Was this seriously happening right now? What the hell was Dorothy doing here in this tournament if she didn’t even know how to duel? Alright then. Guess he had no choice but to help her out.
“Uh… You need to draw a card from your deck first.” He shrugged, giving the card shop owner a sheepish smile.
“Oh! That’s right, isn’t it? Okay then! I draw!” Dorothy yelled out with a grin across her face, drawing her first card. Alrighty then Dorothy. Let’s see what kind of deck you have—
“I summon Marshmallon in attack mode!”
Oh you have got to be kidding.
“How’s that? It can’t be destroyed in battle!” Dorothy’s proud huff brought Jaden out of his mild insanity over the simple move as he stared at the marshmallow monster in shock. So… Dorothy had no idea what she was doing. What a great start to the tournament.
“Yeah,” Jaden placed a hand on his hip as he cringed lightly from having to explain the rules to her, “but its attack point cancel out with Yusei’s Sonic Chick.”
“Eh? What? It can’t beat it?” Dorothy glanced at her cards in confusion, resting her chin in her free hand for a moment before shrugging. “Oh well. It can’t be helped. I end my turn.”
“…But you could’ve— Ahh never mind.” Jaden just shook his head, placing a hand to his temple with a sigh. Well that certainly just happened. Maybe Dorothy should just stick to selling cards rather than actually… playing them. For now, he would just focus on winning.
“It’s my move now. Alright, I draw!” Two years ago, Jaden would have the brightest grin across his face as he went up against a new challenger. Now? His confident smile was replaced with a determined frown, desperate to get this duel over and done with it. He didn’t care how tough he had to be to them in order to finish this, he just wanted to leave. Maybe it was harsh, but it was nothing compared to what Jaden had been capable of last year.
The scar across Yusei’s face was clear proof of that.
Jaden took a quick glance at the card he drew before adding it to his hand, observing what move he could make. Okay yeah maybe he should have checked the set card Yusei had put down for him, but what was the point when he wasn’t even going to use it? Considering the hand he had, he already had the perfect combination; this duel would be over in no time.
“I activate the spell card Polymerization! This lets me fuse Sparkman and Necroshade together to bring out Elemental Hero Darkbright!” The slifer duelist called out his commands, showing his two Elemental Heroes before bringing in his polymerization card, the serious light in his eyes refusing to fade as the two monsters fused together to bring out a different hero, with golden wings and a dark aura around it. Just as Jaden’s gaze showed how serious he was, his monsters equally reflected that thanks to their connection. It was clear that Jaden refused to go easy on his opponents, even when they were the Chancellor and Dorothy.
“Now it’s time to battle! Darkbright, attack Marshmallon!”
“W-What? But Marshmallon can’t be destroyed in battle!” Dorothy insisted, but Jaden just shook his head as his monster appeared in front of her defences, Darkbright’s hand lighting up as a dark orb appeared in his palms, ready to attack.
“Even though it can’t be destroyed, damage from the attack is calculated normally! Now go! Dark Flash!” Jaden’s monster quickly obeyed, aiming his arm at Marshmallon and having his dark ball of energy shoot right through the monster, attacking Dorothy and the Chancellor. As they both recovered from the damage, Jaden looked down at his duel disk to check the score. Okay, that brought them down to 2300 life points. This worked out perfectly.
“But I’m not done yet! Next I activate the spell card De-Fusion!” Jaden pulled out another card from his hand, showing it to his opponents as Darkbright jumped into the air. “This lets me defuse Darkbright to special summon Sparkman and Necroshade!” A bright light covered the duelling arena as Darkbright split into his original counterparts, both heroes taking a step forward with their arms folded as they got ready to attack. “Sparkman! Attack Marshmallon!”
Sparkman jumped up in front of the marshmallow monster, his hand in front of its face as it shot a wave of electricity through it, once again hitting the two adults. With another quick glance down at his duel disk, Jaden watched their life points fall to 1000.
That’s it. They were through.
“Now I use Necroshade to attack Marshmallon! Dark Scratch!” Sparkman quickly fell back just as Necroshade moved forward and threw a dark orb in Marshmallon’s direction, going right through it to hit the opponent. It seemed as if the first duel was a little bit too much for the card shop owner as Dorothy fell into the Chancellor’s arms. She was conscious, but still stunned nevertheless.
“Dorothy!” He called out to her before turning back to Jaden with a slight glare. “I cannot forgive you for doing this to Dorothy! I will have my revenge during my next turn!”
“Uhh…” Jaden rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as his other hand pointed to the monsters that began to fade away. “You don’t have a next turn. Your life points are already at zero.”
“W-What?!” The Chancellor yelled out in surprise as the buzzing noise from their duel disks quickly indicated the winners — Jaden and Yusei. Eventually Dorothy and the Chancellor just looked at each other and bursted out laughing, apparently finding their lose hilarious. Well hey at least they had fun. Sure the duel was a lot faster than Jaden was expecting, but he wasn’t complaining. The faster the better. Then he could finally leave.
While the two continued to laugh, Jaden just turned away from the duelling podium and walked back to Yusei’s side, making sure to avoid any sort of eye contact. As much as it hurt him to do so, he needed to stay far away from Yusei. He couldn’t bare to be by his side for too long after what he did. The scar was too much of a harsh reminder about the past.
“I guess I’ll see you in the next round.”
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.”
