Dreams of Reality [PG-13] [Can someone review this for me?]

[Guest Star]

[spoiler=A Vision]“A Vision...”

 

Rubble. Dirt, rock, trash even. That was the common theme nowadays. The city that had once been, well, a city, was now nothing more than a wasteland. Sure, there were people, but when people’s personalities and actions were more disgusting than the trash that lined the streets, there might as well’ve been no people at all. Rayori was seventeen. He’d lived on his own for the past four years in the dump known simply, as “The Underground”. It wasn’t legitimately underground, but with the amount of visitors it had, and the way its citizens carried themselves, the world would be better off if it was. All he had was his deck, his duel disk (one he’d managed to find left on the street somewhere), and an old and tattered notebook, with nothing but a couple of scribbled drawings in it.

 

He never met his parents, and prior to being out on his own spent his life in an empty apartment building with a few “friends”. They weren’t really friends either, but compared to some of the people here, they were at least tolerable. He didn’t even know his own last name; no one cared about the people here. They were ignored and had very little contact with the rest of the world. It wasn’t that they weren’t allowed contact, it was just too risky to even attempt it. The streets between the Underground and the rest of the world were more dangerous than the Underground itself. Dueling wasn’t just a lifestyle here; it was the only way to survive. People would gamble and bet their savings, earnings, even food on games hoping to gain something in return. This city had destroyed itself, and there was nothing anyone could – or wanted to – do about it.

 

It hadn’t always been like that—or so he’d heard, anyway. Since he was born, it’d been like that, struggling to survive. He couldn’t even remember the first ten or so years of his childhood. He had no idea who had taken care of him, or if anyone even had at all. But there was something about Rayori that made him different from the rest of the world; his passion for dueling. Rayori had heard stories about what duel monsters was like in the rest of the world; tournaments, games, competitions, it wasn’t like that here. You played to survive. And even then, it wasn’t guaranteed. Because of this, he’d spent the past four years of his life refusing to participate in such games. Rather, he’d scramble around to shops when they were closed, and take food for himself. It was wrong, but the Underground had no sense of right wrong. There were two choices: life, and death. It was Rayori’s passion, his goal of someday escaping this place and experiencing the kind of life he’d always heard about that allowed him to go on, to continue fighting to stay alive. And so far, he’d done alright.

 

With dueling being the main way of getting, well, pretty much anything, there were always lowlifes who went around stealing cards, resorting to violence to do so. You almost had to sympathize with them, though. Some of them had kids, and those who didn’t knew it was the only way to survive. It was like, they weren’t doing it to hurt you, rather to prevent themselves from being hurt. This was why Rayori spent whatever time he wasn’t traveling, sharpening his fighting skills. He’d spent hour after hour training, learning how to defend himself incase the need arose. And people knew it. He was considered an outcast. Funny, almost, in a town like this that the one “normal” person would be considered and outcast, but he understood it. Mainly, he left the world alone, and the world did the same for him. But he didn’t want that. Of course being safe was a positive, but he wanted to experience life, and that’s something that he promised himself he would achieve.

 

“Hey, kid.” Everything had been calm. It was late at night, he thought. He didn’t have a watch, or a phone, or any means of telling what time it was, but it was dark, so it was either really late or really early. It didn’t matter, it wasn’t like he had anything to do. Night was the best time to attempt and leave, but there was always the concern...always the fear of someone attacking him, and at night, skills or not, it wasn’t as simple as hitting a couple of karate moves. Upon hearing the voice, he whipped around. There wasn’t much noise; there hardly ever was in this part of town. “I said, hey kid. You’re not ignorin’ me, are you?” It took him a moment, but he was able to see the figure. It was a man, perhaps five feet, nine inches tall, and he was standing about five feet away from him. He had a duel disk on, and he looked exactly like your typical 50’s movie villian. The darkness made it hard to see, but it looked as if the man was wearing a black leather jacket, some jeans that were ripped in a couple of places, and worn out shoes. That was high-maintenance here.

 

“I heard you.” He spoke quietly, with no emotion. He didn’t want to let this guy in on anything about him. You don’t make friends here; that was a mistake he’d made once and didn’t intend on making again. “I was just contemplating whether or not I was actually interested in what you had to say.” There was unintentional arrogance in his voice. Growing up, he’d developed a cold-hearted personality. Not because he didn’t like people, but because the only people he’d ever been around were cruel, spineless losers. It was fair to see he was one too, but he was the only one he knew with the determination to make a change.

 

“Hm, so you have a bit of an attitude, do you?” Typical “intimidation” attempts were nothing new here. He’d heard the same damn thing every day. He was usually left alone, but there was always that one guy, or perhaps two guys, who tried to mess with him. He paid no attention to them, and why should he? He wasn’t one of them. He may have looked it with his tattered clothing, spiked hair, worn out shoes, and even his duel disk wasn’t in good condition, but it was his personality that set him apart. “I can change that.” Rayori had sensitive hearing, but you didn’t need it to know how to deal with these guys. The man took a step forward, preparing to make good on his threat.

 

Rayori kept focus, but showed no signs of intimidation, or fear. Doing so would automatically give your enemy the upper hand. No, he simply stood, and waited. “Kid, I’m warnin’ you. I’ve had a bad day as it is, and if you’re not gonna comply voluntarily, I have no problem showing you the error of your ways.” The man snickered, continuing with his lame scare attempts. He spoke, and he was certainly confident in himself, yet he only took one step at a time.

 

“Tell me…what is it that I could possibly do for you?” It wasn’t a matter of not knowing what this guy was onto. They all wanted the same thing; cards. Dueling was the way of life around here; he wasn’t sure how it had become that way, but the best guess was greed and power. People saw Duel Monsters as an opportunity to quickly rise through the ranks of the city, to be the “authority” figure here. Like that would ever happen. You could look up “chaos” in the dictionary, and you’d see a sky shot of the Underground. The richest person here could actually afford to buy a bottle of water, and that was about the extent of it. This guy wanted his cards, and this guy wasn’t going to get them.

 

“Well kid…I was just hoping we could talk, for a moment.” Again with the snicker. This guy was crazy, just like 75% of this city. You’d be lucky to find someone completely in the right state of mind here. Then again, maybe it was Rayori himself who was in the wrong state of mind. Maybe everyone else was right, and he was just crazy, trapped in his own little world of nothing but dreams he’d never be able to realize. But maybe not. And it was that “maybe not” that drove him to continue fighting to realize his dream; he wanted to make a real life for himself.

 

“Cut the crap.” Rayori snapped at him. “I’ve got no time to waste; I honestly think I’d learn more from conversing with a brick wall than I’ll learn standing here and listening to you trying to pull this sh*t.” The anger in his voice definitely got to the man, as he was silent for a good minute. They both stood there, Rayori staring at the man, who returned the stare.

 

The man went to speak, but instead burst out in laughter. “Look at this guy. You’re just a class act, aren’t you? I don’t play games, kid. You’re right, I don’t want to talk. What I want from you, is your deck.” And there it was. Oh the surprise. “I’ve been on a bit of a losing streak lately, and I’m tired of sitting around and waiting for the opportunity to arise. Them guys down there at the stadium think they’ve seen the last of me; they’ve taken everything I got, but that ain’t the case.” He paused. “I’ll give you one of two options…you can either hand them over, or I’ll take them by force.” Rayori stared at him, but remained silent. It seemed to agitate the man, yet Rayori couldn’t help but smile. “What’s it gonna be?”

 

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t play games like the rest of them do.” The man watched, listening closely. “I’m a bit of an outcast, but I prefer it that way. As for my cards, you might wanna find someone else. Though I’ll warn you, should you try anything, I’m not afraid to fight back.”

 

“Oh yeah? So you’re a tough guy now, huh? Your choice, punk!” The man had heard enough. Stepping forward faster than usual, he extended his right arm and prepared to swing. A right hook that would’ve surely knocked him out. That was the plan, anyway. To the man’s dismay, Rayori grabbed his fist, stopping him in his tracks. He pushed down, pressing the man’s arm into his chest and practically locking his fist into position. With a knee to the gut, the man dropped to one knee, and exhaled heavily. Rayori didn’t release his grip.

 

“Listen, and listen close.” Rayori spoke quietly, with an intimidation factor that hadn’t been there before. One that certainly took the man by surprise. “I’m going to count to three. When I reach three, I’m going to let go of your hand. Upon that, you have one of two options. You can either leave in peace, and let me get back to what I was doing, or I’ll knock every single one of your teeth down your throat, then leave you here in a pile of your own failure.” It wasn’t subtle, and it didn’t need to be. He had no intention of being friends with this guy, and no intentions of giving him anything. “One…two…three.” Rayori let go, and the man instantly grabbed his right arm, wincing at the pain.

 

“Tough guy, are you?!” He seemed to get a burst of adrenaline as he pushed Rayori back. He didn’t fall, but his notebook did fall out of his pocket. Suddenly, the man scurried to pick it up, and grasped it tightly. “Well well, what’ve we got here?” Rayori gained his balance, and instantly advanced toward the man. “Hey now, we wouldn’t want anything to happen to this, would we?” Again with the chuckle. He held the notebook in the air, and stood. That notebook was one of three things Rayori owned in this world, and for more reasons than one, it was extremely important to him. However the man’s threats to destroy it made him stop in his tracks. He couldn’t let that happen. He lowered his head. “Admitting defeat so soon, are we? I think I’ll just keep this, then.” He paused. “Unless…”

 

Rayori looked up. As badly as he wanted it, he refused to give up his cards. This guy was out of his mind, and he’d been so careless as to let him get the upper hand. “Unless what? If you think you’re getting these, you can think again. You’re going to give that back to me; I guarantee it.”

 

“It seems as if this is…quite of value to you, then.” Rayori didn’t move. He didn’t have to; this guy knew he’d backed him into a corner. “No, no, I don’t want your cards. You see, I’ve got a better idea.” The man reached into his pocket. He pulled out a folded piece of paper, perhaps in better condition than the rest of his clothing. The man extended his hand, and threw the paper. Rayori grabbed it, getting the message. Slowly, he unfolded it. It appeared to be somewhat faded, but he could make out the words “Duel…Monsters…Competition…”.

 

“What is this? I told you I don’t—”

 

“I know what you told me, kid.” He laughed. “However it appears I’m in control now. Look at you, you’ve got nothing. You’re a pitiful excuse for a human being, with no one in your life and nothing there for you. Yet you carry yourself quite highly.” The man spat on the ground. “It sickens me. If you want your little book back, you’re going to enter the competition. And don’t worry, it won’t go against your “standards”. What you need to do is simply win the tournament. There’s a big prize, and that prize, you’re going to give it to me.” Rayori widened his eyes a bit, hardly surprised by the news. “Once that’s done, then I’ll be glad to give you back this piece of trash.” Carelessly, the man placed the notebook into his pocket. “The directions are listed on the paper…if you want this, I expect to see you there.”

 

In a brief second, the man was gone, moving off down another street. Rayori stood alone, with a single street light flickering above him. The piece of paper was in his hand, and his eyes showed he was deep in thought. He could enter the competition and get back the book, but that would go against what he believed, what he wanted to accomplish. On the other hand, that notebook…

 

A crow circled overhead. It let loose a piercing screech, then flew off into the darkness.

 

To Be Continued

 

 

Table of Contents

 

1: "A Vision"

[Skarlet]

Man this looks nice. Better then your last fic, I'll be following this (If you remind me :p) Awesome job!

[Guest Star]

Bump! This one's a bit different from your average Fan-Fic! It's worht giving it a look!

[Guest Star]

Bump! I'd like to get some opinions before I continue it.

[Guest Star]

[spoiler=Raising the Stakes]“Raising the Stakes!”

 

It was dark. The few light bulbs there were did very little to light the place, but it didn’t matter. An outsider coming here could look at the surroundings and instantly understand what the city itself was like. Dark, empty, lacking a sense of energy. The theme was the same regardless of where you went. This place, however, had to be one of the worst. Rayori stood outside and looked up. A few feet above his head hung a sign, with the words “Tavern…of…Champions” inscribed on it. Or at least, that’s what it looked like. It was hard to tell, the sign had definitely faded, but you couldn’t mistake the place. Of all the dueling “get togethers” in the Underground, the Tavern of Champions was the most well-known. That, and the fact that this is where the directions on the paper had told him to go made it more than likely that he was in the right place.

 

Even from standing outside, he could hear the loud ruckus from inside the building. It was a large, brick building, and just under the length of a football field. Of course its massive size was due to the fact that there was a dueling stadium inside, yet that didn’t make up for the worn-out look of the place. He reached for the door, but retracted his hand. He shook a bit, still unsure of whether or not he was making the right choice here. He didn’t want to duel for money in any way, yet the book was essentially his only way out of this place. To not do it would put him at a much greater risk. It still felt wrong to go against his belief, but it calmed him a little to know that at least he wouldn’t be keeping the money. As far as Rayori was concerned, he was merely doing what he had to do to get the book back. There was no way to legitimately justify it, so he “tucked his tail between his legs” and opened the door.

 

He walked in, and was immediately hit with a wind that seemed like a combination of alcohol, garbage, and smoking. No one cared about personal hygiene here, probably because four/fifths of them couldn’t afford a toothbrush in the first place. He’d done what he could to keep clean, but even he wasn’t something to marvel at.

 

“Look who decided to show up…” He heard a voice, and it didn’t take more than a second to identify it. It was the same man from earlier. No surprise he’d figured to show up now, too. Why waste any time? As much as he didn’t like the guy, Rayori knew he had to comply with him if he wanted the book back. So temporarily, he was the only guy here he could “trust”. Though to be honest, he didn’t trust any of them as far as he could throw ‘em. “Follow me. Let’s not make this any more difficult than it has to be.” The man motioned toward a door, then advanced toward it. Rayori followed him, continuously glancing over his shoulder as he did so.

 

“Do you have a name?” Rayori followed him into the room, then sat down. There was silence for a moment, until the man took a seat as well. They were sitting in what appeared to be metal folding chairs, but it was dark in the room and there wasn’t much the small light bulb did to change that.

 

“Do I?” the man chuckled. “It looks as if you’re asking the questions now, huh?” A second chuckle. “Alright, I’ll tell you. People call me Allen. That’s the extent of what I’ll say. Here, I’m the big guns. Have been for a while. It was all alright until that punk came in and got himself a lucky win.” The man slammed his fist on the table; it felt as if the room shook.

 

“Alright, Allen.” Rayori stared at him, trying to do as much as he could to keep himself a figure of importance in the situation. Although this guy had him cornered, he didn’t want to make it obvious. “Tell me, if you’d be so kind, why the hell do you need my help? If this kid was “lucky” in taking your title, can’t you just go on ahead and beat him to win it back?” There was a period of silence again. It was a completely intellectual question, one that Rayori was interested to see if there was an answer to.

 

“That’s unimportant. I’ve got your book, don’t I?” He held it up. It was small, a little bigger than pocket size, but it was so important. Rayori felt himself shake as he looked at it; he’d been so careless, and he had no one to blame but himself for the situation he was in now. “See, I have something that – for some reason or another – means a great deal to you. Now why it does is of no concern to me. All that is,” he paused. “Is that you do exactly as I ask of you.” There was another period of silence. The two stared at one another, neither necessarily intimidated by the other. Allen may have had Rayori’s book, but that didn’t mean he was taking him lightly, either. He knew first-hand; the kid wasn’t messing around. At any second he could back out of this and there’d be nothing he could do about it. What would prevent that, though, was the book. There was something about it…

 

“So what you’re going to do…”

 

“I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.” Rayori interrupted. Allen seemed displeased, but said nothing. “I’ll enter your tournament, and I’ll win. Upon doing that, I’ll give you the prize money, and in return, you’ll give me back the book.” Rayori spoke with a consistently serious tone; Allen knew he wasn’t going to comply with anything else. “I’m already against doing this, but that book is more important to me than anything, including your life.” He paused. “If you try to screw me over…I can personally guarantee, it’ll be the last thing you do.” Rayori stood up. Allen remained seated, saying nothing as he headed for the door.

 

“Oh, one more thing.” Rayori turned around and looked at him. “You do know that, should you lose, you must forfeit your Deck to the winner?” He could see the grin on Allen’s face; he thought he’d had him there. His Deck was on the line, so of course he’d take it seriously.

 

“Of course. It wouldn’t make sense if it wasn’t, I suppose.” He laughed mockingly, then turned toward the door. Without giving Allen another look, he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. He could hear the multiple voices of these desperate people dueling, and of course saw the hundreds of poorly-dressed people sitting in the stands. The tournament was close to beginning. He wasn’t sure of when he’d participate, but he didn’t really care.

 

“My entire life, I’ve lived trying to become something that seems so close, yet so far away at the same time. Regardless of what happens here, once this tournament is over, I’m out of this city, and I’m out of this life. It’s time to make a change, and there’s no way I’m going to let what happened today happen again. I’ve never participated in a tournament like this, and of course there’s the fact that this goes against everything I stand for, but I want…no, I need, to get the book back.”

 

“Prepare to be seated!” A voice boomed over the loudspeaker, and suddenly those dueling scrambled to get their cards together. They made their way toward the stands, and scurried to find a place to sit. A big light shone over the stadium, probably brighter than anything else in the city, and a metal door opened. “The first game will now begin!”

 

He still had trouble accepting the fact that he was going to do this. He wanted to bring passion to dueling, not duel for money and cards, but there was no other choice. His Deck was on the line, he’d been signed up. He wanted to win as quickly as possible and get out of here. Out of the metal door, which was on the far left side of the stadium, walked a man about the same height as Rayori himself. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt, tattered jeans, and sneakers that looked as if whatever color they had been before had faded completely. He had to be in his early twenties, judging by the mohawk that lined his head. That wasn’t usually common with the older people. “Introducing the first participant, Alex Waters!” The crowd yelled, filled with excitement as Alex placed his Deck into his duel disk. He grinned; it was clear that he was happy to be there, ready to cash in on the big prize.

 

There was silence for a moment, aside from the quiet conversations going throughout the crowd. Then, the metal door on the opposite side of the arena opened. Rayori heard footsteps, and was taken aback by the size of the man they belonged to. A large man, about six feet, three inches tall, extremely wide, and very muscular, took his place opposite Alex. He was wearing a black t-shirt that looked like it once had sleeves, but he’d probably ripped them off in a fit of rage. He got a vast amount of cheers too. “And his opponent, a former Champion himself, Rampage!” The crowd cheered again. That explained the look; if the name was anything to go by, this guy wasn’t going to be a walk in the park to face. Then again, he didn’t know anything about either of these two, so the best bet was to sit back and watch.

 

“Round One is about to begin! In accordance with the rules of the tournament, the loser must forfeit his Deck to the loser, as well as face elimination!” Alex and Rampage cringed at the words; only one of them could win, and while they could care less about one another, they certainly had concern for their own cards. In this crapshoot town, that was all they had.

 

“Since I’m a nice guy, why don’t you make the first move?” Alex didn’t look his opponent in the eye as he spoke. Rather, he stared at the ground. There was an arrogance in his voice, and Rayori knew he didn’t like him from the get-go. It appeared that Rampage felt the same way, but then again, he probably didn’t like anybody.

 

“Alright!” Rampage had a deep, deep voice. He sounded almost like a five year old with the intellect of a forty-year old. But the latter probably wasn’t even true. He drew a card from his Deck and examined it for a moment. Thinking his strategy over, he placed it on the field. “I start with this card! Play Ancient Rules!” Surrounded by a feint glow, a scroll emerged from the poorly conditioned tournament field. It slowly unraveled itself, revealing a series of drawings. One of the drawings itself began to glow, and a similar glow began to resonate from a card in his hand. “With this, I Summon forth Pendulum Machine (1750/2000)!” The spectators “oohed” and “ahhed”, interested to see what was going to happen. A large crimson creature, head and torso only and made entirely out of metal, emerged from the scroll. Underneath it was a sharp blade spanning the entire length of its body.

 

“I’ve seen worse, but that’s a weak start. Then again, we don’t have much in terms of cards here, and unless you’ve got big bucks, you can’t buy much of anything special.” Rayori knew that some opponents in this tournament would be harder than others to defeat. And it all depended on how successful they’d managed to become in the past couple of months. The one thing the Underground did get often was new cards, but they didn’t last long. Shop Owners would scramble to get them all, and then proceed to sell them for high prices or bet them in tournaments. That, and they were often stolen too. He stood for a moment and just looked around. It was hard to explain, but he had this feeling like he didn’t belong here. It wasn’t necessarily fair to say, because any outsider would probably see him the same way they see any of the others, but he couldn’t get rid of the feeling. He knew in his heart that he had a passion for dueling, one that he knew could get him out of this place.

 

He knew the circumstances. He knew exactly what he had to do here. It was duel, win, leave. A simple three-step process. Of course, this was all new to him, but it would work. It always works. Right?