Yu-Gi-Oh LUCKS, Arc 1 (Chapters 1-10)

[BambooBored]

Chapter 1: The Crime of Prometheus

Yuu loved the light, even when it did not belong to him. Clavis had taught him to spot the pinprick glint of duradine crystals, magnified through the needle-eyes of mica and quartz and diffused all across the cave wall, making it glitter with false stars. Yuu brought back his pickaxe and swung as if he were piercing the night sky.

“Give it a rest, Yuu.” The squeal of metal wheels on rails approached as a headlamp washed away the dark and stars. Yuu tipped his goggles up and shielded his eyes as the blinding light extended an arm to the top of its helmet and shut it off, leaving them in near total darkness again.

“Hey, Clav,” Yuu said, turning back to the wall. “Is it lunchtime already?”

“Not for another hour,” Clavis said, “but rest anyway.” In the dark, his most prominent feature was the great cloud of his beard, which trapped a heap of dust over the course of their day. He’d make a show out of dusting it at lunchtime, drawing laughs from the other miners. A sheaf of low-grade duradine glowed softly at his belt. It was enough to make a full deck, which he and Yuu split to play Duel Monsters at their lunch table. The other miners would scoff at this, calling it a waste of their already meager pay. Yuu, however, admired Clavis for holding on to it. It was as if his deck of duradine cards could be completed by the right find. 

Yuu pushed his goggles back down. “I’m still feeling one hundred percent, though! Well, eighty-seven percent. Point five.” He grinned, hefting his pickaxe.

He could just barely make out Clav’s annoyed scowl. “Take a break so I can pick up all of this waste rock, you dunce. I leave you alone for twenty minutes and I have to dig you out.”

“Oh.” Yuu suddenly realized that there was a waist-high wall of rubble between him and Clavis. “My bad, Clav. I’ll help you out.”

Clavis huffed, but didn’t object as Yuu clambered over the pile and started shoveling it into the minecart with his hands. “We get paid the same thing, kid. No need to overextend yourself.”

Yuu dumped an armful of rock into the cart. “Wait, you haven’t gotten a raise in twenty years? Ow.” He winced as Clavis’s fist came down on his hard hat, rattling his spine.

“Shut up, you brat. That’s just how the mines work. The only way things really get better is if you score a commission.” If a miner found high-grade duradine, Heart Excavation would give them a bonus once it was sold.

“Then it’s fine if I’m trying hard to find high-grades, right? Today’s my lucky day, I can feel it.” Excavating a high-grade duradine was something that Yuu had dreamed of ever since he came to the mines. There was little else to dream for.

Clavis shook his head. “Chief Oga will just cheat you out of it. No way he’ll pass up a chance to skim some money.”

Yuu glanced down to Clavis’s belt. “Is that why you bought all of yours back?”

Clavis patted his deck. “Nah. These are all low-grade. Barely fit to duel with. But hey, they belong to me. Even if I myself belong to Heart Excavation.” There was an invisible weight around Clavis’s shoulders as he heaved up stones to take away. “Stop changing the subject, Yuu. Don’t let them work you to death.”

Yuu smiled and hoped Clavis could see it in the dark. “I’ll be alright, Clav. Really.”

Clavis harrumphed, but said nothing else. Soon, they’d eliminated the rubble on the tunnel floor. Clavis sighed and sat down, wiping the sweat from underneath his hard hat. “Air tastes like cement today,” he grumbled.

“You can sit right there and check this dig,” Yuu said, swinging his pickaxe up. “Courtesy of Yuu Tokari.”

His first swing chipped the rock at an angle, the first line of the wedges he aimed to break from the wall. Swinging from the other side was clumsier, but soon, he’d made a V-shaped crack. Yuu could feel the faint lights of duradine watching him, waiting for him to dig through and greet them. As he broke the layers of translucent rock, the lights converged and grew brighter.

Blue light exploded across the tunnel, making Yuu stumble back and drop his pickaxe in shock. Clavis stood up, his eyes aglow with azure. “My god,” he murmured.

“Oh man,” Yuu said, fumbling on the ground for his pickaxe. “Oh man oh man oh man.” His smile felt like it was going to tear his face apart.

“Come on, kid,” Clavis said. He had leveled his shovel at the duradine in the wall. “Let’s dig this thing.”

With Yuu’s careful strikes and Clavis clearing away the waste rock, the shape of the duradine came into view. Yuu had mined low-grade before; this was nothing like it. It was smaller than the other stones; usually, duradine broke into five or six cards. This, however, looked like it was only one.

Clavis swiped away at the rock with renewed vigor. Yuu had never seen the man so worked up, his entire body contorting with each hit of his shovel. He was laughing, battering away the rubble without a care in the world.

Clavis held his hand up, panting. Yuu’s last strike had made a crack between the bottom edge of the duradine card and the cave wall. He gestured forth. “Go ahead, Yuu.”

Yuu stepped forward. The duradine was cool to the touch, with a glass-like surface. The bottom half of the card shimmered and pulsed slightly, making him feel as if he were underwater. Yuu picked it up. “Lucky, lucky me,” he murmured.

The lunch bell rang, echoing down the black corridors of the Heart Mines. Yuu helped Clavis push the cart back into the main cave, where the rest of the workers were. The algae gas exchangers doubled as lights, the whole area lit up pond-scum green. Somehow, the miners found their appetite here, tearing through the wrappers of Hearty Heart Sandwiches or even the ritzy Big Heart Bento Box. Chief Oga was watching from the head of the cave, selling lunches at a table, a pile of collected low-grade duradine shining next to him. Clavis avoided meeting his gaze.

“Now look, Yuu,” he’d said. “You’ve got to hold on to this one, okay? Find someone other than the chief to sell to.”

“Okay,” Yuu said. “Why don’t you take it, then?”

Clavis shook his head. “Don’t be ridiculous, kid. You earned this. Find the right buyer and you’ll get to leave this crummy job.”

Yuu nodded, because he knew Clavis was right. This might be his only opportunity to get back to San Domino. Still, the duradine in the wall hadn’t glowed nearly as much as the old man’s joy at finding it.

They walked to the table, careful to choose the most harshly lit area. If you looked directly at Yuu’s pocket, you could still make out a faint rectangle of duradine, so he scooted forward and waited while Clavis went to buy their meals.

“Hey, Yuu there.” The bald man said it like “Yuu” sounding like “you” was the funniest thing in the world. He had already sat down, leaning across the table, smiling like an old friend. Zato Sanada spread his hands to the sky. “Nice weather we got today.”

“Not a cloud in the sky,” Yuu said, his eyes flickering back to where Clavis was talking to the chief. “Need something, Zato?”

“Need is such a self-important word. I’m a wanter like everyone else.” Zato jabbed his thumb to the scene three tables down, where a few miners were spinning stone tops on the table, a pile of coins set to their side. “We got a good game going over there. Simon managed to carve a real heater. Looks undefeatable, but the pot is big if he loses.” 

Zato smiled, his teeth glowing green in the algae light. “You interested?”

“I’ll pass for today, Zato.” Games like this were common among the miners; gambling on them, even more so. Yuu had gotten roped into it once or twice, and it never ended well.

“That’s fine, that’s fine.” Zato’s eyes narrowed. “You haven’t forgotten about what you owe from last time, right? 17 dollars. I can wait, but I can’t forget.”

“I know, Zato,” Yuu said, trying his best to smile. “You’ll get your money.”

“Never doubted you!” Zato cheered, patting Yuu on the head. He stood up, but instead of walking away, he walked around the table.

“Of course, waiting too long really just feels like forgetting, doesn’t it?” he hissed, throwing an arm over Yuu’s shoulder. “It’s effectively the same thing, Yuu. I can’t read your mind, after all. Please don’t forget about little old me.”

“Zato.” Clavis slammed his palms down on the table with two Hearty Heart Sandwiches. “Get your hands off of him.”

“I was just leaving,” Zato said innocently, standing to go. Yuu blinked numbly as Clavis slid his sandwich over to him.

“By the way, Yuu kid,” Zato added, turning around. “I decided to save you the trouble and claim some of the debt right now. This should cover half of it.” As he spoke, he lifted the blue duradine card. When it came into view, Zato realized what he was holding, and he froze in the blue light along with the entire room.

Yuu had stood up before he’d realized it, grabbing the card and ramming Zato to the ground. Zato sat, stunned, looking at the card in Yuu’s hands.

A chair scraped back. Chief Oga had stood up. He walked across the room, seemingly the only person able to move. He picked his ear with his pinky, regarding Yuu’s duradine with dull eyes. “So, you found another one, hm? Good job. That's a regular five-dollar bonus for you.” He held out his hand.

Yuu pulled the card to his chest. “Sir!” he stammered. “I’d like to buy this card.”

Chief Oga shook his head. “That’s not up to you. Hand it over.”

By now, some of the miners had collected themselves, realizing what they were seeing, mumbling as they surrounded Oga and Yuu.

“Five dollars? That’s it?”

“That’s a high-grade, it’s gotta be!”

“The chief’s not even letting him buy it?”

“Why’s that kid even want it in the first place?”

“Shut up!” Chief Oga roared, cowing the crowd of workers. “Yuu Tokari, I’m ordering you to hand over that duradine.” His shadow seemed to fill the cavern ceiling, pressing down on Yuu.

Clavis flung an arm between them. “Chief, wait-” He’d barely gotten the words out when Oga’s fist connected with his side, sending him sprawling against the lunch table. 

“Clavis!” Yuu screamed, reaching out. Clavis groaned and clutched his ribs, while the Chief stepped forward, his hands crushing inwards as if to rip Yuu’s card from his hands, or his head from his neck.

“What about a wager?” The voice came from the ground. Zato was picking himself up, spreading his hands peacefully. “That’s the only fair way to settle, I think.”

Yuu’s eyes met Zato’s, and an understanding passed between them. Right now, the entire room seemed to press inward on the chief, changed in the blue light of Yuu’s duradine. “That’s right, boss,” Yuu said. “If you win, I’ll hand the duradine over. If I lose, you’ll let me buy it. It’s just low-grade duradine, right? You can hand it over at that price.”

Veins bulged in Chief Oga’s neck, as he glared Yuu down. “Fine. But I get the choice of game. Do you accept?”

There were a few more begrudged murmurs from the audience, but no more than would accompany any usual wager. Zato nodded and stepped back. The crowd parted as Yuu gripped the duradine resolutely, intensifying its glow. “I accept.”

“Then the game I choose,” Chief Oga said with a twisted grin, “Is Duel Monsters. 

“Oh, but Yuu! Looks like you don’t have a deck. Well, that’s too bad! Looks like I win by default.” The chief burst out laughing, his shadow rumbling across the cavern. The miners cowered beneath it, gritting their teeth. Zato deflated, his hands flexing at his sides.

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Clavis pulled himself upright and staggered over to Yuu. “He’s got a deck right here.” He raised his stack of low-grade.

“Clav,” Yuu said, staring at the cards. “Are you sure?”

Clavis nodded. “It’s your lucky day, isn’t it?”

Yuu took the cards, tears in his eyes. “Yeah, it is.”

“Looks like we’ve got a match!” Zato roared, his voice at a pitch that no one had heard before. Bring out the sunstones!”

In higher tech games of Duel Monsters, the cards were placed into machines to read them. Some of them were even small enough to fit on duelist’s arms. But for the miners of Heart Excavation, a source of bright light -- sunstones, in this instance -- would do just fine. Yuu shuffled his deck, thinking back to his half-games with Clavis. The high-grade slotted in with them, taking on the same sheen as the low-grade as they molded together into a single crystal. 

The long, flat sunstone lanterns had straps to bind them to miners as they worked. Yuu and the chief took those straps and wrapped them around their forearm and bicep, making an awkward, metal-banded version of those Duel Monsters machines. 

Yuu placed his duradine deck on the platform of the lantern, staring across the emerald room at Chief Oga. He could feel light and shadows pressing in from all sides, but there was something in him that had pushed back on them, like a ripple from a stone in the ocean. He pulled his hard hat from his head and let it fall to the ground, revealing spikes of deep cyan hair. “Lucky, lucky me,” he repeated.

The miners had pulled the tables together, sitting in a circle around them, though some had elected to stay standing. Zato was one of them, having inserted himself as the announcer. He’d already taken a few bets from the crowd during the setup, so now he flung his arms wide and shouted loud enough to shake the earth.

“It’s time to duel!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the bowels of the Heart Mines, the workers crowded around as the sunstones cast the dueling field in shadows on the ceiling. Yuu took a deep breath and placed his hand on his duradine deck, readying himself for the first draw.

Clavis had told him once, “You’ve got to break five cards clean off! One move! Or else you’ll look foolish.” They’d spent a whole hour practicing placing their hand on the duradine crystal, drawing five cards in a dramatic arc. Yuu was confident that he could look cool in this duel; he wasn’t as assured in his chances of victory.

He glanced ruefully at Clavis, wishing they’d focused more on strategy than style. The old man seemed to be okay, sitting down at the table while another miner checked his injured side. Though he’d entrusted Yuu with his deck, he was looking anxiously at the field, rubbing his beard.

Yuu smiled at him. It was all he could do to stop people from worrying. Right now, his worries were his own to face. And Oga wouldn’t go down without a fight. They locked eyes across the room.

“Let’s Duel!” Five cards went into Yuu’s hand. He’d seen them all before: the low-grades he’d learned Duel Monsters on. Still, it was a passable start.

“I’m first!” Chief Oga shouted, to no objections from his employees. “For my first play, I’m summoning the Immortal Bushi in attack mode!”

He slammed the card down onto the sunstone; the shadowy impression of a samurai took shape on the ceiling. The miners began whispering, in awe of the scale and detail that duradine light produced. The samurai fell from the ceiling and hit the field, frowning down at Yuu with its tall topknot hair.

 

“Next, I’ll place two cards facedown, and end my turn.” The card remained opaque as it hit the playing field in the Spell/Trap zone.

“Phew,” Yuu said, then turned to Clavis. “Hey, it’s all good, Clav! He forgot to attack me!”

Clavis slapped a hand over his forehead. Zato leaned over to Yuu and spoke out of the corner of his mouth. “Actually, you can’t attack on the first turn. That’s one of the first things you learn about the game.”

“Oh.” Yuu turned red. “Right. Well now I know.”

Zato paled. “Hey, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

Yuu gave him a winning smile. Zato walked away, probably to hedge some of his bets. Chief Oga burst out laughing. “It’s too late to quit now!” he shouted.

“That suits me just fine!” Yuu retorted. “It’s my draw!” He ripped a card from his crystal deck, drawing it just the way Clavis had taught him. Looking at his hand, there wasn’t much he could do. He supposed he’d actually need to draw the high-grade to make any use of it, and that was a chance all its own.

“I’m bringing out Minefieldriller!” he shouted, letting the shadows congeal into hard, mechanical treads of a tank. A wicked drill began to turn on the head of the machine, ready to gore the samurai.

“Minefieldriller! Attack his Immortal Bushi!”

Minefieldriller charged, its drill spinning, shattering the Immortal Bushi apart. Wait, shattering? Yuu rubbed his eyes. Where the samurai warrior’s body should be on the ground, there were instead cogs and plates of metal.

“I’ve activated Scrap-Iron Scarecrow,” the chief said smugly as one of his facedown cards flipped over. “It negates your monster’s attack.”

“You think that’s enough to stop me?” Yuu retorted. “Well, it is. For one turn, at least.”

“That’s not all.” Chief Oga grinned. “Scrap-Iron Scarecrow resets itself after activation!” The scrap metal came back together as though magnetized, and Oga’s card was once again set on the sunstone.

“Wait, so you can negate all of my attacks?” Yuu shouted. “How is that even fair?”

“Life’s not fair, kid!” Chief Oga shot back, laughing.

“Don’t panic, Yuu!” Clavis shouted from the sidelines. “Trap cards can’t be activated the turn they’re set!”

“What does that have to do with-” Yuu blinked. That means he can only use that card once per turn. All I have to do is summon another monster! “Alright, alright, I’m fine. I’ll just end my turn here, then!”

“Yuu only played one card?” Zato wiped his forehead, which is to say his entire head. “Oh, no.”

“You’re in for it now, kid,” Chief Oga snarled as he drew a card. “I’m bringing out Kagemusha of the Blue Flame! And I’ll get straight to attacking. Immortal Bushi attacks Minefieldriller!”

“Huh?” Yuu looked back and forth checking the cards’ stats. “But Immortal Bushi is weaker. Won’t it get destroyed?”

Chief Oga rubbed his chin. “You know what, you’re right, Yuu. I didn’t think of that.”

“You really forgot?”

“Of course not!” Chief Oga shouted. “I’m activating my trap card, Metalmorph! It equips to my Immortal Bushi, giving it an additional 300 attack points!”

“So now they’re equal, and they’ll both be destroyed,” Clavis mused. “But wait…!”

“Metalmorph has an additional effect when the equipped monster attacks,” Chief Oga added. “It gains attack points equal to half of its opponent’s!”

“Wait, so that’s 2250 in total!” Yuu shouted.

“You know, you’re pretty good with quick addition,” Zato commented.

“Thanks!” Yuu replied. “But that means my monster loses though, right?”

Zato nodded grimly.

The samurai had been overtaken by an eerie metallic sheen, which had flowed over his swords. The reflection of Minefieldriller in the Bushi’s armor suddenly became stunningly real, surging forth from his chest, composed of that same silvery liquid. It crashed into the real Minefieldriller, breaking it to pieces and forcing the card from the board. Yuu sighed as he placed the monster into his graveyard.

“And now, Kagemusha of the Blue Flame attacks directly!”

The second warrior, dormant until now, suddenly sprang forward, drawing a sword from behind his back. Yuu barely had time to think before the shadowy blade cut through him; or rather, passed through him. He felt himself for an injury and found nothing.

The miners had brought out a construction signboard, the same kind used for traffic messages. It had two sides; on Chief Oga’s, it read 4000. On Yuu’s, the numbers began to flicker, and now rested at 2450.

“Hey Zato,” he whispered, leaning over. “What’s that on the signboard?”

Zato looked like he would tear his hair out if he had any. “Those are your life points, Yuu. You’ve lost almost half of them.”

“That’s the end of my turn!” Oga called.

“Cool.” Yuu drew a card. “Alright, now we’re talking! I’m activating the spell card, Raimei! It deals 300 points of damage!”

Chief Oga’s life points flickered and went to 3700. Chief Oga himself did not react.

This is a pretty bad spot, Yuu thought. I need a way to break through his defenses. Ugh, where’s that high-grade? But as he looked around the room, he saw the disappointment on their faces. They don’t think I can win. They’re probably right. Clavis should be the one up here, not me.

Alright, that’s enough out of me! Yuu shook his head hard. Time to focus on what I can do. I got five cards.

“I’m summoning Superheavy Samurai Swordsman!” he exclaimed. “And I’ll activate its effect to change it to defense position.” A third samurai appeared on the battlefield, but this time on Yuu’s side, and this time blocky and mechanical, as though it were an action figure.

“I’ll put two cards facedown and end my turn,” Yuu declared.

“Hmph. You didn’t think your monster could stand up to my Immortal Bushi, did you?” Chief Oga said. “I draw! Now, I’ll tribute my Kagemusha of the Blue Flame to summon the Level 5 Freed, the Matchless General!”

“Now he’s got two monsters that can wipe out Swordsman,” Clavis told Zato. “Unless that facedown card is what I think it is…!”

“I’m activating a Spell Card too! Night Beam! It destroys a facedown card on your field without you getting to activate it!”

Clavis paled. “Oh, no.”

“I’m choosing the card on the left,” Oga continued. “Now, get that trash off of the field.”

Yuu stayed silent. As Clavis and Zato watched with anticipation, he flipped over the card and put it in the graveyard: D2 Shield.

“That card would’ve let Yuu make his Swordsman indestructible,” Clavis lamented.

“I am gonna lose so much money,” Zato moaned, his face in his hands.

“That kind of weak play is exactly why you’re not cut out to be a duelist, Yuu.” Chief Oga had dialed back his tone, a calm shadow taking up half of the room. “Think about it. Every duelist of San Domino has a whole deck of high-grades. What can either of us hope to accomplish?”

Yuu said nothing, his head down.

“I know you agree. You don’t have to fight it.” Chief Oga’s twisted grin returned. “I’ll relieve you of those dreams here. Immortal Bushi! Strike down his monster!”

The Immortal Bushi raised his blade and charged at the Superheavy Samurai, who seemed to grow as he got closer. Then, he kept growing, towering over the approaching warrior. The Immortal Bushi suddenly found himself overshadowed, as the Samurai lifted his shield.

“What’s going on?” Chief Oga shouted.

“I’ll tell you what’s happening,” Yuu said, reaching for his other facedown card. “I activate my second copy of D2 Shield!”

The miners went crazy. Zato placed a hand over his heart, breathing heavily. Clavis smiled and shook his head. Yuu swept his arm out in his thousand-practiced bravado.

“D2 Shield doubled the defense power of my Swordsman! Time for some big numbers!”

Superheavy Samurai Swordsman - DEF 1800 > DEF 3600

The Immortal Bushi’s sword clanged off of the D2 shield, jarring the warrior’s arm. Chief Oga grimaced as his life points dropped to 2100.

“Swordsman’s got its own effect, too! Any monster who fights it has its attack points reduced to 0 afterwards!”

The Immortal Bushi clutched his wrist in pain, dropping his sword. The Matchless General looked on in concern, fear creasing his face.

“I’ll place a card facedown and end my turn,” Oga snarled.

“Let’s dig in!” Yuu shouted, pulling another card from the top of his deck. As he examined it, his eyes widened. It’s here! He quickly scanned his hand, a strategy coming together in the back of his mind.

“The first thing I’ll do is switch Superheavy Samurai Swordsman into attack mode!” he shouted. “Next, I’ll activate Mystical Space Typhoon from my hand! Destroy Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!

Oga braced himself as the storm scattered his scarecrow into the wind. But as it dissipated, he grinned to himself.

“Now I’ll activate the effect of a monster in my hand! Because a card was destroyed by card effect, I can special summon it to the field!” Yuu thrust the card in his hand skyward. “This is the high-grade that no one’s taking from me! Level 7! Appear, Crime of Prometheus!”

Blinding light erupted onto the cavern floor. The miners shielded their eyes as the formless energy took shape, and something vaguely humanoid alighted onto the battlefield.

“So that’s the power of a high grade!” Zato marveled.

“Well done, Yuu!” Clavis shouted.

“Go, Prometheus,” Yuu cheered. “Attack Freed the Matchless General!”

Prometheus raised an open palm, and hard wavefronts of light began contorting in a sphere. “Prometheus has another effect, too,” Yuu said, grinning. “When it attacks, I can choose a card on your field to destroy, and I’ll also draw a card from the deal! So say goodbye to Freed the Matchless General!”

The waves shot forward and embedded themselves in Freed’s chest. The old general looked pained as his skin turned pink, light infiltrating his veins and turning his skin translucent.

“If Freed is destroyed, Yuu will be able to attack directly.” Clavis stood up. “Crime of Prometheus has enough ATK to eliminate the rest of Oga’s life points!”

The audience realized what they were seeing, as Crime of Prometheus swept its hand in sync with Yuu’s. “It’s time to end this!” he declared. “Prometheus! Stolen Sun Strike!”

“Not so fast,” Chief Oga sneered. “I activate my Trap Card!”

An explosion ballooned outwards from Oga’s sunstone, spiraling tongues of flame morphing outwards into a spherical surface. As the white light of Prometheus advanced, it was suddenly engulfed in the advancing wave front. It thrashed at the center of the blaze for a split-second before disappearing from view. Superheavy Samurai Swordsman fared worse, its steel frame melting into distended slag on the cave floor. Chief Oga clenched his fist. “Erupt, Blazing Mirror Force!”

“He’s got a card like that?” Zato yelled.

“That’s not a low-grade at all,” Clavis agreed.

“We’ll each take damage equal to half of their combined attack points.” Oga reached into the flames as they spread out, engulfing the cavern. The miners dove for cover as the room lit vermillion. In the center of the conflagration, Yuu felt like the fire was corroding him, burning him away to nothing but ash. He stood numb as his life points fell to 700. Without Prometheus and the blaze of light, the room was swallowed by darkness again.

In reality, he hadn’t thought that far ahead when claiming the card. He’d mostly gotten swept up in the heat of the moment, put upon by Clavis and Zato. Why should he have to be the one fighting? In all of this time spent dreaming about his lucky find, he never once considered what he would do with it. Wasn’t it enough to be lucky? Suddenly, he was keenly aware of himself at the bottom of the insurmountable world, staring up into the stars.

The stars. Yuu had never really intended to reach them. At the very least, he knew that he lacked the talent. Maybe it really was better to let it all end here. Lunch break was almost over, after all.

“Keep going!” It wasn’t a voice he recognized that ripped him from his despair. Rather, it was someone in the crowd, a miner he’d never heard before. The cascade of shouts grew, until everyone in the audience clamored. Some were angry, some were hopeful. All of them were focused on the duel.

“Come on, kid!” Zato shouted. “Your luck’s about to turn!”

“Yuu!” Clavis shouted. “The effect of Prometheus still resolves! You destroyed Freed!”

Yuu looked across the field. Freed the Matchless General had been reduced to a pile of ash; only the metallic Immortal Bushi remained. Yuu drew a card. An evil grin greeted him from mouth of a bright-red tomato. He couldn’t attack with it, but it was the perfect card to defend his comeback.

“I’m setting a monster facedown,” he said. “That’s the end of my turn.”

“Hang in there, Yuu!” Clavis shouted from the sidelines. “Oga took as much damage as you!”

Yuu glanced to the screen and saw it was true: Oga’s life points had dropped all the way to 350. Two more Raimei and I’m set!

Chief Oga scoffed as he drew a card. “The damage doesn’t matter. Not when I’m bringing out my ace! Go, Junk Synchron!” More scrap metal conglomerated in the shadows, but this time, a heroic orange sheen spread across the creature’s body. Twin scraps of paper trailed from its shoulders like a scarf.

“A tuner monster?” Clavis paled. “Oh, no.”

“All bets are off!” Zato screamed. “Do you hear me? They’re off!”

“I’m activating the effect of Junk Synchron,” Oga said. “It lets me call back a monster from the scrap heap! I’ll summon back my Kagemusha of the Blue Flame!”

Junk Synchron plunged its hands into the earth, dredging up the broken body of the kagemusha. Suddenly, the dust and blood were swept away from the warrior’s body, and it stood, prepared again for battle.

“Now, Level 3 Junk Synchron tunes Level 3 Immortal Bushi and Level 2 Kagemusha of the Blue Flame.” Chief Oga said. “I synchro summon!”

As the miners watched, Junk Synchron exploded into three circle of green light. They surrounded the two samurai and began to spin, as the warriors decomposed and recomposed piece by piece in the light.

3 + 2 + 3 = 8

“The only way to live in a prison is to rule it,” Chief Oga declared, reaching into his pocket and drawing out a card that glowed bright red. “Come forth! Level 8 Junk Jailer!” 

Rust-eaten cogs spun and locked into place. Old chains hung down from the creature’s body as it stomped on the ground, sending a shockwave through the cave. In its hands, it wielded a manacle on a chain like a spinning hammer, its eyes glowing red.

“He’s got his own high grade!”

“Just how many people did you cheat to build that deck?”

“Shut it!” Oga roared, his eyes tidal waves. “This card is mine! Understand?” The clamor died down to an angry rumble. “Now, Junk Jailer reduces the attack points of all of your monsters to 0. Though, it looks like the one you have is too scared to fight! That’s too bad; Junk Jailer, attack his facedown monster!”

“Alright!” Yuu jumped up in celebration. “You attacked my Mystic Tomato!”

Mystic Tomato popped up from the facedown card, grinning -- until it saw the steel manacle of Junk Jailer crashing down on it. The crowd winced at the ensuing vegetable gore.

Good thing I haven’t eaten yet, Yuu thought. “Mystic Tomato’s effect activates when it’s destroyed! I can special summon a DARK monster from my deck!”

The ghostly apparition of Mystic Tomato reappeared on the field, laughing as it approached Yuu’s deck -- and then, it stopped, its grin froze, the manacle of Junk Jailer forced around its mouth like a bit.

“You thought you could get away from me?” Chief Oga asked. “Once per turn, Junk Jailer can negate the activation of a monster effect!” 

Junk Jailer spun Mystic Tomato’s ghost over its head with the chain, before swinging it downwards to splatter on the cave floor. One of the miners threw up and went to buy a second lunch.

“That ends my turn,” Chief Oga declared. “Now, I’ll accept your surrender and that Crime of Prometheus.”

Yuu took a deep breath. “Sorry, Chief. I’m not surrendering yet. I’m not surrendering ever!” He slashed his hand across the duradine, scraping his knuckles as he drew his card. A picture of an ankh, a looped cross, with sharpened blades greeted him.

It was never about reaching the stars. It was about bringing them down to earth. “I normal summon Constellar Kaus in attack mode!” An ivory-clad archer sprang forth, its bow trained on Junk Jailer.

“What are you doing!” Zato screamed. “Attack mode? That monster’s too weak to beat Jailer!”

“I’m not done yet!” Yuu exclaimed, slamming the final card from his hand onto the field. “I activate the spell card, Battle Reborn! It lets me Special Summon a monster from my graveyard with ATK less than or equal to the highest on the field! Junk Jailer has 3000, so I can choose whoever I want. Guess who it is?”

“Come on, then!” Oga laughed. “Bring that card out for its farewell tour!”

“You know, Chief, I like your style.” Yuu had his finger pointed straight up to the cave ceiling. “You really know how to bring out an ace. Let me try it too!”

The shadows converged, and suddenly, the miners could see stars in their firmament. Those stars grew brighter, until lines of light cracked between them, constellating like lightning.

“Stolen from the gods, this star descends for all of humanity!” Yuu’s pointed finger flexed, turning into a grasping hand. “Return to us now! Crime of Prometheus!”

The shadow ceiling broke apart, the light falling like a drop of honey to the field. When it hit the ground, it plumed, casting brilliant rays across the mine. Standing in the center was the robed, humanoid ghost that Yuu had seen before. It was impossible to truly know, but it felt as though it was looking straight at him.

“Prometheus,” Yuu declared. “Like it or not, you’re stuck with me. And that means we’re taking this all the way to the top! Attack Junk Jailer and destroy it with Stolen Sun Strike!”

Prometheus raised a hand, and light scintillated in half-moon waves, washing over the scrap-clad warrior.

“You’re wasting your time!” Chief Oga said. “Junk Jailer negates your monster’s effect! It’s not destroying anything!”

Junk Jailer stood steadfast and intercepted Prometheus, this time swinging the manacle to cut the primordial being in half. Once again, Prometheus dissipated into the dark. Yuu’s life points fell to 200.

“At least you’re going down fighting, right?” Chief Oga said. “Be proud, kid. Now attack with your other monster and put an end to your fantasy!”

“I was actually planning to do just that.”

Chief Oga stumbled back as the white fires reignited, this time surrounding Yuu. “What’s going on?”

“Crime of Prometheus has an effect when it’s destroyed,” Yuu explained, light surging from his mouth every time he opened it. “I select one monster I control to gain Prometheus’s original attack points.”

Chief Oga watched, stunned, as Constellar Kaus braced itself, possessed by divine miasma. “That’s Kaus’s 1800…plus 2500?”

“And that monster,” Yuu declared, “takes the name of the Crime of Prometheus!”

Every joint and orifice of Kaus ignited at once, transforming its shape. The ivory bow doubled in size, old runes running down the curve of its body. Its eyes affixed its enemy with unflinching rebellion.

“The Crime of Prometheus lives on in all of us,” Yuu declared. “Now go! Crime of Prometheus! Inherited Star Strike!”

The archer, now enveloped by the aura of Prometheus, raised its bow. A stream of light burst forth, pulverizing Junk Jailer’s torso like a waterfall. Chief Oga screamed as Junk Jailer crashed to the ground. He fell to his knees, his life points finally hitting 0.

Chief Oga  - 0 LP

Yuu Tokari - 200 LP

The lights and shadows dissipated as the sunstones hit the ground, inactive once more. Yuu was left staring up at where he’d seen those stars, and remained that way as Zato tackled him into a hug. He was nearly crushed in the swell of his colleagues, but they parted as Clavis burst through and, tears in his eyes, hugged Yuu close. Yuu felt as though the stars had come down and surrounded him, pressing him into their warmth.

Chief Oga hadn’t gotten up. He was on his hands and knees, staring into the ground until some miners approached him.

“So, you had a high-grade after all, Chief?”

“Skimmed it off our work. Anything to make money, huh?”

“You’re disgusting.”

The miners, emboldened, turned to go. Chief Oga’s arms gave out, bringing his face ever closer to the floor.

“Hold it!”

Yuu’s hands were around Chief Oga’s shoulders. He wasn’t strong enough to lift him to his feet, but he rotated the chief until he was sitting on the ground, Yuu kneeling with him.

“I know why you had that high-grade, Chief,” Yuu said. “You weren’t going to sell it, were you? You were going to keep it as your ace monster.”

Chief Oga’s eyes welled with tears.

“I’m a duelist. I know that now,” Yuu said. “That’s how I know you’re a duelist too -- eh?”

Yuu sprawled to the side, the chief having shoved him over. “Shut up!” the chief said, hiding his eyes. “You’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. A duelist? Neither of us could call ourselves that.”

He stood up. “I’ll let you keep that low-grade Prometheus trash. No charge, either. Consider it a bonus for the dining entertainment.” He glared around the room. “You’ve got two minutes left on your lunch break!”

“Oh man!” Yuu sprang to his feet and dove for his wrapped sandwich on the table. “Clavis, help me!”

“Help you how?” Clavis said, bewildered, but eventually he was hammering the sandwich with the heel of his palm like it was a bolt into a rock wall, the rock wall being Yuu’s face hole. He stopped when Yuu began to choke.

“Hang on kid, don’t die on me!” All of the other workers either hurriedly finished their meals, or stood up and stretched as they waited for the second half of their workday to be upon them. With the duel over, the magic had dissipated from the room, and a dreary mood leached back into the mines of Heart Excavation. All of them fell back into rhythm, except for Zato Sanada, who kept a careful eye on the chief and Yuu.

He smiled to himself. Maybe it was his lucky day, too.
 

Edited August 14 by BambooBored

[BambooBored]

Chapter 2: The Evil of Monji

In a pitch-black room, on three sofa cushions on the floor, Yuu tossed and giggled in his sleep. He loved to dream every time he slept, rolling the dice on whatever his mind could picture. Scenes from the street where he grew up, laughing. The feeling of rough hands shoving him into a truck, shuttling him into the dark earth. In truth, it was starting to all be the same dream.

He woke up a few minutes before the streetlights came on, and stood up woozily. Dreaming so much meant he never got a good night’s sleep. Some coffee would settle that, though. In the meantime, he fumbled around his living space, quickly finding the wall, then the corner, then the shelf which served as his only piece of furniture. Yuu reached around behind it and felt for a leather strap. He retrieved Clavis’s duel pouch, ratty and fraying, and undid the clasp. There, softly glowing in the dark, was the rectangular duradine crystal, his dueling deck. Yuu strapped it to his side, marveling at its weight. The hue was tinged blue from his newest card, his impossible find: Crime of Prometheus. The high-grade duradine card had changed every possibility and little reality. With or without it, he was going to work today. 

A low buzz started to sound through the wall as the Atrium’s generators kicked in. A line of light appeared on the floor across the room. Yuu pulled on his work coveralls and stepped outside, looking down the block as lightbulbs on strings juddered awake, casting sporadic orbs of light down the shantytown street. By Heart Excavation’s temporal standard, a new day had just begun. Yuu now had fifteen minutes to get to work.

He walked across the street and knocked on Clavis’s door. The old man was already fumbling around inside; any offer or entry by Yuu to assist him would be met with a thrown shoe. Then Yuu would have to go find that shoe, because it was half of all the shoes Clavis owned.

“I’m leaving without you,” Yuu called in a singsong voice.

“The devil you are,” Clavis growled, and ten seconds later he walked out. “Shall we get going?”

“We shall. Try to keep up,” Clavis said, smiling as he took the lead.

Yuu followed Clavis into the somber swell of the morning foot traffic. Miners rubbed sleep out of their eyes and dirt into them; kids played around the algae respirators, making scary faces in the green light. Mothers and soon-to-be stood in doorways and watched, chewing on fruit rinds that had long lost their flavor.

There were independent groceries and shops in the area; the Atrium was legally considered a town, after all. In practice, though, Heart Excavation provided its employees with complimentary breakfast, so the entire town converged on Heart HQ in the morning. The neon pink sign was the one constant light of their town, its pulsing heart. Yuu found himself energized by it, walking through the steel gates towards the mining site.

The workers had separate lines for the coffee and bread, each of them already twenty people long. Yuu rushed to the coffee line; Clavis opted for the food. Each of them would snag a double helping and split it with each other.

Miners from different dig teams chatted together. Yuu got some arm-punches and approving nods from people he’d never spoken to. “You’re the big-shot duelist who took down the chief,” Clavis said, soaking his crust into the coffee to break it up. “Humiliated him, in a sense.”

“I think they’re laughing at both of us,” Yuu said, smiling politely at the newest congratulator. “Just two idiots who built a deck with the duradine they’re supposed to be selling.”

“Well, you’re the idiot who won. Be proud of that, at least.” Clavis frowned. “Why so mopey now? You finally found your high-grade.”

“I know. But what do I do with it?” Yuu finished his coffee and stood up to return the cup, and Clavis walked with him. “Either I try to make it to San Domino and get sponsored as a Duelist, or I sell the card now and that’s that.”

“Big decision,” Clavis agreed. “So, do you want to sell the card?”

Yuu’s hand went to his waist defensively. Clavis chuckled. “See, it’s not a hard choice. Besides, who said anything about San Domino?”

“It’s the only way to make anything of this!” Yuu said, grabbing his helmet from the rack on the wall. “We live in the Atrium; professional dueling is way out of our league.”

“Who said you had to make anything of it?” Clavis was walking ahead of Yuu, not looking back, walking down the green-lit tunnel.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, would it be so bad if you just kept it as something special to you?” Clavis said, turning around.

“I don’t know,” Yuu admitted, clutching his deck. “I…”

“You want to use it to help people. That’s in your nature. Then you don’t have to worry about when you’ll get a chance to do good. It’ll come in time.”

“Alright,” Yuu mumbled.

Clavis grabbed his wrist and pulled him along. “Look, I didn’t give you my cards so you could defeat the Chief. I gave them to you because I wanted you to have them. It’s not a debt to repay or justify. You don’t have to trouble yourself with being this great potential, Yuu. Just be who you want to be.”

“It’s that simple, huh?” Yuu still wasn’t convinced, but there was nothing more he could say about it. The other miners were gathered in front of the tunnel to B Block, where they worked under Oga’s supervision. Only, Oga was nowhere to be seen. Zato was stepping to the front of the pack, doffing his helmet to let his bald head shine.

“Looks like Oga’s late today,” Zato said. “As deputy chief, I’ll handle the operation from here on out!”

“Zato’s the deputy chief?” Yuu whispered to Clavis. “I had no idea.”

“Neither did I,” Clavis remarked. “Oga’s never missed a day.”

Yuu felt a chill run down his back. “Should we look for him?”

“No…no.” Clavis shook his head. “He could just be running late.”

Zato marched into the darkness, the miners falling into step behind him. Yuu kept close to the glow of his deck.

The morning passed without event. Yuu’s crystal detecting skills yielded nothing but low-grades, which he gathered with strange satisfaction.

I just got lucky the one time, he thought to himself. Doesn’t mean I’m destined for anything. Doesn’t mean I should drop everything and go pro. That thought gave him comfort, that he could just go back to hunting for high-grades in the simple life. He regarded the possibility of getting a second high-grade with a mixture of hope and dread.

The lunch bell rang again, and Yuu was delighted to find that he was back to having average mornings. Only the blue light of duradine at his belt said otherwise.

At lunch, Yuu and Clavis split the deck again to play again. Clavis insisted on checking out Crime of Prometheus, tilting the card and looking down the length of it. “This is incredible,” the old man remarked. “Could I use it for a game?”

“Of course,” Yuu said, eager to see what the high-grade would look like in Clavis’s hands, like he’d originally intended. They started a game, but Crime of Prometheus never made an appearance. After Yuu attacked Clavis directly to win, the old man sighed and dropped his cards, revealing the high-grade in his hand.

“I couldn’t even bring it out,” Clavis said grumpily. “It’s Level 7! How am I supposed to get two monsters for the Tribute Summon?”

“That’s why I special summon it,” Yuu said, picking up the high-grade card. Prometheus was able to summon itself from the hand whenever a card on the field was destroyed by an effect.

“Right, right. I’ll get the hang of it someday.” Clavis pushed his cards back toward Yuu, ending their experiment. His gaze wandered to the head of the cavern as a man in a blue button-down shirt walked in and made a beeline for Zato. Zato’s face was still as stone while the button-down man explained, then walked away. Zato watched him leave for a moment, then spun on his heel and made straight for Clavis and Yuu.

“Yuu there,” he said, his face gravely serious. “Come with me. It’s paid time.”

Yuu stood up, curious. Clavis struggled a bit to follow.

“It’s paid time for the duelist,” Zato sneered at Clavis. “Not for you.”

Clavis hesitated, but stood up anyway, burning with hatred. Yuu rested a hand on his shoulder. “It’s fine, Clav. I can take care of myself.”

Clavis looked at Yuu, and for a second Yuu wondered if his friend really believed that.

The old man turned back to Zato. “He doesn’t go until you tell us what this is for.”

“They found the chief,” Zato said. He didn’t need to say anything else.

Yuu breathed a sigh of relief when they arrived at the hospital instead of the morgue, though there were certainly some patients who would call it the same thing. This building was one of the more substantial in the Atrium, four stories of on-demand medical attention to get the miners back in action as quickly as possible.

Zato entered, enquired at the front desk, and was directed to the second floor. Every now and again he would glance back at Yuu, his expression unreadable. Yuu wasn’t in a state of mind to ask about it, though.

Chief Oga was being held in the recovery ward, which also served as the palliative care ward, so the only indicator that Yuu had for his health was the hunk of spit and blood that the big man heaved out into a tin can at his bedside. His face and chest had been bandaged, and a resealed plaster cast covered his leg. Only one eye was visible, which narrowed when it saw Zato and Yuu. “What are you two slackers doing here?” Oga growled.

“I could ask you the same question,” Zato replied.

“Oh, does it not look like I’ve been beaten within an inch of my life?” Oga retorted. “But you were asking why that is. It’s nothing. I was just at the pawn shop recovering something of mine.”

“What was it?” Zato asked.

Oga’s brow scrunched, and he looked away. Yuu watched the way his fingers twitched at his side.

“It was a card, wasn’t it?” Yuu said.

Oga harrumphed and didn’t turn around. “I should have just sold it. But pawning it was easier; when I went in to pay, they said I didn’t have enough to get it back. I had the ticket and everything, but they wouldn’t budge. Wouldn’t let me see it either -- so I barged into their storeroom.”

“You tried to steal from the Monji?” Zato shook his head in disbelief. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

“There’s no luck about it!” Oga shouted back. “Jormungand Turtle is mine, and they sold it, those Monji rats! And then they put me in here, and now I have to pay the doctors.” He reached beneath his bed and pulled out a red, glowing duradine card: the high-grade Junk Jailer.

“The irony of it is, I’ll have to go back to that same damn pawn shop to sell this card,” he said.

Yuu stood back for a moment, stunned. There was no anger in Oga’s words anymore, just resignation. Oga put the card down and went back to staring out the window. There was no rain, no sun, no weather. Just the ever-dark underground.

“There may be a way,” Zato began, “to get it back.”

“Get my card back?” Oga laughed. “Well, it’d be a cold comfort. But if you can stick it to those Monji, I’d be satisfied.”

“We’ll see if it comes up,” Zato said. “Yuu, you brought your deck with you?”

Yuu nodded. “Wait, what are you thinking?”

“It’s simple, really. We’re going to challenge the Monji crime family to Duel Monsters.”

Oga groaned. Yuu started to voice his agreement with the chief’s disdain, but then he realized that the groaning was actually from a medical thing and had to call for a doctor.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Okay, that explanation makes more sense,” Yuu said, walking side by side with Zato into the Atrium badtown. “Just to make sure I have this right. You’re going to take me to the pawn shop, and then we’ll ask to see the head of the Monji clan.”

“Who should agree to see me, given that I’ve worked with him several times.”

“Okay. Just gonna gloss straight over that. They take us to meet Mezu Daimonji, the most powerful man in the Atrium. We walk in, and present ourselves to him as guests and businessmen.”

“You’ve got it,” Zato said, hanging a left around the corner, stepping around cracked pavement and an ongoing pothole repair project. “One hundred percent.”

“More like twenty-seven percent,” Yuu corrected. “Because the last step, without abridging or paraphrasing, is that we challenge Daimonji to a card game.”

“Close. You’re going to challenge him.” Zato smiled at the children who leered from the alleys. “You’ve got that high-grade, after all.”

They were in the middle of Badtown now, where the concrete houses of the Atrium decomposed into cardboard constructions with plastic-bag roofs. There was no weather in the underground, so they didn’t have to worry about the rain, or snow; as Yuu passed some people sitting on the ground, he was keenly aware that most of them only owned the space their body could occupy.

“What makes you think any of this will work?” Yuu asked Zato.

Zato pondered for a moment, hand to chin. “Yuu, do you know how people justify wealth?” 

“I didn’t know that they had to.”

“Well, sometimes they try. They justify it by saying it’s used for the good of the whole community. That they, with their utilitarian skill, have earned and properly used it.”

An old man jerked awake and sat up, having passed out against a storefront. Yuu thought of when he’d first completed Clavis’s deck, wielding it in battle.

Zato continued, “That applies to duradine, too. If you have a rare card, you’ve got to be the best one to use it. Mezu Daimonji is a man who’s got a lot of that sort of pride. He’s pretty old school. Just plain old, too. You’ll beat him, no problem.”

They walked into the pawn shop. Zato strutted up to the cashier and leaned an elbow on the counter. “Afternoon, honey. I’m looking for Mezu Daimonji. Tell him Zato wants to do business.”

Thirty seconds later, they were in chains and blindfolds, thrown into the back of a van. Zato landed on his stomach and tried to bunch himself to his feet like an inchworm, losing his balance when the van drove off. Yuu was seated against the wheel hub, sliding across the floor as the van made turns.

“I swear this doesn’t usually happen,” Zato said.

“Yeah, that’s not really comforting!” Yuu snapped.

Zato was silent for a while. “It’s been a rough day,” he said eventually, without direction.

Yuu didn’t reply. He wished he’d stayed at work.

The van ride was bumpy, some of it traveling across the cavern floor. Yuu jostled listlessly with Zato and what felt like some metal tools scattered around the van space. Eventually, the van pulled to a halt, and the doors opened. Yuu felt arms corral him like a dog, placing him upright and marching him forward.

He only realized that he’d stepped inside by the change in air quality. When the thugs forced him to his knees, he felt the carpet through his coveralls. The lowing winds of the cave system were replaced with a gentle electric hum. The blindfold came off.

“Zato Sanada,” the woman said. She sat at a desk of lacquered wood, her hands clasped as she calmly looked down at them. She was dressed in a suit, with short, spiky black hair. To Yuu, she didn’t look old at all. “You may speak.”

Zato squirmed in his bindings. “I don’t believe I’ve yet had the pleasure of meeting you?”

“My name is Gozu Daimonji,” the woman said, standing up and walking around the desk. “I was venerated recently as the head of the Daimonji clan.” There was a hint of sadness in her eyes.

“I’m sorry for your loss.” The words had escaped Yuu’s lips before he realized it.

Instantly, a knee crashed into his back, driving him to the floor. “Did she say you could speak?” a man with missing teeth shouted.

Gozu raised a hand for the action to cease. “Matsu. Help him back up.” As Yuu was brought back to his knees, she continued. “My predecessor, Great Mezu Daimonji, abdicated power and left the Atrium.”

“He retired to San Domino,” Zato translated. “Good for him.”

Gozu’s eyes narrowed. 

Zato laughed. “What, did you want me to think you forced him out? Not a chance, kid. You’re his granddaughter, aren’t you?”

“Matsu.” Gozu tilted her head. Zato’s chin hit the carpet hard as Matsu landed on top of him. Things were already going poorly, and they hadn’t even gotten to the card game yet.

“Miss Daimonji. Great Miss Daimonji.” Yuu stumbled over his words. “We’re here to apologize and straighten out something that happened this morning.”

“You’re talking about the man who came looking for a card,” Gozu said. “Yes, we have it.”

“Amazing!” Yuu said. “I can pay for it, so maybe we could get that back?”

“I’m afraid not,” Gozu said. “His actions today insulted the dignity of the Monji clan.”

“But…!” Yuu bit his tongue before he could say anything that would get his face shoved into the floor again. It was patently unfair, but the new Daimonji must have known that. That was the whole point, after all. The Monji had the power to decide what was fair.

“Shouldn’t you be worrying about a bigger insult?” Zato asked. His voice was strained as he lifted his head up from the floor.

Gozu regarded him coldly. “And what exactly would you be referring to?”

Zato smiled mockingly. “My Great Miss Daimonji, I speak of ‘incompetence of resource.’”

Gozu’s eyes flared with anger. “Explain, Sanada.”

“Mezu Daimonji had nothing to prove. You, on the other hand, have to worry about everyone inside and outside your household questioning your judgment. On how to use food, money. And duradine.”

Matsu’s knee pressed harder into Zato’s back, making him groan. Zato put his hands against the carpet and pushed himself upwards. “The way I see it, Miss Daimonji, you have an opportunity here! You can take that card and prove that you are enlightened to the stewardship of high-grade duradine. Otherwise, this incident could embarrass the Monji clan as petulant thugs, furious that someone would dare to question them.”

Gozu hit the edge of her desk, splintering the wood. “I see your cheap words, Zato Sanada,” she seethed. “I see your feeble challenge. Well, I accept! And when I prove the valor of Daimonji, you will be punished all the more for having wronged it.”

“Cool beans,” Zato said, the venom gone from his voice. He tilted his head to look sideways at Yuu. “You’re up, kid.”

“Right!” Yuu stammered. “Um, I’m the one! The duelist, I mean. I’m going to duel you!”

Suddenly, Gozu’s hands were gripping the collar of his coveralls, lifting him up to her eye level. “Then let us duel,” she snarled, her lips curling.

Yuu stared, unable to get a sentence together. “Um, okay.”

He watched the rage subside from Gozu’s face as she remembered he wasn’t the one she was angry with. “Right,” she said, blushing and standing him to his feet. “What was your name again?”

“I’m Yuu Tokari,” Yuu said, unsure what had just happened.

“It’s…nice to meet you,” Gozu said, hurrying to the door. “Follow me.”

They kept Zato in chains the entire way to the dojo. Yuu craned his neck as they walked, stunned at the brick fires that lit and warmed the house. Carpet stretched upon their path in an unbroken road, and Gozu led them down a banistered staircase beneath an electric chandelier. Somewhere, Yuu knew, the Monji had their own generator.

“Where are you from, Tokari?” Gozu asked as they descended.

“I’ve lived on Utopia Street for a while,” Yuu replied. “But I was born in San Domino.”

Gozu sideyed him. “Is that so? I’ve never been.”

“Feels like I haven’t either.” Yuu decided to concentrate on his feet. “Does your grandfather like it there?”

Gozu shook her head. “I don’t know. We decided to sever contact upon his departure.”

“Why?” Yuu asked, alarmed. “Did he suggest it?”

Gozu nodded. “He told me that people are capable of crossing that divide. Feelings, however, are not.”

Yuu stayed quiet. He didn’t want to believe that, but the words of the absent patriarch seemed to weigh with the force of the entire household.

“We’re here,” Gozu said, pushing open a door.

After his first year underground, Yuu had tried to learn karate for self-defense on the streets. It hadn’t worked at all, but he was reminded now of that old dojo, its wooden floor and uncompromising pine scent. What he saw before him was as though that room had died and gone to heaven. Bright overhead lights reflected fivefold off of the polished floor. Wooden swords sat with their handles against the floor and their rubber tips against the wall. Zato whistled as his chains were removed. “Nice place.”

“My grandfather trained in Kendo,” Gozu explained. “He and I have proved ourselves countless times in this room.”

More people were entering the room behind them; thugs of the Monji. One of them brought two hard metal shells, handing them to Gozu. She placed one in Yuu’s arms. “This is a Duel Disk. Put it over your arm.” In one fluid motion, she sheathed her arm into the shell, holding it above her head as it expanded, deploying a saber-like attachment with a flat surface, wide enough for five cards. She held it out, showing Yuu the front and back.

Yuu rotated the Duel Disk in his hands hesitantly, finding the hole for his arm and wiggling it through. He yelped as the metal parts unfolded, changing the balance of his arm. Zato jerked his head out of the way as Yuu stumbled over, grappling with the ungainly Disk. Embarrassed, he looked at Gozu, who just nodded and started walking to the far side of the dojo.

“Didn’t I tell you this would work?” Zato said. “Now get out there and show her why you’re Yuu.”

“Shut up,” Yuu replied. He was exhausted with Zato’s antics. “Just start this thing.”

“But of course,” Zato said, throwing his bindings to the floor and spreading his arms. “Now, people of Monji! It’s time to Duel!”

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Zato stood behind Yuu at the back wall of the dojo, watching how the Monji thugs eyed their new leader. They had the curious gaze of a predator, wondering at the strength of their prey. Gozu herself stood solid against all of it, making no acknowledgement as she pressed a button on her Duel Disk. “Start the holographic overlay!” she called to Yuu.

“Right!” Yuu mirrored her motion as best he could. The bottom of the Duel Disk lit up like a sunstone, rays shooting out and affixing themselves to ten rectangular spaces on the floor. Yuu slotted his duradine crystal into the slot at the top, and iridescent light flowed through the electric veins of the Disk. An LED digital display appeared on each of their disks.

Yuu Tokari - 4000 LP

Gozu Daimonji - 4000 LP

“As the challenger, you may choose to go first,” Gozu said.

“I’ll take you up on that,” Yuu replied, swiping his hand across his duradine. The crystal split off into five cards, and Yuu scanned each one. “I’m summoning Obnoxious Celtic Guard in face-down defense mode!” he said, placing a card on the wing of his Disk. The back of the card, opaque with sheet crystal, appeared in one of the ten holographic zones on his side of the floor.

Zato turned around and slammed his forehead against the wall as hard as he could. Gozu coughed. “You don’t have to tell me what card it is when it’s facedown.”

The Monji goons erupted in laughter. Yuu turned bright red. “Well, I’m setting my Trap card, Blazing Mirror Force, facedown! And that ends my turn.”

Did he make the same mistake again? Zato wondered. No, of course not. Blazing Mirror Force belongs to the chief, not Yuu. So is he trying to trick her?

Gozu seemed to be considering it too, but began her turn anyway. As she looked at the card in her hand, a thin smile appeared upon her face. “My spell card is Card Destruction. We’ll each discard all the cards in our hand, and draw the same amount we had.”

Yuu looked pained as he placed the three cards from his hand into the graveyard slot of the Duel Disk. Gozu gathered all five of her cards in a neat stack and slotted them in. She drew the next five in a swift, ergonomic motion. “Now, I summon Goblin Zombie.”

As opposed to the sunstones where monsters dropped from the shadows cast above, this one appeared straight from the holographic surface on the floor, as though printed into existence. Zato spied bulbous ruby eyes and a tendrilled, insectoid mouth first, and then came the lanky human limbs mottled with strange chitinous crust. The creature held, against all odds, a shortsword in its hands, which it leveled at Yuu. It wasn’t Zato’s first time seeing a Duel Disk in action, but it never ceased to impress him.

“Now, I’ll activate the effect of Mezuki in my graveyard. By banishing itself from play, I can raise a Zombie-type monster from the dead. The monster I choose is Ryu Kokki.”

A horse head appeared from Gozu’s graveyard, shimmering in yellow light. It vanished; soon after, the field began to shake. Burnished skulls, bleached an unnatural white, began piling in Gozu’s monster zone. They were fused together, the jawbone of one articulating the eyehole of another. All of them were locked together in a grimace, except for the largest skull, whose teeth parted in a smile. It rose to full height, the main head accentuated by the horn of a unicorn. Only now could Zato discern the limbs of the creature, which sat languidly and grinned across the field.

“Entering the Battle Phase,” Gozu said. “Ryu Kokki will attack your facedown Obnoxious Celtic Guard.” Eyeless sockets lit up red all across the abomination’s body as it loped forward, its massive arms swinging.

Yuu’s facedown monster flipped over; sure enough, a warrior in green armor raised its sword to parry the attack, meeting the conglomerated fist of skulls as it crashed down. 

“Obnoxious Celtic Guard can’t be destroyed by battle if the opponent’s monster has 1900 or more ATK!” Sure enough, Celtic Guard’s grip on his blade did not falter, and Ryu Kokki retreated, still smiling eerily. All of a sudden, Celtic Guard doubled over in pain as something bulged beneath its flesh like pustules of plague. “What’s going on?”

“A monster effect,” Gozu said matter-of-factly. “When Ryu Kokki battles a Warrior or Spellcaster monster, that monster is automatically destroyed after their fight.”

Celtic Guard’s skin burst open to reveal dozens of miniature skulls, all laughing madly as they chewed bloody holes in his body. The warrior collapsed into a heap as the skulls continued their feast.

The Monji looked slightly queasy. Gozu continued, heedless of their reactions. “Goblin Zombie will attack you directly.” The creature let out an ear-splitting screech as it raked its shortsword across Yuu’s chest. Yuu winced as he saw the LED screen change.

Yuu Tokari - 4000 LP > 2900 LP

“Goblin Zombie’s effect activates when it deals damage,” narrated Gozu. “It sends the top card of your deck to your graveyard.”

Holographic blood spurted out of Yuu, taking the humanoid form of a card Zato recognized. Crime of Prometheus! The robed scion of light peered out from the maelstrom of red. Yuu reached his hand out, before Prometheus vanished, the blood being sucked into the graveyard slot of his Duel Disk.

That’s not good. Zato’s hand twitched at his side.

“I’ll set one facedown,” Gozu said, the card materializing in front of her. “Your move.”

Yuu exhaled as he drew his card, then frowned at it. Zato could tell he was in his own head already, and the game had just started. If Yuu lost, then Gozu could order Zato be stripped and beaten until his skin scabbed over into new clothes. Needless to say, it would negatively affect his business plans.

“I summon Man Eating Treasure Chest in Attack Mode,” Yuu said, placing the card onto his Duel Disk. An ornate and delicate box appeared on the field, looking almost like a perfume bottle. All of a sudden, the lid popped open on a hinge, revealing gnashing teeth with a tongue of pure jade and pearlescent saliva.

“Now, my monster attacks your Goblin Zombie! Man Eating Treasure Chest is now the Goblin Gobbling Treasure Chest!” The treasure chest lunged forward, its jaws clamping around the head of the Goblin Zombie and biting down until an exoskeletal crunch was heard, and blood squirted from the zombie’s pulpy interior.

Gozu Daimonji - 4000 LP > 3500 LP

“Goblin Zombie’s effect activates upon death,” said Gozu. “It allows me to add one Zombie from my deck to my hand. I select the Zombie Master.” This time, Goblin Zombie’s blood flowed out and took the shape of a monster, but this one grinned and jumped into Gozu’s hand.

“Zombie Master has an effect that raises even more monsters from the dead,” Zato mused. “Yuu! You’ve got to stop this one!”

“Not to worry!” Yuu said. “I’ll activate a spell card! Nightmare’s Steelcage!”

“Ah.” Gozu’s eyes flashed with interest. Black iron bars rumbled up from the earth like trees, surrounding her entire field in a steel lattice. The Nightmare’s Steelcage card glowed face-up on Yuu’s field.

“As long as this is on the field, neither of us can attack!” Yuu said. “Though, it’s only on the field for two of your turns. Go ahead and take one!”

Gozu drew without comment. Her hand immediately went to the facedown card on her field. “I activate my Trap Card, Soul Absorbing Desecration. It banishes up to five cards in my graveyard, and sends the same number of cards from your deck to your graveyard.”

Five crystal cards flew from Gozu’s disk, dissolving into yellow light as the horse-head had. Only this time, tortured faces began to appear in the light, making it bulge as though it were a sack pulled around too many heads. The faces noticed Yuu and swooped down towards him, striking his deck. Five crystal cards broke away, carried by the spirits to the afterlife.

Yuu checked his graveyard and looked relieved. Looks like nothing else important got milled through, Zato thought. Something doesn’t feel right, though. He didn’t have time to think about that, because Gozu had dropped a card from her hand straight onto the field. 

“I normal summon Zombie Master,” she declared.

As though called forth by a full moon, a crazed assemblage of flesh and cloth arose, grinning with wide, bloodshot eyes. It raised its hands in adulation of the necrotic energies that surrounded it, graves yawning open like cradles before it.

Yuu chuckled. “Hook, line and sinker. I activate Trap Hole!”

The “Blazing Mirror Force” card flipped over; Zombie Master’s grin was wiped away in shock as the grave beneath it yawned wider and wider. It slid from the edge and tumbled down, sending up a plume of dust as it hit the bottom, as though the earth were burping as it sealed back shut.

Yuu smiled. “How’s that, Daimonji?”

Gozu regarded him carefully. “Are you often a champion, Tokari?” she asked.

Yuu frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You’re here fighting the Monji on the behalf of others. If their dishonor is proven, you won’t go unscathed. Is it your choice to take that risk?”

Zato saw Yuu turn and look at him, then make a face and turn back around. “Um…no. This is just how it ended up. But I might as well do what I can, right?”

Gozu pondered this for a second. “Then do you think you can defeat me?”

“On a good day, no doubt about it.” Yuu grinned and patted his deck.

A faint smirk pulled at Gozu’s lips. “I hope you have a good day, then,” she said as she pulled a card from her hand and thrust it upwards. “This is the effect of my Skull Conductor. By sending it from my hand to the graveyard, I can summon two Zombie monsters whose ATK add up to 2000.” 

A rot-blue ghoul appeared in a maestro’s tuxedo, waving a baton to conduct a misty chorus of anguish. Two faces pulled away from that miasma, growling as they hit the field. A sickly azure bat spread its wings, the veins visible pulsing in the webbing. A black wolf panted, its tongue lolling out of the decayed side of its face. “Blue-Blooded Oni and Plague Wolf,” Gozu declared.

Then, just as quickly as they’d hit the field, the two monsters were engulfed in white flame. Gozu was reaching into her graveyard. “With these two sacrifices, I call the great fox spirit back from death: Nine-Tailed Fox.”

A wicked white muzzle appeared from the flames, which dyed its fur in blood-like streaks of red. Golden irises set in pitch-black sclera scoured the audience as the fox spirit snarled.

Gozu reached for another slot on her Duel Disk. She drew out a thin violet crystal. “I hope you can make good on your word, Yuu. With two monsters of the same level, I build the Rank 6 overlay network!”

The bodies of Ryu Kokki and Nine-Tailed Fox began to shimmer, morphing into a maelstrom of glittery, paste-like lightning. The mixture churned at the center of Gozu’s field, shedding particles like a galaxy shedding stars.

“It’s an Xyz Summon!” Zato shouted to Yuu.

“An Xyz what?” Yuu shot back.

“I Xyz Summon!” Gozu shouted, answering inadvertently. “Pilgrim Reaper!”

A hooded figure ascended from the hologram, wings flexing at its back. One was raven black and curved like a claw, and the other was white and thick with feathers; even these, though, had begun to blacken at the roots. Its face was completely hidden, until it looked up at Yuu -- it’s face was completely gone. A rotten skull stared back at him, impassive as it lifted an ebon-bladed scythe, sharp and cruel as a biting gust. It made no sound.

“Pilgrim Reaper gains 200 ATK and DEF for every DARK monster in our graveyards,” Gozu explained. “Right now, there are only seven. But that’s about to change. I detach one Xyz Material from Pilgrim Reaper to activate its effect: Soul Harvest!” The reaper swung its scythe, raven feathers detaching from its back. They separated into fleets of white and black, crashing into Gozu and Yuu’s duel disks. Each feather ferried a card into the graveyard, consigning their spirits en masse. Gozu looked satisfied by the gruesome display.

“For every fallen soul, I gain power. This is the inexorable strength of the Monji.” Only now did her eyes flick to the audience, some of whom were murmuring approval. Gozu’s gaze was powerful and calm, like an unstoppable wave set in motion from far at sea. “Yuu Tokari, do you now see your enemy?”

Pilgrim Reaper opened its mouth, and Zato couldn’t tell whether it was eating or screaming. Its body radiated with a murk of ultraviolet light and black tar, and its attack points rose to 2000.

If Yuu could attack, he could destroy Pilgrim Reaper before it got any stronger! Zato cursed. He began walking towards the field. She’s turned the Steelcage against him. And if she’s doing what I think she is, she won’t even need to attack.

Zato tried not to smile as his hand twitched to his pocket. Time to activate a Spell of my own.

 

Edited August 14 by BambooBored

[ObexKing]

I'm invested