Post by Bakura on Dec 7, 2010 0:55:30 GMT -5
Its an academy fanfic. I tried to make it original and not bad but...anyways, here's chapter 1. Any pointers will be appreciated.
Arc 0 - Prelude
Chapter 1
Akio woke up and looked over to his alarm clock. “4…AM…” he growled and got out of bed. Today was the day he would go to Duel Academy and start his new adventure. He loved dueling, but he hated 4 AM. He glanced over to his window and saw the ice caps that surrounded his house. Times had changed over the years, colonies had been built in many third-world countries and the world was rapidly going into another industrial revolution. He lived in a colony located in the Arctic Circle. It was extremely cold, but then again, he liked the cold. He looked in a mirror. He had messy blonde hair with bright green eyes. He was a spitting image of his father, except he wasn't quite as bulky. He was slightly tall, and was wearing a few layers of jackets, making him look bigger then he really was. He looked back outside, staring at the cold, dark plain that waited for him.
His family wasn’t poor by any means, but that didn’t mean they were rich. Many people in the Arctic shared things. It was a tough way to live, but it paid off in the long run. Akio had the feeling that he could survive anything. He ate a little piece of seal jerky as he headed out of his room.
His little brother was the first to greet him. His little brother was about 6. He had curly, brown hair and was much shorter than Akio. Akio felt that his little brother was on his way to become taller then their father. His little brother had stayed awake because he knew if he fell asleep he would miss Akio leaving. Akio smiled, “Hey bro.” His brother shuffled around and handed Akio a deck. “No, you don’t need to give me this.” His brother shook his head ‘no’. Akio’s plan was to just buy a structure deck when he got there, he had his deck stolen. He smiled and pocketed the deck. “Thanks man. I have to get going. Tell mom and dad I love ‘em.” Akio grabbed a bag and slung it around his shoulder. “Later, Chase.”
“Represent us!” Chase yelled out as Akio walked out the door. Akio heard something fall, he imagined his father got startled and fell out of the bed. With a smirk he continued walking.
It was weird. His father was from an American colony and his mother was from a Japanese colony. The two had met during one of his father’s journeys to expand the Arctic for America. Japan had the same idea. To avoid conflict, they had decided that America would own the ice and water in the Arctic Circle and Japan would have access to all of the animals that live there. As soon as Akio stepped onto the air base he heard the propeller of the helicopter. His friend, Shio, had learned to pilot a helicopter 5 years ago. He was 22 now, 6 years older then Akio. A ladder fell from the helicopter. “Get in, I have to tell you something.”
Akio stared at the helicopter for a few seconds. It was a newer model. The body was smaller and much higher up from the ground. It was made to navigate around glaciers fast. Piloting was no problem, a baby could pilot it. He grabbed the ladder and climbed up. Shio smiled. A duel mat was laid out on a table. “This helicopter’s not taking off until you beat me in a duel, buddy!” He smiled.
His deck was already in the deck zone. Akio navigated over the mess of cards and wires and sat down on a small wooden stool across from his friend. He reached in his pocket to grab his brother’s deck and put it on the table. It was actually kind of funny because he had no idea what deck his brother gave him.
“I’ll have the first move.” Shio and Akio drew 5 cards from the top of their decks. “And one.” He drew one more card for his draw phase and studied his hand. “Alright, I’ll set two cards face down. I’ll end my turn after that.” Since it was a duel mat, there weren’t any holograms. Duels were a bit plain, but they were still fun.
“Alright, I’ll draw.” Akio drew a card and looked at the amazing deck his brother had built him. If it wasn’t a good deck, he at least got a good starting hand. His brother had chosen to give him an Ice Barrier deck. ‘Huh,’ he thought, ‘so that’s what he meant when he said ‘represent us”. Akio smiled, “I’ll start with Cold Wave. It stops us from using spells or traps this turn.” Shio just nodded, wondering what would happen next. “Now, I summon Pilgrim of the Ice Barrier and direct attack!” Shio now had 2500 lifepoints. “Go ahead.”
Shio drew a card. “Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but by sacrificing my two face down cards I can special summon the Anteatereatingant!” Shio sent to the graveyard a Magic Cylinder and a Shrink. The monster he special summoned had 2000 attack points, more then enough to destroy Akio’s monster, “And he’s going to attack!” Akio imagined his pilgrim being eaten by the monster, but then remembered his pilgrim’s ability.
“My monster can’t be destroyed in battle by any monster with 1900 or more attack points. That being said, I still take damage. So now I’m at 3500.” He imagined a force field going over his monster, protecting the pilgrim. “And now it’s my turn, so I’ll draw.” Akio drew a card from his deck. “Huh, I know what to do. First of all, my Cold Wave effect is no more, so I can activate this!” Akio put ‘Medallion of the Ice Barrier’ on the table. “With this, I can get any Ice Barrier monster from my deck and add it to my hand.” Akio chose to add Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier to his hand. He then summoned it to the field.
“So you’re going to stop my monster from attacking?” Shio raised an eyebrow. It would prevent his monster from attacking for a couple of turns at the most, but Shio had a ton of creature removal in his deck. “That just seems like a mild inconvenience.”
“Not quite, you see, Cryomancer is a tuner, which means I can bring out one of my personal favorites! I tune my Pilgrim with my Cryomancer to synchro summon Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier!” Akio put the card down and smiled.
“Looks like we’re tied for attack, this should be fun.” Shio and Akio both smiled. Akio looked at the clock. ‘I have to win in a few turns or I’ll be late!’
Chapter 2
“Are you going to do anything else this turn?” Shio said, looking a bit annoyed. Akio stared at the card, wondering if he had any combos to go with it. He remembered when he had used ice barrier monsters, but he had no idea his little brother knew about it.
It was the first time he saw Duel Academy. He noticed a four man duel outside on the sidewalk. A rather large had already crowded around them, cheering for their favorites. Akio was only a kid at the time. He struggled through the crowd to watch the duel. The three duelists at one end were each using a different kind of hero. Akio saw Elemental Hero – Flame Wingman (2100), Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude (1400) and Evil Hero – Malicious Edge (2600) staring down at a kuriboh. It seemed the only thing keeping the guy alive was a level limit area B, which had all of the heroes in defense mode.
Akio blinked as he looked back at his field. His tiger was a good monster, it was his favorite synchro monster. He looked at his hand and saw the same card that the man had used, level limit area B. ‘This won’t help at all,’ Akio thought to himself, ‘it’ll just put my monster in defense mode too!’ Akio tried to think back to how the duelist used it.
Shio tapped Akio on the shoulder. Akio quickly turned, telling Shio to hold on, but when he turned back, Diamond Dude was destroyed and the duelist had won. Akio was a bit angry. He knew he missed the play of the century. To think, three duelists would all lose to a Kuriboh. When Akio turned back to Shio, Shio was holding Dewloren in his hand. Akio’s jaw dropped. “How’d you get that?!” He yelled, snatching the card from Shio, “This thing’s amazing! I’ll trade anything for it!”
“Now, now,” Shio said, “it’s not for you. Your little brother is having his first birthday, I want to be the one to give him his first card.” At the time Shio was enrolled in the academy as a Ra Yellow student, he had never gotten any higher than that.
That’s when Akio remembered something. It doesn’t matter if a monster is strong or weak. All that matters is whether or not you can use a strategy with it. He stared down at his Dewloren. “You know, that card has an interesting story,” Shio said, “when I gave it to your little brother, and he smiled and crawled over to you, I think he saw how jealous you were. I don’t know how, I just think it kind of clicked with him. Since you have your own now I doubt he cares anymore.”
“Yeah, I bet he doesn’t.” Akio’s voice just trailed off. He had no idea that his brother knew he liked this card so much. “So, it was my turn, right?” Shio just nodded. “Alright, I’m going to set one card face down and attack your monster.” Both cards had 2000 attack, so both monsters were destroyed without any life point damage.
“Do you think that was a good move? I hope you don’t plan on going to Duel Academy with a kamikaze strategy.” Shiyo laughed as he drew a card from his deck. “Alright, I’m going to set one card face down and one card in defense mode. Your turn.”
Akio drew a card. “Alright, I’ll play my face down card, Needlebug Nest! It’ll send the top 5 cards of my deck to the graveyard.” Akio picked up the top 5 cards of his deck and sent each one to the graveyard. Shio raised an eyebrow. “Odd move, right? Well, I have a strategy to go with it.” Shio remained silent. Akio took a card from his hand and put it on the field. “Monster Reborn!”
“Dark Bribe,” Shio casually said, “try to be a bit more careful next time. Dark Bribe negates the effect of a spell or trap card, but hey, you get to draw a card.” Akio drew a card from his deck. It’d be hard to replace Monster Reborn.
“Hm, we’re running a bit low on time Shio. I have to be at the academy in a few hours.”
“I guess you’re right,” Shio said with a smile, “so you better hurry up.”
“Alright, I’ll summon Mother Grizzly in attack mode (1400) and attack your face down card!” The face down card was Needlebug, which was weak and sent to the graveyard immediately.
“Thanks to Needlebug’s ability, you have to send the top 5 cards of your deck to the graveyard.” Akio sent the top 5 cards of his deck to the graveyard yet again. “Anything else?”
“No. Go ahead.”
Shio drew a card and smiled, “I’ll summon Chainsaw Insect to the field (2400). Now I’ll attack!” Akio felt he knew Shio’s strategy. He would use insects to make the opponent run out of cards. It was pretty clever, and Akio using Needlebug Nest didn’t really help. ‘Why would he even put that card in here?’ Akio thought to himself. Akio took 1000 points of damage and put Mother Grizzly in the graveyard. “Now draw a card.” Shio said with his sly smile.
LP: 2500 - Akio
“When my bear is destroyed, I can special summon any monster with 1500 attack or less.” Akio looked through his deck and saw a monster that wasn’t an ice barrier monster, but still could hold its own. “I choose Reese the Ice Mistress!” Shio’s smile faded a bit. He knew Reese was a tuner. “And now its my turn.”
Akio drew a card from his deck. Shio didn’t put up much of a guard. “I’ll start by removing from play my Pilgrim and Tiger of the Ice Barrier to special summon Fenrir (1400)!” It was yet another monster that wasn’t Ice-Barrier. “And now I will sacrifice Fenrir and Reese to summon General Grunard of the Ice Barrier (2800). With his ability, I can normal summon another Ice Barrier monster every turn. So, I’m going to normal summon the Dance Princess of the Ice Barrier (1700)!”
Shio stared at the card, “You’re going to summon a princess?” He literally fell out of his chair laughing, but he got back on. “Go ahead and do your worst. I calculated it, I’ll live through it.”
“Now I’ll play the field spell, Umiruka! With this field spell, all monsters I control gain a 500 attack point boost!” (General Grunard 3300, Dance Princess 2200) Truth be told, Akio had Umiruka since the beginning of the duel. He was just afraid that it would get destroyed to quickly. “Alright, I’m going to go ahead and attack Chainsaw Insect with my General, then attack you directly for the game.”
Shio laughed, it was a fun duel. He didn’t care if he lost, he just wanted to have fun. He turned on the engine and began to fly. “Oh, Akio, I forgot to mention something.”
“What’s that?” Akio asked, a slight smile on his face from winning the duel.
“Well, I’m going to rejoin the Duel Academy. Not this year, though. Next year. That duel was a wake up call, I have to work on my insect a bit before I go back there.”
“Didn’t you graduate a few years back, though?” Akio had asked this because he was really confused.
“Not quite. I actually left the academy so I could take these piloting lessons. I figured it’d be easier then going pro. As soon as I got out of school, though, they made these things so easy to pilot that I might as well not have taken any of the classes.” Shio laughed a bit, “Don’t die on year one, Akio. I want a rematch!” As the propellers carried the helicopter to the sky.
It was a long trip, but when they finally arrived Akio noticed something very strange. First, it was hotter then hell. Second, they were no where near the academy. All Akio could see was a small little city with a doc and a ship with a red, yellow, and blue academy. “Is the duel academy on a boat now?”
“No,” Shio said, “they decided to take a cruise ship up to the island from here. It takes an extra week, but they decided it’d be much better if the students got to know one another before they reached the academy. Oh, here’s one more thing.” Shio walked over to the captain’s chair and grabbed a small bag from the box. “Here, take it.” The bag contained some money. It wasn’t a lot, probably enough to buy a few packs. “You probably forgot to get your initiation fee, didn’t you?” Akio blinked, he totally did. “This should get you through. And one more thing.” Shio took the card “Anteatereatingant” from his deck and handed it to Akio. “It won’t be much use in your deck, I’m sure. Just a bit of a token to remember me by.”
Akio walked off of the helicopter as it took flight. He looked around the place. It was extremely rural, more than even his Arctic colony. He saw a few animals he hadn’t seen before. One was a large, white creature with a few black spots around it. It had something weird near its stomach.
“What, you’ve never seen a cow before?” Shio said as he stepped into the airplane. Akio shook his head no. “Well, get used to it. You’ll be seeing a lot at the academy. They’re not a dairy farm, but they sure do have a lot of cows!” Shio laughed as he turned on the propeller. Akio didn’t really get the joke.
Arc 1 - The Devil
Chapter 3
"The hell’s a helicopter doing here?” A voice called out from far away. Akio turned to look at the voice. It was actually a group of three duelists. The duelist on the left had a blue academy jersey, slick blue hair, and gray eyes. Actually, it looked like he was blind. The duelist in the middle was a Slifer Red with a strange hairstyle. On the left his hair was spiky and red. On the right his hair was jelled back and blue. The duelist on the right wasn’t wearing a duel jersey. Instead, he had a long sleeve gray shirt on with blue pants. He had sunglasses on and dark brown hair up in a ponytail. Akio got a “pecking order” vibe going on between the three duelists. He wasn’t sure who asked the question, but he imagined it was the man in the ponytail.
“Well, we’re right by a landing pad. Helicopters have a habit of, you know, landing on those.” This time the Obelisk Blue duelist had talked, not looking over to his side. He walked forward, but every so often he would use the Slifer as support. He must have had trouble walking. That or he really was blind.
“I swear, man, you’re such a dumbass sometimes.” The duelist with the split hair style turned to the ponytail man. ‘So,’ Akio thought, ‘it was the guy in the ponytail.’ Akio blinked a few times as the Obelisk Blue ran into him.
“Oh, God. I’m so sorry.” The Obelisk said to Akio. Akio offered him a hand up, but he didn’t seem to take it. “I really need to pay attention to where I’m going.” Akio just smiled and kept his hand down. The Slifer smiled back and helped the Obelisk kid out. “Are you alright?” The odd thing of all of this was that the student stared straight forward. He didn’t bother looking at Akio.
“Yeah…I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.” Akio looked at the group, deciding they could be his ticket into knowing where everything on the academy was. The staff could only help him so much. There were probably hangouts at the academy that the staff had no idea about. “My name’s Akio, what’s yours?”
“I’m Kane Maboroshi. The Slifer Red student is my younger brother, Fujo, and our friend David.” The Obelisk student smiled, looking in the general direction of the other two.
“Kane!” A voice called out from the distance. “You’re going another year, too?”
“Luke? Get your ass over here!” It wasn’t Ganko who answered, but Fujo. Fujo waved Luke towards their area. Akio turned his head towards Luke.
Luke was pretty much exactly what Akio would imagine when he thought of the word “relaxed”. He had short black hair, blue eyes, and a look of complete content. He looked up at the sun and squinted. “Damn, the sun’s bright today. It’s hurting my eyes.”
“Yeah, the sun has a habit of doing that,” Fujo said with a smirk.
“What, hurting my eyes?” Luke asked, now close to where Akio was.
“No, being bright.” Fujo’s smirk widened.
Luke laughed, “You douche bag!” He pat Fujo on the back and looked up towards Akio. “Is he that Devil kid everyone’s talking about?” Akio had no idea what they were talking about.
“No,” David finally said. It was the first time he had talked in a while. “Devil has gray hair, remember?”
“Oh yeah, how could I forget?” Luke almost looked a bit annoyed.
“Oh crap, sorry, I forgot.” David bowed his head. Akio wondered what this was about. ‘Oh,’ Akio thought, ‘he must be color blind.’
“So, are you guys headed off towards the ship?” Luke said, looking specifically at Fujo.
“No, we were going to go to the shop and see if Devil was still there.” Fujo bluntly responded.
“Excuse me,” Akio finally said, “who’s Devil?”
“Devil is a superstition that floated around the island last year. Apparently, someone enrolled in the academy is a sadist. We call him Devil, but I don’t know what his real name is. Anyways, a lot of people say that he duels with a deck possessed by…well…” Fujo trailed off.
“Satan himself.” Kane finished the sentence for Fujo. “So, should we head out?”
“Actually,” Fujo said, “we’re starting to run out of time. We should probably head on out.”
“Oh come on,” David pleaded, “this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance! Who knows if he’ll really enroll? We have to check it out!”
“Wait…is that him?” Akio pointed towards a small kid who looked about twelve with gray hair. It was strange that someone who was a sadist was so young.
“Oh my God…it’s not!” Fujo said. “Do you really think a sadist would be twelve?” Akio had a light blush, it was a kind of stupid idea.
“Fujo, I swear, you’re such a dick sometimes.” Luke said, laughing. “Alright, how about this? We have a few hours to get to the ship. That’s enough time to get to the card shop and back. We’ll check it out, and if he’s not there, we’ll just go on board.”
The group walked towards the card shop, wondering if Devil would be there.
[/spoiler]
Arc 0 - Prelude
Chapter 1
Akio woke up and looked over to his alarm clock. “4…AM…” he growled and got out of bed. Today was the day he would go to Duel Academy and start his new adventure. He loved dueling, but he hated 4 AM. He glanced over to his window and saw the ice caps that surrounded his house. Times had changed over the years, colonies had been built in many third-world countries and the world was rapidly going into another industrial revolution. He lived in a colony located in the Arctic Circle. It was extremely cold, but then again, he liked the cold. He looked in a mirror. He had messy blonde hair with bright green eyes. He was a spitting image of his father, except he wasn't quite as bulky. He was slightly tall, and was wearing a few layers of jackets, making him look bigger then he really was. He looked back outside, staring at the cold, dark plain that waited for him.
His family wasn’t poor by any means, but that didn’t mean they were rich. Many people in the Arctic shared things. It was a tough way to live, but it paid off in the long run. Akio had the feeling that he could survive anything. He ate a little piece of seal jerky as he headed out of his room.
His little brother was the first to greet him. His little brother was about 6. He had curly, brown hair and was much shorter than Akio. Akio felt that his little brother was on his way to become taller then their father. His little brother had stayed awake because he knew if he fell asleep he would miss Akio leaving. Akio smiled, “Hey bro.” His brother shuffled around and handed Akio a deck. “No, you don’t need to give me this.” His brother shook his head ‘no’. Akio’s plan was to just buy a structure deck when he got there, he had his deck stolen. He smiled and pocketed the deck. “Thanks man. I have to get going. Tell mom and dad I love ‘em.” Akio grabbed a bag and slung it around his shoulder. “Later, Chase.”
“Represent us!” Chase yelled out as Akio walked out the door. Akio heard something fall, he imagined his father got startled and fell out of the bed. With a smirk he continued walking.
It was weird. His father was from an American colony and his mother was from a Japanese colony. The two had met during one of his father’s journeys to expand the Arctic for America. Japan had the same idea. To avoid conflict, they had decided that America would own the ice and water in the Arctic Circle and Japan would have access to all of the animals that live there. As soon as Akio stepped onto the air base he heard the propeller of the helicopter. His friend, Shio, had learned to pilot a helicopter 5 years ago. He was 22 now, 6 years older then Akio. A ladder fell from the helicopter. “Get in, I have to tell you something.”
Akio stared at the helicopter for a few seconds. It was a newer model. The body was smaller and much higher up from the ground. It was made to navigate around glaciers fast. Piloting was no problem, a baby could pilot it. He grabbed the ladder and climbed up. Shio smiled. A duel mat was laid out on a table. “This helicopter’s not taking off until you beat me in a duel, buddy!” He smiled.
His deck was already in the deck zone. Akio navigated over the mess of cards and wires and sat down on a small wooden stool across from his friend. He reached in his pocket to grab his brother’s deck and put it on the table. It was actually kind of funny because he had no idea what deck his brother gave him.
“I’ll have the first move.” Shio and Akio drew 5 cards from the top of their decks. “And one.” He drew one more card for his draw phase and studied his hand. “Alright, I’ll set two cards face down. I’ll end my turn after that.” Since it was a duel mat, there weren’t any holograms. Duels were a bit plain, but they were still fun.
“Alright, I’ll draw.” Akio drew a card and looked at the amazing deck his brother had built him. If it wasn’t a good deck, he at least got a good starting hand. His brother had chosen to give him an Ice Barrier deck. ‘Huh,’ he thought, ‘so that’s what he meant when he said ‘represent us”. Akio smiled, “I’ll start with Cold Wave. It stops us from using spells or traps this turn.” Shio just nodded, wondering what would happen next. “Now, I summon Pilgrim of the Ice Barrier and direct attack!” Shio now had 2500 lifepoints. “Go ahead.”
Shio drew a card. “Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but by sacrificing my two face down cards I can special summon the Anteatereatingant!” Shio sent to the graveyard a Magic Cylinder and a Shrink. The monster he special summoned had 2000 attack points, more then enough to destroy Akio’s monster, “And he’s going to attack!” Akio imagined his pilgrim being eaten by the monster, but then remembered his pilgrim’s ability.
“My monster can’t be destroyed in battle by any monster with 1900 or more attack points. That being said, I still take damage. So now I’m at 3500.” He imagined a force field going over his monster, protecting the pilgrim. “And now it’s my turn, so I’ll draw.” Akio drew a card from his deck. “Huh, I know what to do. First of all, my Cold Wave effect is no more, so I can activate this!” Akio put ‘Medallion of the Ice Barrier’ on the table. “With this, I can get any Ice Barrier monster from my deck and add it to my hand.” Akio chose to add Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier to his hand. He then summoned it to the field.
“So you’re going to stop my monster from attacking?” Shio raised an eyebrow. It would prevent his monster from attacking for a couple of turns at the most, but Shio had a ton of creature removal in his deck. “That just seems like a mild inconvenience.”
“Not quite, you see, Cryomancer is a tuner, which means I can bring out one of my personal favorites! I tune my Pilgrim with my Cryomancer to synchro summon Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier!” Akio put the card down and smiled.
“Looks like we’re tied for attack, this should be fun.” Shio and Akio both smiled. Akio looked at the clock. ‘I have to win in a few turns or I’ll be late!’
Chapter 2
“Are you going to do anything else this turn?” Shio said, looking a bit annoyed. Akio stared at the card, wondering if he had any combos to go with it. He remembered when he had used ice barrier monsters, but he had no idea his little brother knew about it.
It was the first time he saw Duel Academy. He noticed a four man duel outside on the sidewalk. A rather large had already crowded around them, cheering for their favorites. Akio was only a kid at the time. He struggled through the crowd to watch the duel. The three duelists at one end were each using a different kind of hero. Akio saw Elemental Hero – Flame Wingman (2100), Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude (1400) and Evil Hero – Malicious Edge (2600) staring down at a kuriboh. It seemed the only thing keeping the guy alive was a level limit area B, which had all of the heroes in defense mode.
Akio blinked as he looked back at his field. His tiger was a good monster, it was his favorite synchro monster. He looked at his hand and saw the same card that the man had used, level limit area B. ‘This won’t help at all,’ Akio thought to himself, ‘it’ll just put my monster in defense mode too!’ Akio tried to think back to how the duelist used it.
Shio tapped Akio on the shoulder. Akio quickly turned, telling Shio to hold on, but when he turned back, Diamond Dude was destroyed and the duelist had won. Akio was a bit angry. He knew he missed the play of the century. To think, three duelists would all lose to a Kuriboh. When Akio turned back to Shio, Shio was holding Dewloren in his hand. Akio’s jaw dropped. “How’d you get that?!” He yelled, snatching the card from Shio, “This thing’s amazing! I’ll trade anything for it!”
“Now, now,” Shio said, “it’s not for you. Your little brother is having his first birthday, I want to be the one to give him his first card.” At the time Shio was enrolled in the academy as a Ra Yellow student, he had never gotten any higher than that.
That’s when Akio remembered something. It doesn’t matter if a monster is strong or weak. All that matters is whether or not you can use a strategy with it. He stared down at his Dewloren. “You know, that card has an interesting story,” Shio said, “when I gave it to your little brother, and he smiled and crawled over to you, I think he saw how jealous you were. I don’t know how, I just think it kind of clicked with him. Since you have your own now I doubt he cares anymore.”
“Yeah, I bet he doesn’t.” Akio’s voice just trailed off. He had no idea that his brother knew he liked this card so much. “So, it was my turn, right?” Shio just nodded. “Alright, I’m going to set one card face down and attack your monster.” Both cards had 2000 attack, so both monsters were destroyed without any life point damage.
“Do you think that was a good move? I hope you don’t plan on going to Duel Academy with a kamikaze strategy.” Shiyo laughed as he drew a card from his deck. “Alright, I’m going to set one card face down and one card in defense mode. Your turn.”
Akio drew a card. “Alright, I’ll play my face down card, Needlebug Nest! It’ll send the top 5 cards of my deck to the graveyard.” Akio picked up the top 5 cards of his deck and sent each one to the graveyard. Shio raised an eyebrow. “Odd move, right? Well, I have a strategy to go with it.” Shio remained silent. Akio took a card from his hand and put it on the field. “Monster Reborn!”
“Dark Bribe,” Shio casually said, “try to be a bit more careful next time. Dark Bribe negates the effect of a spell or trap card, but hey, you get to draw a card.” Akio drew a card from his deck. It’d be hard to replace Monster Reborn.
“Hm, we’re running a bit low on time Shio. I have to be at the academy in a few hours.”
“I guess you’re right,” Shio said with a smile, “so you better hurry up.”
“Alright, I’ll summon Mother Grizzly in attack mode (1400) and attack your face down card!” The face down card was Needlebug, which was weak and sent to the graveyard immediately.
“Thanks to Needlebug’s ability, you have to send the top 5 cards of your deck to the graveyard.” Akio sent the top 5 cards of his deck to the graveyard yet again. “Anything else?”
“No. Go ahead.”
Shio drew a card and smiled, “I’ll summon Chainsaw Insect to the field (2400). Now I’ll attack!” Akio felt he knew Shio’s strategy. He would use insects to make the opponent run out of cards. It was pretty clever, and Akio using Needlebug Nest didn’t really help. ‘Why would he even put that card in here?’ Akio thought to himself. Akio took 1000 points of damage and put Mother Grizzly in the graveyard. “Now draw a card.” Shio said with his sly smile.
LP: 2500 - Akio
“When my bear is destroyed, I can special summon any monster with 1500 attack or less.” Akio looked through his deck and saw a monster that wasn’t an ice barrier monster, but still could hold its own. “I choose Reese the Ice Mistress!” Shio’s smile faded a bit. He knew Reese was a tuner. “And now its my turn.”
Akio drew a card from his deck. Shio didn’t put up much of a guard. “I’ll start by removing from play my Pilgrim and Tiger of the Ice Barrier to special summon Fenrir (1400)!” It was yet another monster that wasn’t Ice-Barrier. “And now I will sacrifice Fenrir and Reese to summon General Grunard of the Ice Barrier (2800). With his ability, I can normal summon another Ice Barrier monster every turn. So, I’m going to normal summon the Dance Princess of the Ice Barrier (1700)!”
Shio stared at the card, “You’re going to summon a princess?” He literally fell out of his chair laughing, but he got back on. “Go ahead and do your worst. I calculated it, I’ll live through it.”
“Now I’ll play the field spell, Umiruka! With this field spell, all monsters I control gain a 500 attack point boost!” (General Grunard 3300, Dance Princess 2200) Truth be told, Akio had Umiruka since the beginning of the duel. He was just afraid that it would get destroyed to quickly. “Alright, I’m going to go ahead and attack Chainsaw Insect with my General, then attack you directly for the game.”
Shio laughed, it was a fun duel. He didn’t care if he lost, he just wanted to have fun. He turned on the engine and began to fly. “Oh, Akio, I forgot to mention something.”
“What’s that?” Akio asked, a slight smile on his face from winning the duel.
“Well, I’m going to rejoin the Duel Academy. Not this year, though. Next year. That duel was a wake up call, I have to work on my insect a bit before I go back there.”
“Didn’t you graduate a few years back, though?” Akio had asked this because he was really confused.
“Not quite. I actually left the academy so I could take these piloting lessons. I figured it’d be easier then going pro. As soon as I got out of school, though, they made these things so easy to pilot that I might as well not have taken any of the classes.” Shio laughed a bit, “Don’t die on year one, Akio. I want a rematch!” As the propellers carried the helicopter to the sky.
It was a long trip, but when they finally arrived Akio noticed something very strange. First, it was hotter then hell. Second, they were no where near the academy. All Akio could see was a small little city with a doc and a ship with a red, yellow, and blue academy. “Is the duel academy on a boat now?”
“No,” Shio said, “they decided to take a cruise ship up to the island from here. It takes an extra week, but they decided it’d be much better if the students got to know one another before they reached the academy. Oh, here’s one more thing.” Shio walked over to the captain’s chair and grabbed a small bag from the box. “Here, take it.” The bag contained some money. It wasn’t a lot, probably enough to buy a few packs. “You probably forgot to get your initiation fee, didn’t you?” Akio blinked, he totally did. “This should get you through. And one more thing.” Shio took the card “Anteatereatingant” from his deck and handed it to Akio. “It won’t be much use in your deck, I’m sure. Just a bit of a token to remember me by.”
Akio walked off of the helicopter as it took flight. He looked around the place. It was extremely rural, more than even his Arctic colony. He saw a few animals he hadn’t seen before. One was a large, white creature with a few black spots around it. It had something weird near its stomach.
“What, you’ve never seen a cow before?” Shio said as he stepped into the airplane. Akio shook his head no. “Well, get used to it. You’ll be seeing a lot at the academy. They’re not a dairy farm, but they sure do have a lot of cows!” Shio laughed as he turned on the propeller. Akio didn’t really get the joke.
Arc 1 - The Devil
Chapter 3
"The hell’s a helicopter doing here?” A voice called out from far away. Akio turned to look at the voice. It was actually a group of three duelists. The duelist on the left had a blue academy jersey, slick blue hair, and gray eyes. Actually, it looked like he was blind. The duelist in the middle was a Slifer Red with a strange hairstyle. On the left his hair was spiky and red. On the right his hair was jelled back and blue. The duelist on the right wasn’t wearing a duel jersey. Instead, he had a long sleeve gray shirt on with blue pants. He had sunglasses on and dark brown hair up in a ponytail. Akio got a “pecking order” vibe going on between the three duelists. He wasn’t sure who asked the question, but he imagined it was the man in the ponytail.
“Well, we’re right by a landing pad. Helicopters have a habit of, you know, landing on those.” This time the Obelisk Blue duelist had talked, not looking over to his side. He walked forward, but every so often he would use the Slifer as support. He must have had trouble walking. That or he really was blind.
“I swear, man, you’re such a dumbass sometimes.” The duelist with the split hair style turned to the ponytail man. ‘So,’ Akio thought, ‘it was the guy in the ponytail.’ Akio blinked a few times as the Obelisk Blue ran into him.
“Oh, God. I’m so sorry.” The Obelisk said to Akio. Akio offered him a hand up, but he didn’t seem to take it. “I really need to pay attention to where I’m going.” Akio just smiled and kept his hand down. The Slifer smiled back and helped the Obelisk kid out. “Are you alright?” The odd thing of all of this was that the student stared straight forward. He didn’t bother looking at Akio.
“Yeah…I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.” Akio looked at the group, deciding they could be his ticket into knowing where everything on the academy was. The staff could only help him so much. There were probably hangouts at the academy that the staff had no idea about. “My name’s Akio, what’s yours?”
“I’m Kane Maboroshi. The Slifer Red student is my younger brother, Fujo, and our friend David.” The Obelisk student smiled, looking in the general direction of the other two.
“Kane!” A voice called out from the distance. “You’re going another year, too?”
“Luke? Get your ass over here!” It wasn’t Ganko who answered, but Fujo. Fujo waved Luke towards their area. Akio turned his head towards Luke.
Luke was pretty much exactly what Akio would imagine when he thought of the word “relaxed”. He had short black hair, blue eyes, and a look of complete content. He looked up at the sun and squinted. “Damn, the sun’s bright today. It’s hurting my eyes.”
“Yeah, the sun has a habit of doing that,” Fujo said with a smirk.
“What, hurting my eyes?” Luke asked, now close to where Akio was.
“No, being bright.” Fujo’s smirk widened.
Luke laughed, “You douche bag!” He pat Fujo on the back and looked up towards Akio. “Is he that Devil kid everyone’s talking about?” Akio had no idea what they were talking about.
“No,” David finally said. It was the first time he had talked in a while. “Devil has gray hair, remember?”
“Oh yeah, how could I forget?” Luke almost looked a bit annoyed.
“Oh crap, sorry, I forgot.” David bowed his head. Akio wondered what this was about. ‘Oh,’ Akio thought, ‘he must be color blind.’
“So, are you guys headed off towards the ship?” Luke said, looking specifically at Fujo.
“No, we were going to go to the shop and see if Devil was still there.” Fujo bluntly responded.
“Excuse me,” Akio finally said, “who’s Devil?”
“Devil is a superstition that floated around the island last year. Apparently, someone enrolled in the academy is a sadist. We call him Devil, but I don’t know what his real name is. Anyways, a lot of people say that he duels with a deck possessed by…well…” Fujo trailed off.
“Satan himself.” Kane finished the sentence for Fujo. “So, should we head out?”
“Actually,” Fujo said, “we’re starting to run out of time. We should probably head on out.”
“Oh come on,” David pleaded, “this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance! Who knows if he’ll really enroll? We have to check it out!”
“Wait…is that him?” Akio pointed towards a small kid who looked about twelve with gray hair. It was strange that someone who was a sadist was so young.
“Oh my God…it’s not!” Fujo said. “Do you really think a sadist would be twelve?” Akio had a light blush, it was a kind of stupid idea.
“Fujo, I swear, you’re such a dick sometimes.” Luke said, laughing. “Alright, how about this? We have a few hours to get to the ship. That’s enough time to get to the card shop and back. We’ll check it out, and if he’s not there, we’ll just go on board.”
The group walked towards the card shop, wondering if Devil would be there.
[/spoiler]
