Chapter 51: (43) Here they come

 It’s strange how quickly you get into a rhythm

 ““““GO! GO! GO! NWDA!””””

 Literally in my case, as we practice the routine we planned for the event in one of the ship’s gymnasiums, yes, plural, there are quite a lot of them scattered around the ship, a leftover form earlier spacefaring days before graviton based artificial gravity… Don’t ask me what that means, all I know is that it doesn’t rely on spinning the vessel and that’s supposed to be an improvement.

 Anyway, I got kind of sidetracked there. It’s the second day already, and just a few hours ago we had the “Speed up ceremony” and that’s exactly what it sounds. You would think that a ship speeding up to a fraction of the speed of light would be interesting, but, other than a number slowly going up, nothing happened. Naeko explained this as the ship speeding up gradually by firing its engine for 20 hours to get to up to cruise speed.

 Apparently after the ship is at speed, the trip will only take a few hours, with most of the 4 day journey being preparations, speed up, slow down, and final orbital maneuvers for docking with the station which in turn orbits a langrage point between Inrionia and Ninus the two closest planets to the sun.

 … Right the system, they call earth… the Earth and the sun… Sun… Oh and the earth has a moon; they call it… Well; they call it Lua but, hey; I guess something had to be different.

 ‘Now that I think about it, that makes sense. Even if this is another world they speak English… Well, they call it “Common.”’

 From what I learned when I was doing some research about it, it used to be called Edican based on the Edican empire, a great empire that dominated the two major continents of this earth hundreds of years ago.

 “Hey Yuumi, can you stop spacing out? You just planted your foot on my neck!” I hear someone alert from below.

 I look down and discover that I just stepped on Nanako.

 “Oh my god, I’m so sorry!”

 “It’s fine. Just pay more attention from now on. If you slip and fall, the field spell can fail to activate because it’s too low. And if you break a leg, we’ll waste a day.”

 “Just a day? That doesn’t sound that bad.” I joke.

 “Haha, well… What if Mark finds out you missed a day because you were negligent?”

 “… I better not slip.”

 We continue our practice after that, and I make sure to be way more careful about where I step…

 

---

 

 “Why can’t I have that stamina…” I wail to myself while stepping through the hallways of the cruise ship.

 I do the best I can during practice, but sometimes I’m reminded of how monstrous Nanako, Naeko, and Haruna are. They can go on for eight hours straight at an intense pace if necessary, mostly because of the extra year of training they have on me and the full range of nanobot injections.

 This is a case of just that. I’m walking back to our room while they kept going. Exhausted out of my mind, physically and mentally. We also had a light lunch, and it’s 6 in the afternoon, so I’m starving right about now.

 I hadn’t even changed out of my cheerleader uniform, so I was getting strange looks from the people I was passing by. Mostly the guys…

 This tournament is for standard duels, not action ones, which means this part of the ship is occupied by cheer teams for the other duel academies.

 “Hey pipsqueak!” Someone hollers behind me.

 I keep walking, ignoring whatever that’s about.

 Right after that, I feel someone grabbing my shoulder and pulling on it. I’m exhausted, so that sudden move makes me fall to the ground like a football player that’s just been nudged.

 “Arhg!” I grunt.

 “Hahahaha! Well, if it isn’t a NWDA brat. Where were you going? Don’t you know this is CSG territory?” Teases a girl with very short green hair in a pixie cut, and a tall slim build, wearing a red and yellow uniform with a short skirt and tank-top, probably also a cheerleader going by the area we’re in.

 I get up and dust myself off before responding. “I was just walking back to general quarters. Now if you just let m—”

 “You were going back already!?” she questions in a mocking tone. “Don’t tell you are a first year… HAHAHAHAHA!”

 …

 “What’s so funny about that?” I ask.

 “Fa- HA- Everything! A first year alone in here! HAHAHAHA!”

 ‘For fuck’s sake, this is why I don’t like school cliques. It doesn’t matter what age a person is, they’ll act like they’re 15 every fucking time. I’m for old for this shit!’

 While she continues laughing, I turn my back and try to walk away.

 That’s when I hear the familiar sound of a duel disk activating.

 ‘Ah, for heaven’s sake. Don’t tell me…’

 I turn to her and find my fears realized.

 She was holding out a circular light pink duel disk projecting a curved silver duel blade.

 “Now, now, let’s not be hasty here. Why don’t we have a friendly match? Just something to warm up for the tournament. If you have a duel disk, that is.”

 ‘Fucking bully.’

 As I wasn’t supposed to be dueling, it made sense that I wouldn’t have a duel disk with me. So I would have no choice but to follow whatever she said. She was practically holding me at gunpoint.

 That is… If I really hadn’t needed a duel disk for practice.

 “Fuh.” I smile and lift the right side of my short mini-skirt, revealing a thigh strap with my duel disk attached.

 While you wouldn’t expect it, the staff allowed us to hook up our duel disks to the safety system of the gymnasium to project monsters with. The face that the solid-vision technician made when we revealed what our intentions were was priceless, mostly out of bewilderment at how no-one ever thought of doing that before.

 Her face twitches for a second before saying. “Huh, very well then. Guess I’ll have to let you go for now. Don’t want to cause trouble, do we?”

 ‘Typical bully behaviour. Soon as they get challenged, they run away.’

 I’m not letting her get away with this, so I raise my duel disk. “I don’t think so. We’ll go with your plan.”

 Her eyes open wide. “Do you know who I am? I’m the successor for the Mata—”

 “Don’t care, let’s duel.” I interrupt.

 Flabbergasted at my response, she turns around and offers. “Then follow me. We’ll duel in the CSG gym.”

 She doesn’t wait for my response before moving.

 We go along the hallway for a bit before arriving at a door that’s got a logo on it. Unlike the other doors around here, it only opens after she holds a keycard up to it.

 “Hey, how come you guys have your own gym? We have to rotate!” I complain.

 Not even turning around, she stops and starts laughing. “AHAHHA! Unlike your peasant institute, the CSG doesn’t make us rotate with other schools for training!”

 Yea, I should have expected that. Anyway, we finally reach the center of the gym. There’s nobody here other than us, which just puts to question why they gave them their own space if they aren’t using it… Wait.

 “So brat, how about we put something on the line here?” I suggest.

 Her face reddens, and she puffs her cheeks like a ballon. “WHO ARE YOU CALLING A BRAT HERE YOU PIG!”

 ‘… Why do all spoiled brats default to calling people farm animals? Like, really, what did a pig do to you?’

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 Still, this was my plan to get her to accept. “How about this? If you lose, we get your space and you have to deal with rotations. If I lose… you get to put me in my place? Sound like a deal?”

 She’s practically foaming at the mouth. “EHEHHEHEHE, YOU’LL REGRET BEWILDERING ME! I ACCEPT! DUEL!”

 I smile. ‘Got her.’

 “DUEL!” I yell after raising my duel disk.

 ‘Even though I’m confident, I don’t want to lose a duel to this freak… Still, this can be a great opportunity to test out my new deck… Fuck it, she’s just a cheerleader. How good can she be?’ I select the deck I built two days ago.

 The lights of the gymnasium grow weaker and, as the original challenger, she draws her hand and starts the duel.

 [Draw Phase, Standby Phase, Main Phase 1]

 The scrawny cheerleader looks at her hand before smiling and taunting. “Looks like you’re in for a beating!”

 She grabs a card and slams it down on the blade. “I activate the card, foolish burial! Sending ‘Destrudo The Lost Dragon’s Frisson’ from my deck to the graveyard. Then I normal summon ‘The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots!’”

 A short creature clad in rags appears on the field.

 ‘Huh, Phantom Knights? They can be nasty but I think I can manage it, that “Destruto” card however I don’t recognize, let me read it… “Pay half your life points?” ok that’s enough. This chick is crazy… However… Hmm tuner than can change the levels of monsters? That’s neat. Let’s see what she makes.’

 “I activate the effect of ‘Destrudo’ by paying half my life points I target ‘Boots’ to AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!” visible dark sparks which make her scream interrupt her.

 ‘That card is nasty,’ I conclude.

 Still, that doesn’t stop her. After a minute of catching her breath, she gets up again and continues. “T-The effect allows me to special summon Destrudo from the graveyard!”

 A creepy undead dragon enters the field, one of its eyes radiating a blue flame.

 “It also reduces its own level to 4.” she tells.

 ‘Level 7 synchro in a phantom night deck? Ok…’ I try to figure out what she’s going to do next but end at a loss.

 “I use Destrudo and Boots as link materials! Come on out! Link 2 ‘Crystron Halquifibrax!’”

 The dragon and creature rise and turn into blue specks of light before getting absorbed by the link circuit above the field. The circuit shines for just a moment before I turn away from the inevitable pillar of light. Based on the brightness in my peripheral vision, I was correct to do so.

 She continues. “Cryston’s effect activates! Special summoning ‘Jet Synchron’ from my deck to the field!”

 I hear her say before even turning back to the duel field. When I do, I find a jet engine with legs standing behind the crystal monster.

 ‘This isn’t good, shit! I don’t have any interruption cards in my hand!’

 “I’ll use ‘Cryston’ and ‘Jet’ as link materials! Come on out! ‘Knightmare Phoenix!’”

 I turn away again. ‘Using a link 2 and a monster for a link 2… Strange, but jet has a graveyard effect, so she could’ve used halq to get it there from the deck. Still, I can’t mess with her.’

 By the time I turn back to the duel, I find a phoenix made of deep red flames dominating the field.

 “For my next move, I’ll set Phoenix as a link material! Emerge! ‘Knightmare mermaid!’”

 I turn away for the third time. ‘Seriously? There has to be a way to turn off these animations! I get it if it’s in a spectator duel, but using this much light for every summon just gets annoying! Anyway, she just turned her link 2 into a link 1… Why did she cycle through so many monsters just to get there? She could have just used jet to link into mermaid… Maybe she also needs Halq and Phoenix in the grave? I don’t know.’ I was genuinely stumped.

 “Using the effect of mermaid, I discard ‘Max “C”’ from my hand to special summon ‘Orcust Knightmare’ from the deck!”

 An enormous unit of a monster gets summoned and towers over the field, maybe even 10 meters high…

 “I set ‘Mermaid’ and ‘Orcust Knightmare’ as link materials! Link summon! ‘Galatea, The Orcust Automaton!’”

 The summon proceeds like always and, in the end, a person sized automaton with pale skin and gold detailing hits the field.

 ‘So this is what she is really running, ok then, let’s see… Orcust… I don’t really remember what they do other than summoning specific XYZ monster and activating effects from the grave with a field spell… Fuck I should have played more online duels, in my locals there were barely any meta decks and Orcust is a deck I’ve only seen online. Fuck, I’m in a duel against an unknown deck using a deck I’ve never used before. This is what I get for being cocky, isn’t it?’

 “Next, Jet synchron’s effect activates from the grave, I discard another ‘Max “C”’ from my hand to special summon it in defence position.” The jet engine returns to the field. “I activate the effect of ‘Orcust Knightmare’ from the GY, by banishing it, I send ‘Orcust Harp Horror’ from the deck to the GY, then I target ‘Galatea’ and increase its attack by 100 times the level of the monster I just sent to the grave, resulting in 2200 ATK. Following this, I activate the effect of ‘Harp Horror’. By also banishing it, I special summon ‘Orcust Cymbal Skeleton’ from my deck to the field.”

 Following the series of effects, a massive skeleton on tank threads with drum cymbals gets summoned, its size fills up almost this entire duel field and by looking at the card art, I find that it’s supposed to be bigger than that. Duel disks won’t project monsters if there isn’t enough space for them, but to accommodate for massive monsters like orcusts, it can shrink them. Of course, war footing is something different… In that case, the bigger the better and property damage is expected.

 “Next I set Link-2 ‘Galatea’ and ‘Cymbal Skeleton’ in the link circuit! Come on out! ‘The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche!’”

 The massive skeleton disappears and a living armour monster with blue flames and a golden axe shows up in its place.

 “By banishing ‘Orcust Cymbal Skeleton’ from the GY, I activate its effect, targeting ‘Galatea’ in the grave and special summoning it back to the field!”

 The pale automaton returns.

 “I’ll use the effect of ‘Galatea’ to return ‘Orcust Knightmare’ from the banish pile to the deck and by doing so I set the field spell ‘Orcustated babel’ from the deck to the field spell zone. Next, I build the overlay network using the Link monster ‘Galatea, The Orcust Automaton’ to XYZ summon!”

 The automaton turns into a black sphere of light before getting sucked up by the darkness vortex forming above the field.

 ‘There’s only one monster that she can XYZ summon using a link monster in that deck…’

 “Come out! Towering greatness that rocks the world! ‘Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star!’”

 I look away from the purple light that shines out of the vortex, and when I look back I’m shocked to find another towering monster, but for some reason, this feels different from the skeleton… It’s scary, imposing… and brilliant…

 I force myself to snap out of it and start reading its effect proper. ‘“You can only special summon Dingirsu…” once per turn, that’s good, she can’t spam it; Can be XYZ summoned using an Orcust link, already knew that; Can negate battle AND CARD EFFECT destruction by using material, that’s amazing, it’s protection for any card on the field; If this can is special summoned… It can send a monster from my field to the GY, that’s a non-targeting non-destruction removal effect AKA the best removal you can get in this game, so that’s good… Or it can attach a banished Orcust as material, that’s not that good compared to the other effect but it feeds into the protection effect and as that isn’t once per turn it can do two destruction negates...’

 My impression of the card is that it’s an excellent protection for the field and if the duel lasts over two turns, then she can just summon another… The destruction effect is also amazing. While it’s just a 2600 ATK body, its on field presence is extremely intimidating, especially its size…

 The cheerleader can’t help but taunt me. “See what you're up against? I would recommend you surrender, lest I end up soiling this pristine gym with your blood.”

 ‘… Edgy much? Still, that spear looks intimidating.’

 “Not really. Continue your turn.” I shot back nonchalantly, in a move of false courage. I don’t know if my deck can beat that, but I will not give up just because a monster looks scary.

 “Tch! The hard way, then! On summon of Dingirsu, I activate the effect of ‘Rusty Bardiche’, as a monster was just summoned to a zone it points to and with it, I target ‘Jet Synchron’ for destruction. Then, I chain the on summon effect of Dingirsu, attaching the banished ‘Orcust Cymbal Skeleton’ to it. The chain resolves with Orcust Cymbal Skeleton attaching to Dingirsu and proceeds to Bardiche’s effect, where I use Dingirsu’s other effect to negate the destruction of ‘Jet Synchron’ by using an overlay unit, in this case ‘Galatea.’”

 ‘Oof, that’s a duesy. So she used Bardiche to try to destroy Jet, but then chained “Dingirsu” to attach skeleton, chain resolves with “Dingirsu” attaching skeleton and when it comes the time to destroy Jet, she prevents it by detaching “Galatea” from “Dingirsu,” sending “Galatea” to the grave… Hmmm, so she ends up with Galatea in the grave and skeleton on Dingirsu… That’s interesting but I don’t think “Galatea” has a GY effect,’ I look at the card in my duel disk’s display. ‘No, it doesn’t… So what was she doing other than wasting a protection?’

 I’m left wandering as the duelist continues. “Finally, I activate the effect of ‘The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots,’ by banishing it I add the trap card ‘Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade’ to my hand. Next, I set two cards face down, and turn the field spell ‘Orcustrated Babel’ face up, end of turn.

 A miniature tower the size of Dingirsu appears off to the side.

 After that extensive turn, her field ends on ‘The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche’ in the Extra monster zone, ‘Jet Synchron’, and ‘Dingirsu’ with one material in the form of ‘Orcust Cymbal Skeleton’, Dingirsu is getting pointed at by one of the link arrows of ‘Rusty Bardiche’. She also has the field spell ‘Orcustrated Babel’ face up. To end, she has two face-down cards, one of them which is guaranteed to be ‘Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade’ and another which I don’t know and 4000LP.

 ‘This is a very impressive first turn board for this world’s standards and I have an untested deck to break it.’

 Of course, the cheerleader couldn’t help but threaten. “This is what happens when you face the CSG! Surrender now or suffer the humiliation of a lifetime!”

 I shake my head. “Don’t think so… DRAW!”

 I look at the card I drew for turn.

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