Chapter 56: (48) Prelude to War

15/SEP/35MT

 The day of the tournament is upon us. I’m currently in the backstage of the Grand Arena with Aya, Haruna, Nanako, and Naeko. The Director isn’t allowed back here, which is convenient. That way, I don’t have to deal with him. 

 Mia is in the Intermediary bracket, plus Aiko and Yasuna in the beginner one, so their duels will come later.

 Sonia didn’t stay long yesterday, but only left after I assured her I would at least stop by the estate. I don’t know if this is a bad idea or not; I haven’t even told the Director yet, but seeing as he didn’t even mention I was supposed to receive that draft letter, which I’m absolutely sure he knows of, I’m electing to leave him in the dark about the visit.

 Why do I think he knows about the letter? Easy. In these last few days between theory crafting with the duelists and him, he’d always give me weird looks, and I’m not talking about Kaiju’s here. I would go on about some non-dueling thing I wanted to try after returning from the tournament and that’s when he’d react. Back then, I had nothing to suspect him of, but now I do.

 That could just be a misunderstanding, so I’m still going to confront him about the letter, but I’m going to say I received via a snail mail terminal on the station (Yes those exist) and I’ll show it to him. Then I’ll select my next move.

 But that’s all in the future. Right now it’s 2PM, the tournament is already underway, and Aya is supposed to take part in the next duel.

 The advanced bracket that Aya will take part in is set up in a dual elimination style.

 The Intermediary and beginner brackets will run parallel to the advanced as simple single elimination style brackets but with 32 contenders each. The rounds for those brackets will happen in between single rounds of the advanced one, with the first-elimination round of the advanced being the first round of the tournament.

 We are the last contenders for the First Elimination Round and we’re against the “Apexi Dueling Academy.”

 The duel’s so far have been a mix of really interesting gameplay using cards you wouldn’t expect to see between massive combos… and the most cursed decisions I’ve ever seen.

 “AND THAT’S IT FOR BERRYWALK UNIVERSITY!” One of the cheerleaders from the Nymph institute yells over the mic.

 There are no commentators for these matches. The cheerleaders for each of the teams do the commentary based on the turn player. This sometimes leads to funny back and forth between the two sides with lots of shit-talking which is not only allowed, it’s expected! Though there are limits to keep things civil but seeing as the duels themselves are 16+ entertainment, the rules basically stop at not calling members of the opposite team derogatory names.

 I turn to Haruna, and she responds with a nod.

 “Let’s go Aya, I know you can win this.” I confidently say to Aya. The Apexi dueling academy doesn’t seem that scary from what I’ve heard, but rumors can be deceiving.

 She returns a nod and stands up.

 We make our way to a solid vision platform that just returned from the stage with the cheerleaders from Barrywalk university, which just lost its chance at the advanced bracket.

 Their cheerleaders look upset. I would be too if I put on that many cosmetics just to see my contender get defeated by a plant synchro deck.

 Aya herself walks to another platform which also returned from the stage with the two contenders.

 I psyche myself up for the upcoming performance, the first of many I hope.

 Haruna see’s this and reassures. “Don’t worry Yuumi, we’re also nervous. This is the first time in a long time since we got to perform on such a scale.”

 ‘Well, that’s not really reassuring, but hey, good to see, I’m not the only one.’

 The platform starts rising, intending to bring us to the massive arena right above the ‘Backstage.’

 I get in position like we trained so many times and the others follow. Seemingly taking my lead as a gesture that it’s time to get serious.

 The platform finally rises from the floor of the arena, and I get my first look at the stage and the accompanying spectators. It’s a massive circular arena with stands circling it on all sides. The entire space is inside a transparent copula that gives a 360 view of the blackness of space, with many solid vision decorations strewn about. The capacity for this arena was listed at 20000, but let me tell you, reading 20000 capacity and being in the middle of that is a radically different experience.

 Finally reaching its predefined location, the platform stops high above the field, level with the middle of the spectator stands. In front of us, there’s another platform, with 6 girls wearing skimpy outfits.

 ‘Is that what the other academies cheerleader teams wear? That tank top is clearly too small for those girls… And they’re just wearing thongs… They don’t even have skirts over that.’

 I silently thank Ness for putting me in a body ready to join the NWDA and not those other academies.

 ‘Though I probably would’ve just refused to join the club if they asked me to wear something that skimpy in front of so many people.’

 Their skin is also unnaturally even and I can see that at this distance it’s so unnerving, like a real life insta filter.

 But what I can’t say is that they don’t look attractive.

 Going back to our own platform, Haruna grabs the commentator mic that was hovering above the stage and starts.

 “MAKE SOME NOISE FOR THE NWDA’S REIGNING QUEEN OF THE ARENA! AYA OHAYASHI!” She yells into the mic.

 The crowd goes wild. I want to cover my ears but refrain from doing so to not look weak.

 A song plays, which means it’s time to start our routine. It’s a generic dubstep beat, but that’s what these people like.

 We start with some basic moves and at the same time the central platform rises, revealing Aya, which looks around the space before raising her left hand with a smile on her face.

 After our routine is over, the opposing cheer team grabs the mic themselves.

 “And coming in after that NWDA fraud, the real queen of the arena Fumi Otani, the raising star of ADA!”

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 A similar song starts playing, and they start their routine. It’s considerably more sexualized than ours and it’s at this point where I realize why this many people are here watching a YGO event.

 Sure, the solid vision monsters might be tantalizing and the action of the duel enthralling for the duelists, but in the end there’s a reason the announcers are the same people who dance around in skimpy outfits. We are the ones responsible for making this event interesting for the common folk, not the duelists down in the arena.

 I try not to show my disappointment in finding this out but instead focus my attention on what the ‘ADA’ (Shitty abbreviation) has in store for Aya and try to get excited about the duel below.

 The ADA’s duelist finally arrives at the arena.

 I don’t get her name, but she looks like a carbon copy of a barbie doll, like blond hair, blue eyes, and an unnervingly narrow waist.

 She jumps around on stage waving at the audience and cameras.

 ““DUELISTS! ARE YOU READY?!”” Both Haruna and the ADA's announcer yell, obviously this is part of a script.

 Aya raises her duel disk and puts on a duel gazer so that she can use it for announcements and her own commentary.

 Her opponent does the same, showing off an oval-shaped duel disk that projects a bright yellow duel blade in the shape of a half moon.

 A robotic voice does the count down

 [“3”]

 [“2”]

 [“1”]

 ““DUEL!”” Both of the duelists yell down on the stage.

 Two giant dice get projected above the field, right above the platforms for each of the cheer squads. This is how the turn order gets decided in tournament play.

 We look at the dice for a second before getting into position to launch Haruna into the air so that she can send it into the arena.

 The opposing cheer squad does the same, sending out the member who’s holding the mic.

 If you're wondering why I’m not the one doing the commentary… Well I tried it, apparently I’m too… Judgy… You see the purpose of the commentator is to play up the moves that our duelist makes, but I can’t help but to call out bad moves and one time I straight up started laughing uncontrollably when the duelist I was supposed to be hyping up attacked over a relinquished with only 600LP himself…

 It also doesn’t help that most duelists here don’t know other decks other than their own… Partially due to how they learn about the other decks. So most of the time I’m the more knowledgeable one and can accidentally tell the opponent what to look out for.

 Haruna gets launched into the air by the three of us and does a bicycle kick, sending the dice into the arena.

 The opposing cheer team does something similar, but that’s me assuming I’m more interested in what the turn order will be for this duel to look at the shameful display happening over there.

 ‘Maybe I’m just too much of a prune… I don’t think less of those girls, if they enjoy doing that than that’s their business. I just don’t see myself in that situation… Maybe it’s a don’t knock it until you try it thing? I also never saw myself doing cheerleading, but I’ve discovered that I really fucking enjoy jumping around with pompoms and doing dances to motivate crowds, especially if the other option is curb stomping kids who barely know how to make a playable deck…’

 I would be lying if Yuumi’s memories haven’t influenced how I think about things, along with this vastly different body. Does it make feel like I’m a teenager again? No, not even close. Neither do I feel like I’m the Yuumi in my implanted memories. But I also don’t identify with the guy who died in a fire in 20XX anymore.

 ‘I don’t know when this change happened… but it did… I think that the sooner I accept that I’m not Yuumi and I’m not XXXXXX XXXXXXX the better.’

 Anyway, enough existential thinking for a today, there’s a real life duel happening below me and the crowd is a little too quiet for my taste, it just so happens that it’s my job to fix that.

 The dice hits an invisible barrier separating the spectator's stands from the field and bounces back, hitting the other side of the barrier. After a few more rounds of this, they finally land, revealing these results.

 [NWDA: 5]

 [ADA: 3]

 [TURN DECIDER: NWDA]

 Aya smiles then announces. “I’ll go first!”

 “AND THIS DUEL IS OFF TO A GREAT START FOR THE NWDA!!” Haruna yells into the mic before looking at me with a knowing smile.

 I shake my head and say into the headset we have for personal communication. “Not now, we should wait until we need a boost of attention” she was asking if I think we should bring out our “Secret weapon”, but I think we should wait a little. Not that it is my call. She is the captain.

 “I’m also of the same opinion. We should wait until a prime opportunity opens up.” Naeko suggests.

 “Same here. It’s too good of a thing to show off right at the start.” Nanako also agrees.

 Haruna then says into the headset, “Alright girls, then it’s time to get this crowd screaming the traditional way.”

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