Chapter 9: 9th Pack: Tournament Arc Semi Finals: Part 2

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Trading Game

9th Pack

Tournament Arc: Semi Finals: Part 2

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“Ladies and gentlemen, let us move on to the next match! The match that will decide who will go and challenge Signora Yuuna for the crown of the Junior League Competition!” The blond Obelisk Blue dueling instructor stated, followed soon by the loud uplifting cheer of the audience all around the stadium.

“The duelist who will be battling for such, is none other than the duelist who had won against all odd and without even receiving any damage, Signore Harule!” WIth the loud cheer of the crowd, the black haired duelist walked onto the platform, having a permanent frown stuck on his face.

“And opposing him is the young duelist who has managed to shock everyone with her plays, and her ability to fill the field in a mere single turn, Signora Mei!” Emerging from the other side of the stadium was the small violet haired girl, who had the same frown as her opponent.

She simply sat on her choice of seat, drinking milk that she had bought from the vending machine outside of the room. “Yuuna.” She heard her name being called and turned to see the blue haired duelist that she had just defeated a few minutes ago calling her.

She made a noise indicating that the boy has got her attention, and he shot his question. “Between the two of them, who do you think will win?” He asked her, though his eyes never left the screen.

“Mei.” She said with full confidence that her protege would win the match. She believed that the smaller girl would win the match, after all even though Chaos Ancient Gear Giant was an incredibly beefy boss monster that’s almost a Towers that can OTK easily especially in this 4000LP format, it isn’t invincible.

After all it has a big weakness that makes it extremely easy to remove from the field, that being monster effects. Specifically monster removal effects. Something that Mei does have in her deck.

Those cards are of course, Orochi whose effects aren’t only one once per turn, and Orbital Hydralander, both monsters that have spot removal that can remove Chaos Ancient Gear Giant from the field.

The big boy might not be destructible by the effect of Machina Citadel, the easiest Boss Monster that she could summon, since the monster’s Attack points were lower than the dark Fusion monster. And as far as she knows Mei doesn’t run cards that can increase her monster’s attack that allows the monster to bear Chaos Ancient Gear Giant in pure battle.

She doesn’t know if Mei will run other cards that can possibly out the Fusion monster too, she did share her whole card pool, and there might be Side Deck options that the violet haired girl chose that she hadn’t considered running.

But even then, she still believed that the violet haired girl would win the duel. What with her having capabilities to interact with the black haired duelist’s turn with a board wipe in the form of Citadel or maybe some of her other traps that she runs.

“I see, so you think so too.” The blue haired boy agreed to her statement, and nodded his head as he did so. “Although he is a strong duelist, and although he also has an incredibly strong monster, I personally don't think that harule could win again’t Mei.” 

“Oh?” The one who inquired this time was Edo. “Why would you think so?” She was also interested as to why the blue haired boy would think so too, so she decided to listen in to Ryo’s answer.

“That card that Harule summoned, Chaos Ancient Gear Giant, is certainly strong.” The blue haired boy started his explanation. “But I noticed that in his explanation, the monster isn’t immune to monster effects. And the monster also isn’t immune to battle.”

Oh? Oho? Does Ryo perhaps see that Mei is capable of outing the dark Fusion monsters even with her main deck options? Well, she expected him to find out the holes in Haru’s strategy of sitting on a big monster after all, he is a capable duelist after all.

“Ah, that’s certainly correct.” The grey haired boy nodded. “And if I’m not mistaken Mei also has monsters that can destroy monsters too, like the two monsters that she used in her duel against Dolly.” He said as he nodded to the pink haired girl, who huffed in response.

“I too, believe that Mei will be the victor of this match!” The pink haired girl declared to the room. “She was the one who has beaten me after all! And she certainly will not lose against someone as crass as that Harule!”

“Yeah, yeah!” Fubuki agreed too with that ikemen blinding smile in his face. “Mei’s extremely strong after all! I’ve only watched her duel once, but I know that compared to that Haru, she could win against him no problem!”

Aw, she’s really happy to know that Mei has a lot of people are supporting her. At this point then she might have more friends than her! Not like she has any friends in the first place though.

Their focus returned to the singular large screen in the room, where the two duelists who stood on the platform were chattering between one another, though sadly they couldn’t exactly hear what they were saying.

“I won’t say this again.” The black haired duelist said with a sneer as he glared at his opponent. “Give up. Or I’ll send you into the infirmary like that wild beast that I decimated.” He ended with a wild grin.

The violet girl almost growled, almost being the keyword as she simply took a deep breath before letting out a sigh and activating her duel disk. “I promised.” She started. “That I’ll be meeting Yuuna in the grand finals. So I’ll beat you and do just that!”

“Hah! A shrimp like you!” The black haired boy laughed at the violet haired girl’s declaration. “As if! I’ll beat you, and then I’ll beat that girl too! And show that I’m superior!” With the wild grin still on his face, he activated his own duel disk, and started the duel.

““DUEL!!””

Mei: 4000LP

Haru Harule: 4000LP

“I’ll go first!” The violet haired girl proclaimed as she took the first turn. She then looked at the cards in her hand, looking for ways to set up interactions against the go second deck that was Haru’s pure Ancient Gears.

“I’ll summon Gold Gadget!” Placing the card on her duel disk’s projection, the golden gadget based machine monster appeared on her field in all its mechanical glory, shining brightly with light reflecting on its golden sheen.

Gold Gadget - Light/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1700/800

“Now Gold Gadget’s effect! When card is normal or special summoned, I can special summon one Level 4 Machine monster from my hand!” Deciding on the card that she would special summon, the violet haired girl revealed the next monster that she would summon.

“I’ll special summon Ancient Gear Frame in attack position!” Placing the named card, the core of the golden gadget monster shone, and a golden light shone out to make way for the monster appeared beside the golden gadget. A machine monster taking the form of a skeletal frame of the Ancient Gear Golem.

Ancient Gear Frame - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1600/500

“Ancient Gear Frame’s effect! I can discard one card to add one ‘Ancient Gear Golem’ or one spell or trap that specifically lists the card ‘Ancient Gear Golem’ in its text from my deck to my hand.'' She selected the card that she wanted to add to her hand through the duel disk’s screen.

Eventually she chose a card, and proceeded to discard one card from her hand to add the spell of her choosing. “I’ll discard Machina Possesstorage to add Ancient Gear Fusion from my deck to my hand, and activate it!”

She immediately activated the card that she had added, and she showed the card that she would use as fusion material. “I’ll fusion the Ancient Gear Frame in my hand with the Ancient Gear Box in my hand!”

Yuuna couldn't help but wince at the cards that the violet haired girl has to start with. Having Ancient Gear Box in your starting hand is never nice, especially since the card was essentially a brick if you don’t add it through Wyvern.

Possesstorage was only useful as an extender since it can revive any Machina monster in the graveyard, and while Gold Gadget was at least a good body on the field in this format, it was only a starter or a recruiter since it can float to Silver Gadget when it's destroyed.

At most her turn would probably be Howitzer burn pass with another card on the field. Not the worst thing to start on with but certainly not the best too. But still, “That’s a really bad starting hand.” She muttered out loud.

Mei waved her eight hand towards the two monsters on her field and the two monsters that the violet haired girl had called appeared on the field, having a vortex of green and yellow behind them. Both the skeletal frame of the Ancient Gear Golem and the mechanical box with mechanical limbs appeared before being disassembled into gears and parts.

Sending her right arm down, she completed the summon of the fusion monster. “Fusion summon! Go! Ancient Gear Howitzer!” With the sound of grinding gears, the winged machine monsters which was immune to card effects appeared on the violet haired girl’s field in defence position, loading it’s salvo and peraped to receive an attack from her opponent.

Ancient Gear Howitzer - Earth/Machine/Fusion/Level 8/Effect: 1000/1800

“I’ll activate the effect of Ancient Gear Howitzer! Once per turn, during the main phase, I can inflict 1000 points of damage! Howitzer Fire!” With the order given, the winged machine aimed its cannons towards her opponent and fired a shot of itw weaponry.

“Keh!” The black haired boy raised an arm to guard himself from the blast and the dust created from the attack of the solid vision monster. “Don’t think that I’ll be beaten with just something like that!”

Haru Harule: 3000LP

“I’ll set one card face down, and end my turn.” With two monsters and one set card on her field, Mei passed her turn to her opponent. 

“Oh? It seems that Signora Mei wasn’t able to perform the amazing combo that she had done in her previous match against Signora Dolly.” The okama-like dueling instructor said as he scratched his chin.

“That might be so, but she was still capable of summoning an incredibly strong Fusion monster has she not? Ancient Gear Howitzer is a monster that is capable of dealing 1000 points of damage once per turn, and it is only able to be defeated through battle.” His fellow commentator remarked.

“Ah, indeed! And that is also not mentioning that the monster is capable of summoning any ‘Ancient Gear’ monster should it be destroyed by battle!” The blond commentator said, nodding his head along with his fellow commentator.

She had a bad hand to start, but the play is still better than most can muster in this format. After all, like the match against that Kemono boy, burn damage can pile up, especially in a 4000LP format.

It isn’t the optimal set up, but depending on whatever the set card is, she can still perform a few plays. Howitzer poses the most danger so Haru might destroy that first, which will let it float to any Ancient Gear, probably Wyvern, that will let Mei gain advantage.

“Heh.” The black haired boy scoffed with a condescending grin. “What’s this? Are you so scared that you can’t do that stupid combo that you did back then? Well, fine, I’ll just squash you in this turn then!”

Saying so he placed his hand on top of his duel disk. “My turn! Draw!” The black haired duelist drew a card, and proceeded to do his turn. “Hehehe, with these cards, I’ll beat you to a pulp!” He said with a wild grin.

“I’ll start with activating the continuous spell, Ancient Gear Fortress! And setting one card face down!” Slamming the card on his duel disk, a gigantic stone fortress stood in front of him, standing even taller than the monster that his opponent has on her field, alongside a single face down set card.

“Now I’ll normal summon Ancient Gear Wyvern!” Saying so, the first monster on the black haired duelist appeared. A mechanical wyvern of gears and metal that lets out a machine-like screech as it flies around the fortress.

Ancient Gear Wyvern - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1700/1200

“Now, Ancient Gear Wyvern’s effect! Since it was normal summoned, I can add one ‘Ancient Gear’ card from my deck to my hand.” With that said, he added a card from his deck to his hand.

With a grin, he showed the card that he intended to add to his deck. “I’ll add Ancient Gear Box from my deck to my hand, and with its effect I’ll add Ancient Gear Gadget as well!” With a single summon, the black haired boy added the two cards to his hand.

“And I’m not done yet! I’ll activate the spell card, Fusion Tag!!” The black haired duelist said as he slammed the spell on his duel disk. “With this card, I can target one monster that I control and one Fusion monster in my Extra Deck, and if I do, the targeted monster’s name can be treated as the revealed Fusion monster’s, if used as a Fusion material this turn that is!”

“Humu?” She let out a strange sound as she saw the card that was played on the screen. Fusion Tag? On an Ancient Gear deck? What kind of play is he doing? As far as she knows there aren’t really any fusion monsters in the Ancient Gear line that require another fusion monster.

The card that the black haired duelist showed was a card that she forgot existed because it was an incredibly bad card in retrospect. “I target my Ancient Gear Wyvern! And the card that I reveal is Triple Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!”

Wait. wait, wait, wait! He would run a card like Fusion Tag just so that it would be easier for him to summon- what’s it’s name again? Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound? Yeah Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!?

An anime only Fusion monster that requires another anime only Fusion monster as material? And said fusion material itself required another anime only Fusion monster as a material!? It’s an inefficient use of resources and Extra Deck space!

And doesn’t he have four Ancient Gear monsters on hand already? He could have summoned his Chaos Ancient Gear Giant already! That would have probably let him get the advantage too!

Not that she didn’t think that Mei already has cards on hand to protect herself from something like that. She probably already sided some useful cards that would protect her from getting OTKed after all.

Letting out a mechanical screech, a silhouette of the three headed Fusion monster appeared briefly behind the winged machine monster.“I won’t even need to summon my ultimate monster to defeat you!” The black haired duelist declared as he slammed the card on his duel disk.   

“Now I’ll use the spell card Polymerization!” The black haired duelist said as he slammed the spell card to his duel disk. “I’ll fuse the Ancient Gear Wyvern that is treated as Triple Ancient Gear Hunting Hound, and the Ancient Gear Hunting Hound in my hand to fusion summon!”

The two monsters that he had called appeared briefly on his field. Both the single headed hunting hound and the three headed mechanical hound of gears and metal let out their howls, before being disassembled into parts and gears into a vortex of blue and orange. 

“O soul of ancient hunting hounds residing in mechanical machines! Become one and show your incredible power!” The black haired boy performed his summoning chant and he brought down his combined fists with maniacal glee and finished his chant.

“Fusion summon! Appear! Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!” With his chant finished, the monster that appeared let out another mechanical howl,  a sound that overlapped with its other heads as the maroon metal that made its body shined under the light of the setting sun.

Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound - Earth/Machine/Fusion/Level 9/Effect: 2800/2000

“Kahahahahaha! Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound’s effect! If this card is fusion summoned, I can half your Life Points!” The black haired boy laughed with a smile that reached his ears.

The maroon multi-headed machine monster let out howls that overlapped one another, and from the machine’s chest, a beam shot out directly towards Mei, ignoring the monsters that she had on her field.

The violet haired girl’s eyes widened like dinner plates as she heard the monster’s on summon effect. “Kya!” Mei cried out as she held up both of her arms to defend herself from the purple beam that was shot out from the Fusion monster, halving the Life Points that she has.

Mei: 2000LP

“Oh! It seems that Signore Harule has managed to summon Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound! And without even needing to summon Double Ancient Gear Hunting Hound and Triple Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!” The blond teacher of Obelisk Blue commented.

“To think that he would use the spell Fusion Tag to make it easier to summon the monster… Amazing!” The moustached commentator said with a smile of his own.

“Battle!” The black haired duelist declared as he had a grin on his face. “First off, I’ll attack that useless monster of yours! Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound! Attack that Gold Gadget!” 

With an overlapping howl, the giant mechanical machine pounced towards the golden gadget monster. Ripping it into shining particles as it destroyed the machine with its multiple maw filled with fangs.

“Kuh!” The violet haired girl grunted as she received the damage from the battle.

Mei: 900LP

“Gold Gadget’s effect!” She declared as the monster was destroyed by battle. “If this card is destroyed by battle or card effect, I can special summon one Level 4 ‘Gadget’ monster from my deck except a copy of itself!”

She took a card from her deck and placed it in her duel disk’s sword projection. “I’ll special summon Silver Gadget in defence position!” With a golden light shining from where the once golden gadget stood, a palette swapped version appeared in its place, being silver instead of gold.

Silver Gadget - Light/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1500/1000

“Che.” The black haired boy clicked his tongue. “So you summoned another monster, so what! I’ll just attack it with my Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound! Since this monster can attack three times, I’ll attack your new Gadget monster!” 

With another overlapping howl, the multi headed Fusion monster pounced once more, this time destroying the silver gadget monster by using the maw in the middle of its torso to do so.

The violet haired girl frowned, but merely clicked her tongue as another monster of her’s was destroyed. “Silver Gadget’s effect! If this card is destroyed by battle or card effect, I can special summon one Level 4 ‘Gadget’ monster from my deck except a copy of itself!”

“I’ll also chain the trap card, Machina Overdrive!” She said, activating the facedown that she had set in her turn. “This card allows me to target one machine monster that I control and special summon one ‘Machina’ monster with a different name from my hand or deck, and if I do, the targeted monster is destroyed.”

The violet haired girl pointed towards the Ancient Gear Howitzer that she controls. “I’ll target Ancient Gear Howitzer, and special summon Machina Fortress from my deck in attack position!”

Placing the monster card on her duel disk, the gigantic light blue machine with a gigantic chainsaw and a firearm for an arm appeared beside her line of monsters, revving its engine and preparing fully for battle, coming along with the increase of the cheer of the audience. 

Machina Citadel - Earth/Machine/Level 10/Effect: 3000/2500

“Since Ancient Gear Howitzer is immune to other card effects, it isn’t destroyed.” The violet haired girl informed her opponent. And the crowd cheered as her Ace Monster made its way onto the field.

“Huh?” She glanced to the source of the sound, finding out that the source was none other than Fubuki. “If she had the trap set then why didn’t she activate it then?” He asked aloud while rubbing the back of his head.

“Fortress.” She said pointing to the giant holographic brick building that stood behind Haru’s Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound. “It prevents effect destruction and targeting for ‘Ancient Gear’ monsters the turn they are summoned.”

“Oh! So it’s like that!” He exclaimed as he hit the palm of his hand with a fist, only to look confused again. “But then why didn’t she activate it at the start of the turn?” The brown haired duelist asked.

At that, she shrugged. Timing issues probably? Fortress doesn’t allow any chaining against the activation of Ancient Gear cards and effects after all. So perhaps she couldn;t actually find the right timing to activate the trap.

Continuing the chain, Mei picked another card from her deck and summoned another Gadget monster from her deck once more. “I’ll special summon Gold Gadget in defence position!” With a silver light shining from where the once silver gadget stood, the monster that Mei had first summoned appeared in its place.

Gold Gadget - Light/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1700/800

“That monster’s out already!? How annoying!” Haru growled out. “Che, I’ll just destroy the other annoying monster then! Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound! Attack Ancient Gear Howitzer!” With another disorganized howl, the multi headed machine Fusion monster attacked.

The winged machine monster gave out a resistance. Firing it’s salvo towards the maroon machine, but to no avail, it was destroyed by the hound based machine with its claws and maws.

Although she received no damage, Mei still put up an arm to protect herself from the dust that was thrown by the attack of the Fusion monster. “Howitzer’s effect!” The violet haired girl declared, activating the monster’s floating effect.

“Because it was destroyed by battle, I can special summon any ‘Ancient Gear’ monster from my deck ignoring their summoning condition!” She selected the monster that she would summon and placed it on her duel disk.

“I’ll summon Ancient Gear Wyvern in attack position!” With a mechanical screech, a mechanical wyvern appeared on Mei’s side of the field. An exact copy to the one that had been summoned earlier by Haru.

Ancient Gear Wyvern - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1700/1200

“Wyvern’s effect! When it’s normal or special summoned, I can add one ‘Ancient Gear’ card from my deck to my hand except a copy of Wyvern!” With her done explaining the monster’s effect, she picked the card that she would add to her hand.

“I’ll add Ancient Gear Double Imitate from my deck to my hand.” She said as she added the spell card to her hand. A move that made her raise an eyebrow, though she understood where it’s probably leading to.

“Ancient Gear Double Imitate?” Haru whispered under his breath, just loud enough for the violet haired girl to hear. He then shook his head and plastered a condescending grin on his face. “Whatever you do, it’ll be useless! I might not be able to beat you this turn, but I’ll just do it in the next! Turn end!”

“My turn. Draw!” Mei said as she drew her card for the turn. “I’ll activate the spell card, Ancient Gear Double Imitate!” The violet haired girl said as she placed the card on her duel disk.

“This card allows me to target up to two ‘Ancient Gear’ monsters from either player's graveyard and special summon them on my field, but their effects are negated.” Selecting the cards of her choosing, she summoned them on her field.

“I’ll special summon the Ancient Gear Wyvern from your graveyard and Ancient Gear Frame from my graveyard and special summon them both in attack position!” With the spell card played, the mechanical wyvern that was once Haru’s appeared on Mei’s field, along with the skeletal Ancient Gear Frame that was used for the fusion summon of Howitzer.

Ancient Gear Wyvern - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1700/1200

Ancient Gear Frame - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1600/500

“Oh! Signora Mei has managed to rack up a board of monsters!” The blond ponytailed commentator said excitedly. “Should this attack go through, then she will be the one who will be matched against Signora Yuuna in the grand final!”

“But do not forget about young Harule’s face down card.” The moustached military dressed commentator commentated. “I am quite sure that whatever young Harule has set, he is able to turn the tides of the match with it.”

“Oh. That’s lethal.” She muttered out loud. Well, that certainly is lethal, but the face down card on Haru’s field might be able to actually stall the game. Ancient Gear Reborn maybe?, If Mei destroys Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound and Haru revives it with it, it’ll gain that 200 attack point boost, making it the same as Citadel.

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But since it's the same then Citadel can still blow it up though. So she doesn’t really know where he'll go from there.

But if it’s Unfinished Ancient Gear then Mei might still finish it this turn. Since the monster summoned by the card’s effect still can be destroyed by card effects and all. And since whatever monster summoned through that effect has their stats halved then they would certainly be in the range for Citadel to blow up.

But then again, it might be generic stall cards like Waboku or Threatening Roar. The former card was quite pricey, but if the black haired duelist has Chaos Ancient Gear Giant then who knows what other cards he has?

“I’ll switch Gold Gadget to attack. Battle.” The violet haired girl said, her eyes narrowed, clearly intending to finish the duel this turn using the plethora of monsters that she has on field. “I’ll attack your Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound with my Machina Citadel!”

With the sounds of a revving machine, the light blue machine monster aimed its left arm towards the maroon multi-headed hunting hound and shot a beam of energy, intending to destroy it.

The black haired boy however, smiled. “I’ll activate the trap card, Mirror Force!” The face down card was flipped face up, revealing itself to be the infamous battle trap that could wipe the whole field.

“M-Mirror Force!?” Mei let out, somewhat befuddled by the fact that the black haired boy has the legendary card. Well, at least legendary in the term of this Dimension at least. Because for some reason the battle trap cost around one million DP, and that’s the lowest that you can bid for!

For goodness sake, the Mirror Force that her Shop sells her was one one thousandth of the cost! And that was Mirror Force! Relatively the oldest and the worst of the line, and its evolved counterpart of Storming or Drowning only costs 1500DP!

Since when did that boy get that rich? Did he use that Joe Harule’s money? Even still, one million DP is not a small amount to cough up, and she doubts that even a pro duelist would waste that much money for a card like Mirror Force.

… Or maybe they would. Seeing the plethora of bad battle traps that she saw people play in the qualifiers, then paying a big amount for a board wipe that most people in this format isn’t prepared for is worth it.

And boy were there a lot of bad battle traps that people played when she took her time at her tournament speedrun. There was a boy that played Skill Successor! Who plays that! It was a trap card that increases a face up monster’s attack by 400! And only until the end of the turn! Sure it has a graveyard effect, but it was also an attack booster too!

“M-M-Mirror Force!” The blond Obelisk Blue dueling instructor exclaimed, standing from his seat and rattling the table, creating noises on the communicator almost as loud as the gasps and cheers of the audience.

“Mamma mia! To think that Signore Harule would have such a rare card!” Cronos commented. “With this card then Signore Harule can destroy all monsters on Signora Mei’s field!”

“To think that he had such a card set up from the start...” The grey haired fellow commentator muttered loud enough to be captured by the communicators. “Amazing! To think that he has thought of everything that young Mei has thought of!”

“I-I’ll chain the effect of Machina Citadel!” The violet haired girl declared, snapping herself out from her stupor. “I can target one machine monster that I control to destroy it and all monsters that you control with attack less than or equal to it!”

The monster that she points to target using Citadel’s effect was none other than Citadel itself. “I’ll target Machina Citadel! And destroy your Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!” She said as she waved her hands to the light blue gigantic machine.

The giant Machina’s machinery ignited, creating a sound that filled the stadium as the light blue machine monster exploded, and bringing along with it the only monster on the black haired duelist’s field.

“Heh, you destroyed my monster, so what! My Mirror Force still resolves and destroys all your monsters!” The black haired boy declared and laughed with a laugh as the beam that was shot by Citadel was deflected by a lattice barrier, and was reflected towards the monster’s on Mei’s side of the field.

The violet haired girl raised an arm to defend herself from the cloud of dust and smoke that was made by the many machine monsters on her side getting destroyed by the effect of the Mirror Force.

“HAHAHAHA!” Haru laughed maniacally as he saw all the monsters on his opponent’s side get destroyed. “I win! I I WIN! If I summon a monster with over 900 attack then I win! Even if I don’t I can easily burn you if I summon Howitzer! Just give up shrimp! YOU’VE ALREADY LOST!”

“-rt.”

“Heh?” The black haired boy let out, as he saw the cloud of dust disperse, revealing the violet haired girl who was covering both of her ears with her hands. Instead of the fearful looks that he had wanted to see on her face however, the emotion that Mei showed was instead that of annoyance.

“Just listening to your voice makes my ears hurt, so can you not make loud noises like that?” The violet haired girl said. “You’re always yapping about winning this, winning that. It’s gotten to the point that it’s beyond annoying.”

The violet haired girl then sighed. “I’ll activate Machina Citadel’s effect.” She declared as she took the card from the graveyard. “Since an earth machine monster was destroyed by a card effect, I can special summon this card.”

Machina Citadel - Earth/Machine/Level 10/Effect: 3000/2500

“Wha-!”

The violet haired girl cut him off before he could say anything. “I’ve had enough of your pitter patter, finish it Citadel.” The violet haired girl ordered, and the giant light blue machine monster obliged.

With a swing of its chainsaw, the black haired duelist who had no monster in his field could do nothing but stare at it incoming with wide fearful eyes. “No-NOOOOO!” He screamed as the monster’s attack hit him directly, dealing exactly lethal.

Haru Harule: 0LP

“I-it’s over!” The ponytailed dueling instructor declared. “It’s over! The winner is Signora Mei!” And with that declaration, the crowd’s cheers intensified. And the violet haired girl let out a sigh and turned off her duel disk.

She glanced at her opponent who was on all fours, looking downwards with the cards of his deck scattered around the platform. “I would have probably lost had you summoned that Chaos Ancient Gear Giant.” She said, looking away.

“But even still, I would have found a way to surpass that. I do have outs to that monster after all.” The violet haired girl continued. “Even if you challenge me a hundred more times, as long as you duel like that, you won’t beat me.”

The girl then started walking down from the platform, but not before saying her final piece. “Dueling against you, it wasn’t fun at all.” Hearing that made the black haired boy slam his fist on the concrete floor of the platform, picking up his cards and walking away without a single word.

-

“Yo.” She said with a raised hand as she saw the violet haired girl walk down the halfway. Seeing her, the downcast expression that the small girl had vanished, replaced with a beaming smile as she saw her.

“Yuuna!” Mei cried as she dashed and hit her stomach with her full body blow. If she hadn’t prepared herself for something like that then she might have flown from the impact that the smaller girl could dish out.

“Ow.”  She muttered as she winced. “W-well, you did well! That was a good duel!” She said as she rubbed the violet haired girl’s hair. But instead of beaming like she usually was whenever she praised her, Mei instead looked incredibly unsatisfied, angry maybe, she could even say that she was fuming.

“I should have lost.” The small girl said quietly, just loud enough for her to hear her, tightening her balled fist as she did so. She blinked, and softened her eyes as she understood what the smaller girl meant.

“Ah, so it’s like that huh.” She said as she patted the violet haired girl’s hair. “You’re right though. No matter what you had done with the cards that you had on hand then you would have probably lost if he had summoned Chaos Ancient Gear Giant. Or at least you would have to waste a lot of resources to just survive the turn.”

“The best move would have been to use Machina Overdrive right?” The small girl whispered. “To activate the trap targeting Gold Gadget, but not trigger its effect to float into another ‘Gadget’ monster.”

She nodded at the smaller girl’s answer. “Yeah. The best move to do from that position would then be to summon Machina Citadel, and use its effect to destroy itself.” She said to the small violet haired girl who still looked quite miffed at her victory.

Chaos Ancient Gear Giant can attack every monster on the field once and also inflict piercing damage. The most that Mei could do in the position that she was in, was to destroy Gold Gadget using Machina Overdrive to summon Citadel, and then destroy Citadel to mitigate the damage that she would receive.

With that she would only have Howitzer on field. And although she would still receive a buck load of damage, it wouldn’t be lethal since she would still have 1300 Life Points left. And at least with the graveyard effect of Machina Overdrive she could have two cards at hand instead of the one in her next turn.

But it would still be hard to remove Chaos Giant from the field though, there are certainly outs, but it would depend on what cards she would draw from her top deck too.

“I was sure that I would win. I did win. But...” The violet haired girl trailed off, but she understood where she was going. Victory is victory, even a hollow one. But it seems that it doesn’t sting any less for the small girl in front of her.

“But somehow it feels insulting. Or something along those lines huh.” She finished for the smaller girl, who silently nodded her head. She understands to some extent at least, though not completely. 

Mei was someone who gained confidence from dueling, a far cry from the girl who would hide behind her whenever she would see anyone except Sister Claire. The Mei of now was bold enough to even declare that she would go to the Grand Finals in front of hopeful duelists who wished the same.

But if there was something that she taught Mei to do when dueling, then that was certainly fair play and good sportsmanship. And for a girl like Mei who duels without holding anything back against anyone as a sign of respect, the win against haru who held back would feel… empty to say the least.

But this was also a good experience for the girl, she thought that it was at least. After all there’s a lot of people in this world, in this dimension, and certainly there are all kinds of duelists with random personalities and dueling styles.

There’s Ryo and his Cyber Style who respects his cards and his opponents, Fubuki who is quite laid back but when it comes of duel would be incredibly serious, Edo might look cold and aloof but from the look that he would give everyone once in a while she could tell that he probably was just lonely, Dolly who looked like a spoiled ojousama at first glance but was a respectable duelist, and even that Ryoma was someone who also enjoys the game to some extent.

How did she even find those out? How couldn’t she find those kinds of traits out of little children around 8 and 9!? She’s an adult for goodness sake! She might have been revived in an anime world where card games are where it’s at, but psychology still works here too.

As expected of a psychology major, she could see through the mind of children! That and also her experience at HR shines once again! Alright, she really shouldn’t be proud about all that.

Haru was different, but in a way he was also the same as the others. First of all, he was an orphan, the three of them were, but unlike her who was an adult inside, and Mei who had herself and Sister Claire to open up to, Haru was someone who kind of isolated himself from what she sees.

He started out having his two groupies. The two kids that would always follow him around everywhere and act as his hype-men. But if she remembers correctly he changed after… she continuously kept beating him in duels.

Yikes, in retrospect she probably shouldn’t have stomped the kid too hard whenever they dueled. But she needed the DP at the time okay! She needed to get some playables to actually make a deck that could win her games to prepare herself for the shenanigans that’s going to occur in the future!

And really, wasn’t that what this was all about for her.

Survival.

From the short conversations that she had with the other finalists, and the small interactions that she saw them have with each other, she saw that most of them were still… well, children. They had simple dreams, like Edo wanting to be a pro duelist, Ryo and Fubuki wanting to be a respectable duelist, and Dolly wanting to do the same.

Haru however, was a young orphaned boy who was probably pushed on by his inferiority complex, a complex that she probably accidentally nurtured with her constantly one upping him whenever she duels him.

Mei had a goal of going to Academia and gaining education, that and becoming a pro duelist herself to gain DP. That and following her too and learning dueling from her, challenging strong duelists and all since she had somehow turned the violet haired girl into a dueling nut like herself.

But her? She wants to survive. Or at least get away from the Academia. Dying wasn’t that great if she was being honest,and being imprisoned as a card probably wouldn’t be any better, she also would like it if she wasn’t mind controlled thank you.

She likes dueling, it's fun, even if she has a clear advantage of meta knowledge and her System’s quite cheaty starting hand manipulation. The duel that she had with Edo and Ryo was quite fun, Edo even almost burned her for game too! And even Ryo could have probably beaten her if she hadn’t had Domain and Mega Thestalos to pitch his Eltanin.

And that was also the point of her wanting to survive, she wanted to have fun. Certainly in her previous life she had fun from playing the card game occasionally and going to tournaments and watching people duel, here she could actually do it full time! And even get some cash from doing it!

And while it was true that she wants to prepare for the future, the one where the XYZ Dimension would be invaded by the people here, she doesn’t know if she’ll even try to stop the invasion in the first place.

She knows that she should decide on a long term goal or something like that soon, or if not then she might be unprepared for when she has to make a quick decision that would matter for the rest of her life. And she definitely does not like making a quick decision that decides the path that she would have to walk for the rest of her life.

Heartland seemed like an interesting place to visit, and if possible she might also want to duel and challenge some of the duelists there, but she doesn’t know what she would even do to the oncoming invasion.

Should she prevent it? Could she even prevent it? Sure it was the most humane thing to do, stopping the possible death of over thousands of people and preventing the destruction of property that would last for generations.

Ah, when she put it that way, then she might actually need to stop something like that huh? She’s been putting off that matter for quite a while, what with the matter being a big and heavy one and all.

The place does look interesting and all, their cuisine might also be interesting too. That and she also wants to have some XYZ monsters to have on her repertoire since they have some actually good cards like  Abyss Dweller or Castel, Daigusto Emeral too now that she thinks about it.

Just as she decided that, a translucent panel appeared. Covering her vision.

-

Long Term Mission

[XYZ Dimension Invasion Prevention]

Prevent/stop the XYZ Dimension Invasion

Rewards: 9999999DP, Reputation (XYZ Dimension) Up MAX, Reputation (Fusion Dimension) Down, XYZ Special Pack Unlocked, Numbers Pack Unlocked

Failure: Reputation (XYZ Dimension) Down MAX, Lose All Reputation with XYZ residents, XYZ Special Pack Permanently Locked, Numbers Pack Permanently Locked

-

Seeing the panel showing the missions she couldn’t help but let out a long sigh while rubbing the back of her head. Well, it appeared. A real big reward and two specialized packs along with an instantly maxed reputation stat if she succeeds, and a permanent lock on the two packs if she fails.

Well, since there’s some reward for doing it, then she might as well do it now right? She’s seen dimensions and whole universes get destroyed before, certainly she could prevent something like that from happening right?

First off she’ll probably need an actual meta deck to prepare herself. If she remembers correctly from the talks that her friends who watched the anime, and from the occasional actual Academia duels she saw, then those Academia people who would actually do the invasion would actually tag team against any duelist that they see.

Which means that she would actually need cards whose effects are once per turn and not too reliant on their overlay units, since most meta XYZ decks use monsters whose effects are only useful for a one on one duel.

A few cards actually appeared on her mind, and even a whole deck too. It wasn’t really a meta represented deck, but it was a rogue one, and it was quite strong too as an XYZ deck. That would probably cost a lot though, and her Monarch deck still isn’t one hundred percent complete too.

Her internal musing and sudden decision to save a whole dimension was suddenly cut off as she felt something tug the sleeve of her jacket. She glanced and saw that it was Mei, she must have daydreamed for a long time if that’s the case, and turned to see the reason the violet haired girl was standing beside her.

It was none other than Haru, standing before them with his sleek black hair now looking messy and disarranged just as his clothing was. The black haired boy was shooting death glares at them, 

“Why?” The boy asked. “Why did I lose? I shouldn’t have been defeated by a shrimp like her. I’m better than her, even if she has rare cards I have some too, so why was I the one who lost!” He shouted the last one as he grabbed her by the collar of her jacket.

“WHY! WHY IS IT THAT YOU’RE ALWAYS BETTER THAN ME! WHY IS IT THAT EVEN SHE IS NOW BETTER THAN ME!” The black haired boy shouted as he pointed to the violet haired girl beside her who growled in response.

She couldn’t really say anything to him. Well, if she could say anything she would promptly ask him to let her go, but she also understood that a kid like him needs to vent his frustrations. And as an adult, why would she stop him?

Alright, there certainly are some good reasons for her to stop him. She’ll do just that then.

She placed her hands on his, and slowly but surely released the hands of the boy who was now crying from her collar. Ah, it was all rumpled now. She’ll have to iron it after this whole tournament is all over probably.

“Why?” The boy muttered between sobs. “I-I should have been better. I-I had the best c-cards. I w-was taught by a p-pro duelist. How could I lose against someone- someone like her.” the black haired boy said, hands trembling.

Ah she doesn’t really know how to actually answer this that would calm the boy down and actually also make him feel quite good. Uhhh, what should she actually say? Not be cocky and not to style on your opponent?

But that doesn’t really fix his superiority complex though. Not that it really needs to be addressed now. The thing that she should probably address however was probably that sadistic side that he somehow showed when he fought the red haired kid.

Alright, time to channel her talk-no-jutsu and main character energy to do some anime speech. Again. And to the same kid too. “Hey, did you have fun?” She asked the black haired boy.

“Huh?” he let out between sobs. Not understanding what she had meant. 

“Did you have fun? In your duels against Kemono Ryoma and Mei?” She asked the black haired boy who looked back at her with confusion clear in his eyes.

“You know, whenever Mei or I duel, we would enjoy the duel. Having fun as we do so and all that.” She said with a smile as she held the black haired boy’s hand. She’s totally pulling this out of her ass right now.

“But you see, I didn’t really see you have fun when you were dueling.” She actually paid attention to the duelist when she saw duels too, it was a pro gamer move to see what the opponents possible hand by their expressions was after all. 

It’s like looking at a newbie looking incredibly troubled or sweating nervously and knowing that he probably doesn’t have starters or an out. Or looking at someone confidently sitting on a single face down card and knowing that that’s probably a card like Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute. 

But certainly the boy never did seem to have fun whenever he was dueling. He relished in his victory, the match against Kemono showed that he managed to defeat the red haired boy made him quite happy.

But it was also clear that the black haired boy also took joy in not just his victory in that match, but also in the physical damage that he inflicted on the red haired duelist which was bad enough to send the kid to the infirmary.

And like, she doesn’t judge a kid for developing their kinks and all that, but this is just straight up sadism to children, and as a proper adult she doesn’t really condone something like that happening, especially since the kid probably developed that because of her.

“But you see, you’re too focused too much on winning the duel and not even taking the time to even enjoy the duel. And not only that, you’re even taking joy in the suffering of others.” She said with a sad look.

A kid his age really should just have fun playing games with friends and all that jazz. And at the start he did have that spark in him, that spark where he would have fun whenever he played, and where he would enjoy himself even if he were to lose.

She thought that since the System classified the black haired boy as her ‘Rival’, then if she stands as an immovable wall then the boy would learn and grow to become a better duelist. A duelist that would be strong enough to be a challenge for Mei and herself.

But instead she broke his confidence, his spirit. She had forgotten that he was still a kid without stable emotional support. And now the strong willed black haired kid that was her ‘Rival’ now was the sad looking boy that has been having emotional swings the whole day and now was having an emotional breakdown.

“Y-you’re saying that. That you’re so good at dueling because you enjoy it?” The black haired boy asked, scrunching his eyebrows and wiping his tears. In response, she nodded, it wasn’t full of that main character energy but she really hoped that the speech would at least be enough for him to start enjoying duel-

“DON’T JOKE WITH ME!” He screamed as he slapped her hands away. An act that made her jump a bit with wide eyes since she had not expected the black haired boy to do something like that. 

”YOU’RE SAYING THAT THE THING THAT MAKES YOU BETTER AT DUELING IS JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE ENJOYING IT? DON’T JOKE WITH ME!” Haru shouted at her with tears in his eyes, each word filled with rage. 

Mei growled protectively as she moved closer to her. She stared at the black haired boy who was visibly fuming as was huffing and puffing, making the black haired boy glanced at her and scowled. “YOU!” He shouted at her face.

“BECAUSE OF YOU I-I!” He shouted, but cut himself off. “IF ONLY THE BOTH OF YOU DIDN’T EXIST THEN I WOULD HAVE- I WOULD HAVE-” He cut himself off once more before turning around and running away.

“Wait-” She called out to the black haired attempting to reach out to him, knowing that he clearly isn’t in a sound state of mind.

“Ladies and gentlemen, let us move to today’s final match!” The speaker sounded, drowning her voice. The sound came from none other than the blond dueling instructor, a reminder that the short break time that they were given was now over.

Crap she did a big oopsie there. Clearly he wasn’t the kind of kid who believed that if he enjoys the game then he would be better at it. He had been enjoying it when they were dueling everyday after all, but no matter what he did it surely didn’t feel like he got closer to her skill level.

She at least wanted to console the kid, and make it known that his hard work did give him progress and that he was becoming a better duelist. But right now something like that certainly wasn’t possible, and she certainly wasn’t the person to say that to him.

She felt a tug on her sleeve, and glanced at Mei who stared back at her directly in her eyes. And so instead of attempting to console the emotionally unstable black haired boy, she let out a long sigh and walked in the opposite direction.

Certainly if someone has fun while learning something then the learning experience would make the learning experience more enjoyable and all, but of anything the thing that also helped that learning experience was the progress that a person would show whenever they do something.

But she had failed to give him that. She had always stood up against him as the immovable wall that was invincible, so much so that she had basically taken the joy out of the game for him and broken what was basically his dueling spirit.

And though wanted to help ease the boy, right now she would instead focus on the upcoming match.

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