Tournament Quarter Finals: Part 1

Is she sweating? She was pretty sure she was sweating right now.

As she was being stared down by the ornately dressed Professor of the Obelisk Blue, her mind raced in incredible speeds to think of a solution to escape her current predicament. Her current predicament was, of course, the problem of how to answer the question of explaining where her cards came from.

Of course she couldn't explain the existence of the system to the esteemed professor. Not only was that not something that she wished to do, but also because most would not believe her unless she showed them that she can literally pull cards that have not even been designed yet into existence.

Something that she won't do, because the Academia would definitely take her ignoring her will and wishes.

Why was she even scared about a blond okama anyway?! She faced Big-G without flinching! She's already seen the destruction of universes and their inhabitants while boredly thinking on what kind of combo could work better against Tri-Brigade and Zoodiacs!

The answer was of course something like Evenly Matched, Forbidden Droplets, and Dark Ruler No More, maybe even a preemptive Nibiru if the overextended, but that wasn't the point.

"The cards?" She asked, feigning confusion from her tone as she tilted her head ever so slightly, masking the internal panic that she had.

"Indeed." The man affirmed simply. "The cards that you used on today's matches were quite rare. Especially that fusion monster that you had summoned. Ancient Gear Megaton Golem… is it? Why, even in my years of being an Academia instructor I have never heard of such a card! Not to mention those Machina cards that you use!"

The man then stared at her intently. "The fact that those cards could be used in a duel at all is proof that those cards are the real deal. Now then, if you don't mind answering the question, where did you get those cards, Signora Yuuna?" He said as he put a hand on his chin in a contemplative stance as he watched her react and answer.

Hearing the proctor's statement, she couldn't help but sweat up a river. If she wasn't wrong, the card was indeed released after the run of the series ended. Which means that the card shouldn't exist yet.

Makes sense that she doesn't even find it in the local dueling wiki or card database now that she thinks about it. Then again the card database that the internet provides in this world was extremely lackluster in comparison to the one that her system's shop presents her.

In response to his statement, she widened her eyes and put a hand on her mouth in a gesture of surprise. "It's a card that even an instructor such as yourself does not know?!" She then feigned taking a glance at the deck on her duel disk in surprise, only to really avoid eye contact from the blond ponytailed dueling instructor.

At her response, the man's eyes narrowed and a slight frown marred his features. "Do you truly not know Signora Yuuna? I thought that someone as knowledgeable as yourself in the art of dueling would know of such a card being extremely rare is it not so?"

She still feigned shock of surprise, surprising even herself at her own acting skills as she shook her head in denial. "No, I did know that the card was quite rare. I couldn't even find it in the card database that I could access freely after all." she said truthfully, only to then glance towards the ponytailed blond man and make eye contact.

"I was simply surprised that an Academia instructor such as yourself wouldn't even know about it." She feigned surprise on her tone, though she internally was of course, extremely smug of being more knowledgeable than what was basically a 'pro-duelist'.

"Gohok!" the proctor coughed on his hand, as he narrowed his eyes on her. "I… see…" The blond instructor tailed off as he recomposed himself. "Well, as much as I would like to claim that we instructors of Academia know every card in the world, such a thing is not true." He started what seems like an excuse.

"There are many rare cards that even Academia instructors such as myself do not know of. As while Academia itself is an institution that is well known in the world, the card database that we have is indeed great, but it does not encompass all the cards in the world." He explained to her who took the information given and lodged it in her brain.

This was some precious information, knowing that Academia doesn't infact, know all the cards in the world makes it easy for her to pull cards out of nowhere. Probably.

If anime characters can do it, then she should at least get a pass for something like this?! She actually paid for the card and everything while the anime characters wished those cards out of existence!

"Doesn't Academia know all the cards that there are?" She asked, genuinely curious as to how large the net of knowledge that Academia has. And in response to her question, Cronos merely huffed and crossed his arms.

"Rare cards that are outside of our database, while not unusual, are quite rare as their name suggests." The blond instructure tells her. "As well known as Academia is, the knowledge of every card printed is out of our hands. And that is not mentioning that there are many companies that are unconnected to us all around the world that would print cards. The only method of knowing if the cards are genuine or not is whether or not a duel disk can compute them and project said cards." The blond man stated.

"Cards are, after all, manufactured specially so that the mechanism in a duel disk will project the solid holographic onto the field, thus-" Blinking suddenly at the sudden ringing of his duel disk, the blond man then coughed in his hand and checked on it, then looking quite miffed as he glanced to her. "It seems that I have gone out of track, forgive me." He said as he recomposed himself.

"So," He started once again. "You are implying that you had indeed known that the card that you have is quite the rare one then, Signora Yuuna?" he asked her again.

"Well of course, I did mention that I had already searched for the card in the card databases that I could get my hands on." She answered. "I do know that there are cards that are rare enough to the point that they would not appear on some card databases. But I simply did not think that an instructor of THE Academia wouldn't have an inkling of the card. " She emphasized on the part of the man being an instructor of the world famous institution.

She was glad that she worked at HR at one point in her life. It was only thanks to that experience that she could prevent herself from flinching under the man's withering glare.

She could see the man's eyebrows twitch, and said instructor proceeded to change the topic. "Then Signora Yuuna, pray tell me where did you acquire these cards." he asked, as he tried to gain ground in their conversation.

This was the question that she had dreaded for. She stopped herself from gulping by holding up a hand on her mouth, seemingly contemplating on her answer when she actually was still trying to find a lie that could be believable.

She'll do the best way of lying then. By putting some truth in with it.

"I bought it." She answered the man simply.

"You… bought it?" The professor said, surprised by her answer.

She nodded, confirming the man's assumption. "Un. Yeah. It was quite a surprise for me too when I found out that the cards were incredibly rare." She sees the man's eyes narrow at her answer, still suspicious of her statement.

"It was incredibly strange too. The man at first challenged me into a duel, and after I beat him he began appearing every now and then selling me cards that are apparently incredibly rare." she lied through her teeth.

But not really. She had unlocked the shop feature after she beat Haru at her first duel, but she could really only buy those cards after beating a lot of NPC duelists at Free Duel, especially beating Red Hats which gave her an incredible amount of DP.

"Where did you meet this-"

"Red Hat." She interrupted the professor. "He refers to himself as Red Hat. Which is also what he usually wears."

"I see..." The man eyed her, before resuming himself before he was interrupted. "Where did you meet this… Red Hat, then?" The professor asked.

At this she shrugged her shoulders. "I first met him when I was roaming when he suddenly appeared and challenged me, which is still something that he does from time to time." which was true, as Red Hat would randomly appear and challenge her on Free Duel whenever she comes there.

"Is there a way for you to contact him?" The instructor asked, and she shook her head as an answer.

"As I said, he appears on his whims." She said as she scratched the back of her head and let out a sigh. Showing that she herself was incredibly troubled by the sudden appearance of Red Hat whenever he does.

Which was a lie since she would always accept the Red Hat's challenge with open arms. It was basically a buck load of DP after all.

"Hmm… a card seller wearing a red hat you say?" The instructor asked her, with a glint in his eyes. "A red hat? Could they be the same person?"She could hear him whispering to himself.

He then snapped himself from his focus to the knocking sound of the door, she did too. The door soon opened, and coming in was a brown haired youthful looking boy with equally brown eyes staring at the both of them.

"Uhmm..." The boy looked at both of them in confusion. "Is this the uh, waiting room for the finalist?" He asked as she faced her, though his gaze would sometimes switch to the blond instructor of Obelisk Blue.

Hearing his question, the professor coughed in his hand. "Why yes." He said as he checked his duel disk for a split second. "You must be... Signore Tenjoin correct? The winner of the second bracket of the preliminaries?" In response to his question, the young boy nodded his head and walked inside the room and closed it, bringing a smile to the professor's face.

"Meraviglioso! Then it would seem that we have two of the eight finalists in our hands. I am Cronos de Medici, the proctor of this current tournament that is hosted by Academia." The professor said as he put a hand on his chest and introduced himself.

"Ah, I'm Yuuna. From the first bracket, I guess." She said, introducing herself, and earning a nod from both the professor and the brown haired boy, the latter then smiled and proceeded to introduce himself.

"I'm Fubuki! Fubuki Tenjoin! Nice to meet cha!" He said with what she can only describe as a blinding smile directed at her. The smile was so incredibly bright that she had to avert her eyes from him so as to not be blinded by it.

Was this an ability an anime character to have? She had received similar treatments from sister Claire whenever she did her angelic smile which was equally as bright, but she didn't expect an ability like this to be possessed by someone of her age!

Could it be that he was a lady killer in the making? Not to mention his name… If Cronos de Medici existed in this dimension then does that mean that some of the other GX characters also exist? Does that mean that this Fubuki Tenjoin is THAT Fubuki Tenjoin? Brother to Asuka Tenjoin?

Before she could ponder even further, the door was once again opened. This time by a pair of boys, one with grey hair and blue eyes and the other with blue hair and eyes.

"Is this the waiting room for the finalist?" The grey haired boy asked as he strode in the room while the blue haired boy calmly and silently followed him. The silver haired boy just excessed confidence, and that smirk that he has does certainly help him with that.

Seeing the two boys coming in, Cronos turned his attention towards them. "Ah! Indeed, indeed! You must be Signore Phoenix and Signore Marufuji correct?" seeing the two of them nod at his call, the blond professor smiled.

"Bellissimo! I had seen your duels, and they were incredibly wonderful!" The dueling instructor praised. The silver haired boy, Edo, smiled smugly at the praise given to him, while the blue haired boy, Ryo, simply nodded.

She glanced over the other contentast of the finals, seeing what was basically four people who she knew from a two dimensional screen standing before her, though they were far younger than their canon counterparts. She wondered if they were using the same deck that their canon counterpart in GX uses.

She also wondered that since this was more Arc-V then GX, does that mean that their background is different from their original GX ones? Edo did appear in Arc-V, as did Asuka who was Fubuki's little sister, but she doesn't know if they changed their background story or something.

She knew that the Arc-V counterpart of Edo Phoenix forsook the ultimate Destiny HERO card that was Plasma and the deck that he used in GX to play a more fusion focused variant of the deck, she knew enough of that because she had played HEROes before and Dystopia was a staple since Fusion Destiny was a card that one would use to mill Malicious.

She didn't know much about what deck that Asuka used though. She only noticed that there were even new rituals when Drytrons came out and single handedly brought rituals to meta since Nekroz, and even tier one at that. Until Benten got limited to one that is, and they fell back to obscurity.

They do still see the play here and there. Just not as much.

As she was pondering that, and as the other three boys took the attention of the blond instructor, the door opened, and this time four people entered. Unsurprisingly, as soon as she sees that tuft of violet hair poke out at the door, she already knows what to expect. And not a moment later, a human bullet that was Mei shot out towards me.

She, of course, did not move from her position and accepted the sudden hug. She even patted her head a few times, before the girl then slipped to hide behind her and glared at a certain black haired boy that was glaring at her as soon as he stepped inside the room.

The black haired boy was of course Haru, but she doesn't know who the other pink haired girl and the messy haired boy that had walked in together with them. She wondered what kind of challenge that they all would bring onto the table, and she even wondered what kind of deck they would have.

Are they going to be using a combo deck? She doubts it would be something like that if she's being honest, but the chance still exists, no matter how small. There's definitely control decks of course, she knew that a deck that solely focuses on Destiny HERO Dystopia and only Dystopia would be like that. Cyber Dragons would of course be looking to OTK with Power Bond, especially with cards like Chimeratech Rampage.

She did remember that Fubuki played Beast Beatdown and Red Eyes at one point, but she doesn't know what deck he would be playing right now.

That made her incredibly excited if she was being honest. She truly was a duel junkie through and through.

"Ah Signore Haru, Signore Kemono! And Signora Mei and Signora Dolly as well! It seems that each bracket is done then." The instructor said, and then clapped his hands. "Alright then!" The Academia professor exclaimed loudly, earning everyone's attention. "Now that every competitor has arrived here, let us proceed to the arena." With that said, the blond proceeded to gesture to them to follow him, and they all did so.

The walk to the arena was not silent, courtesy of Fubuki trying to befriend everyone. Mei was, as always, clinging onto her like a koala. Ryo and Edo were equally silent, the former nodding and sometimes responding to the one-sided talk that Fubuki gave out while the latter was just silent in general, as was the white haired girl and the messy haired boy.

Haru was glaring at her back, which she ignored.

They were all left to stand on the hallway's end as the blond okama left. Silence befell the group, only to be broken by the announcement from the incredibly loud speakers.

"Welcome all!" A loud voice boomed over the stadium, the voice being none other than the proctor that had interrogated her as said man's face appeared on holographic screens all around the stadium. "On this momentous occasion, I, Cronos de Medici, will be the announcer for the annual Academia Junior League Competition!" She heard the crowd cheer at the announcement of the Obelisk Blue's own professor being this year's announcer.

"Together with me as co-commentator is Sanders, a dueling instructor in Academia." The blond said over the mic, though there was a certain tone in said voice that she couldn't precisely decipher.

"Greetings." The moustached man wearing military outfit and two antenae said simply for his introduction as he appeared briefly on the screens. The screen then expanded to show the both of them sitting on a table with mics in front of them.

"This year's finals are incredibly packed! With each of the winners dominating their respective brackets!" Cronos declared and whispers began to erupt from the spectators. "Coming from the first bracker, winning every match without even losing a sliver of Life Points, Signora Yuuna!"

With her name being called, she went out, and she had to protect her eyes once again from the accursed blinding sun. And when her eyes eventually adjusted to the blinding rays of the sun, she saw that the seat of the audience was now filled with people.

That's way more than when the preliminaries, which was quite expected since the good duels would definitely be in the finals. She scratched the back of her head and lazily waved as she walked towards the only platform that was left on the stadium.

"Proceeding from the second bracket, the winner who has defeated his opponents through incredible strategies, Edo Phoenix!" As he was being introduced by the blond dueling instructor, the grey haired boy came out and waved to the crowd with a smug smile plastered on his face.

"The victor of the third bracket who easily defeated his opponents, Ryo Marufuji!" Contrary to the two contestants before him, the blue haired boy walked onto the stage without fanfare, only nodding to the crowd.

"Continuing from the fourth bracket, Fubuki Tenjoin!" The brown haired boy was the one who enjoyed being the source of attention from the crowd. Even doing a little spin as he made his way onto the platform to stand beside Ryo.

"The champion of the fifth bracket who has completely blown his opponents out of the water, Haru Harule!" As his name was called, Haru made his way onto the platform without much fanfare, though that was mostly due to the fact that he was too busy glaring at her to please the crowd.

"The incredible dueling beast from the sixth bracket, Ryoma Kemono!" The messy haired boy proceeded to enter the field, looking haughty as he ignored the crowd and walked to the platform, though she did see how one of his hands were shaking when he reached said platform.

"Winner of the seventh bracket is the duelist that managed to dismantle her opponent's strategy completely, Mei!" The small violet haired girl made her way onto the platform, she did please the crowd a little by performing a wave, but her eyes were still glaring at the black haired boy as she did so.

"And last but not least is the elegant champion of the eight bracket, Sarah Dolly!" The white haired girl made her way on stage, waving towards the audience with a gentle smile as she did so.

The cheer of the crowd never lessened for each competitor that made it on stage, if anything they got even louder whenever one of them stepped foot here. It was certainly not like anything that she had ever felt before, at most a locals tournament will have around a dozen or so people watching, and online duel matches don't have much viewers unless it was a tournament, and even then you can't feel the stare of this many people through a screen.

"Now then!" The blond announcer said excitedly. "We will proceed to the finals bracket!"

With that being said, the screen showing the announcers, turned to a bracket showing the names of the eight competitors and who their matches are up against. Surprisingly it wasn't even randomized, the winner of the first bracket will fight the winner of the second and so on and so forth.

It was incredibly straightforward. Something that she wouldn't see in her old world's tournament.

In conclusion, the first match was going to be her against Edo Phoenix and presumably his Destiny HERO deck that doesn't have Plasma nor Malicious and not even a Vision HERO engine. Not that she wants to brag or anything, but she was sure that she has it in the bag.

She pondered whether or not she should change her deck to Monarchs, Ether to Kuraz to pop two cards on the field was quite strong, if with a downside of giving cards to the opponent in return. She really needs Seleglare as a better alternative for monster removal for Monarchs.

But she opted not to, Mei did promise her to duel each other during the finals, which with the bracket being what it was, means that they would only meet at the grand final, and only then will she use Monarch.

Probably, she was getting bored using Ancient Gear Machina though so she might change in the second match when she wins.

Was she getting a head of herself? Thinking that she had already won before even facing her opponent whose deck she already knows the ins and outs of?

Probably yeah.

"For the first match, the winner of the first bracket Yuuna will be facing the champion of the second bracket Edo Phoenix!" With their name called, the two duelists went to opposing sides of the platform, while the other contestants of the finals were ushered off the platform by a proctor and headed to what was seemingly a VIP watching room.

It was also then that she saw a pop up appear on the corner of her vision.

-

Urgent Mission!

[Otherworlder's First Tournament Part 1]

Defeat Edo Phoenix at the first round of preliminaries

Rewards: 100000DP, Reputation (Fusion Dimension) Up, Destiny HERO Plasma, D-HERO Booster Pack Unlocked, Reputation (Edo Phoenix) Up

Failure: Reputation (Fusion Dimension) Down, Reputation (Edo Phoenix) Down

-

"Well," She started as she faced her opponent with a smile. "Good luck, and have fun." With that said, she activated her duel disk. Hearing that, her opponent scoffs, but nodded and activated his duel disk.

"This is all but a step for me to become a pro duelist." He said much to her surprise, not expecting him to actually talk back based on his scoff. "I do expect that you put on a good show." She doesn't really care about entertaining the crowd or giving a good show nonsense, she's just here for a good game.

That and DP, that sweet sweet DP. Also that sweet Super Poly that she could win if she placed 1st in this tournament.

"Who do you think will win this match, Signore Sanders?" The blond professor asked his moustached co-commentator.

"Hmm, I do believe that young Phoenix will be the victor of this duel." The military garbed man said as he caressed his moustache. "He is, after all, well known in the dueling world as a prodigy in dueling. Ever since he has held his deck, he has yet to see a loss after all. And while young Yuuna is quite bright herself, I doubt that she is able to combat the young Phoenix's genius."

The two ignored the comments of the commentators, and began their match.

""DUEL!""

Edo Phoenix: 4000LP

Yuuna: 4000LP

"My turn!" The grey haired boy proclaimed as he takes first go. "I'll summon Destiny HERO - Decider!" A monster that she can only describe as a fishman, what with his fins for ears and aquatic-man vibe that he gives off, makes it onto Edo's field.

Destiny HERO - Decider - Dark/Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1600/1000

"I'll set two cards face down, and end my turn." With three cards on his field, Edo passed the turn to her.

"Oh! And Signore Phoenix starts with a strong play with his Destiny HERO deck! What are the two cards that he set I wonder?" The blond announcer said as the crowd cheered on the two duelists on the platform.

"Well then, it's my turn I guess." she said as she then proceeded to draw a card on her draw phase. "I'll draw." She then eyed the cards in her hands as her mind thought of the many plays that a pure Destiny HERO deck could pull off with two cards in hand and three on the field.

The punish would be something like Destiny Signal, which can then special summon Drilldark, and through that he can have two monsters on field and then do something like D-Fusion into Dystopia or Dangerous.

She can probably prevent something like that from happening if she uses Golem or its fusion counterparts since they prevent the activation of spell and trap cards until the end of the damage step, which is when you'll activate cards like that.

She doubts that he'll play something like Honest Neos, since that wasn't a Destiny HERO, though he really should, Dynatag perhaps? It is a hand trap that negates battle damage, and with Decider being the one that would be destroyed he could then add it back to the hand and not receive the 1000 points of burn damage that Dynatag dishes out.

She can clear the board with Citadel, but the punish then would be Destiny Mirage which can summon back all destroyed Destiny HERO monsters that were destroyed that turn.

None were great choices, especially since her deck doesn't excel in backrow removal, she only has the two copies of Twin Twister. She couldn't afford the third one since she was running out of DP at that point.

Wait a second, she could have bought the last copy if she used the DP that she had just gained from finishing the preliminaries! Why didn't she do that!

Letting out a sigh after the in real time super short strategizing session, she already set her game plan and proceeded to do her play. "First off, I'll set two cards face down." With two face down cards appearing on her field, she shouldn't be bothered by the restriction of Wyvern.

"I'll first activate the field spell, Geartown! And then activate the spell card, Ancient Gear Catapult to target and destroy Geartown to special summon one 'Ancient Gear' monster ignoring its summoning conditions," The scenery of a town of metals and gears flickered on the platform, appearing and disappearing as soon as it came.

"I'll be summoning Ancient Gear Golem directly from my deck in attack position, and since Geartown was destroyed, I'll be special summoning Ancient Gear Wyvern from my deck too." With her combo played out, the enormous giant of metal stood before her along with the smaller mechanical wyvern.

Ancient Gear Golem - Earth/Machine/Level 8/Effect: 3000/3000

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

"Oh! Signora Yuuna starts off with an amazing combo! Able to call out two strong monsters with a single play! How will Signore Phoenix stand against her monsters?" The blond announcer exclaimed while the moustached military man simply huffed.

"Do not forget that the boy still has two face down Cronos. Those two cards might change the tide of the duel." he said as a fact.

"Ah but with the effect of Ancient Gear Golem, Signore Phoenix's trap cards won't be able to be activated during the damage step, how will he go through that then?" The Obelisk Blue instructor asked.

At that point she ignored the annoying sounds of the speaker to continue her play. "Since Wyvern was summoned, I can add one Ancient Gear card from my deck to my hand, at the cost of not being able to set cards for the rest of the turn. I'll be adding one Ancient Gear Fusion to my hand." She added the card to her hand and played immediately much to the crowd's pleasure.

"I'll be activating it now, since I have an Ancient Gear Golem on the field, I can use monsters from my deck and send them to graveyard as fusion materials." With that piece of information given, she took out two cards from her deck to show to her opponent.

"I'll be using the Ancient Gear Golem that I control, one from my deck, and a copy of Ancient Gear Frame from my deck as fusion material." The three monsters that she had named appeared on the field, the two pairs of gigantic golems and a single mechanical skeleton frame. They didn't stay long however, as they soon turned into scrap pieces of metal and gears as they got fused into a single mechanical being.

"Fusion summon! Come, Ancient Gear Megaton Golem!" The six armed golem stood slightly taller than its previous incarnation, but its imposing six arms and four legs certainly put the crowds in awe.

Ancient Gear Megaton Golem - Earth/Machine/Level 9/Fusion/Effect: 3300/3300

"And it has appeared!" Cronos exclaimed excitedly as he stood up from his seat while holding the mic. "The rare card that has even alluded Academia's records- Ancient Gear Megaton Golem has hit Signora Yuuna's field!"

She still has two cards in her hand, and she wonders whether or not she should extend. The amount that she has already would deal lethal already, but not through Dynatag so she opted to extend a little. "I'll now normal summon Ancient Gear Frame." An exact copy of the mechanical skeleton frame that she had used as fusion material for her fusion monster appeared on her field.

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

"Battle." She said as her monsters took on an attacking stance. "Since I can't attack your Decider with Level 6 or higher monsters, I'll attack it with Ancient Gear Frame." With her command, the metallic skeleton frame attacked the fish-man-like warrior on her opponent's field.

"When Frame attacks, you can't activate spell or trap cards until the end of the damage step." she said and both monsters were destroyed in battle, but thanks to Frame's effect, Edo could not activate

None of them received any damage, but if Edo's frown says anything, it was that he certainly was not expecting something like that to happen.

"Bellissimo! What a beautiful play by Signora Yuuna!" The blond commentator announced. "By using Ancient Gear Frame to attack and destroy Destiny HERO - Decider, Signora Yuuna has prevented Signore Phoenix from activating any trap cards in response to his monster's destruction!" His co-commentator merely huffed and nodded as he groomed his moustache.

Once again, she ignored the commentator and the roar of the audience. "Next, Megaton Golem! Megaton Pound!" The gigantic golem heeded her command, and raised its many arms to attack the grey haired boy directly.

"When Megaton Golem attacks, you cannot activate spell or trap cards until the end of the damage step." she said and she sees the boy ahead of her sweat as the gigantic golem's fists connects to her designated target.

"I'll activate the effect of Destiny HERO - Dynatag! During damage calculation, when I would take battle damage, I can discard this card and make myself take no battle damage from that battle!" The silver giants fists did hit its target, that being the grey haired boy himself, but it did no damage.

She merely let out a sigh at the six armed golem's failed attempt at ending the match, she had expected that to happen after all. Megaton Golem can prevent the activation of battle traps, something that is apparently still used a lot in this format, but it doesn't prevent the effect of monsters from activating. "If I activate this effect however, each player takes 1000 points of damage."

She saw that the boy then took out a card from the graveyard, it was of course none other than Decider that she had destroyed. "I'll activate the effect of Destiny HERO - Decider! One per duel, when a card or effect is activated that would inflict damage to me while this card is in my graveyard, I can return this card to my hand to make that effect damage 0!"

The grey haired boy added the monster to his hand, nullifying the effect damage dished out by Dynatag. She had nothing like that however, so she merely closed her eyes and took the first damage that she had received today.

Yuuna: 3000LP

"And Signore Phoenix has managed to deal the first damage! And even avoiding the devastating attack of Signora Yuuna's Megaton Golem as well!" The Obelisk Blue instructor exclaimed.

"The combo done by Young Phoenix was excellent." The moustached instructor said, "Though its effects can only be activated one per duel, Destiny HERO 0 Decider is quite powerful, and that is also adding the innate protection from high level monsters that it has."

"Megaton Golem can attack according to the amount of Ancient Gear Golem that is used as its fusion materials, since I used two it can attack once more. Once more! Megaton Pound!" The spartan themed pure silver golem's red eyes shone as it readied its fists once more.

"I'll activate the effect of another Dynatag!" he shouted the card and activated it once again. She raised her eyebrow at that. He runs more than two of the card? She guesses that since he doesn't have Fusion Destiny yet, and battle traps were still important.

"During damage calculation, when I would take battle damage, I can discard this card and make myself take no battle damage from that battle! If I activate this effect however, each player takes 1000 points of damage!" He said as he himself took the damage this time, though she would happily take that 1000 points of burn instead of a direct 3300.

Edo Phoenix: 3000LP

Yuuna: 2000LP

"It seems that young Phoenix has this duel in his control." The moustached man commented. "With him capable of surviving those two devastating attacks, I doubt that the girl could finish him now." And he was correct, much to her annoyance.

She didn't predict that anyone was going to run two copies of Dynatag after all.

"I'll attack with wyvern then." She said, and the grey haired boy then merely let the attack hit, causing her to raise an eyebrow in response to him not activating the traps that he set.

Edo Phoenix: 1300LP

The crowd goes wild as the grey haired boy finally receives damage from her attack, seemingly being in the worse position between the two of them. But with two set cards still on the field and a Decider on hand, he could still turn the tide.

But she was still confident that she could win the duel. Though she hadn't expected the second copy of Dynatag, she can still pull through whatever it was that Edo can possibly do. "I'll end my turn then. I'll admit, I didn't think that you could have survived that one." She said with a grin on her face.

The grey haired boy smiled in return, though it was that smug one that shows that he believes that he would still win the duel. "You aren't half bad either.'" He said smugly. "But I'm the one that will win this duel! My turn! I draw!"

Seeing the card that he had just drawn, the boy's smile became even wider. "As Expected, it seems that you'll lose this turn." The grey haired boy declared smugly and the crowd went wild, which made her only smile in response.

"Really?" She asked. "Well, do your best to make it so then." He took her challenge and started his play.

"I'll summon Destiny HERO - Drilldark!" The grey haired boy placed the monster on his holographic projection of his duel disk. The monster that he summoned was of course another dark warrior, this one however was a warrior with drills around his body, be it his knees and hands, and his right hand was a gigantic drill.

Destiny HERO - Drilldark - Dark/Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1600/1200

Seeing the appearance of Drilldark, she then activated her set card. "I'll be activating my trap, Machina Overdrive! I can target one machine monster that I control and special summon one 'Machina' monster with a different name from my deck, and then destroy the targeted monster. I'll target and destroy Ancient Gear Wyvern to special summon Machina CItadel from my deck!"

With that said the metallic wyvern was then destroyed and left her field, and in its place was the gigantic blue machine that was Machina Citadel standing menacingly with its chainsaw and firearm at the ready.

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

The crowd goes wild at the appearance of the giant machine, Edo however, was unperturbed by the appearance of my second Ace-Monster. "When Drilldark is normal or special summoned, I can special summon one 'Destiny HERO' monster from my hand with attack less than or equal to Drilldark! I'll special summon Destiny HERO - Decider from my hand!" With another wave of his hand, the fish-man-like warrior re-appeared on Edo's field.

Destiny HERO - Decider - Dark/Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1600/1000

"I'll activate the effect of Citadel! I can target one machine monster that I control and destroy it to destroy all monsters you control with attack less than or equal to it! I'll destroy Citadel and clear your field!" With the light blue machine self-destructing, the dark warriors of Edo's field were destroyed.

"There it is! Signora Yuuna's devastating combo that has won her most of her matches!" The Obelisk Blue's dueling instructor commented excitedly. "With the trap card Machina Overdrive and the monster Machina Citadel, Signora Yuuna has succeeded in clearing Signore Phoenix's field!"

"Quite." The moustached man commented. "Such combination of cards is something that no mere young duelist is capable of. As expected, young Yuuna is indeed a gifted duelist. But so is young Phoenix."

She ignored both the loud noises of the audience and the comments of the two commentators and instead focused on her opponent. He only has one card on field, if anything the only publish that it can be was if it was Mirage Destiny that can recur all the Destiny HERO monsters that were destroyed by card effect.

"I didn't think you would have a card like that… but this is also within my calculations!" The grey haired boy said with a smirk. "I'll activate my trap card, Destiny Mirage!"

Crap, it was indeed that card.

"When a 'Destiny HERO' monster I control is destroyed and sent to the graveyard by an opponent's card effect, I can special summon to my side of the field to my side of the field all 'Destiny HERO' monster that were destroyed and sent to the graveyard this turn!" The boy's smirk grew wider as the two monsters that she had destroyed were returned to his field.

Destiny HERO - Drilldark - Dark/Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1600/1200

Destiny HERO - Decider - Dark/Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1600/1000

"Mamma Mia! It seems that Signore Phoenix has turned the tides!" The blond dueling instructor exclaimed.

"Ha! It seems that young Phoenix is indeed a dueling genius as the rumour says! He was capable of turning the situation on young Yuuna. Now, then. What will she do now?" The moustached instructor wondered.

"I'll then activate my trap card, D-Fusion!" Her eyes almost boggled out of her head as she heard him activate what was basically the worst fusion card in the game. Running normal Poly was a million times better than that card! Necro Fusion was a better one than that!

"Using this card, I can fusion summon one fusion monster from my extra deck using monsters I control as fusion material, and if I do, it cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect this turn!" The grey haired boy then took the two monsters that he had on his duel disk's holographic sword and sent them to the graveyard.

"I'll fuse Destiny HERO - Drilldark and Destiny HERO - Decider!" The two dark warriors flew into a spiral of red and blue, fusing the two of them and summoning one single monster. "O hero that decides the destiny of victory! Along with the hero that digs his own destiny! Combine and become the ruler in this dark future!"

The boy then completed his chant by joining his two hands together and bringing it down. "Fusion summon! Come on! Destiny HERO - Dystopia!" The titular fusion monster then appeared, with its dark purple armor and golden shoulder plates and all, along with a big red D on his head.

Destiny HERO - Dystopia - Dark/Warrior/Level 8/Fusion/Effect: 2800/2400

"I'll activate Dystopia's effect! If this card is special summoned, I can target one Level 4 or lower 'Destiny HERO' monster in my graveyard, inflict damage to my opponent equal to the target's attack!" The grey haired boy then took out a monster card from his graveyard and showed it to her.

"I target my Destiny HERO - Decider, and deal 1600 points of damage! Go! Dystopia! Squeeze Palm!" With his command, the dark HERO monster threw out an orb of darkness towards her, dealing a great amount of burn damage in this 4000LP format.

"I've been waiting for this moment!" She has been waiting to say something like that for quite a long time now. "I'll activate the trap, Infinite Impermanence!" She said so and activated the set card and discarded the latter from her hand, and right after doing so she was hit by the dark orb that was shot out, leaving the whole platform covered by smoke.

"Mamma Mia!" The blond dueling instructor exclaimed as he held his head in his hands. "Signore Phoenix has managed to lower Signora Yuuna's Life Points to a mere 400! What will Signora Yuuna do now?!"

"Kahaha! It seems that victory has gone to young Phoenix! As expected of the dueling genius!" The black haired moustached man declared prematurely as he laughed heartily.

But as soon as the smoke dispersed, the audience and commentators were left shocked as they saw that the only monster left on the field was none other than her Ancient Gear Megaton Golem and the dark warrior of Edo, and what shocked the audience even more was none other than the fact that her Life Points had not lowered even the slightest.

"W-what had happened!" The moustached military man said, shocked at the event that unfolded before him as he stood up suddenly from his seat. His other commentator too, was too shocked to say anything as his mouth was left hanging open as he tried to put words together.

"Ma-Ma-Ma-Mamma Mia!" The blond dueling instructor shouted through the comms in shock. "It seems that Signora Yuuna has managed to turn the whole duel around!" He cried out in shock as he clasped his face between his palms.

"You..." The grey haired boy let out, as he too, was shocked at how his field was cleared once again. "W-what did you do?!" He shouted as she smiled in response.

She dusted off herself and the near lethal damage and instead grinned, she had reached victory after all. "I activated the effect of the trap, Infinite Impermanence, that negates the effect of one monster on your side of the field.."

"Wha- how do you have such a card?!" He shouted in anger, an act that made her let out a sigh and scratch the back of her head. She really dislikes those kind of duelists that cares about rare cards after all, except when the card is a dumb card that becames incredibly pricey like Smoke Grenade.

"I won it off a duel." She said a matter of factly. It was true, she should have used the trap first really on Drilldark, but she hadn't because she also had Ghost Ogre in her hand thinking that there's no way that he could fusion since he summoned it of all things.

And then it turned out to be freaking D-Fusion that prevents destruction for a turn of all things.

She had at one point fought a psychic duelist on Free Duel that for some reason played E-Tell that ran Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit to synchro into Psychic Nightmare, an incredibly mediocre psychic synchro if she was being honest.

The first time she beat said duelist, they dropped Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit. So promptly after seeing something like that drop, she does what someone who first received an actually useful hand trap would do.

Farm the heck out of it. It was how she managed to get three of them after all. She promptly wasted a lot of keys that she could have used to farm more machine related support to get the hand trap instead. The same was for the Infib, she had to face a trap based deck on that one, and it was Paleo too!

She also did have the synchro that the NPC duelist used as well as a few bad Paleozoics, but they didn't really matter much because they sucked and she can't really summon anything other than fusion in this dimension.

She probably could have used it when he activated Drilldark, but since she had Citadel at that moment she saw no use for it.

"I'll activate the effect of Dynatag from my graveyard! I can banish this card from the graveyard to target one 'Destiny HERO' monster that I control and it gains 1000 attack until the end of your next turn! I'll increase the attack of Dystopia by 2000 by banishing both Dynatags!"

The purple colored dark warrior let out a roar as he gained power that goes over her giant Golem.

Destiny HERO - Dystopia - Dark/Warrior/Level 8/Fusion/Effect: 4800/2400

"Bellissimo! It seems that Signore Phoenix has thought of a strategy to go over Signora Yuuna's golem!" The Obelisk Blue instructor commented and his co-commentator nodded, looking incredibly invested in the duel.

"I'll attack your Ancient Gear Megaton Golem with my Dystopia! Dystopia Blow!" With the grey haired boy's command, the dark warrior shot out another ball of darkness that hits her mechanical giant, destroying it and dealing a hefty amount of damage to her.

Yuuna: 500LP

"In this moment," She stated as the smoke from the attack started to disperse. "I'll activate the effect of Machina CItadel, when an earth monster is destroyed, I can special summon this card from my graveyard." As she said that, the light blue machine made its way onto her field one more time.

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

The grey haired boy clicked his tongue. "I'll end my turn." He said.

"And with that Dystopia's effect is no longer negated." she said. And it all comes to this draw then, whatever the top deck of each player has, it decides the outcome of the duel. Edo will certainly destroy her Citadel with the effect of Dystopia, and when he does, she'll use the effect of Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit.

"My turn then." She said as she closed her eyes. "I'll draw." With that she now has two cards on hand, and it was none other than a card that he has to answer to, and she smiled.

"I'll activate the effect of Orochi, the Serpentron Sky Slasher, from my hand! I can banish 8 cards from the top of my deck face down to special summon this card." With the top 8 cards from the top of her deck being banished, a seven headed dark purple and gold dragon-like machine appeared on her field.

Orochi, the Serpentron Sky Slasher - Dark/Machine/Level 8/Effect: 2450/2450

"I'll activate Orochi's effect! Once per turn, I can banish 3 cards from my Extra Deck face down to target and destroy one face up monster on the field! I'll destroy your Dystopia!" With that said, the top three cards of her Extra Deck were banished, and it shot a ball of energy towards her opponent.

Edo's eyes widened, and he activated the only thing that he could do to prevent immediate loss. "I'll activate the effect of Dystopia! Once per turn, if this card's current attack is different from its original attack, I can target one card on the field and destroy it! Then this card's attack becomes equal to its original attack! I'll destroy Machina Citadel!"

Before getting hit by the shot of her serpentine monster, Dystopia managed to shot off a ball of darkness towards her gigantic light blue machine monster, destroying it, before being destroyed himself.

She doesn't have lethal, but if he fades the draw step then she wins, not to mention that Orochi has recursion. "Battle then." She said as her monster roared, readying to attack. "I'll attack you directly with Orochi!" The serpentine machine let out a roar as it shot towards the grey haired boy.

"Guhaa!" The boy let out a shout as he directly received the attack of her monster.

Edo Phoenix: 550LP

"Alright, your turn then." She said as she gestured to him to draw his card.

The boy looked towards his deck, and then onto her field and his empty one. He let out a sigh as he calmed himself and drew his card. "My turn, I'll draw." Looking at his card, his face contorted.

"Well then." She said cutting off whatever it was that he was going to do. "Are you going to continue then? Will you continue or are you going to surrender?" He had no card in hand, and he was basically dead next turn, so surrendering would make it faster. Though if he doesn't and instead let her hit then it was fine too, scooping when it's clear that you'll lose is fine too for her.at the result of the match.

Seeing her and her monster, then back to his empty field and singular card, the grey haired boy let out a sigh as he pressed the surrender button on his duel disk.

Edo Phoenix: 0LP

"A-and the match is finished!" The blond commentator declared, still looking quite shocked himself. "The winner is Signora Yuuna!"

The crowd went wild at the result, and she turned off her duel disk and approached the grey haired duel and extended a handshake. "That was a great duel. You really had me at the ropes there." She said with a smile while still extending her hand.

The grey haired boy looked at her extended hand, before shaking his head then shook the extended hand. "That… was indeed the best duel that I've ever had." He said with closed eyes. "I never thought that losing would feel like this."

"Was it fun?" She asked the grey haired boy who looked at her in confusion. "The back and forth, the process of trying to one up the other, going one step ahead of the opponent." She said with the same smile still plastered on her face. "It was fun wasn't it?"

Seeing her question, he still had that confused look on his face, but eventually sighed and shook his head. "I don't think that that's why I enjoyed it but..." He closed his eyes before opening them again and turning around to leave the platform. "The next time we duel, I'll definitely beat you."

With his piece said the boy left the stage, and she too turned around and went to the special waiting room.

Where she was promptly attacked by the small violet haired girl that was basically her little sister as soon as she opened the door. As usual she merely sighed and patted the small girl's head in response.

She heard a small giggle, which came from none other than Fubuki who was looking at them with soft eyes, while Ryo merely shook his head, though he had a small smile on his face. She couldn't see the reaction of the other girl and the wild haired boy as they were talking and ignoring her, while the only black haired boy of the group was silently glaring at her from the corner of the room.

"I told you that Yuuna would win!" The violet haired girl said with a smug smile after turning towards Fubuki who was now scratching his cheeks while looking away. "Because Yuuna is strong after all!" The small girl said as she puffed her chest proudly, making the brown haired boy laugh a little.

"Sorry, sorry. I didn't think that she would be that strong, that's all." He said with a laugh. "It was just that her opponent was THE Edo Phoenix after all. Son of THE Mr. Phoenix who is a well known card designer and a strong duelist himself. And he too was a renowned genius, you know?"

The smaller girl merely huffed at his comment. "Well, that just shows that Yuuna's an even greater genius!" She declared as she puffed her chest.

"Now, now. I'm nowhere near that kind of level you know?" She said as she ruffled the violet haired girl's hair, earning a small giggle from the girl in question. "For instance, I could have made a way better play than what I had done after all."

That wasn't quite true, but it wasn't wrong either. She could have probably used the effect of Wyvern and she could have used Wyvern to get Box and another Frame, and then normal summon Frame to get a copy of Ancient Gear Fusion instead of using Wyvern. Then she wouldn't have had so low cards on her hands.

Or she could have gotten another copy of Ancient Gear Fusion instead, and then she could have fused both Wyvern and Frame to get Howitzer, burn for 1000, and then activate Overdrive without destroying anything.

But she hadn't thought that Edo would run two Dynatag, something that wouldn't be done even in a pure Destiny HERO deck back in her old world. Then again, he doesn't have Fusion Destiny, so that might explain the need for more than one copy of it.

Speaking of the boy, the door behind her opened and the grey haired boy went inside the waiting room.

He glanced at her, nodded, and went past her for one of the available seats to sit down on and close his eyes. She wondered where he went for a minute there, the fact that she arrived here first meant that he went somewhere after going down from the platform.

Was it the toilet? It probably was the toilet. Dueling for what was basically a good half of a day would make someone want to go to the toilet.

"For the second match, the winner of the third bracket, Ryo Marufuji will be facing the champion of the fourth bracket Fubuki Tenjoin!" The screen showing Cronos de Medici declared as a picture of both the blue haired neutral faced boy and brown haired smiling boy appeared on the screen.

"Wellp, there's our cue." The brown haired boy said as he smiled to the blue haired boy behind him who stood up from his seat. Seeing that she moved away from the door, dragging Mei with her, and opened the door for the two boys.

"Good luck out there." She said with a small smile. "And don't forget to have fun." That was the point of the game after all. The brown haired boy's smile brightened at her, and the blue haired boy nodded and the two then went out of the door.

She was quite excited to see how the two would fare. She hoped that they put on a good show.