Tournament Arc: Grand Finale and...

"And here we are! Ladies and gentlemen!" The blond dueling instructor declared, followed by the loud cheer of the crowd, louder than any of the cheer that has been given for the matches that have been held for the entire day.

"The two duelists who have dominated the matches have managed to climb the ladder and made their way to the grand finals!" Cronos informed theaudience. "Both young duelists of the Academy Island will now face one another! And the winner shall bring home the Junior League Trophy! Along with a recommendation to the Academia Junior Division!"

"Now then." The moustached fellow commentator of the blond dueling instructor started. "As we have already seen both young Yuuna and Young Mei both duel in their own respective matches, Cronos, who do you think will win in this match?"

"Oho? That is a hard question…." The blond dueling instructor of Obelisk Blue mused caressing his chin. "If I do have to say, then I personally believe that Signora Yuuna is more favoured in this match."

His reply made the eyebrow of the grey haired dueling instructor rise. "Oh? Is that so?" He said looking quite intrigued. "I had thought that you would be supporting young Mei more compared to young Yuuna. Is this your bias for Ancient Gears perhaps?"

"Certainly Signora Mei still has a lot of chances of winning the match. Just as much as Signora Yuuna does in fact" The blond dueling instructor started. "And while I do believe that Ancient Gears are still an incredibly strong deck, it does have it's weakness, just as we had seen in the match before with Signore Harule."

The grey moustached dueling instructor hummed as he nodded his head. "Indeed, the duel between young Harule and young Ryoma had indeed shown us the deck's weakness, as though it can bring out strong monsters like Ancient Gear Golem and their Fusion monsters, it certainly does have its weakness."

"And that was why Signora Haru had lost his previous duel, yes. Because though the monsters on the deck are incredibly strong, they are quite hard to summon." The blond dueling instructor said.

Nononono that certainly was the deck's weakness but not the point of it though? Sure getting some of the Fusion monsters on the field are resource intensive and their plays are incredibly linear and all, and certainly they can't do much in the crack back, but there's also other flaws in the deck you know?

Like it's inability to go first and the best that it could do being Howitzer pass, a reason why she ran cards like Overdrive and Citadel since those actually have an interaction if she ever goes first, added with some other trap good stuff.

But that could also be said for any other go second decks so that wasn't really cut it huh. Well if anything the problem that Ancient Gears usually has is of course, bricking with cards like Golem or Box.

Ah, she shouldn't get too sidetracked now! She needs to finish side decking.

"I see, so then why do you think that young Yuuna is more favoured in this matchup then Cronos?" Sanders asked his fellow commentator, wanting to know of his reasons as to why he favours her instead of Mei for the upcoming match.

"Hmm? Is it not obvious from Signora Yuuna's last match that she is quite favoured in this matchup?" The blond haired dueling instructor said to his co-commentator. "If Signora Yuuna uses her Ancient Gear deck, then she certainly could win with her Fusion monsters who have incredibly high attack power."

"Hmm." The grey haired commentator mused. "Certainly if she manages to summon that Ancient Gear Megaton Golem then young Yuuna can easily destroy all of young Mei's monsters..."

The blond dueling instructor then continued his argument. "And if she uses the Monarch deck like the last match then she also has a chance of winning. That is, if she manages to use her field spell then certainly Signora Mei will not be able to summon from the Extra Deck." He said.

"Hm?" The grey haired dueling instructor let out a noise while he narrowed his eyes. "But does young Mei not focus more on that Machina Citadel monster more than her Extra Deck monsters?"

The blond Academia dueling instructor blinked his eyes a few times, being silent as the information given by his co-commentator finally sinked in and he then proceeded to stand up from his seat with both of his hands on his head.

"M-M-M-Mamma Mia! You're right!" The blond dueling instructor shouted out, seemingly only now aware of the hole in his argument. "Since Signora Mei's deck does not focus on the Extra Deck then doesn't that mean that Signora Mei is the one who is favoured in this match?!"

"It does seem like that, yes." The grey haired dueling instructor said as he nodded his head. "But it seems that the time has come for the match to proceed! Cronos, if you will?" He looked towards his fellow commentator.

"Of course!" Said the blond dueling instructor who sat down on his chair and cleared his throat. "Now ladies and gentlemen! Let us proceed to the final match of the Academia Junior League Tournament!"

As the blond haired dueling instructor declared so, a translucent screen appeared on the corner of her vision.

-

Urgent Mission!

[Otherworlder's First Tournament Finale]

Defeat Mei at the grand finals

Rewards: 500000DP, Reputation (Fusion Dimension) Up, Union Driver, Electric Union Booster Pack Unlocked, Reputation (Mei) Up

Failure: Reputation (Fusion Dimension) Down, Reputation (Mei) Down

-

Followed by a loud cheer of the audience, she let out a sigh as she picked up her cards and walked out of the private room that she was given to prepare herself. Because apparently they gave them a room each to prepare themselves in, both located in the opposite sides of the stadium near the gate to the grounds outside.

Strange that they gave a room now of all times instead of giving it since the start, though apparently it's because of weird privilege things for the grand finalist or something. Even after years of living here she still doesn't really understand how things work here.

But she shouldn't think about that. She should focus on the upcoming match against Mei. Undoubtedly she's quite unfavoured in this matchup, Mei's deck was an explosive beatdown one, though it still can't meet it's actual ceiling since there aren't any XYZ monsters in her Extra Deck, and her's was a control deck.

It was a regular matchup if she was being honest. It would mostly depend on the board building. Will she be able to build a board that Mei can't break? Or will Mei be able to break her board that she had set up?

And it also depends on who goes first too. Since Mei's deck also has a few go first cards like her Overdrive, and Machina Citadel is quite a card too. That and she herself has some trap good stuff, so she probably runs some Hole cards to counter her deck.

Well she also ran some cards to counter Mei's own deck so that's all fair. They did deck build together after all so they knew about one another's deck. Well, not her Monarch though, just her Ancient Gears so she probably has a huge advantage.

That and she will always start with an unbricked hand, a cheat amongst cheats especially for a deck like her Monarchs which is infamous for bricking all the time. Eh? Doesn't this mean that she has an incredibly huge advantage against Mei?

Oh crap this duel doesn't feel fair anymore, she knows the ins and outs of her deck and probably has an idea on the cards that she'll use to counter her own deck too. Doesn't it feel unfair? It's totally unfair isn't it?

But… if there's anyone in this dimension who can probably match her on even grounds even with that much disadvantage, then it's definitely Mei. After all, knowing most of the cards in your opponent's deck also happens on the duels back in her world, that's how meta decks usually roll after all.

In the end it all depends on the tech option that you would run against certain matchups, the duelist's own skill to pilot their deck, and as much as she hates it. the luck of the draw to get the cards that you need. Helped by consistency boosters of course.

Not long after her internal musing finished, she saw a glint of light that came from the end of the hallway. She couldn't help but grin at the anticipation of dueling the girl that she had taught meta knowledge as she walked.

"And here they are!" The blond Obelisk Blue dueling instructor exclaimed, followed by the loud excited cheer of the audience. "She's the duelist who has managed to defeat the two famous genius duelists Edo Phoenix and Ryo Marufuji! She's the infamous duelist from Academy Island who manages to even defeat Academia students, Signora Yuuna!"

The crowd cheered loudly as she walked onto the platform, she couldn't help but scratch her cheek at the amount of attention that she got. She's kind of embarrassed, and nervous, both at the attention that she was grabbing and also being nervous at being in the grand finals of a tournament after a long time.

"And her opponent is another duelist from Academy Island!" The blond dueling instructor exclaimed. "The duelist who has managed to defeat the young dueling lady Sarah Dolly and the student of the pro duelist Joe Harule, Haru Harule, Signora Mei!"

And as soon as her name was called by the Obelisk Blue dueling instructor, the violet haired girl walked up onto the platform followed by another booming cheer of the crowd around the stadium.

Their eyes met, and she saw that the violet haired girl was staring intently at her, with flames burning in her eyes. "Yuuna!" She called her. "There's a lot of things that I want to say. That I want to tell you, but...."

Trailing off the violet haired girl closed her eyes for a short moment, before opening them again this time the fiery determination that she saw reflected in them burned even brighter. "And since I'm not good with words I'll just tell you that through duel!"

Saying that, the small girl raised her left hand, before bringing it down and activating her duel disk. W-wow, Mei that was some incredibly main character-like short speech you did there. 'I'll explain it through dueling?' dang, that's some real anime-esque reply. She probably wouldn't be able to say something like that before cringing herself to death.

Ah, but she already said some embarrassing stuff today already hadn't she? Ah well, might as well respond to her cute student in kind. "You know, there's still a lot of things that I want to tell you too."

Like her plans to actually go to the XYZ Dimension, more of her meta knowledge, and also the System and the Shop that God granted her after she died in her previous life. But since she resolved to go to the XYZ Dimension then she might as well tell Mei about her secrets, she's her trusted student and she was basically her little sister in all but blood.

"But I guess it can't be helped, I'll have to explain it through dueling too.." She grinned and raised her own left hand, and brought it down and activated her duel disk. The two duelists standing on the platform grinned before opening their mouths to start the match.

""DUEL!""

Mei: 4000LP

Yuuna: 4000LP

"I'll go second!" She declared loudly, making the violet haired girl widen her eyes ever so slightly, certainly not thinking that she would say something like that. "Show me what you got Mei!" She said with a large smile.

Ah crap she got too into the mood and even let Mei go first. She glanced at the cards in her hand and saw that it would have been a pretty nice set up if she went first too. Ah she's a real dum dum for letting Mei go first.

But well, she'll do with what she's got, and dealing with her own idiocy is always something that she's used to anyway. "Then I'll go first!" Her violet haired opponent declared before checking the cards at her own hand.

She frowned, seemingly thinking on what cards to actually play, before deciding on the cards that she would play. "Since I control no face up cards, I can normal summon Machina Metalcruncher without tributing, though it's original attack becomes 1800!"

Placing the card on her duel disk, the orange mechanical robot appeared on her field, snapping its gigantic claw right arm before swinging its smaller claw left arm that shot out towards the ground.

Machina Metalcruncher - Earth/Machine/Level 9/Effect: 1800/0

"Metalcruncher's effect! When this card is normal or special summoned I can reveal three Earth machine monsters from my deck, then you randomly add one of them to my hand and I shuffle the rest back to my hand!" The violet haired girl explained the monster's effect.

She then picked three cards from her deck to show her the cards that she would randomly pick. "The cards that I'll pick are Ancient Gear Box, Ancient Gear Wyvern, and Machina Air Raider."

Saying so, on her own duel disk's screen, the choice on which cards to randomly pick appeared. Picking Box will definitely net Mei some card advantage and even a possibility of fusing into Howitzer, Wyvern sets up her next turn, and Air Raideris explosive in certain set ups.

But it's random anyway so it's not like she has a choice like if she's using Pantheism's graveyard effect. So she picked a random card from the choice given to her, and the card of her choice got added to Mei's hand.

Seeing that the violet haired girl didn't activate the effect of Box being added to her hand meant that it wasn't the card that she had randomly chosen. Which meant that it was either Air Raider or Wyvern.

"From my hand, I'll activate the spell, Machina Redeployment!" Her violet haired opponent said. "I'll discard one 'Machina' card from my hand to add two 'Machina' cards with different names from each other from my deck to my hand except Machina Redeployment!"

Saying so the violet haired girl showed the card that she would discard. "I'll discard Machina Citadel to add Machina Overdrive and Machina Unclaspare to my hand!" She said as she added the two cards to her hand.

She narrowed her eyes at that play, now she has Citadel on rotation and Unclaspare is also a special summon Foolish Burial on legs too. "Unclaspare's effect! When this card is added to my hand, except by drawing it, I can special summon this card!"

The violet haired girl then placed the card on her duel disk, and the machine appeared on her side of the field. The dark machine monster that was surrounded by an eerie darkness aimed its giant rifle arm on her, preparing itself to fire in attack position.

Machina Unclaspare - Dark/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1800/800

"If summoned this way, I cannot special summon for the rest of this turn, except machine monsters. But that doesn't really matter, Unclaspare's other effect!" Her opponent declared. "When this card is normal or special summoned, I can send one 'Machina' monster from my deck to the graveyard except Unclaspare!"

Mei then picked a card from her deck to pitch to the graveyard. "I'll send Machina Resavenger to my graveyard. And I'll set two cards face down and end my turn." With two face down cards and two 1800 attack monsters on the field and probably a next turn set up, Mei ended her turn.

"Then it's my turn, draw!" She said as she drew the card. "On standby I'll activate the quick-play spell, Twin Twisters! Discarding one card to destroy up to two spells or traps on the field! " She declared as she placed the quick-play spell on her duel disk and activated it by discarding the cost.

And though it might be a little bit disgusting because she even has this card in her deck, since it was technically banned in the world she first originated from, but after a long day of research she found out something extremely dumb in this world.

There's no banlist. She's not kiddin, even with what was basically a dueling school with pro duelists all over the world and a bunch of what were basically dueling law enforcers, there's no fricking banlist in this world.

She still doesn't like degeneracy though, and although it would be more logical to run some cards that would basically give her advantage like Graceful Charity or the pot that nobody knows what it does, she wouldn't run them because they'll basically win her the game, especially if she splashed them on some meta decks.

But as long as she doesn't use it for absolute revolting degeneracy and more of a niche use, then she reasoned that using the lesser broken cards are still good, especially in a world where people can make up cards out of nowhere after all.

And also because they're relatively pricey, she had to spend quite a fortune to buy this card of all things just so that she can play a competent Monarch deck, and she only has one copy of this card to!

"I'll discard Level Eater from my hand, and I of course target your two back rows!" From the sky then a twin silvery twister appeared and moved towards the two set cards of her designation on Mei's field.

It was a nice top deck, especially since Mei only has two back rows right now. Her only problem is whether or not she hit Overdrive or whatever the other set card was. The violet haired girl narrowed her eyes and clicked her tongue.

"I'll activate the trap card, Machina Overdrive!" Mei declared activating the trap card that she had added to her hand through Redeployment. "And I'll chain the quick-play spell Forbidden Lance!"

"Forbidden Lance… I see." She said with a grin. That's certainly a battle trick, an incredibly useful battle trick at that. Certainly Forbidden Chalice is one that is more famous, what with it being what was basically a negation and all that, but Lance certainly does have some interaction with Mei's own deck.

"Forbidden Lance lets me target one face up monster on the field, and until the end of this turn that target loses 800 attack points, but is unaffected by the effects of other spells and traps!" The violet haired girl explained.

"My target will be Machina Metalcruncher!" With the target of the quick-play spell selected, a golden and arcane lance materialized from thin air, and was taken by the orange machine who twirled it skillfully.

Machina Metalcruncher - Earth/Machine/Level 9/Effect: 1000/0

"And Machina Overdrive's effect!" She said resolving the chain in order. "I can target one machine monster I control and special summon one 'Machina' monster with a different name from my hand or deck! And if I do, that monster will be destroyed!" The violet haired girl then pointed towards the lance wielding orange machine.

"The target is Machina Metalcruncher! And I'll summon from my deck Machina Citadel!" Taking the monster card from her deck, she placed it onto her duel disk, and the giant chainsaw armed light blue machine appeared on her side of her field placed in attack position.

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

"And since Metalcruncher is currently unaffected by spell and trap effects other than Forbidden Lance, it is not destroyed by the effect of Overdrive." With that done, the chain continued and with the two cards basically having been used, the effect of her spell fizzled out.

And now Mei already has her quick-play Raigeki on the field. But at the very least if she manages to last to her next turn she has Level Eater in rotation. Though certainly that wasn't the best play that she could have done.

After all she already has a Citadel in the graveyard, so if she hadn't used Forbidden Lance on Metalcruncher, then Overdrive would have destroyed the Metalcruncher, and with that the effect of Citadel in the graveyard would trigger, and her board would then have two Citadels.

Well, that's something to tell the violet haired girl later after the duel, but back to the duel and the quick-play Raigeki that her opponent has on her field. Right now the question is, can she bait it out?

Is what she wants to say but she has the best card to actually bait it out. "I'll activate the effect of Landrobe the Rock Vassal!" She declared showing the Vassal monster card in her hand.

"If this card is in my hand, I can target one face up monster you control, and though I cannot special summon monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn, I can special summon this card and change that monster face down!" She explained the monster's effect.

"The target is, of course, Machina Citadel!" She said. Well, she said that she wants to bait the effect of CItadel, but it's not like it would even activate it. Since Landrobe's effect is an ignition while it's on her hand and if Mei does want to chain the effect of Citadel then she would essentially be wiping a clean board.

Knowing this, Mei did not activate the monster's effect, and Landrobe the Rock Vassal made its way on her field, its purple hood and cloak along with its golden armor that covers its body, its golden eyes shining under its hood and by placing its fist on the ground, the gigantic Machina Citadel was flipped face down.

Landrobe the Rock Vassal - Earth/Rock/Level 4/Effect: 800/1000

"Right then, now I'll activate the continuous spell Return of the Monarchs!" She said as she activated the continuous spell card. "And now I'll activate the spell card, Tenacity of the Monarchs!" She exclaimed.

"This card lets me reveal one monster in my hand with 2400 attack and 1000 defence, or 2800 attack and 1000 defence, and add one 'Monarch' spell or trap card from my deck to my hand excep Tenacity." She explained the card's effect and revealed the monster that she had started with.

"Here's Granmarg the Rock Monarch, and I'll add Domain of the True Monarchs from my deck to my hand." She said as she placed the card in her hand and shuffled the cards in her hand.

"And I'll activate it!" She said activating the field spell. And soon several pillars of darkness emerged from the ground below, each and everyone of them emanating power as it stood on the platform.

"Now I'll tribute Landrobe and summon Granmarg the Rock Monarch!" The small Vassal of the earth Monarch was then buried as a literal mountain of earth before said mountain parted ways to reveal the giant golden earth Monarch.

Granmarg the Rock Monarch - Earth/Rock/Level 6/Effect: 2400/1000

"Now Granmarg's effect and Return of the Monarchs activates!" She declared. "Since I tribute summoned a monster, Return of the Monarchs' effect lets me add from my deck to my hand one monster with 2800 attack and 1000 defence with a different name than the tribute summoned monster!"

She then picked a card from her duel disk and revealed it towards her opponent. "The monster that I add is Ehther the Heavenly Monarch!" She said as she added the card to her hand.

She declared the next effect activated on the chain. "Since Granmarg was tribute summoned, I can target one set card on the field and destroy it! I'll destroy the Citadel that was flipped with Lanrobe's effect!"

Raising its giant hands, the Rock Monarch slammed its fists into the ground below, creating a shockwave that sent out a wave of rocks that destroyed the set Machina Citadel. "Nuh!" Her opponent let out at seeing her Ace Monster being destroyed.

"Now I'll activate Level Eater's effect from the graveyard!" Not for any degenerate infinite link climbing or anything though. "If this card is in my graveyard, I can one Level 5 or higher monster I control and reduce its Level by one, and special summon this card! I'll reduce Granmarg's Level by one and special summon Level Eater!"

Saying so, she took the card from her graveyard and placed the card on her duel disk's projection sword, and the little bug appeared on her field standing alongside the giant Rock Monarch in defence position.

Granmarg the Rock Monarch - Earth/Rock/Level 5/Effect: 2400/1000

Level Eater - Dark/Insect/Level 1/Effect: 600/0

Right, now that Level Eater is on the field she can basically tribute summon any Monarch every turn. Level Eater is broken like that, though since she's not a degenerate that would use it for OTK shenanigans or something, she'll only treat it as if this card was a hard once per turn.

Even then it was still strong though.

Now then what should she do in this position? As much as she wants to deal a good chunk of damage by attacking the weakened Metalcruncher, the monster that she should attack is definitely Unclaspare.

After all, destroying Metalcruncher means that Mei would get Citadel back on field after all, and since the monster technically hadn't activated it's effects, she could technically wipe her board clean.

And she'll avoid doing that. "Battle!" She declared and pointed towards her target. "I'll attack Machina Unclaspare with Granmarg the Rock Monarch!" Receiving her orders, the giant earth Monarch raised its fist and slammed it towards the dark machine monster.

"Now Domain's effects! Since a tribute summoned monster attacks an opponent's monster, it gains 800 attack points during the damage calculation!" She said, and a golden film of energy surrounded Granmarg's fist as it was swung towards the rifle armed machine.

Granmarg the Rock Monarch - Earth/Rock/Level 5/Effect: 3200/1000

"Kuh!" Mei grunted as she narrowed her eyes and put up her arms to defend through the winds and dust thrown out by the attack of her earth Monarch hitting the rifle armed dark machine monster, getting a cheer from the audience around the stadium.

Mei: 2600LP

"And with that Granmarg's attack returns to its original." She said as the golden glow on the giant earth Monarch dissipated.

Granmarg the Rock Monarch - Earth/Rock/Level 5/Effect: 2400/1000

"Now I'll set one card facedown and end my turn." She said as she ended her turn with a Domain Lock and two monsters on field along with a single set card. And though it doesn't look like much, she basically locked her out of getting cards like Howitzer and performed that strong combo that she did on her first match.

"Since the turn ended, the effect of Forbidden Lance ends and Machina Metalcruncher's attack returns." The golden lance that was held by the orange machine then dissipated into light particles, and its stats returned to its original.

Machina Metalcruncher - Earth/Machine/Level 9/Effect: 1800/0

"And Signora Yuuna has the lead!" The blond dueling instructor exclaimed, followed by the increase in the audience's cheer. "And she already has the field spell, Domain of the True Monarchs already on field as well! And she even managed to defeat Signora Mei's Machina Citadel as well!"

"Truly incredible." His fellow commentator said, eyes quite wide at seeing the match that was happening. "To think that young Yuuna was able to not only defeat young Mei's Machina CItadel without letting her activate its effects, but to also prevent young Mei from accessing the Extra Deck!"

"Now what will Signora Mei do now?" Cronos asked with a hand on his chin. "With Signora Yuuna's Domain of the True Monarchs on field, she cannot access her Extra Deck, but will it be enough to stop her?"

"Hmm, certainly as we had discussed earlier, young mei does not use her Extra Deck as much as the other duelists that we had seen in this tournament." Sanders said, caressing his moustache. "And certainly, she still has cards in hand after all. We might even see her flip this duel all over its head."

Yep, yep, that's certainly right. Since Mei's boss monsters are main deck monsters and not some Extra Deck fusion like most of the people in this dimension, having Domain Lock set up doesn't really stop her.

But it does stop her from popping off like the play that she did on her first match against that pink haired girl though. It doesn't have as good of a synergy with the hard to maneuver Earth machine deck, but Machina and Ancient Gear has some synergy after all.

"My turn then." The violet haired girl said as she placed a hand on her duel disk. "I'll draw!" Drawing the card of her turn, Mei then looked at the card that she had just drawn. "I'll activate the effect of Machina Overdrive in my graveyard!" She declared.

"I can banish this card from my graveyard, then target three of my machine monsters that are banished and or in my graveyard, and shuffle them into my deck then draw one card!" She explained as she picked the three machine monsters that she'll shuffle back into the deck.

"I'll shuffle back Machina Unclaspare, Machina Resavenger, and a copy of Machina Citadel from my graveyard to my deck and draw a card!" The violet haired girl shuffled back the three cards from her graveyard and drew another card.

With three cards at hand, Mei activated the first card on her hand. "Now I'll remove Domain of the True Monarchs by activating the field spell, Geartwon!" The violet haired girl said as she activated her own field spell.

With the new field spell activated, the black pillars that emanated fog and darkness disappeared into particles of light, reforming itself and changing into metal buildings made out of gears and bricks.

Ah she certainly runs that doesn't she? It's this weird format where only one field spell can activate after all, certainly just activating one other field spell can act like a removal spell to get it outside of the field.

"M-Mamma Mia! Signora Mei has manages to remove Signora Yuuna's Domain of the True Monarchs!" The blond ponytailed dueling instructor exclaimed, shocked at the play that the violet haired girl had done.

"Indeed! To think that young Mei would activate her field spell in such a way!" His fellow moustached dueling instructor exclaimed. "What an incredible play! Truly, young Mei is as skilled as young Yuuna in the arts of dueling!"

Of course she's skilled in the art of dueling, she learnt some actual meta plays and has actual useful cards instead of playing extremely bricky decks with a strategy of set one pass! She's her cute little student after all!

Now with two cards at hand, with one of them being either Ancient Gear Wyvern or Machina Air Raider and a single Machina Metalcruncher in the field, the violet haired girl continued her play. "I'll activate the effect of Machina Air Raider in my hand!"

Ah so that's the card that Metalcruncher added, so the question is, what is she going to play from this situation then? "I can discard one other 'Machina' monster to special summon this card from my hand!" The violet haired girl declared as she showed the card that she'll discard.

"I will discard Machina Fortress to special summon this card in defence position!" She said as she placed the card on her duel disk's sword projection, and the purple flying machine flew onto her side of the field.

Machina Air Raider - Earth/Machine/Level 8/Effect: 1500/2600

"Air Raider's effects!" Mei declared, activating the monster's effects. "I can target one Machine monster that I control and special summon one 'Machina' monster from my deck with a different name and an equal or lower level, and if I do that targeted monster gets destroyed!"

Ah she can totally pop off from here. She can probably summon another Unclaspare and foolish another Machina, probably… Ruinforce maybe? Get some damage on board and even probably lethal. And destroying Metalcruncher is going to trigger the Machina Citadel in the graveyard, and that'll certainly be lethal if she lets it through.

But that certainly was a play that she had thought of a deck like that would do, and thankfully she also has one of the countermeasures for stopping that from happening too. "I'll chain my face down!"

The singular face down card that was placed behind the Rock Monarch was then flipped face up. "The continuous trap, Summon Limit!" With the continuous trap card being activated, a light purple net of energy shot out surrounding the field.

Because what kind of control deck would only run one floodgate? She also runs There Can Be Only One for goodness sake! And that's because she doesn't have a play set of Eidos, Edea, Ehther, and Erebus. That and also the fact that she runs the other Monarchs and their Vassals of course.

"While this card is face up on the field, neither player can summon more than two times per turn!" She explained the floodgates effects, and with it chained at the activation of Air Raider's effects, then even if Metalcruncher was destroyed, then Citadel won't be appearing this turn.

The small violet haired girl stopped for a moment, before continuing and motioned towards her other monster on the field. "I'll target Mahcina Metalcruncher and special summon Machina Unclaspare directly from my deck!" Saying so, Mei took the monster card from her deck and special summoned another of the rifle armed dark machine in attack position.

Machina Unclaspare - Dark/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1800/800

And with the dark machine being summoned by the effect of Machina Air Raider appeared, the orange crane armed machine was then destroyed. "Because of Summon Limit, Machina Citadel's effect wasn't activated even though Metalcruncher was destroyed." She explained to the violet haired girl.

"Ma-Mamma Mia!" Cronos exclaimed once again, this time standing from his chair so quickly that it fell over. "S-Signora Yuuna managed to stop Signora Mei's combo with a single card! An incredibly strong one at that!" He said, his voice almost drowned out by the extremely loud cheer of the audience who was watching the match.

"Summon Limit..." Sanders mused the card's name. "That is… quite a strong card indeed, but it does have its drawbacks does it not?" He said, asking his fellow commentator who fixed his own seating arrangements.

"Y-yes, indeed." The blond ponytailed dueling instructor said, trying to regain his composure. "It is quite an old card after all. And it has a drawback of limiting not only Signora Mei, but also Signora Yuuna herself. After all, it's effects affect both players to only summon twice per turn."

"But it doesn't seem that young Yuuna will be hampered by the card's effects however." The military uniformed dueling instructor commented, as the two commentators focused back on the match.

Mei gulped, a bead of sweat falling down from her forehead as she stared at the field. "As expected of Yuuna, you're able to completely counter all of my plays… Unclaspare's effect!" She declared activating the monster's effect.

"If this card is normal or special summoned, I can send one 'Machina' monster from my deck to my graveyard, except Machina Unclaspare." She said, explaining the rifle armed monster's effect once more.

She took another card from her deck, and showed it to her before sending it towards the graveyard. "I'll send Machina Ruinforce from my deck to my graveyard." She said as she sent the big beatstick of the Archetype to the graveyard.

Right, might as well continue her interaction to prevent that from ever getting onto the field. "I'll activate the effect of Ehther the Heavenly Monarch in my hand!" She declared showing the fairy Monarch in her hand.

"That's-! The card that you used in the match before that can destroy two cards on the field isn't it?" The violet haired girl said with a wavering smile as she tried her best to remember what the card does.

"Technically if I summon Kuraz with its effect I can certainly do that, yes. But not quite." She said to the violet haired girl with a small smile. "Ehther the Heavenly Monarch has the effect of during your main phase, while this card is in my hand, as a quick effect I can banish one 'Monarch' spell or trap card from my graveyard to tribute summon this card."

Saying so she continued the monster's effect activation. "I'll banish the Tenacity of the Monarchs in my graveyard to satisfy its costs, and since Ehther can be tribute summoned using only one tribute summoned monster, I'll tribute Granmarg the Rock Monarch to summon her!"

The Rock Monarch was then buried once again in a mountain of earth, and it receded back down to the earth below. And in his place a bright pillar of light from the heavens above shone down to where he once was, and from that beam of light, a silvery armored fairy decorated with pure white cloths and carrying a giant golden staff descended.

Ehther the Heavenly Monarch - Light/Fairy/Level 8/Effect: 2800/1000

"And now Ehther's other effect activates. And I'll also chain the effect of Return of the Monarchs." She said as she chain blocked the activation of the fairy Monarch's effects, and also to not miss the timing of the monster that she would summon.

"Since I tribute summoned a monster, I can add from my deck to my hand one monster with 2400 attack and 1000 defence with a different name from that tribute summoned monster." She explained the continuous spell's effect once again, before showing the card that she would add to her hand and summon next turn just to ensure she can get lethal.

The card that she adds will be none other than the legendary card that was the bane of most players in the GX era who played against Monarchs players. "I'll add Raiza the Storm Monarch from my deck to my hand."

Adding the card to her hand, she continued her line and resolved the rest of the chain. "Now Ehther's effect!" She declared. "If this card is tribute summoned, I can send two 'Monarch' spell or trap with different names from my hand and or deck to the graveyard, and if I do, I can special summon one monster with 2400 attack or more and 1000 defence from my deck, but return it to the hand during the end phase."

She then picked the Monarch spell and trap that she would mill to the graveyard, and the monster that she would special summon from her deck. "I'll send the spell March of the Monarchs and the trap The Prime Monarch from my deck to my hand, and special summon Delg the Dark Monarch!"

She placed the monster card on her duel disk's projection, and the silver armored Monarch swung her golden staff, and another beam of light shone down from the heavens. And from the shining light came a black armored Monarch, garbed with a grey cape and emanating dark blue lightning from its armor.

Delg the Dark Monarch - Dark/Spellcaster/Level 6/Effect: 2400/1000

"And now Delg's effects activates." She said, and the dark spellcaster performed its magic, slayer of dark blue lightning surrounding his hands. "When this card is normal or special summoned, I can target up to two cards in your graveyard and banish them, then send the same number of cards from the top of your deck to the graveyard."

"Ah, that's-" Mei mouthed out as she realized the play that she was going for. Truly her studying session was bearing fruit if she could tell what she was going for, that or perhaps she's selling the duelists of this dimension a bit too high.

"Oh, so you noticed then, certainly I could have summoned Kuraz and clear your board, but right now that isn't the main problem for me you see." She said as she then proceeded to pick her targets. "I'll banish Machina Ruinforce and Machina Citadel from your graveyard, and mill two cards from your deck."

The two Ace Monster's of the violet haired girl were then banished from her graveyard, and two more cards were milled from the top of her deck. And they were the Ancient Gear part of her deck. The cards that she had milled were Ancient Gear Golem and the spell card Ancient Gear Catapult.

Wait, Catapult? Doesn't that card have a graveyard effect? Ah it certainly does, and if that activates then Mei could certainly pop off. It can pop a face up card on the field and get a token on board, and pop Geartown.

And then Geartown can float it into either a Wyvern that can add Box and Gearframe to hand or just summon Gearframe, or maybe just float to a big beatstick like Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon that can beat all of her cards in battle.

And that would probably get her back in the game too. But sadly that play can't be done in this turn, since she's under the floodgate that was Summon Limit and all. And so with no cards in hand, the violet haired girl decided to go to the battle phase.

"Battle!" She said, motioning towards her rifle armed monster. "Machina Unclaspare! Attack Level Eater!" The machine that emanated darkness then raised its right arm and aimed towards the small insect on the field and fired.The machine monster then shot a beam of darkness from its rifle barrel, destroying the small dark insect.

And with that battle ending, the violet haired girl has no more cards that she could play. And so as she heaved a sigh, the violet haired girl ended her turn. "I'll end my turn." She said ending her turn with two monsters on the field and Geartown staying as the field spell.

"At the end of the turn, Delg then goes to my hand." She said as the Dark Monarch was then surrounded by a fog of darkness, and returned into the form of a card that was then added to her hand.

"I'll start my turn then." She said, as she started her turn. "I'll draw." She said as she drew the card for the turn. She already can already have lethal from this position, with Machina Citadel banished with the effect of Delg, she no longer needs to care about how she would actually remove Machina Air Raider from the field.

She just needs to assemble lethal. "I'll activate the effect of Level Eater in my graveyard." She said as she readded the card from the graveyard, and showed it to her opponent. "Since this card is in my graveyard, I can target one Level 5 or higher monster that I control and reduce its Level by one to special summon this card."

She motioned towards the Heavenly Monarch that was on her field. "I'll reduce Ehther's Level by one to special summon level Eater in defence position." She placed the card on her duel disk's projection, and the star marked insect appeared once again.

Ehther the Heavenly Monarch - Light/Fairy/Level 7/Effect: 2800/1000

Level Eater - Dark/Insect/Level 1/Effect: 600/0

"Now I'll tribute Level Eater to summon Raiza the Storm Monarch!" The small red insect was then engulfed in a large tornado, and from it revealed the green armored Monarch of Storms, his armor decorated with golden trims and a dark green robe.

Raiza the Storm Monarch - Wind/Winged Beast/Level 6/Effect: 2400/1000

"I'll trigger Raiza's effect, and chain Return of the Monarchs. She said as she chained the activation of the two cards. "Since I can tribute summon a monster, I can add from my deck to my hand one monster with 2800 attack and 1000 defence with a different name from the tribute summoned monster."

She then picks the card that she would add to her hand, even though she knows that she probably would not use the monster in question. "I'll add Erebus the Underworld Monarch to my hand, and now Raiza's effect!"

The Storm Monarch then raised his hands, and wind then began to pick up around the platform. "Since this card was tribute summoned, I can target one card on the field and place that target on the top of the deck."

The target that she designated was none other than the flying machine on her violet haired opponent's side of the field. "I'll target Machina Air Raider, and place it on top of your deck." With a wave of his hands, the winds manifested under the light purple machine, and it then disappeared and returned onto the top of Mei's deck.

"Now then, though it was quite fun, we don't need to waste more time do we? Battle." She said as she moved towards the battle phase. "I'll attack Machina Unclaspare with Raiza the Storm Monarch." The wind Monarch then raised his hands, and shot a gust of wind towards the machine that emanated darkness.

"Nuh!" The violet haired girl grunted as her jacket flowed by the wind generated from the attack that was dealt by the Monarch of Storms. And with the dark machine destroyed, she now has no more monsters on the field.

Mei: 2000LP

"Now Ehther will attack directly for game." She said as the silver armored Monarch swung her staff, and a golden ball of energy appeared floating beside her, and homed directly towards the violet haired girl, and hit her directly for game.

Mei: 0LP

"I-IT IS FINISHED!" The blond dueling instructor declared the result of the match. "The winner and the new champion of the Academia Junior League Competition is none other than Signora Yuuna!"

The match ended with her as the victor, and the crowd went wild at the relatively short but eventful final match. She turned off her duel disk and started to approach her violet haired student, who was looking at her own deck with a sad smile.

"So even after all that training I couldn't even deal any damage." She stated as she looked up towards her. She giggled at the smaller girl's comment, and patted her head with a smile on her face.

"Don't be so disheartened." She replied to the violet haired girl, trying to raise her spirits. "If anything I could have almost lost on the first turn, if you hadn't used Forbidden Lance on Machina Metalcruncher then you could have had two Machina Citadel on board."

Mei's eyes widened at the hypothetical possible moves that she suggested. "And if I had done that then you wouldn't be able to flip both of them face down with the effect of Landrobe!"

"Yep, yep, and if you had done that then you could have used the face up Citadel to clear the field. And go for lethal in the next turn." She told the violet haired girl. "It was a small mistake though, and certainly if someone were in the position of having all of their backrow about to be removed they would want to use it first."

"Nuu, but it cost me the game though." The small girl pouted as she looked up towards her, a gesture that made her giggle and ruffle up her hair. She's not wrong. That small misplay did cost her the entire game, and basically the entire tournament.

But for her first ever tournament getting second place was quite an achievement as of itself. The first time that she entered a tournament she hadn't even made it to the finals, but then again she wasn't using an actual competent deck during her first ever tournament, that and she doesn't actually know how to counter meta strategies.

Then again, there weren't really many counters to Yata lock at the time.

"But you're still learning." She said to the violet haired girl. "And you almost had me at the start there too. I'm sure that when you're good enough then you can definitely beat me." And she totally could. After all, she was a human too, and she also misplays from time to time.

And those misplays would definitely be exploited by a good duelist. And for a duelist like Mei who was quite good at the game herself, even a small misplay could cost her the game if she's facing her.

Jeez, this little girl will be quite a monster in dueling in the long future. She's been teaching her for quite a while, and even then she only won because she had what was basically two floodgates at hand.

The proceeding process was… extremely boring if she was being honest.

They gathered the top three duelists and gave us all prizes. She and Mei of course got the first and second prizes respectively, and the one that got the third place prize was Ryo. Apparently there was supposed to be a match between him and Haru before her's and Mei's was supposed to be held, but apparently one of them didn't show up.

Since Ryo won by default then that meant that Haru didn't show up. She kinda felt that it was her fault too since the reason he was a no show was probably because he had an episode that she may or may not have caused.

She accepted the small golden trophy given by the blond dueling instructor garbed in blue, and she completed the Academia Junior League Competition, and became this year's champion.

-

They were walking around the island, doing their rounds watching people duel from afar and commenting on plays, a pastime that they did when they had no chores to do and had time to kill. A past time that was quite fruitful since Mei now had turned into a great duelist herself.

Eventually they went and found themselves at the docks, looking over the sunset and a bunch of boats and ships. The docks were filled to the brim with them too, more than usual at least.

The reason as to why they were at the pier specifically? It wasn't as crowded as any of the other parts of the island which were quite filled with people, what with the tournament and all, and they were attempting to avoid the paparazzi too.

Who knew that being famous was so hard? She only won a single tournament! And most of the participants weren't running that many competent decks! Id anything only the finalists run 'competitive' decks! And even then she's using quotation marks!

A few days had passed since the Academia Junior League Tournament, but the pier was still crowded with ships as the preparation for the actual Academia Yearly Tournament was going to be held in a few more days.

And since the Yearly Tournament was also a tournament that isn't' age restricted, pro duelists from all over the world would be joining in to try and win to gain the clout and renown from winning the tournament run by the world known Academia.

Well, there were probably a lot of ships because of the tournament huh? Most of the duelists that entered were from outside of the island after all, just like most of the finalists excluding herself, Mei, and Haru.

She pushed the thought of the boy to the corner of her mind, and instead focused on her other current dilemma.

She was rich. She was incredibly filthy rich and she doesn't know what to do about it.

And by that she meant that placing 1st in that tournament netted her over one million DP! ONE MILLION! That and she also got a lot of good packs from winning individual duels, like the Destiny HERO pack and the Cyber Dragon pack.

Though if anything she probably won't be playing any of those two decks though. Because as she found out, those two decks were dumb rare, and by that she meant like, the rarest of rare.

Because apparently the Cyber Dragon cards were only given to duelists that graduated the dueling school that was Cyber Style Dueling School, and Destiny HERO was even rarer because apparently it was made by Edo's own dad.

And who lets that happen anyway? Letting a guy basically make custom cards of his own and print it. That's the guy that made Malicious! He basically facilitated incredibly degenerate Dark Warrior combos! Do something about it!

Is what she would say if it weren't for the fact that only he and Edo were the ones who were actually playing Destiny HERO. And also not running Malicious at three even though they were able to do so.

And why would you do that anyway? Not running what was basically free material and a facilitator of an incredibly strong engine? And they run more than two Dynatag too! Sure it almost had her in the last game, but that battle trick was a brick for the most part!

Ah well, they are running pure Destiny HERO anyway. And while she would whine and complain about the two not running the Vision HERO engine, she could respect the decision of someone running a pure deck.

So since she probably won't be making a pure deck and causing uproar, though that probably won't stop her from trying to sell some of the cards to those who want it at an incredibly tilted price, she instead focused on the pack that was unlocked after her match with Mei.

Electric Union was a pack that was about Union monsters, and it also has some of the actually good Union monsters too, i.e. the ABC monsters. And although it was mostly filled with what were basically useless cards like Koitsu, the ABC made it actually worth it for her to actually try and purchase them.

And she already has some of the cards to start off a deck anyway, from the prize of actually getting first place for the tournament and all. That and she also has some of the enablers too, she did have a playset of Gold and Silver Gadget that can act as enablers for the deck.

And although it was also a degenerate enabler, Union Carrier was also in the pack. And although she can't summon Link Monsters in this dimension, she could still use the card in Free Duels.

Though if she was being honest, she doesn't think that she'll play ABC though, even if it was a meta deck at one point that was strong enough that it's recurrable boss monster was limited to one at one point.

Oh don't get her wrong, she'll probably still make the deck though, she just doesn't think that she'll play it as her main deck. After all, with the amount of DP that she had acquired from the quests, and the DP she got from actually winning the tournament, she's extremely stacked at the moment.

Which means that she could buy actual packs from the shop. Not Shop mind you, but the actual local shop. And why would she want to do that you ask? Because the Shop does sells individual cards yes, but they are sometimes locked under stupid conditions and the only packs that it sells are the ones that she unlocks.

Which incredibly limits the cards that it actually sells, which is why she was quite tempted to just go and buy cards at the local shop and build a deck out of cards that she could find. That and use said deck in Free Duel to unlock whatever conditions their support requires in her own Shop and improve said deck from there.

But her only question was, what deck would she even play? Of course she wants a competent deck, but any deck can basically be competent with the right support, that and the right perk that basically do full combo every time.

She plays unbrickable Monarchs for goodness sake! That perk basically turned the whole deck on and killed the biggest downside that it has!

But back to the point that she was making, the system that she has can basically make any deck that she would use be actually playable. Which meant that she could basically play any deck she wanted, albeit limited to Fusion Monsters or Main Deck Monster based decks.

But even then, there's a lot of those kinds of decks, and there's a lot of meta decks whose main Ace Monsters are Fusion Monsters after all, and don't get her started about decks whose main boss monsters come from the main deck.

There's a lot of decks that she could make, and even if she doesn't make a tier zero meta threat deck, it would still be playable with whatever perk the Ace Monster of the deck gives her.

It was at this point that she heard the sound of footsteps coming ever so closer to where Mei and herself were sitting, and looking to the source of the sound made her eyes come into contact with Haru's own.

The black haired boy said nothing, only raising his duel disk and wordlessly activating it. A symbol that he was challenging for a duel against her. But before she could even stand up from her seating position, her companion had already done that herself.

Mei raised her own duel disk, and the two duelists wordlessly started their rematch.

""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, searching for ways to set up interactions against the go second deck that was Haru's pure Ancient Gears.

It was then that the violet haired girl stopped for a quick second. And she then narrowed her eyes at the cards on her hand, and at the black haired opponent that she was facing once more, who had the same shocked expression as she had.

"It seems that the world itself wants me to win." The black haired boy whispered, but just loud enough for her to hear from her position, but low enough for Mei to seemingly not hear what he had said. Though she doesn't know what he actually meant.

"I'll summon Ancient Gear Frame." Placing the card on her duel disk's projection, a machine monster taking the form of a skeletal frame of the Ancient Gear Golem appeared on her side of the field. It's gears spinning all the while it was on the field.

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 explained as 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 from my hand to add Ancient Gear Fusion from my deck to my hand. And I'll immediately activate it."

The violet haired girl 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 field with the Ancient Gear Box in my hand."

Yuuna couldn't help but blink twice at the cards that the violet haired girl has to start with. The three cards were the exact same starting hand that she had when she was dueling with the black haired boy just a few days ago.

And as much as she wants to think that it was merely a coincidence, this was a world where magic and spirits existed, and where card games were the source of those kinds of things. So something like having a rematch with someone and having the exact same cards in hand shouldn't be impossible.

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." The small girl declared. "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.

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. But even though he received damage equal to one fourth of his Life Points, the black haired boy kept silent.

Haru Harule: 3000LP

"I'll set one card face down, and end my turn." With a single monster and a single set card on her field, Mei passed her turn to her opponent. And though it wasn't the exact same play as the previous match, it was clearly one that tried to save more of her recourse.

If she had indeed started with the same card in hand, then the set card was none other than Machina Overdrive. The trap could then summon Citadel from the deck, and though it might not look like much it is still an interaction.

Though if Haru were to summon Chaos Ancient Gear Giant, then the Earth machine monster wouldn't really do much in the grand scheme of things.

The black haired boy then placed his hand on top of his duel disk. "My turn. Draw." He said with a monotone voice as he drew a card, and proceeded to do his turn. His usual bravado from the duels before gone.

"I'll activate the continuous spell, Ancient Gear Fortress. And set 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, the exact same play that he had done last time.

The violet haired girl clicked her tongue as she saw the card that was activated. With that card on the field, the effect of Citadel is basically moot since with that continuous spell on board, all Ancient Gear monsters that the black haired boy summons will not be able to be targeted nor destroyed with card effects during the turn they were summoned.

That and cards and effects can't be activated in response to the activation of Ancient Gear cards.

"I'll 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

"Ancient Gear Wyvern's effect. Since it was normal summoned, I can add one 'Ancient Gear' card from my deck to my hand. But I cannot set cards for the rest of the turn." With the monster effect activated, the balck haired boy added a card from his deck to his hand.

And just like in the match before, 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." With a single summon, the black haired boy added the two cards to his hand.

Now that he added two more cards to his hand, she tried to remember what cards he had in his previous matchup against Mei. it was… Polymerization since he did go into a Fusion Monster, a crappy one but a Fusion Monster nonetheless, and Fusion Tag to actually summon that crappy monster.

But seeing the black haired boy being all serious and monotone, she doubted that the black haired boy would even be summoning that Fusion Monster, though if he does still have the card in his deck then that meant that there was at least one brick in his hand.

Ah, he also has Hunting Hound in hand doesn't he? Which means that he has four Ancient Gear monsters on hand and field already. And since he also has a Poly on hand,he could summon his Chaos Ancient Gear Giant, and that's certainly quite hard to out with the card that Mei has on hand.

"I'll use the spell card Polymerization." The black haired duelist said as he slammed the spell card to his duel disk.

"I'll chain the trap card, Machina Overdrive." The violet haired girl 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 Citadel from my deck in defence 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.

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 said to her opponent, who promptly ignored her and continued his chain of activating Polymerization.

The black haired boy then resolved the activation of his spell card. "I'll fuse the Ancient Gear Wyvern on my field, along with Ancient Gear Gadget, Ancient Gear Hunting Hound, and Ancient Gear Box from my hand."

The four monsters that he had named appeared briefly on his field. The metallic wyvern let out a mechanical screech, the metallic hound let out a howl, and the mechanical box spun its gears, all surrounding the skeletal frame of the titutal Ancient Gear.

"O soul of ancient hunting hound residing in ancient mechanical machines! Together with the souls of wyverns and the bodies of ancient machinery, become one and show your incredible power!" The boy brought down his combined fists with rage and finished his chant, the first ever emotion he had shown in this duel.

"Fusion summon! Appear! The strongest God of Destruction! Chaos Ancient Gear Giant!" 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 shone under the light of the setting sun of the pier.

Chaos Ancient Gear Giant - Dark/Machine/Fusion/Level 10/Effect: 4500/3000

The violet haired girls narrowed her eyes at the giant monster that no doubt was getting the attention of the people who saw the giant monster that towered the buildings around them. "I'll activate the effect of Machina Citadel!" She declared.

"I can target one machine monster that I control and destroy it alongside all monsters you control with attack less than or equal to it. I'll target and destroy Citadel." The light blue machine then exploded, self-destructing itself, but was unable to deal any damage to the dark blue gear based giant that was on her opponent's field.

Haru sneered at the play that the small girl had done. "What a useless move. What will that do you?" He spoke the first actual words in the duel that weren't a play by play. "You're useless. Absolutely useless. I'm better. I'm better! I should have won the match! Not you!"

The black haired boy glowered at his opponent, and he then motioned towards his giant monster to perform its task. "Battle! Chaos Ancient Gear Giant! Attack Ancient Gear Howitzer! Crush of Darkness!"

The red mono eye of the giant colossus of gears and machinery glowed ever so menacingly, and the giant monster then raised one of its arms that glowed with dark purple energy. "If Chaos Ancient Gear Giant attacks a defence position monster, it inflicts piercing damage!" The monster's controller declared.

The gears on the gigantic monster spun, and it then shot a blast of darkness towards the defending winged Howitzer, destroying it in a glorious explosion and dealing piercing damage.

"Kuh!" The violet haired girl grunted as she received the damage from the battle, a blast that was so strong that it even threw her off her footing and made her fall.

Mei: 2700

"Mei!" She shouted as she ran to the violet haired girl's side, helping the small girl stand up from her downed position. She glanced upwards to see the black haired boy looking at them with scorn, and avoided his gaze to look even more upwards towards the gigantic monster that he controlled.

"I-" The violet haired girl started as she helped her stand up. "I won't be activating the floating effect of Ancient Gear Howitzer, and Machina Citadel too." She said, not activating the floating effect of both of her monsters.

Which was the correct play, not like those cards could even be activated in the first place anyway. Though if they did activate, then Mei might have lost then and there. After all, Chaos Ancient Gear Giant can attack every monster once and since it dealt piercing damage it would basically be lethal.

The black haired boy scoffed. "You can't activate it." He said. "Chaos Ancient Gear Giant is the ultimate monster! It's unaffected by spell and trap effects, and you can't activate monster effects during the battle phase!"

"Right, it was like that. Unaffected by spells and traps, and I can't activate monster effects during the battle phase..." The small violet haired girl whispered to herself as she straightened herself with some effort, and releasing herself from her grip.

She backed up slowly, watching the two duelists continue their duel wordlessly from the sidelines. Glancing back and forth between the scowling black haired boy, and the violet haired girl who was frowning ever so slightly.

"I'll say it again! This time, 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!" The black haired boy said as he ended his turn with one face down card, a Mirror Force is she remembers correctly, and a monster that was unaffected by two thirds of the cards in the game.

"My turn! Draw!" Mei said as she drew her card for the turn. "I'll activate the graveyard effect of the trap card, Machina Overdrive!" The violet haired girl said as she activated the effect of the card in her graveyard.

"I can banish this card from my graveyard, then target three of my machine monsters that are banished and or in my graveyard, and shuffle them into my deck then draw one card!" Mei explained to her opponent as she picked the three machine monsters that she'll shuffle back into the deck.

"I'll shuffle back Ancient Gear Box, Ancient Gear Frame, and Gold Gadget from my graveyard back into my deck, and draw one card!" The small girl said as she shuffled back the three cards and drew one more card.

She now has three cards at hand, with one being Machina Possesstorage. But will she be able to clear Haru's board with those three cards at hand?

The small violet haired girl took a bit of time to look at the cards on her hand, no doubt thinking of the plays that she could do with those three cards at hand, and trying to find a way to clean the board.

She then took a deep breath, and closed her eyes and let out a long breath."All right." She said as she opened her eyes and stared directly at Haru's own. "I'll start by activating the spell card Machina Redeployment."

The violet haired girl then activated the search spell, placing it on her duel disk's sword projection. "I'll discard one card to add two 'Machina' monsters with different names from each other from my deck to my hand."

She then showed the card that she would discard to add the two Machina monsters of her choosing to her hand. "I'll discard Ancient Gear Golem - Ultimate Pound to add Machina Air Raider and Machina Irradiator from my deck to my hand."

Ah, drawing a brick in the form of the Golem is always hard. Not that she had experienced it ever since she came to this world. But at least she found a way to get it off her hand as discard fodder.

Discarding the titular golem of the Ancient Gear archetype, she added the two Machina monsters to her hand. "Now I'll activate the effect of Machina Air Raider from my hand!" SHe declared, revealing the card with the light purple flying machine in her hand.

"I can discard one other 'Machina' monster from my hand to special summon this card from my hand. I'll discard the Machina Irradiator that I added and summon it in defence position." The violet haired girl placed the card, and the rotored light purple machine monster flew onto her field.

Machina Air Raider - Earth/Machine/Level 8/Effect: 1500/2600

"Now Air Raider's effect, I can target one Machine monster I control and special summon from my deck one 'Machina' monster with a different name and an equal or lower Level than that monster. And if I do, that monster is then destroyed" She said, explaining the monster's effects.

"I'll target Air Raider, and special summon from my deck Machina Unclaspare!" The violet haired girl summoned the rifle-armed monster, emanating darkness as it stared towards the black haired duelist with its two glowing red eyes.

Machina Unclaspare - Dark/Machina/Level 4/Effect: 1800/800

"In sequence, I'll trigger the effect of Machina Unclaspare and the graveyard effect of Machina Citadel!" Mei said, chaining the two cards to chain block Unclaspare's in archetype foolish burial effect.

"Since a face up earth Machine monster that I controlled was destroyed by card effect, I can special summon this card from the graveyard in attack position!" She then slapped the card on her duel disk's sword projection and the light blue machine appeared on her field once more, revving its engine as it's chainsaw spun.

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

"SO you got that monster on the field again, so what!" The black haired boy shouted, scowling all the while he did so. "This time I have Chaos Ancient Gear Giant on my field! The ultimate monster! There's no way that you can defeat me this time!"

The violet haired girl let out a sigh. A long one at that. And she stared directly at the black haired boy's eyes once more. "Your overconfidence is really something that always bothers me." She said to the black haired boy, making him blink twice.

"No, more correctly it didn't bother me, I resented you." She told him straight out to his face in a monotone voice. "You and those… friends of yours would always bully me, and I hated you for it, and no matter what I do, I couldn't stand up against you."

She then broke eye contact, staring down at her own hands. "I always hid behind Yuuna and Sister Claire whenever you came near. Because I knew that you would always pull my hair and hurt me." She said as she balled her hand into a fist.

"But then everyone got a deck from the Academia, and the situation turned on its heads didn't it?" She said with a slight smile. "You, the one who always stood over everyone other than Yuuna got beaten by the weakest child in the orphanage, me."

Staring back at the black orbs of Haru, Mei saw that he was furious, his teeth were grinding and his own hands were also balled into fists. "I'm weak, I still am. But now that I have dueling, even I have a way to stand up for myself."

She stared at the violet haired girl with shock, shock she tells you! She didn't know where it came from but Mei started doing a protagonist speech out of nowhere! She even did the while explaining the backstory thing too!

"But now I don't hate you anymore, I've already passed that." The violet haired girl said. "I still haven't forgiven you, but I don't hate you anymore. Not anymore." The girl said as she shook her head.

"In fact I could only feel pity. After all, someone that I had looked up for their unwavering courage and confidence had all but fallen after all." Mei said with a sad smile and closed eyes, not meeting Haru's gaze at all as she said so.

That's… quite heavy. Is this one of those anime duels where the characters do a character growth by talking their differences by dueling? It's totally one of those isn't it! Even their starting hands were the same as the one that they had with the cards that they started with in their last duel!

But it seems that the outcome of the duel will still stay the same, even if their plays have changed from last time.

"Unclaspare's effect!" She declared, continuing the chain from where she had left off. "If this card is normal or special summoned, I can send one 'Machina' monster from my deck to the graveyard except Unclaspare."

The girl took a card out from her deck, and showed it to her opponent before milling it to the graveyard. "I'll send Machina Ruinforce from my deck to the graveyard." She said as she did just that.

"I'll use my normal summon to summon Machina Possesstorage!" Placing the card on it's place, the bayonet-armed dark machine monster stood beside Unclaspare, both emanating the same darkness.

Machina Possesstorage - Dark/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1600/1500

"Possesstorage effect activates. When it's normal or special summoned, I can target one 'Machina' monster in my graveyard except Possesstorage and special summon it in defence position, but it cannot activate it's effects this turn." Mei explained the monster's on summon effect.

She then took a card from her graveyard and placed it on her duel disk. "I'll summon Machina Irradiator." The bayonet-armed monster raised its arm, and the dark green

Tank-like monster appeared from the ground, though it was surrounded with the same darkness as it was.

Machina Irradiator - Earth/Machine/Level 8/Effect: 1700/2400

"Tch, so you summoned more monsters huh." The black haired boy commented, still looking quite pissed. "But none of them can beat my Chaos Ancient Gear Giant! You might as well give up!" The boy shouted.

But she paid him no heed, after all she already has an out for the big monster herself. "I'll activate the effect of Machina Ruinforce in my graveyard!" She declared. "I can special summon this card from my graveyard by banishing Machine monsters from my graveyard whose total Levels equal 12 or more!"

Saying so she took two monsters from her graveyard to banish. "I'll banish the Level 8 Ancient Gear Howitzer and the Level 8 Machina Air Raider, to summon Machina Ruinforce in attack position!"

The monster that rose from the ground was one that rivaled even Chaos Ancient Gear Giant, in both size and looks. With a giant rifle for an arm, and an incredibly large bayonet for the other, along with a pair of missile launchers as a sort of sub arms, the tanks threaded monsters stood right in front of the dark blue giant of chaos.

Machina Ruinforce - Dark/Machine/Level 10/Effect: 4600/4100

The appearance of the fearsome monster that overpowered his Chaos Ancient Gear Giant shocked Haru. and a certain feeling started to wash over him as he paled. A feeling known as fear. Fear of losing to someone whom he had deemed as inferior at that.

"Y-you-!" He shouted at the violet haired girl. "S-so you summoned that monster! So what! I still have Mirror Force set on my field!" The black haired boy said in a fit of panic, revealing that the set card that he had indeed was the same as last time.

"Possesstorage effect!" She declared snapping him from his short bout of fear. "I can target one other 'Machina' monster I control and one spell or trap that you control, and return them both to the hand."

Haru's face paled even further when Mei finished explaining Possesstorage's second effect, backrow removal. "I'll target my Machina Irradiator and you Mirror Force." The black machine waved its arms, and the set card on Haru's field disappeared, along with the Irradiator that was on Mei's field.

"No. nononononono-NO! IT CAN'T BE!" Haru shouted. "I CAN'T LOSE AGAIN! NOT TO YOU!" The black haired boy shouted, his eyes as wide as dinner plates and his mouth quivering in fear.

Mei could only look at the panicked black haired boy with pity. And she glanced towards her monsters and commanded them. "Battle. Finish it quickly." She ordered with closed eyes, and her monster obliged.

The first to attack was of course the gigantic monster clad in darkness. Reinforce shot its salvo of missiles, along with a beam of darkness towards the dark blue giant of chaos, the only monster on Haru's field.

It retaliated, shooting its own beam of darkness that matched both the Machina's barrage of missiles and rifle beam, creating an explosion that made her put a guard up so as to not be blown away from the gust that it created.

When the smoke cleared however, she was in awe as the giant Machina Ace Monster had closed the distance, and swung its bayonet arm. The giant of chaos attempted to guard, but it's metal body was ripped to shreds by the monster's blade, and exploded.

"GUAH!" The black haired boy screamed as he was thrown off his footing by the destruction of his one and only monster, receiving a mere miniscule amount of damage to his Life Points, and his field was left empty.

Haru Harule: 2900LP

As he tried to stand up however, a shadow towered over him. And slowly looking up, the boy's eyes were filled with fear once more as he saw the gigantic figure of the chainsaw armed Machina Citadel standing mere meters away from him.

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 lethal.

Haru Harule: 0LP

The black haired boy then fell onto his knees, looking at the violet haired duelist that had beaten him with wide blank eyes. "I-I." He stuttered out, as he stared out with a blank stare, seemingly shocked that he had been beaten once again, even with his so-called 'Ultimate Monster' on board.

They then heard the sound of clapping, and the two girls snapped their heads to see the source of the sound, only to find someone walking ever so slowly towards them. The man was none other than Harule Joe who walked to stand beside the downed black haired boy.

"Amazing! Truly amazing!" the man said with a broad smile, still clapping his hands. He seemed to be in high spirits, even after watching what was basically his adopted son losing so hard that his spirit basically broke.

"What an incredible duel! If anything, that was a duel in the level of a pro duelist!" The man said, his broad smile plastered on his face. "Young lady, are you perhaps interested in becoming a pro duelist? If you are interested, I can let you come with me if you'd like. If so, I can guarantee your future as a pro duelist."

Saying so with that incredibly fake smile of his, the man extended his hands towards the small girl, who watched him with a critical eye. She turned towards her briefly, and she herself was staring at the man with a blank look.

She had thought that he was someone like that, the man was incredibly shifty from the start after all. Sure Haru was quite a skilled duelist for his age, in terms of this world at least, but no one just ups and adopts someone and leaves them to fend for themselves.

And he certainly did that, while the interaction that she had seen between him and Haru was incredibly distant, if anything it only seemed that the man took the black haired boy under his wing to groom him as a disposable tool, to make him attached to him by giving cards that was worth an incredible amount in this world like Chaos Ancient Gear Giant and Mirror Force while keeping him at arm's length.

And as soon as he saw someone who has more potential in dueling like Mei, he was ready to simply abandon the boy and replace him with her. Like trading a used product for a brand new one that was better in every single one.

And it certainly wasn't a bad offer. It was probably a similar pitch that made the black haired boy beside him follow the man in the first place. For orphans like them, having an actual pro dueling adult whose name is quite well known all but assures their future after all.

They would be able to live comfortably, get most of the support cards that they would need to actually make their deck usable, and by that making you earn more DP and the cycle goes on and on.

The violet haired girl watched the man like a hawk, staring him directly in his eyes and replying. "I'm not interested." She started before walking to stand beside her and latch herself onto her side. "If I'm not with Yuuna then I won't go."

The man chuckled, and faked a sad smile as he lowered his hand and dusting his clean suit. "Ah, is that so? That is too bad then." He then turned towards her, and stared directly to her grey eyes with his own blood red one.

"Then how about you young lady? Are you perhaps interested in becoming a supported pro duelist? I can assure you that you will get all the things that you would want." He said as he extended his hand towards her now.

She put on a smile, as fake as his own, and tapped her chin. "Humu, humu. Interesting, interesting." She said as she glanced towards the black haired boy who still looked blankly towards the ground. "I'll have to pass. I don't think that I could stand someone that treats their own 'son' like that after all."

He smiled at her, a smile that was more akin to that of a vicious grin. "A shame. Truly, what a shame. But no matter." He then pulled the unresponsive black haired boy up and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"We will meet again, after all, you all will attend the Academia won't you?" He said before turning and walking away. Not ever once does he look back until he becomes out of sight for the two girls who still stood at the pier.

He wasn't wrong at that either. After all he was a pro duelist who has connections to the Academia, and just a day before she and Mei received an invitation to the Academia's Junior Division, something that was basically a scholarship.

And they even gave it to both of them too, not just the winner of the championship, but also Mei who was the runner up of the tournament. Which she was actually quite thankful for, she had also even resolved to get Mei on the school with her own earnings and what not, but that certainly saved up what was basically all of her DP.

But she's suspicious of course. It seems that the two of them had gained the attention of the higher ups from the tournament, or perhaps it was from way before that.

She felt a tug on her sleeve, and saw that Mei was looking up towards her. "Yuuna, let's go home." The violet haired girl said, and she saw that a crowd was starting to walk towards them, their backs facing the setting sun.

"Alright." She said to the girl. "We might as well. There's something that I want to talk to you about later after all." The girl had all but thrown away an incredibly good chance at a stable future after all, and if she really did want to be with her, then she might as well tell her the future that she had for her plans.