The sky was dark, and the clouds seethed as if stirred in a vast cauldron. Below them was a high place, like an upraised table of stone. In the center was a jagged pinnacle, as if the top of a mighty tower had been broken off. About this pinnacle churned a mass of figures, figures that seemed human but were wreathed in unnatural darkness.
Into the pinnacle were carved steps that led up, up to a great throne hewn of stone. Upon the throne was seated some being, utterly wrapped in shadow, with no feature visible but long ivory hair. The being raised a hand, and the surrounding throng roared and broke into a chant. A single word, repeated over and over:
KING! KING! KING! KING! KING! KING! KING! KING!
* * *
Yonaka woke up drenched in sweat.
Morning sunlight filtered through the curtains. The details of the dream were already melting away, but its irrational terror clung on, so fierce that her hands were shaking. Gradually, physical reality reasserted itself over the world of the mind. She got dressed and stealthily descended the stairs in search of breakfast.
She didn’t know what to feel. Last night, there had been a silent car ride home, and Dad had said they would “discuss this in the morning”. She hadn’t slept well. There was guilt, and regret, and anger and indignation, and other feelings she couldn’t have identified even if she’d wanted to, and they all sat in her stomach, waiting like cards in a deck for her to pick one. But she didn’t want any of them. She didn’t want to have to feel anything.
Nobody was in the kitchen, and the lights were off. She hadn’t checked her phone before coming down; maybe it was earlier than she’d thought. Over in the dining room, stray sunlight gleamed on the antique silver Duel Disk. She found the bread and put two slices in the toaster. There was no need to wait until they were ‘golden brown’, right? She’d just wait a minute for the toast to crisp up a bit, and then she’d go back to her room. That seemed like a good plan. Actually, maybe there was no need to toast the bread at all. She could just—
“Good, you’re up.”
It was Dad, of course, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Sarah stood behind him like a bodyguard in a yakuza movie. Yonaka crumpled slightly at the need to face reality.
“What happened last night,” he began, but that was as far as he got in his prepared speech, because at that moment Rui — who had slunk into the room with such anxious stealth that no one had noticed — burst out:
“It wasn’t her fault! It was my idea! It was always my idea, and, um...”
“Oh, come on,” Yonaka sighed. She had seen this scene in movies before and didn’t want to be a part of it.
Dad held up a hand. “Honestly, I don’t care whose fault it is. What’s important is that it happened. I’ve thought about it, and Yonaka, I’m going to give you...an opportunity.”
“An opportunity?” What did that mean?
“A chance to prove yourself. To prove you’re ready to face the world, and can handle whatever might come. And since you’re a duelist, you will prove yourself in a duel.”
“A duel? I’m going to duel you?” she asked.
“No,” Sarah spoke up for the first time. “You’re going to duel me.”
Yonaka stared across the gap between them. A match with the sixteenth-best duelist in the country. She was caught between exhilaration and trepidation. Her hand clenched into a fist. Sarah yawned.
“Fine,” Yonaka said. “I’ll do it.”
* * *
The two of them squared off in the yard, Yonaka borrowing Rui’s Duel Disk once again. Rui and Abraham (that’s their dad’s name, if you remember) stood on the sidelines.
Sarah and Yonaka both raised their Duel Disks. “Speed...”
DUEL!
Yonaka LP 4000
—VS—
Sarah LP 4000
Music To Duel By: Colosseum Round 3 Battle (Colosseum)
“I’ll go first,” Sarah declared. “I set a monster, and a face-down card.” The two holograms glowed into being in front of her. A patient start. “It’s your turn, Yonaka.”
Yonaka gripped the cards in her hand more tightly. She was starting to feel nauseous. Sarah had the intimidating aura of a pro player, and it was nothing like Keiji’s. It was colder, and clung like fog.
“I draw,” she said, “ and I’ll do the exact same thing.”
Two hidden cards laid out in a T-formation. One of them was going to have to make the first move, but it wasn’t going to be her. Acting made you vulnerable. “I end my turn.”
Two sisters, and two identical fields. On the sidelines, Rui fidgeted, unsure whether to sit or stand, stay silent or cheer.
“Yonaka uses a Ritual Deck, right?” her dad asked suddenly.
“Huh? Uh, yeah. She does.”
“As does Sarah,” he said. “The two of them are mirror images in many ways. It’s the differences between them that will determine the outcome.”
“And...who has the advantage?” Rui asked. She wanted to believe in Yonaka, but the difference in experience was huge.
Her dad probably thought the same, but he just said, “In a battle between Ritual-users, the winner is whoever can assemble their offerings first.”
Meanwhile, Sarah had started her turn, and was considering how to apprach the next round. Yonaka it seemed was still a cowardly player. She would have to be drawn out, or the duel would take forever.
“I play Pot of Duality,” she began. A tall, ornamented vase appeared on the field. Half of the vase was light and upon it was carved a face with a placid expression. The other half was darker and sported a grinning mouth. The mouth opened and disgorged three cards — the top three cards of her deck — which flipped over and revealed themselves to be Dynamis Valkyria, Michizure, and Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands.
“I’ll take Manju,” she said, and the other two cards slid back into the pot, which faded away. “And I’ll summon it.”
The enigmatic being, patterned on a Buddhist statue, appeared before her, floating in lotus pose. It had the face of a wrathful deity, while its myriad hands each made a different sign of benediction.
“When Manju is summoned, I can add any Ritual Spell to my hand,” she explained. Her Duel Disk automatically shuffled through her deck and ejected a card. “I’m taking Sprite’s Blessing.”
Sprite’s Blessing could be used to summon any LIGHT Ritual Monster. It seemed that in the past year Sarah had abandoned Black Luster Soldier and adopted a new strategy.
“That’s all for now,” she concluded.
On the sidelines, Rui asked, “Why didn’t she play it?”
“She can’t special summon the turn that Pot of Duality is played,” Abraham replied.
“I draw,” Yonaka said. She had one turn to make sure Sarah couldn’t gather the necessary sacrifices. There was no choice; this was the time to act. Fortunately, she had just the cards to do it.
“First, I activate Angel Baton. With it, I draw two cards, and then I discard one.” She already knew what she wanted to throw away, and quickly made the exchange. “Now I activate Monster Reborn, to bring the back monster I just discarded!”
The resurrecting light of her Spell shown down, and from the earth rose a skeletal demon with thick arms and clawed hands. It let out an eerie yowl, and electricity crackled between its horns. In terms of raw power, it was the strongest creature in her deck: Summoned Skull. (ATK 2500)
“Also, I switch my set monster to attack mode, and summon Twin-Headed Behemoth!”
Magician’s Valkyria (ATK 1600) emerged from concealment at Summoned Skull’s left, while the Twin-Headed Behemoth (ATK 1500), a gnarled, dragon-like creature with two coiling heads, appeared at the right.
“I’m waging a triple attack!” Yonaka declared. “Summoned Skull attacks Manju! Lightning Strike!”
The Summoned Skull spread its arms. The electricity arcing between its horns intensified. A bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking the demon, and it channeled the energy of the storm, firing it at Manju.
The moment before it made contact, the lightning stopped short, as if it were a flood running up against a dam.
“When you have three monsters and declare an attack, that triggers my Trap,” said Sarah, and her face-down card revealed itself. “The Holy Barrier, Mirror Force!”
The wrath of Summoned Skull’s attack rebounded, raining down death upon Yonaka’s field. In a series of scorching explosions that left her covering her face from their intensity, her whole army was obliterated.
“Mirror Force...” she gasped. “I knew it could be, but I...”
“But you had no choice?” Sarah finished. “That’s just an excuse. You always have a choice. Fear makes you reckless. You were afraid. Afraid of losing. Afraid of me. And that fear,” she said firmly, “is why you’re going to lose. Now, do you have anything else to play, or are you done?”
Yonaka just shook her head.
At the end of the turn, the turn the Twin-Headed Behemoth returned from the earth thanks to its ability, but reduced to a single head (DEF 1000). Sarah took no notice.
“Good,” she said as she drew. “I’m changing my set Shining Angel to attack mode.” The card flipped up and faded away, revealing a winged man in a snow-white tunic. “By the way,” she added, “I never needed to gather sacrifices for a Ritual Summon. I can summon my ace monster whenever I want!” she selected two Spell Cards from her hand and revealed them. “First, I play Level Award, promoting Manju to Level 8. Next, I activate the Ritual Spell, Sprite’s Blessing!”
A mystical seal inscribed itself in the ground surrounding Manju. The multi-armed being released eight shimmering stars from its body. Each one fell like a drop of rain, splashing upon the seal and creating new magic circles within the seal. All these circles began to turn like wheels, or interlocking gears.
“The highest boddhisattva arrives from beyond the wheels of samsara,” a pillar of light crashed down from the sky, engulfing Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands. “Lord of ten thousand heavens and master of supreme wisdom!”
The light faded, and there stood a towering divinity. Wings of gold, skin of blue, a third eye of bright red, and graced with a shining halo, a being neither man nor machine. The strongest Ritual Monster.
“Shinato, King of a Higher Plane!” (ATK 3300)
Rui cringed. Yonaka would survive this turn, but just barely.
“Time to battle,” Sarah declared. Shining Angel eliminated the Twin-Headed Behemoth with a blast of light from his hand, and then... “Shinato, King of a Higher Plane, attack directly! Rokudō Rinne!”
An immense ring of light came into being between the hands of the great deity and fired itself at Yonaka. Maybe it was her imagination, but behind the heavenly light of that attack she felt something more than competitive spirit. It was hostile; an emotion with a jagged edge.
“I activate Counter Gate!” she said desperately, and her face-down card flipped up. It morphed into a rectangle of blue light, like a doorway through space. “This negates the attack, and I draw a card. If it’s a monster, I can summon it.”
She drew. And the card was... “I summon Magical Undertaker!” (ATK 400)
A diminutive woman in a dark suit and wide-brimmed hat jumped out of the portal. She held up a briefcase to shield her veiled face from the oncoming attack, and the mighty ring of light splashed harmlessly off it.
Truthfully, Magical Undertaker had not been a good draw. Counter Gate summoned the monster in attack mode, and Undertaker had a useful flip effect. But it was going to have to do.
“Fine,” said Sarah. “I set a card face-down and end my turn.”
“My turn!” Yonaka said. She looked at the card she had drawn. It was Spider Web, which would let her take a card Sarah had played last turn. Underneath it was Contract with the Abyss, her own Ritual Spell. She had a sudden feeling — not an intellectual conclusion or even an intuition, but something else — that this was the card that would win the game. And she could play it right now...with a little help from Sarah.
“I play Spider Web,” she began, “to take Level Award from your graveyard.” A thread of silk emerged from the card, plunging into the Graveyard slot of Sarah’s Duel Disk and dredging up the chosen Spell. Sarah scowled at the intrusion. Yonaka grabbed the card and played it immediately. “I’ll use Level Award to promote Magical Undertaker to Level 7. Then I activate my Ritual Spell, Contract with the Abyss!”
A hole opened in the earth beneath Magical Undertaker. From it leaked an ether like blue fire or smoke. Around this portal into the abyss were arranged seven gold lamp stands, though none of the lamps were lit. Like when Sarah had performed her Ritual Summon, seven stars were released from the Magical Undertaker’s body. The first star floated to one of the lamps, becoming a flame and lighting it. The second star did the same, as did the third, and...
“I don’t think so,” Sarah interjected. “I activate my face-down: Stygian Dirge! This demonic song lowers all your monsters’ Levels by 1.”
The tremulous, spectral creature depicted on the card let out a wail that rippled the air. Yonaka could hear nothing, but the Undertaker clutched her head in pain. One of the stars faded. Only six of the seven torches were lit.
“You can still complete the ritual,” Sarah said. “If you have a Level 6 Ritual Monster that fits the criteria. But I don’t think you do.”
Yonaka did not, and even if she did, there weren’t any that could defeat Shinato. The ceremonial paraphernalia all faded, and Magical Undertaker was alone on the field. Yonaka stared at the last two cards in her hand.
“I switch Magical Undertaker to defense mode (DEF 400),” she said, “and I set a monster and a face-down card. I end my turn.”
Not only had Sarah summoned the ultimate Ritual Monster, but now Yonaka’s own Ritual Monsters were sealed away and her hand emptied as well. Abraham nodded to himself, as if this was exactly what he had expected. “Sarah had a strategy mapped out from the first turn. All Yonaka did was play along. The differences between them have been quite decisive.”
“I think this game has gone on long enough,” Sarah said as she started her turn. “I summon The Calculator.”
Unlike the rest of her monsters, this was a machine rather than a spiritual being. It was indeed an autonomous four-function calculator, with buttons on its torso and the display on its head. The display currently read <ATK ????>.
“The Calculator’s ATK fluctuates. It gains 300 ATK for each Level on my field. It’s Level 2, Shining Angel is Level 4, and Shinato is Level 8, so...”
The Calculator ATK: (2 + 4 + 8) x 300 = 4200
More than enough to wipe out Yonaka’s Life Points in a single attack.
“Let’s wrap things up!” Sarah declared. “Shinato, destroy Magical Undertaker! Rokudō Rinne!”
Once more the ring of light was formed between the hands of the heavenly king, and once more it was fired. Only this time...
Yonaka grinned. “I got you.”
The giant ring stopped mere moments before it would have banished Magical Undertaker from this plane — as if, well, as if it were a flood running up against a dam. Yonaka’s face-down card revealed itself.
It was Mirror Force.
“I guess only a god can defeat a god,” said Yonaka, as the ring broke up into rays of energy that rebounded upon Sarah’s field. Shining Angel, The Calculator, and Shinato himself were all incinerated in an outpouring of divine wrath.
Sarah stared at the devastation that had just been wrought upon her field. “I end my turn,” she said quietly. There was nothing else she could do.
“You were overconfident,” Yonaka said. “It’s true that you’re better than me, and your cards are probably better, too. But everybody has Mirror Force in their deck.”
“Don’t lecture me,” Sarah spat.
“Okay,” Yonaka said. “I switch my face-down Learning Elf to attack mode,” an elf girl, wearing glasses and carrying a magical tome, rose up from under the card. (ATK 1400) “And she attacks you directly!”
The elf student leaped forward, tome tucked under her arm, and fired a magic bolt from her hand, striking Sarah. It was the eighth turn of the duel, and this was the first time either of them had received damage.
Sarah LP 4000 - 1400 = 2600
Even so, Yonaka’s advantage was far from decisive. She had Learning Elf and Magical Undertaker on the field, but the latter was too weak to battle, and she had just one card in hand. Sarah’s field was empty, but she had three cards in hand — four, as she drew for turn.
“I play Monster Reborn!” she declared, slapping the card she had just drawn onto the Duel Disk. “Return, Shinato, King of a Higher Plane!”
Light blazed from the card, and the divine boddhisattva returned to this realm of existence.
“Attack!” she commanded. “Erase Learning Elf from existence!”
This time there was no escape. Shinato launched his attack, and Learning Elf vanished in an enormous explosion.
Yonaka LP 4000 - 1900 = 2100
When the smoke cleared, Yonaka said, “When Learning Elf is sent to the graveyard, I draw a card.”
“Whatever. I end my turn.”
Rui looked back and forth between them. They both had over half their Life Points, but in this game state, it was unlikely either of them could survive more than a turn or two. Just as Yonaka hadn’t been decisively ahead last turn, Sarah somehow didn’t feel decisively ahead now, even though the King of a Higher Plane had returned to her.
Yonaka drew and considered the three cards in her hand for a long time. Finally she made her move.
“I place a monster face-down,” she said. Sarah scowled. “And one card face-down.” Sarah’s scowl deepened. “I end my turn.”
Sarah stared at the face-down card, trying to fathom its identity. Mirror Force was gone, but it could still be Michizure. And there was the monster to consider as well. It could be Mystic Tomato, giving Yonaka more resources for next turn. Or it could be Ancient Lamp. Or—
“What’s wrong?” asked Yonaka. “Are you afraid?”
“I’m not,” Sarah said forcefully, snatching up the top card of her deck. “I activate Magical Mallet, shuffling back my whole hand and drawing a fresh one.” She smiled. This would work well.
“I’ll start by summoning another copy of The Calculator,” she said. The two prongs of her attack force were together again. (The Calculator ATK: (2 + 8) x 300 = 3000) “Next, I discard a card to play Twin Twisters!”
A slender tornado burst up on Yonaka’s field, sucking up the card in her back row and tearing it apart.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Yonaka said, with a Sonic the Hedgehog wag of the finger.
As the twister dissipated, something was revealed beneath it. The insignia of a glowing, six-pointed star, inscribed within a circle.
“The hexagram of death, Spellbinding Circle!” Yonaka declared. “The one who attacks it receives its curse!”
Sarah could only stare in shock as the hexagram rose from the ground and ensnared Shinato, binding him with a karma he could not overcome. The monster that received the curse of Spellbinding Circle couldn’t attack or move or use its abilities, and it lost 700 ATK.
“I still have The Calculator,” she said, recovering. “Get that damn Magical Undertaker off the field.”
The machine typed out <400 DEF - 3000 ATK> on its chest, then fired a blast of electricity from its metal palm, and Magical Undertaker exploded. The situation was far from ideal, but it wasn’t bad either. She had two strong monsters out, even if one of them couldn’t attack, and was up on cards as well.
“I thought so,” Yonaka said. “You’re afraid of my set monster.”
“Afraid?” Sarah repeated. “It’s more advantageous to eliminate a known quantity than to risk an attack on something set. Dueling is about minimizing risk.”
“So you’re afraid of the unknown?” Yonaka shrugged. “All I know is, if you had attacked this instead, you wouldn’t have lost,” she placed a hand on her set monster and turned it over. “I flip summon the Magician of Faith!” (ATK 300)
From the card emerged a pale woman, dressed in violet and carrying a staff tipped with a crescent moon. The staff glowed and a ray of moonlight descended upon Yonaka’s graveyard. A Spell Card slid out of the slot.
“Getting back a Spell from your graveyard isn’t going to help you,” Sarah said. “Even if you use Monster Reborn to revive Summoned Skull, it can only tie with Shinato. You don’t have nearly enough attack power.”
“I’m not taking Monster Reborn,” Yonaka replied. “The card I chose is: Contract with the Abyss!”
The gateway into the abyss opened up once more beneath the Magician of Faith. This time rather than seven torches, there was only one.
“Stygian Dirge lowers the Levels of all my monster by 1,” she said. “But Magician of Faith is already Level 1, and a monster’s Level can’t go any lower than that. And Level 1 is exactly what I need.”
You’ve probably already guessed what she’s summoning. There aren’t a lot of Level 1 Ritual Monsters. The etheric flames rose up to engulf the Magician of Faith. They flowed like water and congealed into thick clawed hands, into bony plates like a beetle’s carapace, into a fleshy valve that opened into nothing, into a rigid stalk of a neck surmounted by the legendary Millennium Eye.
It was the master of Illusion Magic, Relinquished. (ATK 0)
“Oh, shit,” was all Sarah could say.
“Relinquished can absorb an enemy monster and take on their strength,” Yonaka said. Relinquished’s eye glowed, and the valve at the creature’s base opened wide, generating a mystic gale that could draw in even the titanic King of a Higher Plane. Spellbinding Circle’s hexagram faded away as it lost its target. Relinquished’s carapace swung closed, and the form of Shinato emerged, trapped within the bony matrix.
Relinquished ATK: 0 + 3300 = 3300
The Calculator ATK: 3000 - (8 x 300) = 600
“Relinquished, attack The Calculator! Sacrifice Blast!” Yonaka commanded. The illusion monster’s eye glowed once more, and it fired a beam of dark energy that wiped out the helpless machine. And with it...
Sarah LP 2600 - 2700 = 0
In the silence that followed, it took Yonaka several seconds to realize that she had done it. She had actually done it. She had—
“You won!” Rui cheered. She ran over and gave Yonaka a hug. Yonaka ruffled her hair.
“I won,” she agreed.
The moment of warmth was interrupted by a dull thud. Yonaka turned to see that Sarah had thrown her Duel Disk on the ground. She turned and walked away without a word.
Yonaka had a realization then, another unbidden certainty that was not the work of the mind. It wasn’t something she could put into words, but if there were words to it, they would be something like ‘Sarah hates me’. But why?
Maybe there was nothing so prosaic as a reason.
Her dad approached, wiping his forehead. This was an outcome he had neither expected nor wanted. As a Yu-Gi-Oh! player myself, the phrase ‘Never punished’ comes to mind. Yonaka had won the right to go out into the world. But was that really such a good idea?
A butterfly flew by.
ED: Wild Child (moumoon)
* * *
Closing Thoughts
This duel took an enormous amount of work to compose. I’ve gone over it over and over again, and at this point it’s been distilled to its bare essence. You can tell how much has been cut, because I ended up trimming out all the turns where anyone actually takes damage! Because I’ve worked over it so much, I’m a little concerned the story no longer makes sense to an outsider.
By the way, I had Sarah finish in the Top 16 of the Duel Open because it’s an impressive result that, in a fictional context, doesn’t sound that impressive. It gives Yonaka room for further growth.
* * *
Card of the Day
Today’s card is Mirror Force, which is the crux around which this duel revolved. In TMJ, Mirror Force has been mixed with Radiant Mirror Force. Like the latter, it requires the opponent to control three monsters, but unlike it they don’t have to be in Attack Position.
Mirror Force (TRAP)
[Normal Trap Card]
Becomes active when a player has at least 3 monsters. The holy barrier negates an attack and destroys all the player’s monsters that are in attack mode.
* * *
Master of the Cards
The Calculator (PTDN, ‘07)
Dynamis Valkyria [as “Dunames Dark Witch”] (TP8, ‘00)
Magical Undertaker (YS13, ‘13)
Magician of Faith (MRD, ‘99)
Magician’s Valkyria (CP08, ‘03)
Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands (IOC, ‘03)
Shining Angel (MRL, ‘00)
Summoned Skull (SDY, ‘99)
Twin-Headed Behemoth (LOD, ‘01)
Angel Baton (5D’s (modded), ‘08)
Contract with the Abyss (DCR, ‘03)
Level Award (R, ‘07)
Magical Mallet (GX, ‘04)
Monster Reborn (LOB, ‘99)
Pot of Duality (DREV, ‘10)
Spider Web (DM, ‘03)
Sprite’s Blessing (INOV, ‘16)
Twin Twisters (BOSH, ‘15)
Counter Gate (MVP1, ‘16)
Michizure (PSV, ‘00)
Mirror Force (MRD (modded), ‘00)
Spellbinding Circle (DM manga (modded), ‘98)
Stygian Dirge (SOVR, ‘09)
Relinquished (MRL, ‘00)
Shinato, King of a Higher Plane (DCR, ‘02)
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