Yu-Gi-Oh! DF Book Seven: Their Most Dangerous Enemy - Chapter One

I really agonized for, like, a whole three seconds over whether I should post a second chapter from this book, or another chapter of Reaper, but this book is longer and getting a later start, so it won out. This chapter is a little short-ish compared to some of my others (though not by much, really), but soooo much happens. Seriously, just read it. Shit gets real very quickly.

I haven't worked out a schedule governing the posting of these chapters alongside Reaper yet, though you should expect at least one more of these at least before another Reaper goes up. I want the climax of this book to go up at the same time as the climax of Reaper, so that the climax of the latter feels like a flashback within this book. In fact all of Reaper could be though of as Max thinking back to the important recent events of Reaper, where he actually worked with other people again for the first time in months, as he deals with once again teaming up with his old friends and allies from DF. That's why I feel that I can post them alongside each other at all. 

Chapter One

An Eventful Day

Digimon Adventure ND Book One: Manipulamon Reigns - Chapter Nine

It looks like this is becoming a Sunday thing. That's pretty cool, I guess.

Oh, and the kids have a skirmish with Manipulamon in this chapter.
You know, no biggie. 

Chapter Nine

Battle Manipulamon!

The Celestial Digivolution

Yu-Gi-Oh! DF Book Seven: Their Most Dangerous Enemy - Prologue

That's right, this book has a freakin' prologue biatches! Dang, I feel like a legit writer... Anyway, this is technically the first chapter of the next Yu-Gi-Oh! DF book that I mentioned last week in part four of John v. Yugi. I decided to go ahead and post it alongside Reaper after all! This book is my first real and legit attempt at creating backstory for my characters, intrigue, and foreshadowing, as I really hope this prologue conveys. I know I don't take this story as serious as I could. On some level I can't take it too seriously. It's a Yu-Gi-Oh! story, after all. This book is the first one where I really, I think, try to construct a serious narrative involving these characters. I explore their motivations, and their histories, and while I won't say whether the trend of everyone surviving these books will continue or not, this story is definitely not without risk and sacrifice and real consequences. Things change after this book, and set up for the next one, and for the eventual sequel series.

I hope someone out there enjoys this book. I certainly enjoyed writing it, as it involved building a really involved fanon around the Card Professors' Guild from Yu-Gi-Oh! R which reconciles the events of R with the events of the anime, and the events of my books. I honestly haven't had this much fun writing fanon since writing Yu-Gi-Oh! DA. This particular fanon also heavily involves Karen, and Maxamillion Pegasus (!!!) so I'm particularly excited. Whether or not it all quite works out, I'm not really sure, but I think it works out well enough, and as I said, I enjoyed writing it.

Oh, and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and all of that...

Prologue

Digimon Adventure ND Book One: Manipulamon Reigns - Chapter Eight

Well, turns out John was right, and something was up with Jeremy. Whoops!

Chapter Eight

Manipulamon’s Greatest Pawn

Update

I had planned to do another two (yeah, I said two) full-length reviews/Something Awesome posts today and tomorrow on The AwesomeBlog to make up for the fact that I've been really lax there this week, but something awful happened today and I just can't do it. Maybe I'll feel up to it tomorrow, but I don't know. I have a few creative writing posts still scheduled to post, so this Sunday's update here will go up regardless, but, unless something changes, these sites are both on hiatus until at least Monday.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Epic Battles #2: John Sieger vs. Yugi Muto, Part Four

And finally we come to the epic conclusion of this four part short story. As I've mentioned before, in my comments of chapters of this very story, and on comments for Kaiba Corp. Invitational Tournament, I regretted John beating Yugi. It just wasn't a fair fight. As I've also mentioned, this is my atonement for that. This duel is a fair fight, and John has really come a long way toward closing the gap that exists (and even back then existed) between himself and the original Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonist. Still, this duel ends as I think we all realized it only could.

More Epic Battles duels will still come periodically, but more frequently from now on, Reaper will be interspersed with chapters from the new penultimate Yu-Gi-Oh! DF book, titles Their Most Dangerous Enemy, which will reunite much of the old main cast and feature some character development for practically every member of the team. It will also utilize elements from the Yu-Gi-Oh! R manga, and feature duels with Yugi, Kaiba, and Pegasus. So, you know, look forward to that!

And now, without further blabbering, here is the chapter proper. I hope you enjoy it!  

Duel Two

John vs. Yugi Muto Part Four

Digimon Adventure ND Book One: Manipulamon Reigns - Chapter Seven

And so concludes the first battle with one of Manipulamon's generals. I think that I did a good job conveying the difference between a regular battle and a battle with a Digimon of this caliber. If things hadn't gone exactly right in the chapter below, Scorpiomon would have won, and the adventure would have been over.

Scorpiomon, despite being a high level compared to the group's current Digimon, and being quite deadly, was one of the weaker general, which is why he was made to oversee such low level Digimon. Manipulamon doesn't really believe in his abilities. Also, while Scorpiomon gave the kids plenty of trouble, it is his other generals, including the hidden ones (yes, there are two generals that the Digidestined don't even know about yet) who will really be a problem.

Chapter Seven

Versus Scorpiomon!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Reaper - Chapter Four

Our first truly plot-related chapter is finally here, and, as I only intend this book to have somewhere around twenty chapters (this is subject to change, of course), we are tentatively 1/5 of the way through! Not that I don't enjoy writing this, because I do, more so than I should (notice that as my stories progress from book one to the present there is more and more blood and violence. I'm maybe a little messed up), but I just talked on The AwesomeBlog how when I have too many ideas at once, I get distracted, and I have a ton of ideas for later stuff in this series. Stuff that cannot skip this story, though it can be posted alongside it while causing only one major spoiler (I'm actually considering this), and maybe even heightening the emotional impact of this book's later chapters.

Wow, I got kind of stream of consciousness-y there, didn't I? Gist of it: I may be starting another proper series of uploads alongside this one fairly soon. 

 

Chapter Four

The Archer

Digimon Adventure ND Book One: Manipulamon Reigns - Chapter Six

On there way to the Gekomon Village, John and the others run across Scorpiomon, one of the generals in charge of Manipulamon's labor force of Digimon too numerous to devote extra data to tagging them. They probably could have avoided the fight, but John just can't help acting all heroic. And, well, they had to fight Scorpiomon eventually, right?

Also in this chapter, we see some minor contention build between John and his old friend Jeremy. Both seem to have different ideas about how the group should be led, but The Digicomp's message referred to John's leadership skills as a defining characteristic, so the rest continue to look to his first of all. How will this butting of heads eventually affect this recently-renewed relationship?  

Chapter Six

Encounter With the Enemy;

The Mines of Scorpiomon!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Epic Battles #2: John Sieger vs. Yugi Muto, Part Three

So I had planned to really dig in in my free time yesterday and get Reaper chapter four ready (hence why I had nothing else prepared either) but I felt pretty crappy and never did. I may get it done today, but if I do, I still wanted a for sure update to make up for missing yesterday, so here is John v Yugi part three, the penultimate chapter in this story. If I do finish Reaper chapter four today (which is unlikely) I don't know if I'll post it today or wait. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

I'm a little worried that I made Yugi a little too arrogant in this story. He's very confident, where in the anime and manga he seems to be pretty humble. However, I often remember that Yugi can be a little shit to his friends, and the entire purpose of Atemu (the character who most people still  think of when they think of Yugi, for those who don't know) moving on at the end of the series was to give Yugi a chance to grow in his own, and as similar as he and Atemu are at a base level, I think added confidence would suite him by this point, some five or six or something years later. Either way, I hope you enjoy this update.

Duel Two

John vs. Yugi Muto Part Three