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
"I set a card," Yugi began, "and I play the Spell that I returned to my hand via the effect of 'Magician of Faith', my 'Card of Sanctity'. We each refill our hands."
He drew his cards, as did I, watching closely as he did so. Part way through the draw, a card seemed to catch his eye. Once he was finished drawing, he showed me the card, "Because I drew 'Watapon' outside of the Draw Phase, I can Special Summon it to the field."
As Yugi spoke, a small white fuzz ball of a fairy appeared at his side.
"Next," Yugi declared, "I play 'Fair Trade'! This Spell allows me to tribute one monster that I control, and then Special Summon a monster of the same Level from my Graveyard. I choose to tribute 'Watapon' for 'Kuriboh'!"
As the white puff ball was replaced with a brown one, I wasn't surprised. I'd seen Yugi use his 'Kuriboh' and 'Watapon' cards similarly before. The only real difference was that this time he'd used a combo to summon 'Kuriboh' rather than 'Watapon', and I knew from following Yugi's duels that 'Kuriboh' was often one of his most dangerous monsters.
"Good combo," I told Yugi honestly, "but don't expect me to underestimate 'Kuriboh' just because he's small. I've seen enough dangerous Level One monsters, and enough of your duels, to know better."
"Then I'll forgo trying to bluff you," Yugi replied, "and get right on with it. I play 'Multiply'. When used defensively, this card creates the 'Kuriboh Wall' as I call it, but when used offensively, it copies a week monster two to four times. In the case of 'Kuriboh', its the latter."
As he spoke, four more 'Kuribohs' split off of the first.
"When holographic Duel Monsters switched from using super-realism stages to using Duel Disks," Yugi explained, "'Kuriboh' lost the ability to use its explosive powers as an offense, but this card more than makes up for it. Activate the Spell card 'Detonate', allowing each of my 'Kuribohs' to self-destruct, taking your cards with them!"
The five 'Kuribohs' flew at my three monsters and my two face-down cards.
"Good try, Yugi," I countered, "but I expected something like this, so I was ready with 'My Body as a Shield', paying fifteen hundred Life to negate an effect that includes destroying a monster."
"And I was ready for something like that," Yugi retorted. "Reveal 'Spell Power Backfire'. I pay half of my Life (250 -> 125) to change the effect of your Spell card to 'Destroy every Spell and Trap card on the field'."
The hologram of my Spell exploded. The five 'Kuribohs' advanced.
"Then I discard 'Megacyber Armor'," I declared, "a Spell that I can send from my hand to the Graveyard to prevent a Megacyber monster from being destroyed once."
'Megacyber''s armor became thicker, reminiscent of a shogun's armor, just as the 'Kuribohs' hit their marks and blasted apart. 'Megacyber Armor' protected its wearer, but it was destroyed in the process. The other 'Kuribohs' were more successful, hitting and destroying my other two monsters and my face-down 'Mirror Force'.
"Your strongest monster might have survived," Yugi declared, "but I'm not finished with you yet. The effect of my 'Spell Power Backfire didn't just prevent your effect from going off. It also destroyed my two face-down copies of 'Toy Magician'. And because it was the effect of your card that destroyed them, they're Special Summoned to the field in attack position!"
More toy monsters appeared, this time two blue plastic sorcerers, each about a foot tall, wearing plastic capes and carrying glowing, plastic wands (ATK: 1600 (each)).
"Your monsters can't beat mine," I said, though I wasn't nearly as sure as I sounded.
"These two 'Toy Magicians' can't defeat your monster alone, that's true," Yugi agreed, "but I have a third 'Toy Magician', and together they can win. I activate 'Magical Dimension'!"
A coffin appeared, suspended in a steel frame. It swung open, and one of the two Spellcasers settled inside.
"One of my 'Toy Magicians'," Yugi explained as the door of the trick coffin closed, "sacrifices himself to summon my third 'Toy Magician' to the field in his place!"
The coffin opened again, and the third magician, which was visibly identical to the others, emerged.
"Now," Yugi declared, "due to the additional effect of 'Magical Dimension', my monsters can conbine their power to destroy one monster in play."
The two magicians crossed their wands and, in a burst of light, 'The Fiend Megacyber' was vaporized.
I fought well, I thought, and I had fun.
It was then that I realized that I wasn't quite sure when I'd started having fun.
"I finish it," Yugi stated. "'Toy Magicians' one and two, attack directly with Block Demolition!"
The twin Spellcasters attacked as one (3200 -> 0), and the duel was over.
After the duel, I snuck back into the stadium and bought Yugi and myself each a soda. We sat on the curbside behind the stadium and drank silently for several minutes before I finally spoke.
"Thanks," I said. "You were right. I was being way too hard on myself. I still need to take some time to really get back to me, to who I am without all of the crap, and even all of the people, that've been following me around for so long, but after our duel I finally feel like things will go back to normal eventually. After all, I was trying to be mad at myself, and you, and the whole damn world, and all it took to change that was a really fun game of cards."
"Yeah, well," Yugi said, blushing a bit again and smiling modestly, "if there's one thing I'm pretty good at, it's helping my friends."
I was pretty taken aback by that, "We're friends?"
"Well, yeah," Yugi replied, "though I'm not too picky when it comes to friends. Still, you seem like a good guy, you're tough, and we've got stuff in common, so as far as I'm concerned, we're friends. And I help my friends. Friendship is kinda a big thing to me."
"Thanks," I said, flattered.
"And by the way," Yugi told me, taking another drink of soda, "good as you fought today, I still get the feeling that you're still not at your strongest. You're already so strong, and yet you still have room to grow exponentially. That's exciting for a gamer like me who enjoys big challenges, so I'm making you a rival, too."
He took one final drink from from his soda can and then stood up. I stood up with him. "Well," he said, "I have places to be. I'll see you around."
He offered me his hand to shake, "If you're ever in Domino City feel free to stop by Kame Game Shop. I'm not in town as often as I used to be, but you never know, and my grandpa will be around. He'll give you a discount on cards 'cuz we're friends. And if we do bump into each other, we can duel again. By then you'll be through this whole rough time, and you'll be even tougher than you were today."
I nodded, "It's a deal." With that, we went our separate ways, each of us looking forward to the day when we would meet again.
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