In this four part Epic Battle, the most underrated Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonist since Judai, Yuma, gets the chance to test his abilities against, not Yugi Muto, but the other Yugi, the Great Pharaoh Atem. Neither of them knows who the other is, and it is unclear if their meeting ever actually happened, but it is still an interesting duel, and I do plan for Yugi and Yuma to meet again over the course of this series. This gives us a preview of what that might be like.
Keep in mind that neither of them is at the point in their timeline when they are their strongest, so things might go differently if they were to duel again.
Duel Four
Yuma vs Yugi
Yuma Tsukumo was walking down the street with his friends. Well, by walking, we all know I mean walking and arguing. As good a person as Yuma Tsukumo is, he's many other things as well, including energetic, opinionated, and fast to form conclusions, and while he can be smart when he needs to be, his swiftness to act and his general stubborness more often than not prevents him from listening to the points made by others, to the disdain of those others. Today Yuma was hung up on unlocking more of his powers. As scary as it sounds, Yuma is resposible for leading the fight to protect an entire other world. Don't worry too much, though, because Yuma's story takes place well into our future, so if he fails it won't affect us, thankfully.
"I still don't think it's a good idea, Yuma," said Yuma'a friend Tori. Like Yuma, she had two-toned hair, though unlike his with it's stark contrast of black with dark pink, almost red, bangs, all spiked up and crazy, Tori's hair was a more understated green on green, and it was styled more natually.
"Come on, Tori," Yuma whined, "I know what I'm doing by now. Stop worrying so much."
"Well," Tori asked, "what does Astral say?"
Yuma looked up at a spot above his shoulder where the glowing blue alien, Astral, whom only Yuma and a select few others could see or hear, was floating. Astral looked even more annoyed than Tori, and the way he looked down at Yuma said that he, too, didn't agree with Yuma's train of thought.
"Astral's with me all the way," Yuma lied, badly and awkwardly. "Look, Tori, it's gonna be fine, I totally know how to use the key by now. I know I can unlock more of it's powers without anything bad happening."
He suddenly got serious, "Listen, things are getting tough. Astral world is in trouble, and Astral needs me to help him save it. Somewhere in this key is even more power. The more power I have, the sooner I can find the Numeron Code and protect it from Barian World."
He looked up at Astral, who's expression softened. "I understand your desire to help," Astral told him, "but we don't understand the key's power yet, not completely. If you start playing around foolishly, it could cause you harm, or break our bond to each other."
"Oh, who asked you," Yuma said. "Alright, fine, I won't toy with the key."
He reached up to his chest and clutched a triangular golden charm, like an arrowhead with gaps in it, "I just want to help."
"There are better ways to find the strength to help your friends," Tori told him.
"Then why doesn't the key show me how to do that? It's showed me other stuff before."
He clutched the key harder, wishing on it the way he had many times before, wishing to find true strength, and when that didn't work, he shook the key violently, garnering a sigh from Astral. The key began to glow, and to the surprise of both a narrow beam of pure golden light shot from it, reaching through time, and finding true strength, just as Yuma had asked for. The air around him shimmered, and suddenly Tori stopped moving. In fact everything stopped moving, except for Yuma and Astral. Immediately they were on guard. They'd experienced something like this several times before.
"What's going on?" Yuma asked. "Is this that thing that Kite does?"
"No," Astral replied, looking at the point where the golden beam ended, several yards away, "It's something from the key. What did you do?"
"Nothing!" Yuma replied defensively. "I just wished that the key would show me true strength, and it went all crazy!"
Yuma would have said more, but just then the point where the beam ended blossomed out, opening up and forming some kind of portal. Yuma and Astral were silent, because what they saw through the portal didn't make sense. It was a city street, like the one that they were walking on, but it looked less modern. The buildings around it were like the ones that Yuma would often see in history books talking about the old Domino City.
"There's someone there," Astral said, surprised, and Yuma squinted, and sure enough he saw a short young man standing in the portal. He was wearing a blue jacket with a black shirt underneath, and blue slacks. His hair was died and spiked a lot like Yuma's, and he wore an old Mk. I Duel Disk on his arm, and a large pyramid-shaped charm on a chain around his neck. Thanks to the backlighting caused by the portal, Yuma couldn't see the mysterious figure's face very well, but he couldn't help feeling that this new arrival was somehow familiar.
"Can you feel it?" Astral asked. "Whoever this young man is he is very strong. I think the key heard your wish, but instead of showing you how to find strength for yourself, it showed you someone with true strength. We must duel this person. I must see his power first hand so that I can see where it comes from. Hurry, before the portal closes!"
"Well look at you getting all excited," Yuma told his friend. He stepped a little bit closer to the man in the portal and said, "Hey, my name's Yuma, wanna duel me?"
He waited a few moments, but the young man didn't answer. It was like he was trying to speak, but Yuma couldn't hear him. He paused, like he was having an internal conversation, and then there was a golden glow from the pyramid charm around the young man's neck, and the young man almost seemed to grow taller by several inches, his posture becoming less relaxed. The noise of the vortex died down a bit, like it was being held back.
"That's better," the young man said, his deep, strong voice barely audible over the swirl of the vortex. "I'm not really sure who you are or how we've been brought together, but I can sense than the two of you are strong. I'll duel both of you."
"Wait, both of us?" Yuma asked. "You mean you can see Astral?"
"Of course he can," Astral said, his face alight with excitement, "he has great magic power. Hurry, Yuma, we don't know how much time we have."
The young man switched on his Duel Disk. "Alright," said Yuma, holding out his arm, "Duel Disk, go!"
A platform for his cards was produced from a device on Yuma's arm, which also held his deck.
Yuma reaced into his pocket and placed a green monocle over his left eye, "Duel Gazer, let's roll."
Yuma waited while the Virtual Reality Vision Link was established, allowing the images of his monsters to interact with a hologram of the environment, and he drew his opening hand of six card.
"Take your time, Yuma," Astral advised, "we don't know how strong he is as a Duelist."
"Aren't you the one who said to hurry?" Yuma wondered. "Just leave this to me, I'll handle it, no problem. I summon 'Achacha Archer'!"
Yuma placed his card on his Duel Disk, but his monster didn't appear. Instead an error message popped up, saying that the opponent's Duel Disk does not support the vision link.
"Oh, right," Yuma said, "you have an old style Duel Disk. Okay, I can do this old school."
He flipped a switch on his Duel Disk, changing it to Projection Mode, and he tried again. This time his monster, a man in a face mask carrying a crossbow, appeared at his side (ATK: 1200).
"When 'Achacha Archer' is summoned," Yuma explained, "it hits you for five hundred damage!"
Yuma's monster shot a crossbow bolt at the young man who didn't even flinch when it hit him (4000 -> 3500).
"I set a card," Yuma announced, the image of his set card appearing at his feet, "and end my turn."
He looked up at Astral, "Good, right?"
But Astral looked far less pleased than Yuma, his eyes still flickering between excitement and competitive seriousness, "We'll see soon..."
The young man drew, "That was a good move. I've never seen a monster like that one before, but unless I've missed something, this should take care of it. I play 'Graceful Charity' drawing three cards and then discarding 'Alpha the Magnet Warrior' and 'Gaia the Fierce Knight'. Next I summon 'Obnoxious Celtic Guard' in attack mode and destroy your 'Archer', attack!"
A sworld-wielding elf appeared and cut the bowman down (4000 -> 3800).
"I end my turn," the young man concluded, waiting patiently for Yuma to take his next turn. His confidence was almost palpable.
"Be careful, Yuma," Astral said, "his monster-."
"I said I've got this," Yuma said, interrupting him. "This was my wish, I'll fight it myself."
"Alright," Astral responded pompously, "suite yourself."
Yuma, unable to read between the lines, took this as an indication than Astral had accepted his point. Yuma's opponent seemed to find this amusing, but Yuma didn't notice that either.
"I set a face-down card," Yuma announced, "and I summon 'Crane Crane'."
A crane (the bird) with the neck of a crane (the machine), appeared and reached into the ground.
"When 'Crane Crane' appears," Yuma explained, "it pulls another level three monster from my Graveyard and lifts it back onto the field."
The odd bird removed its head from the ground, pulling 'Achacha Archer' out with it.
"Now," Yuma declared, "I reveal 'Rock Bombardment', sending 'Gogogo Golem' to the Graveyard to deal another five hundred damage to you."
A barrel-shaped stone monster with large arms appeared and punched the young man before falling to pieces and disappearing (3500 -> 3000).
"Now," Yuma explained, "I use 'Crane Crane' and 'Achacha Archer' to build the Overlay Network!"
A swirling galaxy formed overhead, and the two monsters turned to light and poured into it.
"I overlay both of my monsters to Xyz Summon," Yuma explained, as a form, like a tower with six wings spaced equidistantly around the top, emerged from the galaxy and unfolded to become a serpentine dragon with three fin-like wings on each side and a fin protruding from the top of its head, two orbs of light orbiting it, and a glowing number seventeen on one of the many horns on its head, "'Number 17: Leviathan Dragon' (ATK: 2000)!"
Yuma gestured exuberantly, "I detach an overlay unit from my monster to activate an effect, increasing its Attack by five hundred, and I attack your monster!"
One of the orbs flew into the dragon's mouth (2000 -> 2500), and it breathed blue light on the swordsman (3000 -> 1900), but when the attack ended, the elf still remained.
"What? But I destroyed it!"
"I tried to tell you, Yuma," Astral told his confused young counterpart, "the 'Obnoxious Celtic Guard' cannot be destroyed in battle with a monster with nineteen hundred Attack or greater."
"Now you tell me," Yuma replied, looking across the battlefield at the enemy's monster. It was such a simple monster, but it had already caused him trouble. Still Yuma had had to deal with monsters that are hard to destroy before, and he couldn't sense the power practically rolling off of his opponent, so his confidence didn't waver. That would soon change.
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