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

And that's it, Yu-Gi-Oh! DF7: Their Most Dangerous Enemy is done. Let's get a couple of things out of the way. For example, do I even need to discuss how morally gray my heroes are? I mean, obviously the degree to which each of my characters is willing to kill an enemy varies from character to character, but even Rocky, who is the most traditionally heroic character in my cast, will kill an enemy if he feels that there is no other choice, or even if he thinks that it's the penalty that that person deserves.

Then there's John, who teeters constantly on the edge of becoming a villain every day, Jen, who will make whatever the logical choice is to save the most lives, and Max, who sees horrible things every day and wants desperately to retaliate in kind, and has to restrain himself. Honestly the only characters among my cast who I can't see ever killing anyone are Kimi and Karen. Kimi, because I honestly can't see her being able to, and Karen, because she's so powerful that she would never have a need. That said, any of my characters would kill in a game where the stakes were death, if it meant saving their own life.

I think it's appropriate that John is the first of my characters to actually attack someone with the Shadow Games, when he went after Exodus in DF5. He recognized that Exodus was too dangerous to be allowed freedom to operate, and too unrepentantly evil to be allowed to live on. And he made a choice to stop Exodus by any means necessary, and he stopped him himself. He didn't make anyone else do it. He didn't put that burden onto anyone else. Because very soon, John is going to find himself in a similar position to Exodus, where his own death would make things safer for everyone else, and his experience with Exodus will inform him on that occasion.

But that's another story.

There are two more Duel Force books after this one. If you're someone who read these on yugiohcardmaker.net, then you know that DF6 was originally intended to be the last book of this series, not including spin-offs. I had plotlines that were unresolved, but I intended them to be explored in the spin-offs, and then resolved in the DF sequel series. But I realized that I was doing a disservice to my sequel characters, and limiting my story possibilities, if I used the sequel to resolve the story of these characters. And I wanted to make a special where the Duel Force fought the Card Professors. So I just fleshed that idea out into a full book, and used it to set up for the true DF story resolution. DF8 will set up further, while, hopefully, still being entertaining on its own, while being more lighthearted than this story, and then DF9 will wrap up the story of the Duel Force properly.

All of that said, the story of the Duel Force will continue in Yu-Gi-Oh! DF8: The Regional Team Duel Championship, where my characters actually duel as a team, like I implied that they would often way back in book one!

Chapter Thirty-Five

The Curse of the Forgotten Duelist

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

And that's it, Damien Curran, the most legitimate threat to the entire Duel Force all at once since Blackheart, or the DDF, is dealt with. This is also where the second big antagonist of this book (third, if you count Richie or James, fourth if you count both) makes an appearance. He wasn't really set up in this book specifically, but I have been setting him up since the beginning of the series, so it still works. And this isn't the last time we'll see him, either.

I mentioned that defeating Damien would be a bit of a team effort. I also mentioned that I wasn't fridging anyone. Hopefully it's clear what I meant now.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Darkness and Light

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

And the duel between John and Damien is over and done with. And yes, I left it on a cliffhanger. And yes, it's that kind of cliffhanger. Say what you want about me doing this, but I needed an instigating incident to justify what happens next. You'll see what I mean next chapter. But let's just say that this event will inspire development in three characters without fridging anyone. I promise that much.

As for the duel itself, I really like the way that I resolved this one. I used the "miracle card" thing again, but at least this one has some set-up. And, to be fair, I don't use this nearly as often as the actual canon. Used sparingly, I think that it's a perfectly good trope. Whether or not I'll use it again later, I have no idea, but I think it fits here.

The conflict with Damien Curran isn't over. It's going to take one more chapter to resolve that, and it's going to be something of a team effort. Then there's a chapter of wrap-up, and DF7 will be complete. But I'll talk more about that in the commentary for chapter thirty-five.

Chapter Thirty-Three

United Across Generations

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

The duel between John and the obsessive Damien Curran is in full swing. While last chapter really only showed one of each Duelist's turns, this one is much more of a back and forth. Damien consistently goes all out, and John consistently pulls out all the stops to counter his every move. Both of these Duelists are incredibly skilled, and it becomes pretty clear pretty quick that it's not going to be easy to call which of them will come out of this victorious.

On a different note, with this chapter over with, there are only three more chapters in this book. Who's excited? Because I'm excited.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Pulling Out All the Stops

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

Armed with new knowledge about his family's past, and with a new sense of purpose that has come with it, John returns to confront the mystery Duelist and discover who, exactly, he is. Their Duel begins, and it becomes clear that what Depre said about the two of them being equals could not be more true.

This is the chapter where we actually discover the mystery Duelist's motivations. I wanted them to make sense, but in a way that comes off as overly obsessive, and riddled with broken logic. Someone let me know how I did.

Chapter Thirty-One

The Foe's True Intentions

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

John's confrontation with the mystery Duelist finally begins. We don't learn his motivations yet in this chapter, but I will say that they are pretty familiar at this point, but that his reasoning is based on a line of reasoning that doesn't really make sense to John, because there is this history between the two young men that only one of them knows about. The mystery man has been fuming for years, blaming John for his misfortunes, all while John didn't even know that the young man existed.

What we do get in this chapter specifically is a couple of big bombshells about John's family. If you go back and look, the clues to these things being true have been woven into the story since Reign of the Reaper. Earlier than that, actually, since the first mention of John's first deck was all the way back in Gather the Duel Force. I've even included clues as to who the mysterious uncle mentioned in this chapter actually is. Yes, we've met him before.

I have included a Card of the Day this chapter, even though the duel between John and the mystery man doesn't start until next chapter.

Chapter Thirty

Different Perspectives

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

Finally, the last of the Card Professors is dealt with. Unlike in Yu-Gi-Oh! R, Depre is the number one Card Professor instead of Richie, only because he managed to defeat Richie very recently, off screen. I don't say it anywhere in this book, but Depre only defeated Richie and took the title of number one by getting lucky. Normally, Richie is pretty definitively Depre's superior. That's why John's duel with Depre seems so much easier than Karen's duel with Richie. Could I have drawn out this duel? Could I have injected it with filler turns to make it more dramatic, and stretch it out over two chapters? Yeah, I could have. But that isn't the point of this chapter.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

John vs. Depre Scott;

A Battle Among the Stars

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

There was a duel in R between the other Yugi and a Card Professor named Maico Kato, who hid her monsters in the forest to give them an advantage. It may be that I took some inspiration from that duel when creating Karen's new signature card. I hope that, despite how quickly this duel goes by in part two, I did a good enough job of showing how Forest Clearing is useful. Not only that, but I hope I did a good enough showing off how seriously Karen has decided to take placement on the field as well. By forcing the opponent to think about where the monster they're attacking is on the field, Karen can actually use some of their moves against them.

I also hope I made clear enough just how big a gap there is between Karen and Richie here. Richie is strong, and he's actually prepared enough that he can bypass the limits placed upon him by Karen's field Spell, but Karen never stood even a chance of losing this duel.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Sibling Rivalry;

A Shootout in the Forest

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

Back when I was developing this story, and I made the decision to connect Karen with Pegasus, I was surprised to see that the writer of Yu-Gi-Oh! R, Akira Ito, had a similar idea, and gave Pegasus an entire group of adopted children that he raised as protegees. At first I was discouraged, since my idea was clashing with canon (as tentatively as R is canon), but after some thought, I realized that this actually helped me. I clash with canon all the time already, and after really working out my story's timeline compared to the original series timeline, I realized that Karen would have left at least a year before even the flashback scenes in R, so her being a part of that group of children wouldn't contradict anything that was shown.

So I worked out a rough idea for how I thought Karen would have related to the others. I decided that she would have looked up to the Tenma brothers, but that Richie Merced and Depre Scott would have had similar issues with her that they did with Gekko Tenma. I never planned to explore this, just keep it in mind as a potentially defining aspect of her character backstory. Then I decided to pit the Card Professors against my Duel Force, and I was glad to have that backstory worked out. It gave me the leverage I needed to force Karen to finally confront Pegasus and force him to admit to some of the horrible stuff he'd done. And that gave me leverage to allow Karen to come to terms with her past as a brainwashed member of the Duelists of the Order. It came together so perfectly that it was almost too good to be true.

So here it is, the culmination of Karen's story. She went from a confident, manipulative enemy, to a perfectly competent ally who was afraid to cut loose and utilize the skills that being manipulated by Yami had brought out in her, to rejecting her Duelist side, to someone who could only show her full potential when someone she loves is threatened, to someone who has come to terms with her past, and is capable of balancing the positives and negatives about herself to unleash her full abilities. This is symbolized in the fact that Karen looses her deck, and is forced to rebuild it from scratch. It parallels the fact that she had to rebuild herself from scratch after realizing that it is possible to use the dark aspects of yourself to build a better person.

The question here is, will she be able to set her emotions aside and duel Richie objectively, or will her animosity for him cause her to loose her cool and fall victim to Richie's quick, ferocious style? Karen, at her best, is my most powerful character, but Karen has also shown that being emotionally compromised puts her at a disadvantage. And considering that we've moved past the filler duels at this point, this thing can go either way.

Wooow, that got wordy.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Sibling Rivalry;

Karen vs. Richie Merced

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

You know, I give Nate a lot of crap. And sure, a lot of it is deserved. He's a grade a douchenozzle. But that can't all be real. It's not possible for a person to be that self-centered and still function. In the first chapter told from Nate's point of view, we get some pretty definite cues to suggest that a part of his outward persona is false. Not all of it. He's definitely a narcissist. He's just not as bad as he pretends to be.

It's also implied here that Nate went on some kind of personal journey of self-discovery at some point after he lost to Jen back in DF2. And I bet you're wondering if I'm going to go back and reveal the details of that journey. Well, buckle up, because I'm definitely not. Yeah, a little anti-climatic, but I don't really care. I want this series to have a couple of unexplored major noodle incidents.

In this chapter, Nate fights the number six Card Professor, Willa Mette, who uses dragons who share their abilities with each other, and steal power from their opponents. His strategy is, conceptually speaking, very similar to Nate's. It's actually the entire reason why I paired these two up.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Nate vs. Number Six

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

Hey, guys! It's another Amanda duel! To be fair, she comes closer to losing here than she has to any other Duelist (who isn't Jen), but that doesn't prevent her from being her typical kinda pompous, overconfident self. I think even Amanda has realized by now that she isn't allowed to lose to anyone who isn't the story's main villain (or again, Jen).

Before the duel happens, though, we get some dialogue between Max and Reiko, and, surprisingly enough, spending time with someone who Max might be romantically attracted to, who isn't just as damaged as he is may have sparked a desire in him to change his ways for the better. Who'd'a guessed?

Chapter Twenty-Five

Amanda vs. Number Five

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

Finally Max gets to duel in this book. He's as sharp as ever, but the events of Reaper are definitely getting to him, more than he's willing to admit to himself. Max needs to move on, and maybe make some changes in his life, and the way that he does things. Maybe something will happen this chapter that will inspire him to do that!

Chapter Twenty-Four

Max vs. Number Nine