Dueling life in a futuristic world

It was almost 8oclock; I had spent the afternoon moving my stuff and getting acquainted with both my roommate and the facilities. I mostly stayed away from the topic of what I would do tonight when making small talk to Yasuna, as she still had her reservations about it.

I was bored looking for whatever entertainment I could find on GlobalNet when the PA system rang out.

“Attention, new students arriving at the dormitory.” Announces a familiar voice.

“Miss Umeda also does the announcements?” I ask Yasuna.

“Yea, she does everything around here.” - she tells me. - “Well, it’s time let’s go.” and then urges me to get up from bed.

I do that and follow behind Yasuna. I didn’t even change since getting in, so I was still wearing my uniform, but I still double check I have my duel disk as I will need it.

“Are you sure about this?” - After getting to the elevator, I’m once again asked by Yasuna.

I know she’s worried about me, so I try to reassure her. - “Got this.” Don’t ask where that confidence came from. I don’t know it myself. But apparently it works, as Yasuna doesn’t bother asking again before we reach the lobby.

The lobby is full of students all looking up at their seniors, who are standing on the elevated platform in front of the elevator.

Yasuna urges me to get in next to the freshmen and I do it. She then goes up to the front of the other seniors.

“Well, well, well. Looks like we’ve got some fresh meat in here!” Yasuna announces. I can see the worried looks of the girls around me.

“NOW WHAT ARE YOU DOING STANDING THERE!!!!” - She shouts at us. - “COME ON! GO MAKE YOURSELVES USEFULL, FOLLOW ONE OF THE SENIORS AND DO WHAT THEY SAY!” She finishes her speech and starts making her way down the “stage” with the other seniors, the girls around me are worried.

‘So the whole military bootcamp bit? I didn’t expect that from the female dorms.’

I make my way next to her and she notices me.

“You sure you wanna follow me and not the other seniors? I’m not taking part in this.” She asks.

I shrug. - “If you think that is scary, I’m sorry to say, but I’ve experienced worse.” - Likely excuse for an orphan. In reality, let’s just say I’ve more that had my fair share of experiences. - “Also, Miss Umeda already showed me around, so I won’t need the tour. Besides, I doubt the others would be comfortable with me around, considering…” I point to the badge.

“Oh, yeah... Good point.”

So I follow her back up to the stage and look down with some other Senior students. They initially looked like they wanted to say something, but Yasuna just pointed to the badge, which made them back off. Again, I'm not too appreciative of the fear, but it hope what I'm about to do later tonight will fix some of that, at least with the freshmen.

————

Time passes, most of the new student are in their dorms already, the seniors are all chilling out in the lobby. They seem to know what’s about to happen, at least partially.

“Yuumi, are you re…”

“Yes!” I yell. Annoyed. - “*Sigh* please, I know the risks.”

“Ok, then…” She trails off. I hate making her worry like this, but what I hate even more is people that don’t know the distinction between bullying and playing around. Even more if they are doing it maliciously.

Like damn clockwork, three girls wearing blue uniforms enter the dorm like they own the place.

“WELL, WELL, WELL. What do we have here?” Says the one in front. She has blond hair tied in pigtails with two ornamental golden hair clips; she has blue eyes and her skin is porcelain white, like she’d never walked outside without sunscreen. Her figure is slim, and she is flat chested.

From the looks of the surrounding students, I gather that’s the one, and she confirms it herself by going up to the front desk and grabbing the mic. Miss Umeda has disappeared. I don’t know when. She was right there not even a minute ago.

“ALRIGHT, EVERY FRESHMEN IN THIS TRASH DORM REPORT TO THE LOBBY OR THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES!” She screams into the mic.

Not even 10 seconds later, I could hear the elevator going nuts, and after a minute the lobby once again was filling with students. I gave a knowing nod to Yasuna and descended to join them.

I joined my fellow freshmen and tried to get near the front so I could have the best opportunity for a dramatic revelation. After two more minutes, the elevator stopped moving and the same blue student started talking.

“Well, well, well…” - she mumbles while looking over the front row. - “Looks like we’ve got a fine selection of cattle this year… STRIP!” She orders. The girls around me strip to their underwear, and I decide to follow them and take off my uniform and skirt. I’ll go in when she orders something more drastic.

She looks over at us with a disappointed frown.

“I asked you cows to strip, didn’t I?” - She asks rhetorically. The crowd looks at each other, not understanding what she meant. As soon as she says that, I look down and grab my duel disk, then strap it to my arm. I also take the badge denoting my status and clip it to the front of my duel disk.

“THEN WHY ARE YOU STILL WEARING CLOTHES????? STRIP!!!!!” she once again shouts.

I can see the faces of my peers turn pale.

“OH YEA! Now you understand! Don’t worry, after this we’ll go show you off to the trash boys.” adds another.

The revelation makes the other girls around me look down.

They seem to be about to do what she says, but before I interfere, someone yells from the crowd,

"THIS IS GOING TO FAR! WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT?! YOU'RE NOT EVEN FROM AROUND HERE!"

This makes her turn around to the source of the voice. I also look over, and find a short girl with short black hair with side swept bangs holding on to another girl that looks like she’s crying. The princess makes her way over to them and then… Slaps her.

“HOW DARE A COW DEFFY ME!!! NOW SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!!” She jumps back and her duel disk projects a dueling blade. The girl now looks scared. She is clearly not equipped with a duel disk herself.

I can’t watch this any longer. I jump from the crowd, duel disk ready, then yell.

“STOP!”

This makes her hastily turn around to face me.

“Oh? We have another dissident cow? And what is this? This cow wants a fight?”

One of her “henchmen” then interrupts her by whispering something in her ear. This makes her face turn from the sadistic smile she had on to a serious poker face.

“Hey you.” - She calls - “Go back to your room, and I'll ‘forget’ about you.” It’s impressive how her entire attitude just turned 180 so quickly. Seems like one of her “friends” has at least half a brain to realize that dueling me, whatever the result, is a terrible idea. While it’s a compelling offer, I won’t back down now.

“Nope.” - I declare, looking her straight in the face. - “I challenge you to a duel!” I say, holding out my duel disk in front of me. Looking at the senior students, they are panicking while Yasuna looks like she’s trying to calm them down. It’s having mixed results.

She goes back to being furious and after some shuffling of the crowd, to clear out an adequate space for a duel. She answers my challenge.

“VERY WELL YOU COW! I GAVE YOU A CHANCE! SO DON’T BLAME ME FOR WHAT’S ABOUT TO HAPPEN!”

“Yea, yea, by the way. Do you only have one volume?” I taunt her.

“Hahahaha, joke all you want now. But I wonder, how will you moo after I win?” she tries to taunt back.

‘What does this chick have against bovine?’

“Let’s see about that. DUEL!”

“DUEL!”

I draw my hand.

‘Huh, not that good, but Duelist Alliance saves it,’

“Fir..”

“Not so fast!” I get interrupted by my opponent - “In the draw phase, I activate the card ‘Maxx C’. By discarding it from my hand, I draw a card every time you perform a special summon!"

‘Ah crap.’

This really limits my options. I don’t want to have her draw her entire deck.

“I normal summon Performapal Celestial Magician, then I’ll set a card face down and end my turn.” Yea, pretty weak start. I hope I’m able to stop whatever her deck is doing with Time Pendulumgraph.

[End Phase]

“Hah! Scared of letting me draw? Well, let’s see how that works for you! DRAW!” - She looks at her hand and smiles. - “I activate the card Allure of Darkness from my hand, so I draw to cards and then banish ‘Evilswarm Heliotrope’ from my hand.”

‘Shit, shit, shit! Evilswarm? What does that even do? I’ve never played that deck!’

“I normal summon rescue rabbit, activating its effect! By banishing it I special summon two level 4 or lower monsters from my deck. I special summon two ‘Evilswarm Heliotrope’”

She then raises her arm and announces, “I overlay my two Evilswarm Heliotropes! XYZ SUMMON! Come out Evilswarm Ophion!“ Her two newly summoned monsters are consumed and from the darkness comes out a black dragon with multicolored red and blue wings.

"Here it is!" One of her followers declares.

I know little about the deck itself, but I know used to be banned a while back.

“Not so fast!” I announce, “I activate my trap card! Time Pendulumgraph. By destroying a Pendulum Magician card on my field or pendulum zones, I can destroy a card on your side of the field! I destroy Perfomapal Celestial Magician to destroy Evilswarm Ophion!” Various portals open up behind me, then my magician enters one of them, and a blast of energy shots out of the portal, destroying my opponent’s dragon.

She is not happy, “Tch! Looks like you aren’t all bark! No matter, I’ll get you next time! I set a card face down and end my turn.”

[End Phase]

Cheering could be heard from the freshmen.

“My turn! DRAW!”

‘Nice.’

“I activate the card, Pendulum Call! By discarding a card from my hand, in this case ‘Magicians Soul, I add ‘Wisdom-Eye Magician’ and ‘Oafdragon Magician’ from my deck. With these cards I set my pendulum scales!"

"*Huff*, so you're starting with a pendulum summon, VERY WELL! Come at me PENTA-SUMMONER!" She yells.

I give her a smirk.

"Not yet. Now that I have a pendulum monster in my scales, I activate Duelists Alliance, adding ‘Double-Iris Magician’ from my deck. Next, I activate the pendulum effect of Oafdragon Magician, adding Performapal Celestial Magician back from the top of my extra-deck.”

“ohohohoh!” - My opponent laughs like a villainess - “Add as many monsters as your mad cow brain can think of! It won’t matter in the end!” Taunts my opponent.

“*Giggle*, Ok then. I activate the effect of Magicians Soul, by sending Performapal Odd-Eyes Dissolver from the deck to the GY, I special summon it! N…”

“Stop right there! I respond with the trap card, ‘Solemn Strike’. by paying 1500 LP I negate the special summon. Your pathetic cards can’t hurt m… HAAAAAAA!”

‘But the self damage can.’

“L-Like I was saying, your pathetic deck can’t beat me! Surrender now!” She finishes after recovering, still a little startled.

"That's right!" Another peon adds.

“Bold words for someone that just did a helluva missplay.” I reveal.

“What!?” she questions

“You’ll see.” I comment and grab the two remaining cards in my hand. - “With my scales set I PENDULUM SUMMON! Come out, my monsters!” I hold my now empty left hand up, letting the pendulum spin around for a bit of dramatic effect, and then I slap down my two monsters on the blade, making them appear.

“Crap!” comments my opponent

“‘Crap’ Indeed, if you weren’t so hasty about activating your trap, you would have prevented my pendulum summon. Honestly, after all that adding of monsters I did, how did a ‘Prestigious’ Blue Rank miss this?” I was overplaying how bad the misplay was, honestly it still did what it intended and prevented me from summoning another resource.

“S-Shut up! What does a Red Rank BITCH even know about strategy?!” she hisses.

“Huh, I thought I was a ‘Mad Cow’. Why did I turn into a dog all of a sudden?” I taunt.

“Tch!” she ignores my taunt, but her “Friends” don’t.

“HEY! Stop talking shit! You still haven’t even dealt any damage! Princess Aya will mop the floor with you next turn!” One says.

"That's right! Just because you can pendulum summon doesn't make you better than Princess Aya!" the other adds.

“SHUT UP!” ‘Aya?', screams at them, which makes them both stumble back.

“Hey ‘Princess’ that wasn’t very nice.” I say.

“YOU ALSO SHUT UP! Now continue your turn so we can end this!”

“Very well! First, I will activate the effect of Performapal Celestial Magician, it will only resolve in the end phase. NOW! I use my two monsters to build the overlay network! COME OUT, TIMESTAR MAGICIAN!” My monsters enter the familiar whirlpool of darkness, and from an explosion of light comes out Timestar Magician.

“So that’s your signature card? Pathetic! only 2400 ATK points!” Spits another one of my opponent’s companions.

“Really? Let’s see how that works out then. I activate the effect of Timestar Magician. By detaching an overlay unit, I add ‘Harmonizing Magician’ from my deck.

"NOW, BATTLE PHASE! Timestar Magician, attack her life points directly!”

“I don’t think so!” - ‘What now?’ - “I activate the effect of ‘Juragedo’ from my hand. During the battle step, I can special summon it and if I do, I will gain 1000LP!” She slaps the monster down on her duel disk and a tall abomination is summoned to the field. then  a green aura floats over her.

“Very well. I continue my attack, this time targeting Juragedo.” My magician shots a beam of dark magic from his staff that hits the abomination, destroying it.

“*Stumble*. You’ll pay for that!” states the princess.

“We'll see. With this, I end my turn.” I report.

[End Phase]

“Celestial Magicians’ effect resolves, allowing me to add any pendulum monster from my deck. I add ‘Astrograph Sorcerer’.”

“My turn! Draw!”

She smiles, “Looks like luck isn’t on your side cow!”

[Standby Phase, Main Phase 1]

“I activate the card ‘Reinforcement of the Army!’ Adding Evilswarm Castor from my deck, next I will summon castor!” A human shaped creature with some parts replaced by mechanical components appears on the field.

“Castor’s effect activates! With it I special summon another ‘Evilswarm Castor’ from my hand! NOW…”

“Stop right there!” I interrupt. “I use the effect of the still active Time Pendulumgraph, by targeting Wisdom-Eye Magician on my pendulum zone I destroy one of your monsters!” Wisdom-Eye floats into the portal, but is denied entry by an invisible force, regardless the portal still shots an energy beam that destroys one of her monsters. The portal then turns red.

“Windom-Eye Magician cannot be destroyed by card effects this turn because of the effect of ‘Pendulum Call’. Also, when this effect of Time Pendulumgraph doesn’t destroy two cards, I can send a card on the field to the GY. I use this other effect of Time Pendulum to send the other Castor to the grave.” The red portal shots an even more powerful red beam of energy that destroys her other monster.

“YOU BITCH! Don’t you realize you’re only delaying the inevitable?” Says my opponent.

“Really? Then continue your turn.” I instruct with a smug smile. She’s only got one card in hand, and already wasted her normal summon.

“Y-YOU!” - She yells and stares at her remaining card with rage, “I end my turn!” she finally yells.

[End Phase.]

“My turn! DRAW!”

‘Not useful, no matter my field is ready for me to pop off’

And pop off I do. First, I detached the remaining overlay unit from Timestar, adding another Double-Iris. Then I pendulum summoned Harmonizing and Double-Iris and used the effect of Harmonizing to special summon another Wisdom-Eye from the deck. Next,  I activated the pendulum effect of Wisdom-Eye set in scale, destroying then replacing it with a copy of double iris, this triggered Astrograph’s effect in my hand, special summoning it to the field, activating its effect to add a copy of Wisdom-Eye to my hand. The peanut gallery behind me theorized about what I would do next.

“I will now set Harmonizing Magician and Wisdom-Eye Magician as Link Arrows! Link Summon! Come out Crystron Halquifibrax!” I summoned my monster to much fanfare and awe from the red ranked students in the dorm. Most of them having never seen a Link summon.

I used Halq’s effect to bring Tuning Magician back, then linked Halq off with Double Iris to summon Selene. Selene then used its effect to bring back Odd-Eyes Dissolver from the GY. Before I continued with that line of play, I popped Double Iris using its own effect to add Star Pendulumgraph.

“I activate continuous spell card Star Pendulumgraph!” I insert the card into the duel disk and a gigantic portal opens above my monsters. Astrogarph Sorcerer moves to float just below it.

“After that I set Wisdom-Eye to my pendulum scal…”

“Are you done yet?” interrupts the princess after staying quiet since the start of my turn.

I tilt my head and ask, “Done with what?”

“Your turn? You've been playing with your cards for 6 minutes now."

I open my mouth wide, then copy her sadistic smile from before.

“What is this? Are you scared?” I tease.

“S-Shut UP! Continue, I should've never asked!”

I do as instructed and use Wisdom-Eyes effect to destroy itself, substituting him with Black Fang magician from my deck. This activates Star Pendulumgraph and I add White Wing Magician to my hand with its effect.

“Now I activate the effect of Performapal Odd-Eyes Dissolver! With Its effect, I fuse it and Blank Fang Magician from the pendulum zone! Fusion Summon! Come out! Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon!” Dissolver and Black Fang then mix with each other and from the resulting burst of light comes out an armored red and blue-eyed dragon.

The princess shudders and so do her companions. The freshmen, on the other hand, cheer.

“I’m not done yet! I set Link-3 Selene and Tuning magician as link arrows! Come out! Accesscode Talker!” The Link circuit once again appears and sucks up the relative light orbs of Selene and Tuning. From the center of the Link Circuit comes out a pillar of light that, after it dies down, reveals a giant Knight in Full Plate armor. “Accesscode talker’s effect activates, by targeting a Link monster that was used for its summon, it gains attack equal to that monster’s link rating times 1000. By targeting Selene, my Accesscode Talker gains 3000 attack points! totaling 5300 ATK.”

“5-5300 ATK?!” Stutters my opponent, clearly worried.

“Indeed.” I confirm.

…

[Your opponent is offering surrender. Accept?]

…

“I activate the effect of tuning magician from the graveyard! Special summoning it to the field.” - I brace for the self-damage and after the shock passes I continue. - “I now tune Astrograph Sorcerer with tuning magician! Synchro Summon! Come out! Borreload Savage Dragon!” Tuning magician fades into a ring of green energy. That ring then surrounds the seven green orbs that result from Astrograph. In the end, a beam of green light passes through the ring and a Mechanical Dragon emerges. I use its effect to equip Selene.

“Battle!” I announce, much to the shock of my opponent that had already surrendered.

“W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” she yells.

“What? Did you think I would let you go after that stunt today and the one last year?”

Her faces turns pale. “N-N-No! You can’t do this!”

“Hehe. Yes, I can!” - I hold my right hand in front of me - “Attack my monsters!”

“N-No! I activate the effect of Juragedo from my hand! It…”

“I chain the effect of Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon. By shuffling a face up pendulum monster from the extra deck, I negate your monster’s effect!” I interrupt her.

She’s now visually panicking. Her companions had already legged it out of there by the time I entered the battle phase, and now she was about to receive almost 16000LP of damage.

“P-Please! Spare me!” She begged as my monster’s attacks got closer.

“Strange, I would think some students last year also asked that of you.” I turn to the crowd. “Isn’t that right?” The red ranked crowd freezes, I can see the worry on their faces.

“YOU CAN’T COMPARE THAT TO THIS! PLEASE! I’LL DIE!” she implores.

“You’re right, at least this time.” I declare, still facing the crowd. “Princess, I will accept your surrender.”

I hear the monsters behind me dematerialize.