Dueling life in a futuristic world

“That was fun…” I mutter, looking back at the club building.

I had a blast during practice. While the outfit was embarrassing, the girls were friendly and patient with me, making sure to compliment me, which really was really an appreciated boost of self-confidence. The toughest part was the stretching exercises. The way you train flexibility is by stretching past your limits… It hurts kind of lot, not more than the pain showers of Action Duel class but some girls here take painkillers to numb the pain (Painkillers here are not morphine, and completely non-addicting). And by some I mean practically every girl who isn’t also in the action duel course, so about 20 percent.

All in all, compared to the way I’m used to being treated. This was a breath of fresh air.

“Hey newbie!” I hear and then feel the familiar back slap Haru insists on greeting me with.

“Gr, come on Haru!”

“Hahaha, so how was it?”

“Fun.” I tell her.

“See! I told you would be a perfect fit.”

“I guess.”

“And don’t worry.” She leans in and whispers, “The girls are gonna be all over you, maybe even the boys, you never know until you try~,” Haru teases.

“Haruna…” I say, blushing.

“Oh, don’t forget, the initiation party is Saturday night.” She reminds me again.

“Are you sure you don’t want to hold off until you get more than 1 new member?” I urge her.

“Nope! We have to have it this week! You’re special enough for it.”

“Fine.”

And I walk away.

I’m a little hesitant with the whole “initiation” thing, especially after she asked if I was a virgin… I told her that while my hymen is torn I hadn’t had anyone yet… Yea, intense training does that do you. She laughed and told me it wouldn’t be a problem..

By the way, if you're wondering about the other fun part of having a vagina, yes, that happened. My takeaway? Tampons are gross, pads are miserable and I do not know why with so much fucking technology around there isn’t a better way to deal with periods!... Well there is, it's just I'm still iffy about body modifications...

————

24/Ago/35MT

Action duel class… My favorite… Maybe, honestly, right now I’m strangely energized, might have to do with professor Mark Brown telling us it’s time for action duel training. By that, I mean we are actually going to be dueling. It has been 2 weeks since I started this course and, barring reading them, I haven’t held a single action spell in my hand.

After the Professor announced we will be dueling, the first thing everybody did was glance at me with worried expressions. The professor quickly reassured everyone that we will use the action duel projector in practice mode, meaning we will still be able to interact with our monsters, but other than pushing us back, they will keep the damage at a minimum.

This still leaves some students worried but has, for the most part, reassured the rest. After this the instructor announces that the first duel will be between me and a blue ranked upper classmen… Of course it is. Honestly, I’m thinking about building another deck. This one is fun and all but always winning, especially in a TEACHING institution, just gets you shit like this.

The Professor retreats with the rest of the class to the spectator stands.

I am left facing my opponent. A blue ranked guy with a slim, tall figure and short black hair paired with deep black eyes. His name is Matso Matamura.

Professor Mark grabs a mic from who knows where and starts.

“Alright. This will be a practice duel between yellow-ranked freshmen Yuumi Matsunaga and third-year blue-ranked Matso Matamura!” announces the Professor. “Duelists! Make your way to the starting area!”

We both follow that and make our way to the start of the course. The field will be the practice tower we have been using previously, but this time with action cards inside.

“Ready your duel disks!” announces the Professor. I ready my duel disk and additionally equip my duel gazer. The duel gazer is more than just an AR display for duels without solid vision. We can use it as a heads-up display. Showing an overview of the field and, if used in an action duel, mark where action cards are… I admit this is a bit cheaty, but I plan to starve my opponent of action cards and try to beat him with an FTK or OTK if I go second. My opponent is not oblivious to this, though, and also equips his duel gazer. Even though I can tell it’s a not as advanced as mine, it will be enough for him to have an idea which card I’m trying to grab. Less important is the feature that allows communication between opponents, as every duel gazer is equipped with a mic and speaker. Well, mine doesn’t have a speaker. The sound from it goes to the earbuds directly, and if I didn’t have them, I could speak but not hear… DragonFruit, what did you expect?

“DUELIST READY! READY… SET… START!” Professor Mark counts down.

When he yells start, we both start running to grab a golden action card. The duelist who catches it is the one who gets to decide the turn order and also gets it. The golden card can make any action card appear from mid air, giving an advantage to whoever grabs it first. We both run for it, but for some reason, I can’t seem to keep the same pace with him.

He runs up a wall and then grabs on to a ledge.

I try to copy but my jump comes up short and I fall down the tower.

He grabs the card. “GOT IT!” He yells, and I hear him in my ear. A video call opens in the HUD, and the duel starts.

“I’ll go first!” He announces and draws his hand. He’s also got the gold action card in his hand.

[“Draw phase, Standby phase, Main Phase 1”]

“First, I’ll activate my ‘Rainbow action!’ action spell to exchange it for ‘Double Action’, then I normal summon, come out level 4 ‘Goblindbergh’.” He starts his turn. “When ‘Goblindbergh’ is summoned, it allows me to special summon another level 4 or lower monster from my hand. I summon another ‘Goblindbergh’”. I can see on the video call that he’s grinning. Probably because of the XYZ summon he’s about to do. I hope he’s got something interesting. There are tons of rank 4 XYZ’s you can use.

“NOW! I use my two level four monsters to build the overlay network! OVERLAY!” He yells.

“Here it comes, ladies and gentlemen! Matso is about to XYZ summon!” announces the instructor.

“XYZ SUMMON! Come out rank 4, Number 39: Utopia!"

'Ohh, Utopia deck? I'm interested.'

"With this I end my turn” After summoning his monster, I notice his eyes dart to the top right, probably looking for my reaction in the video call window. So I give him my reaction. I facepalm as hard as I can while still not hurting myself.

'Why did I think this guy was going to make Utopia the lightning and equip it with ZW weapons? Of course not. He must be a fresh rank up. Utopia pass. Yuma incarnate.'

Before he has time to ask why I’m facepalming, I start my turn.

“Draw phase. Draw!” I announce. He’s startled, but not enough to freeze. Realizing that I’m not impressed by his play, he immediately darts away, trying to find an action card to defend himself.

My play from here on was the same as always. I activated “Pendulum call” by discarding “Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer”, adding “Double Iris and Oafdragon”. Then I put them on the pendulum scales.

“Here comes Yuumi’s famous pendulum summon!” announced the instructor.

“With my scales set, I Pendulum summon! Come out, my monsters! ‘Harmonizing Magician’ and ‘White Wind Magician’!” Meanwhile, Matso was still looking for action cards. He had already found one, but considering the expression he had made when he picked it up, I could tell it wasn’t what he wanted.

“Now ‘Harmonizing Magician’ on summon effect activates! Special summoning ‘Oafdragon Magician’ From my deck!” I was planning to summon something to facilitate me in collecting cards. “I tune level 6 ‘Oafdragon Magician’ with level 4 ‘White Wind Magician’. TUNING!” I can see Matso’s face going through various emotions. “Come out Level 10 ‘Baronne De Fleur’!”

“Incredible! A pendulum summons into a synchro summon! And a level 10 one at that!” comments instructor Mark Brown.

I look up at my monster. A two-meter tall white horse covered in pristine brass armor with some red inserts. Riding it is a tall female figure in white armor with gold accents. She wields a strange shield and a giant broadsword.

“Baronne! I require assistance. Would you permit me to ride with you and deny my opponent access to action cards?” I ask.

“Yes, my master.” Baronne responds in an ephemeral voice. I get on top of the horse with Baronne and tell her to get to a higher position. Her horse is surprisingly nimble, considering it’s wearing armor.

 

Even while riding, I still have to continue my turn. “I activate the effect of ‘Magician’s Soul’ by sending ‘Performapal Odd-Eyes Dissolver’ to the graveyard, special summoning ‘Magician’s Soul’ in face-up defense position!” I announce, and at the same time, spot Matso. He’s going for an action card. “Baronne, get me there!” I order and point to a ledge near the card.

“Now! I set ‘Harmonizing Magician’ and ‘Magician’s Soul’ as link arrows!” I continue my turn while Baronne is busy descending the tower. “Link summon! Come out, ‘Crystron Halqifibrax’!”.

“Incredible a Link summon. Will we see the legendary Penta-Summon this duel?” Questions the Professor.

I decide just to tell him. So I press the “Duel Announcement” Button and speak. “No, you will not be seeing XYZ summoning this duel. At least not from me. I have no reason to do it.” I announce to the spectators. A mix of disappointment and surprise comes from the spectators. The disappointment is pretty obvious, but I speculate the surprise comes from my not-so-subtle admission that I will be fusion summoning.

I continue the duel by link climbing using Crystron’s effect to bring a tuning magician from the deck. And then linking into Selene and using Selene’s effect to bring out “Performapal Odd-Eyes Dissolver”. By this point, I had already gotten to the ledge and stolen the action card Matso was going for. Unfortunately, it will be the last action card I can grab before having to discard one. You can only have two action cards in your hand.

“Tsk” Is Matso’s reaction to me sweeping down on horseback and taking his card. He then goes on to look for another.

After using Oafdragon's effect to add back 'Harmonizing Magician' from top up on the extra deck, I went in for the fusion summon.

“I activate Dissolver’s effect! And fuse ‘Performapal Odd-Eyes Dissolver’ with ‘Oafdragon Magician’ on my pendulum scale! Fusion Summon! Come out ‘Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon’!” I hear cheers coming from the crowd that seems to get bigger and bigger every time I look at it. I suspect someone might have revealed that I’m dueling someone at the action duel field, and that’s a duel people will want to see.

I considered riding Vortex for a second and then noticed the sparks of energy and spikes on its back and promptly decided to just keep riding with Baronne. Also, it seems Matso is sneakier than I thought. He found an action card the second I stopped following him.

‘Shit, I hope that’s not a problem later on.’

I then activate Harmonizing magician to my now free pendulum scale, much to the confusion of the Professor.

“Huh, it seems Yuumi just activated a card with the same pendulum scale as her other scale? I admit I’m not an expert at pendulum summoning, but I’m not sure what she’s doing here.”

I activate the Duel Announcement again.

“The reason for it is this! I activate the effect of tuning magician from my graveyard, allowing me to special summon it back. This effect only works when I have two ‘Magician’ cards in my pendulum scales.” I explain. But then continue my play, not turning off the Duel Announcement. “I now set ‘Tuning Magician’ and Link-3 ‘Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians’ as link arrows. Link Summon! Come out, Link-4 ‘Accesscode talker’!” I announce. The crowd goes wild for some reason, and the announcer explains.

“HERE IT IS! YUUMI MATSUNAGA’S SIGNATURE MONSTER. This is the monster she used to win every duel until now! Will that legacy continue?”

‘Bloody hell. How in all that is holy did I manage to get Accesscode known as my “Signature Monster”? Fuck, I'm changing my deck after this is over. Or I guess I could try a different deck... Maybe.’

“I activate Accesscode’s effect, targeting Selene to make its attack 5400!” I announce, and my opponent runs even faster while I keep following behind him. This is necessary as in an action duel. No damage will be dealt if your monsters cannot physically hit your opponent.

“Battle!” I announce

[“Warning! Battle Phase!”]

“I activate ‘Accesscode Talker’s’ effect! By banishing Crystron! Destroy Utopia!” I declare the attack, and Accesscode shoots a beam of light out of his lance that hits my opponent’s monster, destroying it.

“Now! Accesscode, attack Matso directly!” I declare the attack. But at that moment, my opponent grins.

“NOT SO FAST!” He yells, “I activate action spell ‘Action Barrels’! redirecting the battle damage back to you!” He explains.

Shit, I underestimated him… Or that would be what I say if I didn’t have Vortex hanging around.

“I respond to the activation of ‘Action Barrels’ with the effect of ‘Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon’!” I announce. But his grin doesn’t go away.

“I knew that’s what you’d try! I activate the action spell ‘Ashy air’! This negates the activation of Vortex’s effect!” He clearly thinks he’s got me this time… Well, he hasn’t.

“I respond with the action spell No Action! It negates the effect of an action card on this turn!” This time, he doesn’t seem so cheery anymore.

“The battle continues!” I announce. And Accesscode charges at him with his lance. He’s thrown back, but clearly not hurt by it.

“Now! ‘Baronne de Fluer’ finish this!” This time he’s just standing still and lets my monster hit him, finishing the duel.

————

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!” announces the Instructor after a few seconds of silence. The crowd mirrors him and starts cheering themselves.

I get off my summoned monster as the holograms disappear and walk next to Matso. He is lying on the ground, looking up. So I offer him a hand and ask. “Are you okay?”. Matso doesn't respond immediately, but after a few moments, he grabs my hand, and get's back on his feet.

“That was a duel” He comments with a conflicted expression. “Don’t know what to say. I thought I had you in the first turn.” Well, I didn’t. There was no way he was going to beat me there. Maybe he could have survived another turn if I couldn’t negate his action card. Still, I’m not going to be so blunt with him. People here care for their decks, and just telling them theirs is a piece of trash is an excellent way to get challenged to a duel, even if it’s the truth.

“Maybe, maybe.” I mutter, trying not to hurt his ego.

 

We both walk over to the spectator stands. They are way more sparse of spectators after my duel ended, but our class is still there.

The Instructor walks up to us and starts. “Well done in your duel! Both of you!” He congratulates us. “Yuumi, you still need a better grasp of how to traverse the action field. Although, I admit I was surprised seeing you get on top of a summon. That’s an advanced technique!” He reveals, and I give him a nod. Then he turns to Matso. “Matso, your movement was immaculate. But don’t forget, it doesn’t matter how many action cards you grab if your opponent can play through them."

"Yes, sir" Affirms Matso.

With our duel over, we both sit down at the spectator stands. Yasuna rushes over and congratulates me on the victory.

The rest of the duels are kinda off dull to me and go by slowly. So I did my best not to fall asleep, and eventually, the class was over. Yasuna once again invites me to lunch with Mia and Aiko as I get out of the shower.

“Hmm. Sure.” That's the answer I give.