Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Clubit Academia ❯ A Theif Deck ( Chapter 4 )

Part 4: A Thief deck

 

Rules, he was beginning to hate them.

 

People had started to disappear about an hour ago. Unlike Shariku, the majority of them had actually gone through the door, apparently heading for their individual dorms. It wasn't until the place was nearly empty and Zen had left him that he realized he didn't actually have a place to stay. That's when Kenshin had appeared.

 

Kenshin had been, really, the only reasonably nice person to speak to him since he got here and it felt a relief to be talking to somebody who was actually able to smile to him as he spoke without merely praising him. Approaching him politely, he had introduced himself and welcomed Paine to the Academy, asking him to follow. Paine wasn't sure, but he figured he was being led to a place to stay for the night.

 

However, this politeness hadn't stopped the teacher from going into a series of rules about the Academy, another list of common sense niceties that should have been obvious to follow. The purple robed duelist had already explained to him that, despite basic warnings and common sense, people still engaged in breaking these rules all the time, so it was understandable to find people repeating them all the time.

 

“I guess there is only one main rule to keep an eye on,” Kenshin said with a smile, releasing a Scottish accent from his lips that didn't suit him. “You're restricted to three official duels a day.”

 

“What?” Paine replied surprised. “Is that it?”

 

“You can still duel informally,” Kenshin replied, extending his light hearted grin like it would compensate for the problem. “It's just the duel disks and the battle network records every move within a duel, to help with research and if people do too many it clogs the system. Big time lag. Plus, it stops people abusing the system, like your opponent today did.”

 

“Abuse it, how?” Paine asked curiously, walking through the double doors and into an outside area. From here, he could see a multitude of tall, Victorian style buildings encompassing the small square courtyard, four paths leading to them with a fountain in the middle. Above, the sky was pitch black, save for the cracks of light that made up the stars. By the fountain, two boys played a match quietly, both looking very sullen and quiet.

 

“Not in your duel. It' just figure screwing, and it is a pain,” Kenshin replied. “People duel their friends and fake a win, then do the same for each other. Since the points can't go down for losing, people could just keep stacking them up as much as they want. It's why Shariku set up the ranking system.”

 

“Ranking system?”

 

“Oh right, you haven't heard. I'll leave that for Shariku to explain, especially since she requested to be your homeroom teacher.”

 

“She did!” Paine shouted out, catching the attention of the two boys as they walked on by.

 

“Yeah, I thought it was strange too. First time ever. You must have really caught her interest.”

 

“I was kind of hoping to get away from her, to be honest.” Quickly remembering he was speaking to another teacher, the brown haired boy found himself stuttering all over the place, quickly trying to take back his words. He still meant them; she was annoying, impolite and openly violent.

 

“It won't be too much of an issue,” Kenshin replied, laughing an outmost childish laugh when he heard this. “It's not like you're forced to see your Homeroom teacher all the time. She's just there for advice and a lecture at the beginning of each week.”

 

“But wait, aren't I supposed to join a dorm?”

 

“I'll tell you in a minute, hold on.” Stopping, the red headed teacher turned around to face the two boys, both of which were still quietly sitting in the middle of their duel. It took a few moments of silence for Paine to realize that they weren't saying or doing anything. The one whose face he could see, a blond haired boy with a Resident Evil t-shirt, appeared to be doing his utmost best to hold his breath, a smile dancing around the edge of his lips.

 

“Dorou,” Kenshin called out, his face looking a lot sterner than before. “Give it back.” Standing patiently, Kenshin waited, the two children continuing to just sit there, one of them clearly putting a monster down on the wrong part of the field.

 

“I'm not telling you again…” Before the teacher could finished, the blond kid burst out into hysterics, the one with his face hidden quickly following him as their laughter filled the once silent courtyard like a hyena pack had been let loose on the campus.

 

“Sorry, sir,” the boy replied, getting up and revealing a duel disk hidden between his legs. Approaching them, he continued to laugh as quietly as he could to himself.

 

“Don't call me that,” Kenshin replied, taking it back off him with a snatch. “And if you continue doing this, I will be forced to act out that role.

 

“Chill, it's back,” the shaggy haired blond replied, lifting his hands defensively and taking a few steps back.

 

“He stole that off you?” Paine exclaimed, without care for keeping his voice down. He hadn't seen anything, and he was walking slightly behind the professor. He knew he hadn't been paying complete attention, but still…

 

“Dorou_the_laughing_theif strikes again,” the boy cheered, jumping around and rattling fake gold bangles around his neck. For a thief, he certainly was noisy.

 

“You ruined it as well,” Kenshin muttered, looking falsely hurt. “Here,” he said, passing the Duel Disk to Paine. “This is for you.”

 

“”For me,” Paine repeated, hesitating for only milliseconds before taking it a little too eagerly, feeling the urge to apologize well up inside him.

 

“I was going to give it to you when you got to your room, but I guess here is just as good.” Barely listening, Paine studied the sleek design of his new device, admiring the metallic grey as moonlight glinted off of it.

 

“Thank you very much… Can I duel right away with it?” Was it too late? He really wanted to duel someone now.

 

“You'll need your deck first, but yes. It is fine,” Kenshin said, a sweet smile back on his face as if he had seen something humorous.

 

“I have that right…” His words stopped, their production being halted as his brain processed the lack of cards around his belt, or even the belt itself. “What? Where did they…” Glancing upwards, he immediately caught sight of his lost items, hanging from the shaggy blond's hands, his friend sniggering openly now. “Give that back!”

 

“Sure thing,” the boy replied between chuckles, tossing the leather belt back like he was returning a pencil. Quickly sliding it on, Paine made extra sure it was securely fastened round his waist, before looking up again. “I'm Dorou, by the way, nice to meet you.” As much as he wanted to return the greeting, Paine found the words refusing in a huff not to fall off his tongue. You don't just steal people's stuff like that, even if they don't see how he did it.

 

“You'll have to excuse him,” Kenshin said to the side, scratching the back of his head and laughing nervously. “He's always been like this. It's practically a condition.” Looking deeper at the boy now, Paine saw a grin that looked like it wasn't laughing at the expense of another. His feet hesitating to move forward, he stuck out his hand.

 

“Paine59,” he stated, feeling his hand almost being crushed, Dorou's grabbing it with a slap and shaking firmly.

 

“59, ey?” he said as if amused. “Well, I guess I can't complain. I have underscores in my name.” Letting go, Paine turned around, intending to walk away until a thought stopped him.

 

“You know, in acting, it's considered bad to laugh at your own jokes. You shouldn't…”

 

Dorou was holding his duel disk again.

 

“Oi,” he shouted, grumbling to himself as Dorou started laughing loudly again, the high pitch sound repeating like a jibber jabber, refusing to stop. Feeling his eyebrows fuming at the compulsive thief, with even the teacher giggling a little as well, Paine took a step forward, screaming for his disk back.

 

“Yeah, yeah. Man, your face is priceless,” Dorou said, tossing it back with no second delay. Paine couldn't believe this. It was the height of rudeness. Not just the theft, but the constant humiliation of it all, and to do it when someone was trying to be friendly…

 

“Are you asking for a fight?” he said menacingly, his fist clutched as the duel disk sprang back to life.

 

“This does appear to be how I get them,” Dorou replied, taking his eyes off of Paine to turn around and fish another disk out of his bag. “Luckily I still seem to have one duel left today. So…shall we?” Standing from his bag, the thief raised his hand into the air, swinging around to face Paine, pointing his keypad directly at the angry duelist. It took Paine a moment to realize he was beeping, but only an instant to accept it.

 

“Duel!”

 

“I'll let you go first,” Dorou offered, immediately bypassing the coin toss and drawing five cards. “Obviously I should see what I'm going to steal before I do anything.”

 

“How kind,” Paine said sarcastically, grabbing his first six cards. An internal groan echoed in Paine's head, doing its best to hold in a poker face. No monsters. Bad start in a way, although not completely.

 

“I'll start by playing Painful Choice,” he declared, ready to pull his deck out and search through for the five cards his opponent would have to choose from. His fingers near the deck, his felt a sharp burst of something, before five cards shot out on their own.

 

“Ah, be careful,” Kenshin called out, making him remember the teacher had been watching the whole time and not doing anything to break up the fight. Searcher cards seem to mess around with Soul Decks. Confused, he pulled out the five cards the deck had seemingly chosen for him. Two Friendly Dragon, one Stage Set, one Star of the Show and a card he thought he recognized, the Dark Wizard.

 

“Stage Set,” Dorou called out as the cards were presented to him. Cursing inwardly, Paine put the four monsters into the graveyard. With no monster revival that he could understand, he ended up slapping down three other cards face down.

 

“And I guess I'll play Stage Set,” he said, berating himself once again, hearing his voice sound as weak as his words. Like the incident before, the area went dark as the digital signature of the card was read, shadows now emerging from nowhere and filling the air, blanketing it in darkness. Despite the dark, Paine quickly noticed the no stage was appearing. Instead, he instead heard the whinnies of two horses from either side approaching, each carrying a wagon as well as a large wooden panel that he clearly recognized as a back drop with a simple green hill painted on it. Behind the hill, a castle was clearly visible. “An outdoor theatre?” he muttered to himself, the carriages parking themselves parallel to each other.

 

“You done?” Dorou shouted, breaking Paine out of his daydream.

 

“Right, yes!” Paine replied hastily. “I end my turn.”

 

“Hehe,” Dorou laughed. “A card that changes depending on its circumstances. This is why I love Soul Decks. Wait until you see mine.”

 

“What?” Paine cried out alarmed. “You?”

 

Grinning to himself, Dorou pulled out his sixth card, quickly replacing it with two others. “First, I'll play Pickpocket and Tax Cut,” he declared, waiting as the two cards materialized on the field, only one of them producing an image: that of a man in a fine suit, sitting behind a table wearing big rimmed glasses and looking all the more blind for them. He appeared to be trying to read something. “Then I'll place three cards face down, and end.”

 

Lucky, Paine found himself thinking, noticing he couldn't even remember the two cards he had placed down. If that was the case, then more than likely they would be Soul cards, so, from what he understood, he could rely on them to activate themselves when the time comes. But this was a surprise, looks like that woman wasn't joking when she said anyone could get a Soul Deck. Thieving scum like this guy… Drawing his next card, Paine turned around to look at it…

 

“Activate trap card!” Dorou shouted, the large image revealing itself. “Quick Snatch.” A large, cartoonish hand jumped out and stretched across the courtyard, still connected to the card by a long arm, and wiggled its fingers enthusiastically in front of Paine. “If the card you've just drawn is a monster card, it is immediately summoned on my side of the field face down.”

 

“What?” Paine cried out defiantly. “You can't…”

 

“He can,” Kenshin said, now looking a bit grimmer at the sight of the card. “That's his Soul Deck, the thief set.”

 

Without even trying to explain, Dorou walked over, doing the job that the fake hand looked like it wanted to do. “Oooh, this one has my name written all over it,” he said mockingly, quickly returning to his side of the stage. The backdrop flashed, indicating that the card was behind it.

 

“In that case I'll…”

 

“Flip the Crafty Thief,” Dorou interrupted, nearly making Paine's eyes pop out. A flip effect in the other person's turn?

 

Nothing happened at first, save the sound of a monster being summoned. Seconds later, Paine caught the sight of someone looking at him from behind Dorou's backdrop, shifting slightly, his eyes darting from left to right. Quickly covering itself in a dark cloak that made it hard to see, it ran across the open space, until it sat over one of Paine's cards. The card, Paine now recognizing it as the Spell card, Curtain Call, exploded in a spray of digital. The Crafty Thief quickly ran back across the room, hiding once again behind the backdrop.

 

“What just happened?” Paine said, completely mystified.

 

“Don't ask me, it's your card,” Dorou said lightly, no smile on his face this time, like he was honestly confused. Paine didn't know whether to believe it or not.

 

“In that case,” Paine grumbled. “I activate Late Arrival. I draw one card. If it's a monster, I get to summon it in attack mode immediately. I draw…” It had to be a monster, it just had to be. “The Phantom of the Opera! (1300/1100)”

 

From a distance, a note was heard, followed slowly by others. A deep, remorseful melody. Instantly recognizable, Webber's work floated through the ears of all in the courtroom, a hunchback of a man now playing beside a large church organ, faded into view like an apparition always there, his face hidden between broken shoulders.

 

“For every monster in the graveyard,” Paine began to explain, listening just as much himself. “This monster's attack is increased by 200, but if there are more than five monsters in the graveyard, it gets removed from the game. I have four monsters, increasing it to 2600, and since Crafty Thief is behind the Stage, I can attack you directly.”

 

To take its cue, Phantom of the Opera started playing louder, the pipes of the organs clanking and groaning as it did so. Slowly moving, slowly shifting, soon they were directly facing Dorou. In one thunderous movement, the creature by the instrument slammed its two bony arms on as many keys as it could, releasing a wave of pure pain from those pipes, directed straight at the Thief Duelist.

 

“I activate Magic Cylinder,” Dorou called out, a round, colourful cylinder appearing out of nowhere and absorbing all of the vibrations. The Phantom falling off the keys, the cylinder quickly redirected itself at Paine, the music releasing itself from the device as pure white energy which showered him.

 

His life points dropped down to 5400.

 

“End turn,” Paine muttered with frustration, not even noticing he had forgotten to act as the blast hit him. This guy was good! He had to admit it. Paine had been running around in circles from the start and the guy had yet to play a single monster. If he didn't plan to make a momentous comeback anytime soon, he might have started getting worried. Drawing his next card, his opponent called out to him.

 

“There's said to be a balance, even in theft, you know?”

 

“What?”

 

“Even if a person chooses the life of a thief, that life ain't easy. The cost of planning, the risks that are taken, and some other third thing. A thief can have just as hard a life as the most worst paid labourer.”

 

“What are you talking about?” Paine said, thinking it was a really strange time to be talking of such stuff.

 

“When I stole your Crafty Thief, it wasn't without price. Each turn, I have to pay a thousand points during my Standby Phase for as long as I keep him. However, this balance, merely has to be paid. It doesn't state anything about who pays it.”

 

Paine's eyes lit up.

 

“You're saying…”

 

“That's right. The effect of Tax Cheat means that any price I have to pay during the duel, is automatically divided between both players, meaning you have to pay 500 as well.”

 

Turning to his duel disk, Paine watched as the score dropped down to 4900.

 

“A burner deck,” Kenshin muttered, as if he was realizing it for the first time. Paine didn't know what that meant, but he could guess. He hadn't received a single round of battle damage, yet he was losing.

 

“And then I'll flip Crafty Thief again,” Dorou announced. Once again, the duelists watched, the black cloak reappearing and swimming over the grounds, before landing on Paine's other card. Paine was quite ready to scream bloody murder at the traitorous card, when it exploded, taking the trap card, Heroic Defeat, with it.

 

“What?” Paine muttered, instinctively catching a card as Dorou threw it to him, his mind reeling as his hands acted. The card now in his graveyard, he began to understand it a bit more.

 

`The Crafty Thief is a coward, already working slowly, carefully plotting to destroy the work of the good guys. However, he often falls victim to many traps.'

 

Reading this, Paine became aware of the lack of an invisible crowd as before. Wondering why, he almost missed Dorou play his first monster.

 

“I'll play Copycat in attack mode,” he declared, the two duelists watching as the strange creature merging with itself, blending around itself like split paint, until it chose a dark red, quickly becoming another Phantom of the Opera (2600).

 

Same ATK, Paine told himself. I should be okay for now.

 

“Phantom of the Opera,” Dorou called out. “Attack Phantom of the Opera.”

 

“A suicide attack?” Paine questioned openly, watching as the two netherworld creatures faced off in a duet of the same piece. Getting louder and louder, the two looked ready to burst, dark red facing grey in a cacophony of destruction.

 

“Activate the Trap card: Distraction Tactics,” Dorou called out, releasing his final face down card. “From nowhere, three dough balls fell onto the ground between the two monsters, exploding into black smoke. Both haunted musicians stopped playing, the smoke quickly dispersing as they did.

 

“What now?” Paine said impatiently.

 

“Distraction Tactics gives me the option to end the battle phase whenever I want. Although I can only use it three times. Each time I do though, I must pay a thousand points, and you know what that means.”

 

“I…have to pay as well,” Paine stuttered, knowing exactly what it meant.

 

“That's right, mate,” Dorou said laughing, the tax collector fumbling over several sheets of paper in a paniked frenzy of confusion as they both lost 500LP. Also, with the effect of Pickpocket, any monster that survives a battle with a monster that also survives gains an attack boost of 300, bringing both our monster's up to 2900. This means…” Staring to laugh, Dorou let himself go, filling the air, even his friend seemed confused this little, a nervous smile appearing on his face as he waited for something good to happen.

 

“This means I get to play Ring of Destruction on your next turn, and there's not a thing you can do about it.” Still laughing wildly, a joke only he understood, he placed a card face down. Paine swore he heard the thief's Phantom lose the rhythm for a second, deeply disturbed by this move as the maniac across from him ended his turn.

 

“Why would you do a move like that?” Paine screamed out across the courtyard. This was madness. The guy seemed to be playing him the whole way, and there was nothing he could do to keep it. The only advantage he had was the guy kept hurting himself.

 

“What does it matter?” his opponent replied, looking the most cheerful on the field, as the ring latched around the Phantom's head, activating before Paine had even drew. “I'm not stupid. How much changes in one turn? Wasting it with waiting would be far too dangerous. Play slow, act fast, ya know?”

 

Paine didn't understand. He wasn't sure he wanted to understand.

 

“Your not a bad dueller. You probably have a way to get out of our deadlock already. It's best if I just clear the field now, and take what I can from it.” At the end of his words, the hunchback by the organ detonated, its fingers still playing for a moment like nothing were wrong. The Copycat faded away as well, taking them both down by 2900 points.

 

A moment passed in silence, Paine finding himself wanting to escape from the duel…

 

“come on then, or will u just admit I pwned u rite now” Barely noticing the change in Dorou's voice, let alone wondering if the thief was mocking him or not, Paine blanked it out, wanting to get away, only his pride refusing to let him move his legs, instead taking control of his arms and pulling out the next card. There had to be a way to turn this around.

 

“Right, show me your next move. Show me what I have to take next,” Dorou said excitedly, his knees shaking like he was about to skydive off an airplane.

 

“No move. I pass,” Paine said simply.

 

His arms falling to the side, Dorou just stared.

 

“What?”

 

“I pass,” Paine repeated, feeling his strength return as he saw the passion fade from the guy across him. “Sorry for the anti-climax, but the moment where I defeat you hasn't come yet. Your turn.”

 

Thinking about it a little clearer now, he didn't know what the other duellist had on his mind anyway. There were no cards left in his hand. Paine had three, and although he could have used two of them, it felt wrong to do so just yet. Building up the suspension was another important thing for him, especially when he had just received Made Made.

 

Drawing his next card, Dorou merely placed it face down, his surprise already being replaced by a sharp grin which felt like it would sting Paine if he touched it.

 

He drew his next card.

 

Yes! The Godhand looked back up at him from the one card that the entire academy was now respecting. The card that changed the course of events, like a director interfering with the plot, Deus Ex Machina stood ready to fix everything.

 

But first he would have to make himself lose. Placing Made Made face down, he started his comeback.

 

“First, I'll play Encore!” he declared, placing the card down. The round of applause that had been missing the whole match quickly sprung to life like they have been nudged awake by the person next to them, an onslaught of cheering filling the room as, out of the carriage, a wizened old man in purple robe stepped out. Stopping immediately, the clapping turned into jeers and boos, causing the crinkly, and clearly evil, old man to bow anyway, like he was expecting it. “To bring back the Dark Wizard.”

 

Crying something out, over the noise, Dorou stopped and appeared to curse, his voice drowned out over all the booing. Paine didn't quite catch it, and his opponent had to repeat it louder. “…Misdirected Entry Point,” was all that Paine heard, when the Wizard quickly hurried back into the carriage, only to come out over by Dorou's copy of the carriage.

 

“What?”

 

After the constant jeering eventually died down, Dorou began to explain. “Misdirected Entry Point summons your monster onto my side of the field permanently. However, this isn't too bad for you, because if it gets destroyed through battle or if I try to tribute it, then I automatically lose 2500 life points.”

 

“Which I have to pay half of,” Paine muttered, only looking fussed now. Feeling drained again, Paine felt bad, even though he was about to come back. Jut how many times had he said `what?” today?

 

“I didn't say that, it's damage, not cost.”

 

Well, it doesn't matter now, Paine thought with a grin. Just let him attack, and Deus Ex Machina will win the rest for me. Looking at the last of the two cards in his hand, Paine smiled, feeling the warmth of another victory coming on, looking admiringly at his powerful monster as he took Encore! and played it, summoning the Star of the Show in attack mode.

 

“I didn't mean to do that,” he whispered, dry throat, his eyes wide, regret etched onto his face as the handsome Knight plodded out into the courtyard from his Wagon, a harmony of cheers once again filling the outside area.

 

“Aghast, you fiend,” The Star cried out, as if just catching sight of the Dark Wizard from across the courtyard. “After many months of travelling distant lands, facing ferocious dragoons and taming just as ferocious dragons, I have finally caught sight of thee. Now, Evil Wizard, it is time for battle. In the name of all that be good in our once prosperous lands, I shall smite thee.”

 

Paine wanted to groan. It wasn't like this was bad. He was on the verge of winning anyway. He just needed to get rid of the Dark wizard before his life points were taken away, then Deus Ex would have a clear field to attack.

 

“You sanctimonious fool,” the Dark Wizard croaked out, practically coughing over his words. “Your plight has been foolish, and your travels will have been for nought. Your whole quest is meaningless, to one of my power. Your bravery shall be turned to cowardice and your sword to Scrap Iron.” Shouting these last words, the Dark Wizard raised its bony hand into the air, unleashing a black lightning bolt from its fingers and striking the ground by the armoured hero, who let out a loud, yet with clear attempts to be hidden, girlish yelp.

 

“Your words cost you your head, my good man- I mean…errrrr,” the Star seemed confused for a minute, as if trapped in his own politeness. Giving up, it turned to Paine. “Shall I smite him, my lord?”

 

“Go on,” Paine groaned, waving his hand like he were king. Without hesitation, the Star charged at the wizard with full fury, pulling out his very heavy sword and flailing it around as he ran to the old crone. Not reaching him however, the Dark Wizard let out another black thunderbolt, which the hero caught with his sword. The two quickly hit a stalemate, the Star pushing with all his strength, the occasional, `by jolly grove' coming out of his mouth, while the wizard continued to chant, looking more and more blistered with each blank strike.

 

“Activate the effect of Distraction Tactics,” Dorou called out, both people losing another 500 life points, Paine now down to a thousand, with Dorou still on four thousand four hundred. The two eternal enemies faced off one last time, before jumping back to their ends of the courtyard.

 

“This is not over villain,” the Star stated.

 

“Likewise, young fool,” the Wizard hissed.

 

“Your turn.”

 

“Heh, about time,” Dorou chirped, drawing a card and glancing at it, before bursting into wails of laughter once again. Oh wow, this is perfect. I got it all planned.”

 

“Have you now?” Paine said smugly, knowing that, no matter what, he had at least one extra save should it start to go downhill.

 

“You see yourself as an actor, right, mate?”

 

“What?” Paine said, taken aback. “I guess so. No. Definitely.” Shouting, he reaffirmed himself.

 

“Well, I'm a thief, and let me tell you something about Thieves. The reason thieves succeed is by planning everything in advance. From beginning to end, we sneak into the battlefield, and we control it on both sides, all so we can take what we want. I've controlled you the whole way, and I can see exactly what you're doing. That card you've just placed down is Made Made, is it not.”

 

Unable to help it, Paine let his face slip, telling Dorou what he needed to know at the same time.

 

“That must mean the other card in your hand is Deus Ex Machina”

 

“How did you…” Paine started, but words failed him.

 

“I talked to Guldalf after the match, well, if you could count it as talking. I learnt all the cards you played. Tell me, mate. Do you know how a soul deck works?”

 

“A little,” Paine answered honestly. “I'm not too sure of it to be honest.”

 

“This is a little hidden tip for you, while we're away from the prying eyes of every n00b that doesn't own one. Soul decks aren't complete at first. They need to grow, slowly. It's why you can't bring yourself to look at the cards outside of a game, because you know if you look they'll just fade away.”

 

“What?” Hearing this Paine could not help but feel his eyes travel around the courtyard. Everyone here had a soul deck. The teacher he could understand, but what about this other guy?

 

“You should only have around ten to fifteen of your soul cards in there, and the others will be regulars or copies. Therefore, it becomes obvious.“

 

“What does?” he replied, feeling himself lost.

 

“You've played a variety of Soul cards already, meaning you don't have many left, if only one or two. If you've been holding a card for that long without doing anything, it must be Deus Ex Machina.”

 

He was keeping check of my cards from the beginning?

 

“I keep track you see. Everything you own will become mine, so I need to know what I'm taking. When the time comes, I'll steal your Deus Ex Machina. But first I'll place this.”

 

Leaving Paine visibly shaken, Dorou slipped a spell card into his Duel Disk. “Sneak Attack. At half his attack, The card this card is equipped to can attack a player's life points directly. Dark Wizard's ATK is 3500, so this attack might, but probably won't finish you off.”

 

How's he gonna steal it?

 

He has nothing else!

 

“Activate trap card, Made Made.” As if too late, the black lightning struck down at Paine, knocking him back and taking his life points down to zero. Fighting death for just a second, he grinned as his life points rose back to 200, the card doing everything it needed to.

 

“Sneak attack keeps Dark Wizard̵7;s attack at 1750, so if you want to attack with Deus Ex Machina, now's your chance,” Dorou said, not looking the least bit surprised that Paine was still in the game.

 

Something was wrong here, he felt it. Was there anyway for this thief to steal his Deus Ex Machina? He certainly made himself seem sure, but surely it was just a bluff, he has no other cards after all. Drawing his next card, he decided not to care.

 

“I summon Deus Ex Machina!” This time, the wagon just detonated, the colossal hand bursting through, wooden shards flying alongside glass, the hand shining with radiant glory, lighting up the darkness that surrounded the courtyard. Flexing itself a few times, the high powered, low summon monster bounced up into the air, landing on Dorou's side of the field.

 

“What?” Paine screamed out, not sure how much of this he could take.

 

“Oh?” Dorou muttered. “Did you not see? Misdirected Entry Point is…” The Dark Wizard started to step to the side, revealing the card it had come out from. “Continuous!”

 

“No…” Paine muttered, seeing his Godhand now facing off against him.

 

“Oi, don't get angsty over it, mate,” Dorou said defensively, Paine's head now drooping towards the floor. “It was a good game.”

 

His head down, he heard the boy's words, doing his best to ignore them. They struck him hard, the loss of Deus Ex Machina being more than he could bare after being humiliated at every turn.

 

“I think you broke him…” the other duellist said, now stepping a bit closer.

 

“Oi, mate, leave it,” the thief said with a loose tongue. “You get obsessed in these things and only bad things happen. Get over the loss quickly and move on.”

 

“Actually,” Paine said slowly, a heavy smile just see able under his nose. “I'm kind of depressed at not being able to win with Deus Ex Machina.”

 

“What?” Dorou said, the words visibly shaking him.

 

“The Star of the Show will probably get boasty if it wins the game for me.”

 

“Wh-what are you talking about?” Dorou said, looking around as if he had missed something important.”

 

“Take a look,” Paine said, grinning inside as he looked upset on the out. “Godhand is falling.”

 

“What?” Dorou said, the mighty hand falling apart at the seems, gold screws riveting out and shooting off in all directions, large planks of sheet iron collapsing as if the wind had blown a tree house down. “How?”

 

“A plot only has such a drastic change made to it when there is little chance of anything being able to rectify it. With such high life points, you don't need anything changing, so Deus Ex destroys itself.” Complementing this, the Godhand exploded, showing everyone in digitised information. Dorou fell down to 2000.

 

“The rest is up to you, Star of the Show.”

 

“Jolly good, my lord.” The man said, pointing his sword at the Villian of the Piece. “Your evils machinations end here, wicked beast. Today,” stepping forward, the man jumped across the field, flying through the air like a Peregrine Falcon, “I shall smite thee!”

 

“No, stay back. I'm warning you,” the old man said desperately, releasing blasts of energy that the knight now appeared to shrug off.

 

“Your dastardly methods have weakened you, old man,” the star continued. “Your attack on my lord has left you a shell of your former self, your body frail, nothing left to do but fall.” For some reason, the knight did not seem to be getting any closer to the ground, he hovered for more seconds than he should, swinging his sword round one full turn and raising it above his head once again. “Now the circle is complete, before I was but the learner, now I am the master.”

 

“Only a master of goodness, Rupert!” the Evil wizard shouted, before screaming loudly, the blade cleaving him directly in half. “Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

 

The Evil Wizard dissipated the same way the Godhand had, taking Dorou's points down to zero with a final explosion and ending the game.

 

…

 

Silence filled the courtyard, the image of the Star quickly fading, the disks resetting themselves to standby mode, Paine fumbled arkwardly with his Duel Disk off, pulling it off hurriedly and falling to his knees. He was sweating. When did he start doing that?

 

That was too close. If it wasn't for his using Dorou's abilities against himself, allowing him to weaken himself and then taking advantage of the Misdirected Entry Point, he mght not have been able to pull off the comeback of the century. But still, he was trembling, the whole thing had been worth every moment.

 

His thoughts were struck short, catching sight of his dismayed opponent, also looking at the ground, his face hidden. Paine found himself feeling even better at the notion that perhaps the boy had learnt his lesson, his own theft of the monsters and blatant spending had ended the duel for him. Maybe now he would…

 

“Dude… got your keypad.”

 

“What?” Paine said, realizing instantly that the boy was holding it. “Give it back!” Laughing more hysterically than ever, like his entire family was being held hostage and would be killed if he didn't, the boy rolled over the floor, his friend now blushing at the boy's actions.

 

“That was so cool.” Paine didn't think so.

 

“How can you continue to laugh?” he shouted. ”After doing something so stupid and humiliating yourself?” Standing over him, Paine watched as Dorou's sat back up, wiping the drool from his mouth.

 

“What else can I do? Hours of preparation and planning down the drain in a duel when impulsive thinking and stealing on instinct get me much further. How can I not find that funny?” To prove his point, he laughed merrily and whole heartedly. “In the end, a duel is a duel, a theft is a theft. No matter what, everything can always be returned.”

 

A little stuck by this, Paine quickly found himself forgetting the duel.

 

“That's honestly what you believe?”

 

“Uh huh. It's why I'm so strong.”

 

“Strong?” Paine muttered, wondering if this was true.

 

“Whew, it's late,” Dorou said, standing up and walking casually past Paine as if he had totally forgotten everything. Moving past the sleeping teacher, he opened the door that Paine was about to go through an eternity ago. “Come on, I got a spare bed in my room. You can sleep there.”

 

“What? No,” Paine refused.

 

“Well, it was where I was taking you,” Kenshin said, now half asleep. “It's one of the few beds left, so I'll leave it to you, Dorou.” Walking off, his head constantly wavering as he dozed off, Kenshin was out of sight before any of Paine's comments could reach him.

 

“Wait. I don't wanna,” Paine protested. “I don't wanna sleep in the same room as him. Mr. Kenshin, sir.”

 

“Oi, mate, don't call him that,” Dorou said, dragging him off through the double doors, his friend following. “He'll kill you.”

 

“I don't care, you're annoying. I'm sorry, but you are.” His protests continuing into the night, Paine failed to notice the two remaining figures in the courtyard, there longer than any of them, waiting for the dark mysterious conclusion to begin.

 

“Ten points in just one day, impressive…” the first said, a male voice speaking quietly under an accent.

 

“You say that's impressive. The Soul Deck alone makes me warm, makes him worthy of attention. His skill, well, it's still kind of low, but definitely worthy of further study,” the second man said, his voice young, but without innocence.

 

“Maybe. We'll have to see.”

 

"Yes.