Yu-Gi-Oh BLANK

Byron

Dan didn't respond. He seemed to be completely unconscious.

"Well...that's...weird..." He mumbled to himself, as he grabbed the card, inspected it for a moment before he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Um...yeah, hello? I need an ambulance...this guy's out cold and I don't wanna leave him out here in the middle of nowhere...'

Byron

The ambulance arrived soon enough, and a rather annoyed EMT climbed. He glanced at Dan as a co-worker got him onto a stretcher.

"Christ," He said to no one in particular, "Third one tonight..."

"Say," He turned to Byron, "Were you dueling this guy before his lights went out?"

"Er...yeah actually." He said, miming to his hand. "Had this weird glove and everything, and everything about the duel seemed real..." he paused. "Wait, has this happened somewhere else tonight too?"

Byron

"Something like that," The man remarked as he assisted in lifting Dan's stretcher into his vehicle, "We picked up two others earlier, both after they lost in a game. Right Marcus?"

The other EMT gave a simple nod and thumbs up as he shut the doors of the ambulance.

"If I recall correctly, they were an old professional duelist and some British kid. Ring any bells?"

"Um...not off the top of my head...but if anything does come to mind, I'll contact you, sound good?" he chuckled a little bit, rubbing the back of his head. "I should...probably get going, I'm in the tournament and should get some...rest...'

Byron

"Alright, you'll know where to call us," The EMT remarked as he got back into the passenger's seat. The ambulance restarted it's siren and drove away, leaving Byron behind.

Hotel Roof

Unbeknownst to Byron, on the hotel roof sat the same masked figure who had observed Anna and Jerome earlier in the day. They seemed a little disappointed, not that it showed through the mask.

"Dang, missed the main act..." They muttered to themselves as they got up. They took out their duel disk and opened up a holographic screen, showing a man in a breathing face mask.

"Are you done yet?" He asked grumpily.

"Yeah, but I missed everything," They replied, slightly annoyed, "So, anything happen while I was busy?"

"No, but you need to get back here," He coughed, "We need to be ready for the... festivities tomorrow."

The figure turned off the screen and walked away, "This is gonna be fun." They said to no one.

"Maybe I'll even get to duel."

Yuria put on her pajamas and slammed on her bed. "Aaaaah!"

She looked at her laptop to check her grades for homework. She got 78% total. Normally she would be upset at the grades but the excitement of the tournament was getting into her.

Gotta sleep, gotta sleep. Can't duel with a sleepy brain.

Allin's Hotel Room

The pop star reclined in his chair as he set his deck to the side. "There we are. Changes made. Never really had opportunity to improve this deck much... Too stagnant, not enough time... But this... This is a great opportunity." He looked at his other decks, a World Chalice and a Crusadia, both very much his own, but not quite as "him" as Orcusts were. Well, World Chalice maybe... But Orcusts were undoubtedly the one that most fit his public image.

Heaving a sigh, he wheeled his chair up to the desk where his laptop was. High end, obviously for gaming. The typical pointless lights shining brightly in the dimly lit room. Slipping on his headset, he booted up one of his favorite online games. "I doubt a few matches will hurt."

Anna looked up and saw that it was Jo from the tournament. She gave the same blank, apathetic expression she always did and just shrugged. "No, not really. Someone collapsed, so I took them in."

She paused for a moment as she thought about saying more, but she decided against it. Seemed like more trouble than it was worth.

"You?"

That apathetic look of hers was admittedly not helping his mood at the moment, but he doubted she cared much for that. Jo sighed and shook his head as she detailed the events of the night to him, frowning at the mention of the other unconscious person. "Yeah, I had more or less the same night. My opponent from the tourney challenged me to a rematch and he conked out when I beat him again. To top it off, we both could feel the pain of the monster's attacks whenever we lost life points..."

"So if they're cast as spells, do cards that proc off spells being cast touch these cards too?" Mara asked. "I'm also guessing there aren't any pendulum Amazonesses, huh. You figure I should tech in Earth and Warrior cards to make these work?" She frowned. "I mean, I didn't see you have any Pendulums in your deck. Is this more like how it used to be a couple years ago, where you did Synchros or XYZ's, but it was fine to only focus on whichever your build was better for? Because I've been just using Fusion monsters to make a point about older cards versus power-creep and new cards, but I don't know if I'm gucci or not against, like, the dude with the Goukis, or that one kid with the bajillion Mermalanteans and zero life outside the game, you know what I mean?"

Edited by Taco on Dec 22nd 2018 at 10:42:49 AM

Mellie nodded. "Yup. Spell Counter cards get Spell Counters, Anti-Spell Fragrance forces you to set them, all that. And yeah, there aren't any Pendulum Amazoness monsters, unfortunately." She shrugged. "I don't run any Pendulums, since I've got a big range of levels and there aren't any good Plant Pendulums, but there's a bunch of good Warrior ones. I'm sure you can find some nice ones to splash in. Those "Empowered Warrior" Pendulums have pretty decent scales and generic effects, maybe try those out."

"Other than the Pendulums, I would recommend you splash in a couple Rank 4 Xyz Monsters. Just a couple, y'know, in case you need some cheap removal. Castel, Number 101, that sort of thing."

"Huh." Anna's eyebrows furrowed as she took in what Jo just told her. "Weird. The same thing happened to me too."

"Hmmm..." Anna sighed warily as she looked down and closed her eyes, just thinking about this was making her tired. "What a bother..."

"Is that how you came across the guy you brought in?" He asked with a look of concern on his face. "Are you hurt? Are they hurt? Do we tell someone about this..? Would that even really change anything?" He added, firing off several questions quickly.

Mara started taking notes on her phone on all the stuff she was picking up. "Okay, alright, I getcha. Is Fusion even any good anymore? I had that dope lock with Pet Tiger and Queen but I dunno if it's worth the setup, especially because I gotta draw Polymerization." She frowned. "I feel like I'm in way over my head here."

Anna just looked at Jo and shrugged.

"I dunno."

Mellie waggled her hand from side to side. "Ehh. It can be good sometimes. I know Heroes are still pretty big, for example. In your case, I might cut down on Fusion cards a little bit, but only if you don't really wanna take out anything else for the Pendulums. Just think of it as a backup plan, rather than the main focus of your deck."

Day 2

Eventually, all the round one participants settled into their rooms at the hotel. Mellie went back to her own room, leaving Mara to modify her deck, while Jo, Scott, and Anna came back from the hospital, with the knowledge that they'd be informed of any changes in the people they brought there.

The next morning came quickly. Breakfast was served to the tournament players, either by room service or from a nearby restaurant. Soon enough, everyone returned to the same place they'd been yesterday; New Decker Stadium.

Instead of the two divisions of the previous round, there was enough space for everyone in the second round to duel at once. As such, there were a decent amount of new faces in the waiting room, including the now recognizable Allin.

And once again, the majority of the second divison of round one found themselves sitting together.

"Welcome back everyone!" Kayla's now-familiar voice rang out over the stadium, along with a slightly outdated speaker in the waiting room, "It'll soon be time for the second round of the Blank! Card! Tournament!" The slight echo of excited cheers could be heard by the waiting participants, "In just a few moments, we'll be announcing the matchups among the survivors of round one! We've experienced a slight issue 'Behind the curtain' so to say, so we're going to be slightly delayed. Luckily, this'll give some of you who're lagging behind a chance to not miss anything. Until then, we have managed to set up a timer, so try to get in before you hear it go off!" At this, the faint sound of a virtual clock ticking began be heard outside the room, though luckily it, unlike Kayla, was not being played through the speakers.

"And personally, I'll be wishing each and every contestant good luck! See you all in a few!"

1 hour before Round 2.

Yuria and her bodyguards were inside the car driving towards the stadium and this time Rooked was behind the wheel. Yuria remembered something he promised to Gabriel.

“Oh, I almost forgot this. Mr. Knightley, Gabriel said hi to you.”

Knightley raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? He just said hi to me last night… and this morning! The boy really goes overboard with the hi, huh?” He laughed.

Yuria would have laughed, but she had more news. “There’s one more thing. Gabriel told me that Jen just came to visit yesterday.” Knightley’s laughter stopped.

“Jen… I know it’s a cliche for me to be mad at my daughter’s hobby, but come on, Turbo dueling is extremely dangerous, not to mention illegal! I’m afraid she might leave a bad influence on Gabriel too. Why doesn’t get into a more wholesome hobby like regular dueling, on foot?”

Yuria sat silently inside the car while Knightley rambled on. She did not tell him that she found Turbo Duels fascinating and had been hunting down Turbo Duel videos online.

“Miss Yuria, we’re here,” Rooke said.

With her bodyguards behind her, Yuria headed to the waiting area.

Waiting Area

Allin was all dressed up, the very pinnacle of pop stardom, with makeup perfect, hair silky, and extravagant outfits all the more accentuated by the extravagant duel disk on his arm. He looked around at the fellow competitors, all new faces to him, and smiled. "So, you all are my competition? A lively bunch you lot seem. Lets all put on a good show shall we?"

Mellie had taken up her usual seat in the corner again, but looked noticeably more relaxed, though she still didn't say much. Instead, she was shuffling her deck meditatively, staring off into the middle distance. Occasionally, a faint blush would cross her cheeks, but then disappear just as quickly. Allin's entrance was... interesting. She didn't think she'd seen him last time, and he definitely seemed memorable, if nothing else, with that bordering-on-gaudy outfit and makeup better than she could ever manage. He'd probably been brought in to replace the clown guy, or something; Mellie had recalled seeing that he had dropped out of the tournament for "personal reasons" on a news feed the night before. She gave Allin a nod, and said, a bit quietly, "Of course."

As Yuria entered, she saw a few familiar face. Allin looked radically different from the guy she met yesterday. She has seen him on the stadium, but this is the first time she saw his flashy mannerism and outfit up close.

"Hello, everyone, hi Mr. Dude."

Waiting Room

Two new people entered the room. The group sitting in the corner, with the exception of Allin, recognized one of them as Sam, Billy's opponent from yesterday. The other newcomer was a woman with short dark blue hair, which barely reached past her nape, wearing corporate clothing. A few of them recognized her as Kayla, the tournament's announcer.

"Hello everyone, I'd just like to be introducing, or reintroducing, Sam here," Kayla announced to the room, with a clear lack of the energy she had when she was announcing earlier, "As some of you may know, Mr. Coleman, Sam's opponent from the last round, has dropped out of the tournament. Apparently he had attracted some attention from a few wealthy sponsors, and ended up having to leave in order to work out contracts with them."

She glanced over to the round one and a half group, "Before leaving, however, he did say to wish his fellow competitors from his group the best of luck," She said with a soft smile.

Kayla then turned her attention back to the room at large, "Anyways, Sam here has been chosen to replace him in the brackets. The matches will be starting in a few moments, good luck to all of you."

Kayla turned to leave, but turned her head back to look at the contestants.

"See you all in the arena," She remarked energetically.

Yuria raised an eyebrow at Kayla. She got a bit suspicious. Perhaps she watched too much anime, but she did not find herself comfortable around someone named Kayla Kilman. That name sounds like it wants to kill me twice. But more importantly, too bad Mr. Billy has dropped out, and this girl Sam, he uses a Ghostrick deck, doesn't she?

Edited by RAlexa21th on Jan 28th 2019 at 5:07:16 AM