Chapter 4 - Test of Fate

The sounds of laughter echoed throughout the darkness, getting louder and louder. "I'm tired of this! Who are you!?!" yelled Ryuu, his amphibian companion shivering at his shoulder. "Aww, the poor baby misses his brother..." said a woman's voice, cold and tauntingly. "Show yourself you cowards!!" he screamed, his heart swallowed in fear. "No need to get testy, little Ryuu..." said the voice again, this time getting closer. Ryuu backed away slowly, trying to find an escape. "How do you know my name?! Who are you?!" he asked, his heart sinking. Fingers started tenderly stroking his face from behind him, the laughter coming from behind him, as well. "Why don't you relax a bit...?" she said, soothingly. He swatted her hands away from his face and started running, yet no matter how much he ran, it seemed he was going no where. Froggy flew off his shoulder and tried to beckon away the voices around him, but looking back, Ryuu saw that he was being grabbed by a single hand, sticking out of the shadows. "You insolent, little beast! How dare you get in my way!!" she said, throwing Froggy away like garbage. Ryuu ran back, jumping up, trying to catch him. "You leave him alone!!" ordered Ryuu, holding Froggy tight in his arms. A woman, the one who's hand had been sticking out, had appeared before him. She had long, blue hair, her eyes surrounded by dark red make-up. She was wearing a black and red gown, holding a large staff the size of Ryuu himself.
"Look at him, thinking he's so tough! It's too cute..." she said, and started laughing as Ryuu cowered in fear. He closed his eyes, holding his friend tight, never letting go. A crash was heard next to him, and he could feel the presences of something large near him. He opened his eyes, gazing upon a rather large ax, slammed right beside him. Two hands were holding on to the handle, even more laughter behind the ax. "I HATE CUTE!!" yelled a voice as the ax raised into the air. Ryuu got up and ran, but bumped into the woman in front of her. "There's no escape, little Ryuu..." she said, a smirk crossing her face. "Please...leave me alone...Why do you haunt me...?" he broke into tears, falling to pieces at her very feet. The woman started to pat him on the head, looking towards the spot where the ax remained. She nodded her head, and continued to laugh, uncontrollably "YOU BELONG TO US NOW!!!!" yelled the voice from nowhere, the ax just inches away from Ryuu's back as the hands swung it at him.
The alarm clock rang, reading 5:00 a.m. Ryuu immediately sat up, his heart pounding violently against his chest. Beads of sweat streamed down his hair, Froggy on the counter looking frightened. Whatever happened, Froggy felt it too, and that meant something was truly after him. He got undressed and into the shower, washing away any trace of sweat, the warm water soothing his nerves. There was a knock on the bathroom door, the sound of Sayiko's voice coming through it. "Hey Ryuu, I have some news for you!" Ryuu, feeling uncomfortable speaking to someone while he was in the shower, covered himself, actually believing she could see him. "Can it please wait? I'm sort of busy." he asked, lathering his hair in shampoo. "It's from the hospital! They say your brother is fine, he just needs some rest. They also sent over his deck they gathered from his room; they decided you should hold on to it!" Ryuu nearly forgot all about his brother; with things like the exam today, his current duels, and even his dreams, it was as if nothing ever happened to him. Yet something did happen to his brother, and now he had to watch over his deck. Jason's deck had a theme of Darkworld cards; a tribe of fiends that came from a realm called the Darkworld. With cards to force the opponent into discarding his monsters, he could easily use their effects once they were discarded.
"Of course..." she said, Ryuu feeling the smirk behind the door, "I could always get rid of it...or maybe even use it myself! I mean, the best duelist in school lost his cards, and here they are, right in MY possession..." Ryuu immediately rinsed his hair, turning off the water. He wrapped himself with a towel, and got out of the shower, grabbing the deck away from Sayiko. What he didn't know, was that Sayiko could see him blushing from being half-naked. "I can't believe the day has come, buddy!" he said excitedly, talking to Froggy as he covered his eyes while Ryuu got dressed. "I'm gonna become just as good as my brother!" he said happily, finally putting some clothes on. "I wouldn't be too sure! Now that he doesn't need to take care of you, he could head to Duel Academy too as soon as he gets better!" yelled Sayiko through the door. "But...he's too old to be in that school, he can't stay in a high school at age 18!" he called back, hoping Sayiko couldn't add anymore. "Yea, but he agreed to be the new Slifer Red teacher as soon as he got better!" she said, teasingly, already imagining the expression on his face...
"Are you all packed?" asked Ryuu as he stood by the door, holding a suitcase. Sayiko came walking down the stairs, holding two suitcases. "Lemme guess, one of those suitcases has a bunch of Kaiba merchandise?" he asked. Sayiko nodded her head and placed the bags into his arms. "Hey, why do I have to carry YOUR things?!" he asked furiously. "Because your a gentleman, and it would only be polite to carry my things..." she said, holding back from giggling. Ryuu tried to hold up all three bags, but eventually they got too heavy for him, and he dropped all of them on the ground. "Or maybe it's because you're lazy..." he muttered after giving a huge sigh, having to pick up all of the bags. The sound of a car horn was honking outside the driveway, waiting for Ryuu and Sayiko. "That's the cab! Come on, we're gonna be late!" she said, while Ryuu struggled to carry all three bags. Both he and Sayiko entered in the car, joining Derek to the town stadium for the exam. "So what deck did you bring Derek?" asked Ryuu, rubbing his sore arms. Derek looked out the window chuckled. "Well, I decided to choose a deck called Ceremonial Mayhem! How about you?" Ryuu took out his deck and admired his very cards. "I sorta call it the Yugi Motto approach: Just a simple deck, but most of my cards help my strongest monsters out!"
It was true that most of his strategies were based off of getting his strongest monsters onto the field. Whether it was his Sakuretsu Armor, or even Froggy, his best monsters would always pop up, but there was one thing that others didn't know about his deck. Ryuu had a series of cards that belonged to the Monarchs. Monarch cards were the kings of certain elements, each with a unique ability, only activated once they were summoned. "I can't wait to get there! How do you think they examine us?" asked Ryuu, his little friend croaking in his ear. "I heard that they have some staff duel you with an exam deck..." replied Derek, continuing to look out the window. "We're almost there you guys! I can't wait!" said Sayiko excitedly. The car pulled into the parking lot, the driver pulling out all of the suitcases and carrying them into the stadium. Sayiko, Ryuu, and Derek trailed along behind the driver into the stadium. Ryuu paid the driver and bid him farewell, walking in, and sitting in the seats surrounding the stadium. Apparently, they had stumbled upon the middle of a duel between one of the staff, and a girl. Judging by the looks of her, she was about the same age as Ryuu and his friends. The girl had long, wavy, blue hair and light, tan skin. The duel was not in her favor; The staff had 1400 LPs with a card called Blade Knight *att:1600/def:1000* on the field, while she had 300 LPs with nothing on the field. "It's my move" she said, drawing her card. "And I activate the field spell Umi!" As she spoke, the field became flooded with water. "Now I summon Amphibious Bugroth MK-3! *att:1500/def:1200*" A giant machine in the shape of a frog with two jets on it's back rose from the water.
"When Umi is on the field, my monster's special ability activates, where I can attack your LPs directly!" The staff backed away slowly, while two missiles fired from the bottom of its stomach. The missiles exploded at the staff's feet, his LPs went down to 0, and the game was over. The girl jumped off of the stadium and headed for the seats, enjoying her victory. She looked towards the seats near the entrance to see three unfamiliar faces. She walked towards the seats and plopped herself right next to Ryuu, tugging at his arm. "Hi! My name is Sui!" she said lovingly. Ryuu looked at his friends to see them holding back from laughing. "Uh...hi...my name is Ryuu..." he said uneasily, blushing. Sui started to blush just as much as Ryuu, and started giggling. "Uh...is there something I can do for you?" he asked, anxiously waiting to get onto the stage. "Maybe..." she said, her eyes never leaving him for one second. "Well then why...Oooh...oh boy..." Ryuu started turning red from embarrassment, his friends laughing their heads off. "Next up! Ryuu Kakushin!" called out one of the staff. Ryuu quickly stood up and ran as fast as he could onto the stadium. He scurried down the stair, climbed onto the stadium, and faced his opponent. "You're deck for the exam will be tested by the Token Monsters deck!" he said taking out one of his decks from the suitcase and placing it into the duel disk. "all right then! Let's duel!"
The hologram projectors launched, the LP count went to 4000, and the duel began. "I'll go first!" he said, drawing his card. This was it, the final duel that would lead him into Duel Academy! "I'll end my turn by playing one card face down..." he said, a single card forming in front of him. Ryuu couldn’t believe his first move was simply playing a face down; this was going to get too easy. “My turn!” Ryuu said, drawing his card. “I’ll play Mystical Space Typhoon to get rid of your face down!” Ryuu held his card up for his opponent to see, and a gust of wind shot towards the face down card. “Before my card is destroyed, I’ll activate it, a card that happens to be Scapegoat! This card places four Sheep Tokens *att:0/def:0* onto the field into defense mode!” and just like that, four balls of wool jumped into the field, each one a different color of red, blue, yellow, and pink. “Can he do that?” asked Sui, wondering what Ryuu was planning next. Derek looked to Sui and said, “Scapegoat is a Quick Play spell, which means it activates faster than other cards. In this case, Scapegoat activated before Mystical Space Typhoon could destroy it.” he shifted his eyes back to the duel, where Ryuu was frustrated to have four sheep block his attacks. “Fine...I’ll play Twin Headed Behemoth *att:1500/ def:1200*, in attack mode!!” he said, a two headed dragon flying into the duel
“Now attack! Twin Headed Burst of Flames!!” The dragon poised itself in front of the pink Scapegoat, breathing in, and then breathing out, releasing a huge breath of fire. The pink Scapegoat was soon engulfed in flames, totally obliterated. “Finally, I place one card face down, and it’s your turn.” Froggy appeared on Ryuu’s shoulder, croaking in his ear as he watched the opponent draw a card. “Now I’ll activate my Stray Lambs card! This card places two more Sheep Tokens onto the field!” said the staff, a white sheep and a pink one jumping onto the field. With all five of his monster cards filled, he was not allowed to summon anymore, and Ryuu couldn’t understand why he would set it up that way. “Get ready,” he said, placing a card in the slot, “because I’m activating United We Stand! It’s an equip card that gives one of my monsters 800 attack and defense points for every single monster on the field!!” The red Scapegoat started pounding his hoofs against the floor, his attack and defense raising to a whopping 4000. “Now attack with Charge of Destruction!!” he said, the red Scapegoat charging right towards Ryuu’s monster with intense speed, sending it flying once it made contact. Ryuu covered his eyes from the shock, his LP counter going down to 1500. “Next time, you won’t be so lucky...” said the staff, his monster settling down. He then played a card face down and ended his turn
“Before I start my turn, I’ll play a trap called Dust Tornado! It destroys one Spell or Trap card on the field, that face down of yours is no exception!” said Ryuu, a new gust of wind heading for the face down. The trap, Token Festival, revealed itself, and was sent to the graveyard. “That was close...” said Sayiko quietly, Derek and Sui puzzled by her statement. “Token Festival destroys every token on the field, dealing up to 300 for everyone of them. With 5 tokens destroyed, that would be 1500 LP, enough to end the duel...thankfully, he was able to destroy it on the turn he set it, which means he couldn’t activate it on time.” Sui gave a sigh of relief, knowing Ryuu may still have a chance to win. “Then I guess he still has a chance to turn the tides...” she muttered to herself. Derek, looked towards the field, praying for his best friend to make it into Duel Academy. “We’ll see soon enough, because it’s now Ryuu’s turn...” Ryuu drew his card, Froggy appearing beside him. “I know things look bad, buddy...” he said, holding his card in his hand, “but if everything comes out as planned, then there’s still a chance I can turn this duel around.” He grabbed his monster from his graveyard and placed it on the field. “What are you doing?! Placing your card from the graveyard and onto the field is illegal! Cheating in the exam ends up in immediate fail!!” said the staff, watching the monster arise from the field. Ryuu started to laugh and smiled. “Hold on, I’m not cheating. I’m activating the effect of my Twin Headed Behemoth. It allows me to special summon it with 1000 attack and defense points during the end phase of the turn it’s been destroyed, unfortunately, I can only activate the effect once in the duel.”
“Ah...I see...not bad.” said the staff, obviously impressed with a move not even he knew. “Now that I have a monster on my field, I have a tribute for my monster, Thestalos The Firestorm Monarch *att:2400/ def:1000*!!” Ryuu said, sending his monster to the grave. Suddenly, Ryuu’s monster was surrounded by flames, a loud shout coming from the center. Soon, the flames dimmed, and a man in red armor jumped out of the fire. The staff had noticed that the fire Ryuu’s creature jumped out of had remained on the field, yet was shrinking to the size of his palms. “What is your monster doing...?” he asked nervously, noticing Thestalos pick up the miniature flame. “Just one of my monarch’s special ability; once Thestalos is successfully normal summoned, I get to choose one card in your hand and discard it!” Ryuu looked carefully into his opponent’s hand, while Thestalos was tossing the fire from hand to hand. “I’ll pick...the card on the far right!!” he yelled. Thestalos was done playing with his fireball, and threw it as hard as he could towards one of the opponent’s cards. The staff’s hand started to burn, and he quickly sent that card straight to the graveyard. Ryuu was curious on what card it was, and asked, “Do you mind telling me what card you sent to the graveyard?” The staff picked the card up for Ryuu to see. “This is a magic card called Token Thanksgiving, why do you ask?”
A smirk crossed Ryuu’s face, and the staff didn’t trust this look at all. “I activate the spell Double Spell!! By discarding one spell card from my hand, I can use a spell from your graveyard!!” The staff gasped as the magic card in his graveyard started to glow. Sui on the other hand was cheering from the sidelines, while Derek and Sayiko wondered what Ryuu would go to the trouble of using the card for himself. Sui noticed the looks on their faces and smiled. “Don’t you guys know what Token Thanksgiving does? It’s like Token Feastevil, except you gain Life Points once the tokens are destroyed for 800 each!” Sui started cheering for Ryuu while Derek and Sayiko were amazed. “But that would leave the opponent defenseless, AND give Ryuu the edge!!” said Derek with a grin on his face. “That was really risky...had he accidentally discarded the wrong card, he might have lost...Way to play it safe, Ryuu!!” called out Sayiko after all the sheep tokens on the opponents side of the field have blown up. Ryuu was almost flattered by his friend’s comments and couldn’t help holding back a smile. “Yea well...what can you expect from a token deck...he must have about 3 in his deck...” he said, blushing, his frog friend floating around his body. Ryuu’s LP counter reached to a huge number of 5500. “Now then,” he said, his monster bursting into flames, “Thestalos, attack with Scorching Monarch Melee!!!” Thestalos jumped up and dove down towards Ryuu’s opponent, punching him hard in the stomach, his clothes nearly catching on fire. His LP counter lowered down to 1600 hundred, and the staff was knocked down.
“It’s your move!!” said Ryuu ending his turn. The staff raised himself up and smiled, then surprisingly, he started clapping. “Very good, Ryuu Kakushin. This exam is over, and I am pleased to say that you have passed with flying colors...” Ryuu was confused as everyone else in the room; Sui on the other hand couldn’t help from running up the stage and hugging Ryuu as the cards on the field disappeared. “Wait...I didn’t win...” he said, ignoring the fact he could not breathe from Sui’s hugging. The staff headed down the stairs and put away his deck. “It’s not about winning. I gave you every single assault my deck could give. You countered my trap, destroyed my defenses, and even brought up your Life Points while at the same time lowering mine. What I liked best of all was that you depended mostly on heart...you trusted your instincts and it lead you to victory...I have a feeling you will make a great Duel Academy student as Obelisk Blue...” Ryuu’s spirits rose and Froggy started croaking wildly, his heart filled with joy for his best friend. “I’m gonna be in Obelisk Blue?! That’s awesome!!!” Both Derek and Sayiko ran up to join Ryuu, Sui still crushing his lungs. “That’s the same dorm as I’m going to be in...” said Sui lovingly, her arms wrapped tight around his waist. Ryuu sighed and looked at her, “Oh...good...” The staff shook Ryuu’s hand and smiled. “Of course, there is still the WRITTEN exam...” he said, holding back from laughing. Ryuu thought for a moment and lowered his head in disappointment. “Oh no.........”

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