Chapter Text
When Byakuya’s trap was destroyed, it should have unnerved him, but he only smirked.
“I don’t need that to end you.”
He only had 300 lifepoints left, [Imperial Order]’s cost could no longer be paid, which meant Makoto could use spell cards again. But he hadn’t drawn [Super Polymerizaiton] yet, or any other quick-plays that could have gotten him out of this situation. But he did have [Mirror Force], which he set last turn, that could turn the tides of battle once Byakuya—
“I’ll start my main phase with [Harpie’s Feather Duster].”
An oversized green feather swept across the field, destroying the trap and sending it to the graveyard. The stadium exploded into cheers.
“Do you really think a trap as simple as that could work against me?”
This is bad. Makoto had 1,600 lifepoints left, but his field was only one face-down monster, which didn’t stand a chance against Byakuya’s [Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon]. The monster thrashed its tail, aching to attack once more. “The duel’s not over y-yet.” He cursed himself for faltering over his words.
“Oh really?” Byakuya picked one of the two cards in his hand before slamming it down on the terminal. “Since I control a Galaxy monster, I can normal summon my [Galaxy Knight] without tributing.”
A silver-armored knight with a longsword flashed into existence. 2800 attack, that was going to hurt.
“And,” Byakuya played his other card, “since I have a Galaxy-Eyes monster, I can special summon [Galaxy-Eyes Afterglow Dragon] in defense position.” A translucent blue dragon appeared and then shifted into a defensive stance. “And with that, the battle phase!”
END MAIN PHASE and then START BATTLE PHASE flashed across the field without pause; there was nothing Makoto had that could respond. It didn’t go unnoticed.
“Is your pathetic deck out of tricks?”
“I don’t need flashy cards to beat you!” He had gotten this far in the tournament with it, to the finals, against the Byakuya Togami. Who had never lost a duel in his entire professional career. Or before that, allegedly. He sure acted like it, at least.
“We’ll just see about that. Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, attack his face-down card with photon stream of destruction!”
The dragon roared and threw its head back. It hunched forward and a brilliant burst of light shot from its mouth, slicing Makoto’s monster card in two after it briefly flashed into existence.
“By destroying my [Mystic Tomato], you activated its effect. That means I can—”
“Mystic Tomato?” Byakuya laughed. “I wasn’t aware I was dueling on a playground.”
Just because it’s a common card doesn’t mean it’s useless. Makoto's deck was full of cards like that: simple, unassuming. It led to a lot of people underestimating his ability. The fact that the the ultra rares that he pulled were always for archetypes he had nothing else for was part of that, too.
“I summon Mystic Tomato from my deck in attack position.” The evil little fruit snickered and bounced around, despite the situation.
“And so I’ll attack it with my Galaxy Knight.”
The knight stood at attention and nodded before lunging forward, skewering the tomato. Makoto’s lifepoints dropped to 200.
“And since you destroyed it, that means—”
Byakuya waved him off. “Just hurry up and summon whatever garbage monster you like, you’re over next turn.”
“All of my monsters are important, Byakuya. And I believe in them! I know they’ll help me win! I summon [Kuriboh] from my deck!”
The brown little fuzzball jumped in and growled. It took Byakuya several moments to respond.
“You realize you just wasted a perfectly good hand trap, don’t you? It does nothing for you on the field.”
It was true, he could have discarded it to protect himself from battle damage if he drew it next turn. But he’d just summon more monsters, that only protects me the once. And besides I… Makoto looked at the monster; it turned around to meet his gaze and waved. Something told me to summon him. I know this will all work out. There were other Kuribohs in his hand, there was still a way he could turn this around.
“And now that you’ve finished stalling,” Byakuya proclaimed, “I’ll proceed to my second main phase. With my Galaxy Knight, Galaxy-Eyes Afterglow Dragon, and Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, I’ll use them to xyz summon—”
The duel arena grew dim. The three monsters shifted into beams of light and swirled in the center of the field.
“Come forth! [Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon]!”
A blazing red dragon emerged from the light, each footstep shaking the stadium. It roared, flaring open it’s luminous wings. The animation from the summons disappeared and its color shifted, turning it a translucent silvery-grey.
“What’s up with your monster?” Makoto asked. He hadn’t seen an effect like that before, maybe the arena was fritzing out?
“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of ghost rares.”
Oh. A version of cards even rarer, where no color was printed on the card and the holofoil left the art barely visible. He didn’t even want to know how much it cost.
“And since my monster was Xyz summoned using Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, it means all other face-up cards currently on the field have their effects negated. Not like your Kuriboh has anything to negate.”
Then it’s a good thing I didn’t summon my [Kuribabylon]. That was his first instinct, but he already had one in his hand, plus he was missing [Kuriboo]. Without it, he wouldn’t be able to set up his board for the one thing that could get him out of this.
“I end my turn,” Byakuya said.
Byakuya only had one monster on the field, no backrow, no cards in hand. But it had 4,500 attack; there were cards in the graveyard he could activate to increase its attack and otherwise protect it from getting destroyed.
But the duel isn’t over. I can still win. Makoto wanted to give up, the chances were slim that he could draw what he needed. But I believe in my deck! I know it’ll give me what I need! He placed his hand on his deck and closed his eyes. Heart of the cards, help me! Together, we can win this!
He drew. He cracked open an eye to see what it was. It wasn’t what he was hoping for, but it was exactly what he needed, when he needed it.
“It’s a good thing your Imperial Order is gone, because that means I can activate [Foolish Burial], which lets me send a monster from my deck to the graveyard.” And so he picked Kuriboo, the little white puffball joining the others in the graveyard.
“So what?” Byakuya said. “I’m familiar with those hairballs, there’s no monster in that archetype that’s strong enough to take on my dragon.”
“Maybe so! But the duel isn’t over until it’s over. I tribute my Kuriboh to summon Kuribabylon.”
The brown puffball popped out of existence and was replaced by a similar one, but sporting wicked fangs and a horn.
“I then activate its effect! I return it to the hand and then I can summon five monsters from my hand or graveyard. Go! [Kuribah]! [Kuribee]! Kuriboo! [Kuribeh]! And Kuriboh!”
A pastel rainbow of tiny monsters appeared, filling all of Makoto’s main monster zones. They stood no chance against the Photon Dragon, who was standing behind an extra monster zone, just in case Byakuya ever needed to link summon.
Makoto threw his hand forward. “Appear! The circuit that leads to the future!”
A blue square appeared above the field, arrows pointing outwards.
“The summoning condition is one level 1 monster. I set Kuriboh in the link marker. Appear, link-1 [Linkuriboh]!”
Kuriboh flew up into the circuit and a new Kuriboh popped out. It was round and shiny and hopped into the extra monster zone, facing the Photon Dragon.”
“So it’ll save you from one attack.” Byakuya scoffed. “I just need to summon anything else and it’ll take out your remaining lifepoints.”
“But I’m not finished!” Again Makoto threw his hand forward. “Circuit, appear! The summoning condition is two or more monsters! I set my four Kuriboh from my main monster zones!
“Circuit combine! Come forth, link-4 [Firewall Dragon]!”
The dragon descended from the circuit, touching the ground behind Linkuriboh.
“Why the hell do you have that card?" Byakuya spat. "Your deck doesn’t even have any cyberse monsters.”
“My main deck doesn’t, but I do have Linkuriboh, which is co-linked with my Firewall Dragon, which lets me activate its effect! Which means I’ll be returning your Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon to your hand. But since it’s an extra deck monster, that means it’s returned to the extra deck instead. And since it’s not destroyed, the cards in your graveyard can’t stop it!”
“What?” Byakuya’s dragon faded out of existence like dust in the wind. “That’s impossible! I-I-I….” The terminal completed the step quickly, indicating that there were no effects Byakuya could trigger in response.
“And with your field empty, that means I’m free to attack. I start the battle phase—”
“You can’t beat me, I’m Byakuya Togami! Undefeated!”
“Linkuriboh, attack his lifepoints directly!”
The monster hopped across the field and jumped up before spinning in place, whacking Byakuya in the face with its arrow-shaped tail. His lifepoints depleted to 0.
The roar from the stands was deafening, tens of thousands chanting Makoto’s name, countless more watching the duel on TVs and computers and phones elsewhere. The platforms for the arena lowered, bringing Makoto to the ground floor of the stadium.
“Naegi-boy, that duel was absolutely fabulous!”
He turned around to see Maxamillion Pegasus, the creator of Duel Monsters. He took his hand and shook it vigorously. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use Kuribohs as skillfully as you!”
Makoto laughed nervously. “I-it was nothing, really.”
“Don’t undersell yourself! You’re as good of a duelist as Togami-boy. Have you ever considered applying for Duel Academy?”
“No, I—”
“I’ll write you a letter of recommendation right away! That Kirigiri-boy won’t say no to a duelist as skilled as you.”
“Uh, th-thank you, Mr. Pegasus, sir.”
Duel Academy! Only the best duelists could go, and only when they were invited, and even then it was only the master of a certain duel style or archetype. In the 77 years of its history, there had never been a Kuriboh duelist.
In that moment, Makoto felt like the luckiest boy in the world.
The following days were an absolute whirlwind. Interviews, sponsorship offers, it was just too much. Makoto just wanted to return to being a normal guy, but being the only duelist to ever defeat Byakuya Togami meant he was anything but.
And he knew that Byakuya would never let him forget it. It was already known that he had been invited to Duel Academy, so Makoto could imagine the lengths he would go to to make Makoto’s time there miserable.
Not to mention all the other duelists. There’s some really strong students going with decks much more consistent than mine. Am I going to look like a fool in front of everyone else? Are they all going to think I only got this far from sheer luck?
His sister was always his biggest cheerleader. She always had a knack for saying just the right thing to cheer him up, even if she knew next to nothing about dueling.
“Oh, Makoto, you got a package!” She poked her head into his room.
He sighed. “It better not be another gift from some company.”
“I don’t think so, it’s from Wish, and it’s pretty small.” She presented the package to him, which was a cube only a few inches square per side.
“Oh, uh, thanks.” He took it from her and tried to recall what he ordered. Maybe it was something from months ago that he had forgotten about, assumed it was lost or was never going to happen. It had several stickers on it, indicating that it had gone through various customs agencies.
He sat at his desk and opened it, struggling with the layers of heavy tape. Inside was a ring box, and when he opened it, there was a gold ring with the crest of the Hope’s Peak branch of Duel Academy, the one he was going to.
“Oh, they must send this out to everyone.” It made sense, it was a pretty swanky place. He tried putting it on the ring finger of his right hand but it didn’t want to go past the knuckle. He then tried the rest of his right hand, but it was either too small or much too loose. So he tried his left hand. It slipped perfectly onto the ring finger.
“Cool! I won’t need to get it resized after all.” Maybe the headmaster just guessed what sizes everyone was, or maybe he expected people to get it sized. But it was a little weird to be wearing it on his left hand, would people think he’s married? Or engaged?
He tried to pull it off but it didn’t budge. A cold sense of dread washed over him and retreated back to his hand, numbing it.
“Shit.” Maybe it was actually too tight and cutting off circulation. He tried to take it off but his vision rapidly dimmed. There was panic, but it was tired, muted, incapable of bubbling up to the surface past whatever heavy blanket was smothering him.
Huh, I’m awake? Where am I? This ring….
Ah, that’s what this is. Just my luck...I die, but I'm not allowed to rest in peace! It’s probably because I still need to…what was it again? I’m sure it’ll come back to me.
Until then, I hope I can survive in whatever world I’ve found myself in.