“You have got to be kidding me…” Chazz breathed the words out in shock as he watched the oppressive, brutal plays that Ms. Hibiki had shot out left and right since the very beginning of the duel from where he spectated through a crack in the door leading up to the roof. The shadow game itself had begun just as he had expected one should. Introductions were made as the green-haired lady wearing a long red dress had introduced herself in a rather strange accent as Camula, and then declared that the loser of the duel would not only have their soul captured in the brown cloth doll tied to her waist, but Chumley would as well. Then there was something about some odd door, but the only door Chazz could see was the one that was hiding him from sight from the weirdo.
The mention of Chumley’s soul being on the line shocked both Chazz, but also Ms. Hibiki when Camula mentioned it. In fact, Chazz hadn’t even realized Chumley was there until a large bird similar in description to what kidnapped Alexis landed on the roof and spat Chumley out like a particularly nasty piece of garbage. Whether that disgust was from the kid’s lack of dueling ability, or because Chumley’s diet consisted almost entirely of grilled cheese sandwiches changed how he tasted, Chazz did not know. He also didn’t really care either.
Anyways, Ms. Hibiki had not taken kindly to Chumley being involved.
Of course, Chazz had seen Ms. Hibiki duel once or twice. He had seen the recording of her dueling Phil at the beginning of the school year, along with a few different times she demonstrated various plays in class, and even that one time a few years ago when the chancellor had the bright idea to host a students vs teachers basketball and dueling fusion event. That one was a few years before Chazz had joined the academy, of course, but the recordings were on the web and boy were they legendary. There was just something about watching Professor Crowler literally shattering the backboard of one of the hoops in the gym with a 360-slam dunk while Ms. Hibiki dueled four students at once afterward and won. Sheppard hadn’t hosted one since (partially due to the sheer domination of the teacher’s team), but the recordings were rather impressive.
The very first turn of the duel was simple. Camula instantly revealed the vampiric nature of her deck by summoning Vampire Lady (1550/1550) in attack position. Chazz couldn’t recognize what the card did off the top of his head, but the pale lady in the red dress looked like a rather irritating monster to deal with. Then, Camula had activated the continuous spell Pyramid of Wonders to boost the vampire’s attack by 200 points for each monster her opponent controlled, placed a card face down, and ended her turn.
Fairly normal. Then Ms. Hibiki started her turn. Immediately she began to blitz through her opponent’s field. Delinquent Duo tore two cards from Camula’s hand for the cost of 1000 of Ms. Hibiki’s life points. The continuous spell card Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen, special summoned out a terrifying, pure-white angel with black armor and purple feathered wings to her field for free.
Chazz couldn’t tell if it was from the shadow duel or if it was just a part of the card itself, but the mere presence of Darklord Asmodeus (3000/2500) was enough to make it feel like there was a great weight pressed down on his lungs that made it seriously difficult to breathe properly.
Then, after activating Asmodeus’s effect to send Darklord Superbia from her deck to her graveyard and placing one card face down, Ms. Hibiki entered her battle phase with a stoney face like a wall of granite. Unmoving, unbreakable, and without mercy.
Yet even though Ms. Hibiki had easily summoned a monster with 3000 attack points in one turn, it wasn’t quite over yet. During the battle between Vampire Lady (1550/1550 -> 1750/1550) and Darklord Asmodeus, Camula revealed the second effect of Pyramid of Wonders to send itself to the graveyard to protect Vampire Lady from destruction. Still, the damage went through, and Camula let out a hoarse scream of pain as the pale, white claws of Darklord Asmodeus caught her squarely in the side and tore out a large chunk of flesh from her stomach.
Hibiki: 3000 Camula: 2750
Camula had then began her turn, but upon sacrificing Vampire Lady to summon Vampire Scarlet Scourge, there was hardly even a full second between the summon of the pale, scepter-wielding vampire and the activation of Ms. Hibiki’s trap card, Darklord Rebellion, which sent Darklord Edeh Arae from her hand to her graveyard in order to destroy Vampire Scarlet Scourge.
All Chazz could do was watch the duel wide-eyed in shock… and gradually turn his eyes to Chumley with a grim expression once his surprise wore out. Ms. Hibiki didn’t seem to be needing much backup, but if this Shadow Rider was as cowardly as the others, there had got to be something he could do to help take the pressure off the professor.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Camula ended her turn with a nasty scowl covering her face. Her hand was nearly empty, her field only had one face down card on it, and her opponent held the overwhelming advantage of Darklord Asmodeus.
“I draw.” Ms. Hibiki stated. Her eyes were narrowed into a piercing glare that bore into Camula’s skull. It was an expression the woman hadn’t dropped since Chumley had been spat out onto the roof by the strange bird that looked like it was made from human flesh. “Pot of Greed, activate! I draw two cards! Then, I activate Darklord Asmodeus’s effect once more to send Darklord Tezcatlipoca from my deck to my graveyard. I place two cards face down and move to my battle phase. Darklord Asmodeus, attack my opponent directly!”
“Not so fast!” Camula gasped out the words between gritted teeth. “I activate my face down trap, Vampire Awakening! It allows me to special summon one Vampire monster from my deck, which will be Vampire Sorcerer (1500/1500) in defense position.
Ms. Hibiki nodded and signaled with a wave of her hand for Darklord Asmodeus to evaporate the robed man with green hair that was desperately crouching in a defensive posture on the field.
“And!” Camula shouted. “When Vampire Sorcerer leaves the field due to an opponent’s card, I can add one Vampire card from my deck to my hand. I choose Vampire Grace!”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Chazz eased himself quietly and stealthily out of the small crack he had made in the door, sliding around it onto the roof to where the door was between himself and the duelists to keep him out of sight. Once he had gotten over his own shock and surprise at the brutal grace of Ms. Hibiki’s actions during the duel, his mind had sprung into action as he considered what Alexis had said about her own duel with Nightshroud.
And more importantly, how Syrus and Chumley were kept as hostages during that duel. Chazz shook his head in disgust at the memory. What kind of rat-faced duelist would even consider taking hostages in the first place? One that was concerned that the target would run? Or one that was concerned that they would lose the duel without a hostage to pressure the opponent. Either way, the very concept alone offended Chazz to his core.
Hostages. He mentally spat to himself. That’s something scum like Slade and Jagger would think of, not a proper duelist! If a duelist is having trouble getting an opponent to duel them, they should use their own fighting spirit and guts to draw their opponent’s pride out, instead of being so weak and pathetic that they cannot rely on their own power to win! And if the duel is unwinnable, then a true duelist should have the knowledge and cunning to escape somewhere secret to lick their wounds, train, and beat their opponent on the next encounter! Anyone who has to rely on hostages to get things done is nothing but a sack of worthless trash.
Every single word that Chazz mentally ground out only served to make himself even more worked up about the situation. If it weren’t for them being in the middle a shadow duel, he would have even gone over to Camula at that very second to beat a sense of pride into her with his chaos dragon deck… or his fists.
Sadly, Bastion and Phil had more than impressed into his head how doing something like that could have dire consequences for all parties involved due to the unpredictable nature of the literal ancient Egyptian occult magic that was involved. The magical Geneva convention might not do much to protect interlopers, after all.
Punch the loser later… punch the loser later… Chazz reminded himself. He stealthily crawled over to the edge of the library roof and considered his options. There weren’t many. Still… the windows for the floor below do provide some sort of a lip that I could balance on… Chazz narrowed his eyes in thought. Now that was an idea indeed…
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Camula’s face paled even further as her face down Vampire Retainer (1200/0) crumbled to dust from the rapid, mad assault of Peten the Dark Clown. The evil jester giggled and tipped its red hat towards her as it danced around in its strange blue and yellow striped clothes.
“Wait!” She screamed as Darklord Asmodeus geared up to attack her directly. Ms. Hibiki’s attack paused, and Camula continued with a shaky smirk that grew with her every word.
“Heheh. Of course, you could win this turn.” Camula began. “But… would that be a wise choice?”
“Why?” Ms. Hibiki looked back at her with a steely gaze.
Camula jerked her head over to where Chumley cowered on the roof next to the flesh bird. “See… heheh, that crow over there. It was given to me by an… acquaintance over in America. Do you know what it is?”
“Get on with your point.” Ms. Hibiki said dismissively.
“Well… it isn’t a natural beast. It’s a construct of magic given structure by flesh harvested from a so-called ‘unnatural existence’ that my acquaintance had a chance encounter with. It does not have a soul… and that makes the little beast quite hungry. I fear that if I am not around to contain it, well, the crow might very well decide to make a meal out of the fat kid. And, if I were a betting woman, I would bet on it being faster than you.”
Ms. Hibiki’s face was drained of all color. “You…” She closed her eyes in disgust, biting out her next words like a mouthful of bitter horseradish. “I… end my turn.”
A sickly-sweet smile bloomed on Camula’s face. “Good girl. What a wise choice! I draw, and activate the field spell Vampire Kingdom!”
All of a sudden, several gloomy houses emerged from the night sky as the moon overhead took on a bloody hue. In the distance a wolf howled, and a cloud of bats swarmed around the moon like a group of pious worshippers laying at the feet of their exalted god. Camula smiled, the action moving her lips so that a set of fangs poked out from her mouth. “Now, I summon Goblin Zombie (1100/1050) in attack position. Goblin Zombie, destroy that clown!”
The strange sword-wielding beast that looked like it was covered in a greenish skeleton charged forward with a chittering screech to slice cleanly through the clown’s smiling mask, causing Ms. Hibiki to hiss in pain as the sword cut out a nasty gash on her cheek. The cut bore deep into her skin to expose bone as directly on the impact of the attack, the zombie’s attack points were boosted by 500 due to the effect of Camula’s field spell.
Stolen story; please report.
Hibiki: 1900 Camula: 2750
“Goblin Zombie’s effect activates.” Camula purred. “Since it inflicted battle damage, you must send the top card of your deck to the graveyard. Turn end.”
A small line of blood oozed out from between Ms. Hibiki’s lips as her teeth bit into the inside of her cheek in rage. At this point, all she could do was activate Peten’s on-destruction effect to banish it and summon another copy from her deck in defense position. Another glance towards Chumley crying in fear next to the crow made her hands tremble, and after placing another card face down she ended her turn.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Chazz grunted in exertion as he hung precariously from the side of the building, just off the roof. His feet were splayed sideways in an attempt to balance his weight on the upper lip of the window below, while his hands gripped the edge of the roof itself. It was hard going, but Chazz was making progress. Fortunately, Camula seemed far more interested in exploiting her advantage than looking around the roof, and the flesh bird was too busy cawing ominously at Ms. Hibiki to be bothered to watch Chumley.
“-honorable as Zane Truesdale!” He heard Camula shout in glee. “You know, all I had to do was conjure an image I took of one of my bats holding a knife to his brother’s throat as he slept, and Zane simply surrendered to spare the boy’s life! Who knew that the so-called ‘Kaiser’ still cared about his little brother. Considering that you are still in the game, I wonder if you even care about your students as much as he cared for his brother. Not that I can complain, tearing you apart piece by piece while you can only stand by and watch is quite hilarious.”
“And did you hurt Syrus after Zane surrendered?” Ms. Hibiki asked with barely suppressed rage.
A pause followed as Chazz worked his way closer to Chumley. “Ha. I didn’t, actually. That kid wasn’t worth the effort of ordering my bat to slit his throat. You know how difficult it is to get a bat to pick up a knife?”
Chazz sighed in relief. Partially due to Syrus being confirmed to be unharmed, and partially due to him finally reaching the part of the roof where Chumley was laying in a shaking heap. Chazz paused in the middle of drawing a breath to whisper to the boy.
No, probably best to keep absolutely quiet. No talking. I don’t know how good the bird’s hearing is. Chazz realized as he lifted himself up slightly to take a better look at the situation, along with the various changes to the field. Somehow, even though Camula had several monsters on the field so far, Darklord Asmodeus remained as a stalwart defense for Ms. Hibiki, who had been forced to turtle up in a corner after Camula’s scumbag move. The only mercy was that no monster of Camula’s had enough attack points to get over Hibiki’s dark angel.
Chumley was only a few inches away from the edge of the roof, and the bird was looking intently at Ms. Hibiki. Whether that was to make sure the professor didn’t try anything funny, or to ready itself to strike as soon as there was an opening, Chazz couldn’t tell. The only thing that mattered at this point was that no one’s attention was on Chazz or Chumley, aside from…
Chazz narrowed his eyes as he briefly caught Ms. Hibiki’s gaze. For a nanosecond her eyes widened in surprise, and then she steeled her look once more as Chazz lifted one of his hands to give her a discreet thumbs-up gesture. She whipped her gaze back to Camula and began to talk. The gesture had given Ms. Hibiki all she needed to know.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“So this is how you defeated Zane?” Ms. Hibiki scornfully questioned Camula. “Not in a fair duel, but under the threat of his brother’s life. Despicable.”
Camula shrugged nonchalantly. “The ends justify the means.”
“What ends? To unleash the Sacred Beasts? To destroy the world?”
“Perhaps…” Camula replied. Her eyes softened for a second as her memories caught up to her. “If it means my people can be resurrected, then I will do what I must. And if the world ends, it matters not. We’ll simply create a new country, one in the world of the duel spirits!”
“I see…” Ms. Hibiki’s eyes flickered. “Unfortunately, the world ending would cause harm to my students. And I cannot allow that!” She wrenched a card from the top of her deck. “I draw! Firstly, I activate the trap card Darklord Descent! By paying half of my life points, I can special summon up to two Darklord monsters from my graveyard in defense position, though both of them must be the same level as one of your monsters. I choose Darklord Amdusc (1800/2800), which is the same level as your level six Vampire’s Curse. I have no other level six Darklords in my graveyard, so the second choice will go unused. Then, equip spell Premature Burial, activate! By paying 800 life points, I can special summon Darklord Tezcatlipoca (2800/2100) from my graveyard in attack mode!”
Camula narrowed her eyes as the white-clothed Darklord Asmodeus was joined in quick succession by a dark winged unicorn and a fierce, black-armored warrior with a feathered headdress and wings that looked like a strange mix of bat wings and white-feathered angel wings. Several complicated green magical symbols appeared under the hooves of the unicorn with each step that it took, while a series of black stone pillars rushed out of the roof to loom ominously over the duelists.
“I hope you aren’t getting any funny ideas about attacking… remember. With the backlash of the shadow duel, I may not be able to restrain the hunger of my flesh crow.”
Ms. Hibiki steamrolled over Camula’s words of warning as she continued to spit out plays from her nearly full hand that she had accumulated over the turns that she couldn’t attack for fear of Chumley’s life.
“Furthermore! With two monster zones open after you destroyed all my copies of Peten the Dark Clown, I discard Darklord Ukoback and Darklord Marie to special summon Darklord Nasten (2600/2600) from my hand in attack position. Now! I activate my spell card, Heavy Storm, which will destroy all spell and trap cards on the field! Of course, I still have yet to normal summon this turn, I tribute summon Darklord Zerato (2800/2300) by sacrificing my Darklord Amdusc. I can summon this level eight monster with one tribute since I have four or more dark monsters with different names in my graveyard – Peten the Dark Clown, Darklord Ukoback, Darklord Marie, and Darklord Edeh Arae.”
Camula’s eyes widened. “Crow! Kil-“
“Darklord Zerato, activate your effect!” Ms. Hibiki’s voice exploded out of her mouth, turning into a powerful thundering shout normally reserved for quieting a rowdy classroom of teens on a major sugar high. “I discard one dark monster, Breaker the Magical Warrior, in order to destroy all monsters on your side of the field! Battle phase! Darklord Asmodeus, release your rage upon this unworthy coward of a duelist!”
“Kill the boy!” Camula finally got the words out as the purple-winged angel lunged toward her with a mighty howl of rage.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Chazz firmly grasped Chumley in what he liked to call a fireman’s hold, where his hand firmly locked around Chumley’s wrist for maximum grip and safety, allowing for Chumley to grab his wrist in return for additional security once the boy picked up on what was going on. It was something he had picked up on one of his few excursions out into town without the supervision of Slade and Jagger’s lackeys.
In fact, Chazz remembered that day clearly, like it was yesterday, even though it happened many years ago. He was walking around Tokyo, and for some reason or another there was a group of firefighters handing out flyers and doing demonstrations out near a park. It was a hot and sunny day, but the firefighters were completely decked out in their standard gear. The large men laughed as they demonstrated their own strength by effortlessly picking up civilians and carrying them around.
Chazz had stuck around to watch more, and noticing his interest, one of the firefighters decided to show off one of the best ways to pull someone to safety.
‘Alright, check this out little dude.’ The muscular mountain of a man had said while kneeling down to get closer to Chazz’s height at the time. ‘You know how in the movies, when the hero is pulling someone to safety, they pull at that person’s hand? Well, here’s something better.’ The firefighter had motioned for Chazz to hold out his arm. ‘Take your hand, and grab at the other person’s wrist. This way they can grab at your wrist, making what I like to call a fireman’s hold. This adds the power of both people to the combined grip, and if one person’s strength fails them, the other still has a solid grip. This also allows you to put your full strength into dragging that person to safety. Pretty cool, right? Use the movie way when you get buff, though. It isn’t better, but it’s good for showing off your biceps for the chicks.’
As soon as Chazz grabbed Chumley’s wrist, the larger boy’s face shot up to look at Chazz with a shocked expression. Chazz looked back at him with an arrogant smirk.
And then he heaved Chumley over the side of the roof with one smooth pull. Chumley let out a yelp of terror and reflexively tightened his own hand over Chazz’s wrist, unintentionally making the grip even more secure. Chazz’s other hand, the one with his duel disk still strapped to it, grasped tightly at the stoney ledge of the roof as he strained to support not only his own balance, but also Chumley’s full weight as the boy dangled over thin air.
“Get… on the damn window ledge!” Chazz bit out through the strain on his arms, not even caring if his terminology was necessarily correct. A confused caw echoed from the roof as he faintly heard Camula scream to ‘kill the boy!’
Chazz’s lips tightened into a grim smile. Now he just had to get Chumley and himself away before the dumb bird realized where its prey had escaped to.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Camula’s body was flung to the other end of the roof like a stuffed rag doll as Darklord Asmodeus tore her body clean in half with a furious swipe of its claws. Ms. Hibiki hardly bothered to look towards her defeated opponent, choosing instead to dash over with as much speed as her legs would allow to the flesh crow that was heading to the side of the roof.
The crow poked its disgusting human-flesh-covered head over the roof and cawed in victory. Its head darted downwards, elongating past the length of a normal bird’s neck as it raced to bite at the boys down below. The neck of the creature glistened and pulsed as almost humanlike arteries bulged from under the surface of its shiny pale skin.
“NO!” Ms. Hibiki roared and put on a last burst of speed that would have put many a professional sprinter to shame. The crow’s neck paused, and then shuddered as a mighty roar answered back to its infernal cawing noises. From the side of the roof, a pure white angel wing bloomed into the night sky. From the other side of the roof, a pitch-black bat wing darker than the deepest void surged from the gaps between the stars themselves. The mighty roar of a dragon burst out to the sound of crashing glass as every window in the library shattered at once from the volume of the noise alone.
Then, with one bitter caw of rage, the flesh crow was obliterated in a murky-white blast of light and dark energy that intertwined among itself in an endless loop that burst up towards the heavens.
Ms. Hibiki dodged past the ashes that were all that was left of the crow and leaned over the roof. “Chazz! Chumley! Are you boys alright?”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Chazz steadily ignored the searing, white-hot heat coming from his duel disk that felt like it was about to melt his arm into a goopy mess as Ms. Hibiki stuck her head over the edge of the roof. Her face was flush with worry, and several deep cuts wept tears of blood from her neck and cheek.
“We’re… doing just fine…” Chazz grunted in effort has he finally managed to swing Chumley’s quaking body onto the relative safety of the lip of the window. “Chumley, any time you could grab the damn ledge with your free hand would be a great time!”
“Language!” Ms. Hibiki sharply interrupted Chazz out of habit. He rolled his eyes. Though his frustration was great enough to make him say those words in the first place, you’d think Ms. Hibiki would at least give him a pass to be a little bit crude considering the situation!
“Chum.” Chazz eventually said with a slightly kinder tone, if a difference of about one percent between his previous tone and his current one could be considered as ‘slightly kinder’. “Do you have a good grip on the ledge? If you do, I’m going to let go so I can climb up and help pull you up. It will probably take two of us to get you back on the roof.”
A muffled yet fearful response from Chumley was his only response, and Chazz nodded before heaving himself up onto the roof with Ms. Hibiki’s assistance. A moment later, Chumley was rescued as well.
“Man, I hate heights! And birds now too! I don’t think I can ever look at a super duper crispy fried chicken deluxe sandwich ever again. Not without imagining it with chunks of human skin and an appetite for deep fat fried Slifer Red!” Chumley moaned as he embraced the cold concrete of the library roof. “Thanks for pulling me out of the fire, C-dog. I thought my bacon was good and fried from that creepy bird. I didn’t even have enough time to yell to Jaden and Syrus for help when it grabbed me from the dorms!”
“Well, it's good that both of you are safe for now.” Ms. Hibiki said with some amusement as Chazz glowered at Chumley over the unwanted and unwelcome nickname. She glanced over to where Camula had landed in a crumpled heap, only to widen her eyes in shock upon noticing the woman’s body was gone. Ms. Hibiki marched over, only to see the faint outline of a strange, metal gate quickly disappearing into thin air. It was an older style of gate, one Ms. Hibiki had only seen in more ancient houses that followed a gothic style of building. Over the top of it was a single stone gargoyle that had its batlike wings spread as if it was about to take flight. The doors were covered in lines and what looked like waves of a sea. The only other thing on the roof left of Camula was a golden choker decorated with a millennium eye that was abandoned on the ground.
The penalty game of Camula’s shadow duel? Ms. Hibiki internally hypothesized. Shadow duels are said to be duels over the participant’s very souls, so perhaps that door took its due. And she did mention that our souls were on the line. I would have thought hers would be going in that doll, though, considering that’s what she said mine was heading towards if I lost.
Nevertheless, the door swiftly faded into nothingness, and Ms. Hibiki was left staring into the night sky, barely heeding the commotion behind her of Chazz roughly patting Chumley down to check for any wounds.