Aniki took a step back and sighed. The sign wasn’t perfect - he certainly wasn’t an artist, after all - but it was decent. A small, goofy cartoon dragon, with “Like A Dragon Game Shop” written below it. That was what Aniki had decided on for his shop’s name. With that, he was finally ready to open it. Two days. Two days until he had an actual, up-and-running card shop.
Still, there was a lot he was worried about. Number one on that list was that the coffee machine that he’d ordered still hadn’t arrived, which was annoying. Of course, the big problem was that he hadn’t seen any numbers yet. Aniki wasn’t quite sure why they were important, but… they were probably important for a reason, and he hadn’t seen any.
Another thing to worry about was that his deck was… bad. That was the point, of course. Gogogo beatdown doesn’t sound like a good idea to anyone not named Joey Wheeler, but it still made him nervous. Shadow duels weren’t a thing in 5ds besides the Dark Signers, but they might be here. Still, he didn’t want to play anything too good.
…So what did he play? After a good hour or so of just… sorta sitting there thinking, Aniki finally just frustratedly slapped together a deck and decided to go for a walk. It wasn’t like he was going to try to get into a shadow duel anyway, so as long as he stayed away from Yuma until he figured something out, he’d be fine. Right?
Whatever, walk time. Honestly, his first time out for a walk hadn’t been so bad, and Aniki had even gotten a student out of it, so maybe he should go out and see the city more often. Picking the direction opposite the academy he’d seen last time, he set out. Maybe this time he would find someone dueling that didn’t suck. Aniki laughed at the thought. So long as he didn’t see Yuma, it was pretty likely, actually.
-
—
-
Yeah, maybe this direction wasn’t one of his best ideas.
Aniki looked around, seeing old, abandoned buildings and burned-out cars. Metal barrels were frequent, and the locals were pretty much what you’d expect from an anime slum district. Hooligans and gangs. Although honestly, they weren’t all that bad. Most just seemed like a bunch of teens looking to hang out, and they’d pretty much come here for a neat spot. Still, he kept his duel gazer on, just in case.
Still, interestingly enough, he could actually see a duel not too far away. He wasn’t close enough to be patched in as a spectator, but it was pretty hard to miss a floating “DUEL” in the sky. Strolling over, he was met with a rather rowdy crowd of teenagers, mostly older, standing around a few barrel fires. Some even took a look at Aniki and just let him pass into the inner circle to see the duel! Truly, the hooligans here were nicer than the ones back home. They looked pretty pale, but that was fine. They probably just needed more sun is all.
Aniki was in pretty high spirits sauntering into the spectator range of the duel, and as he was patched in, his expression fell. Yuma. It was Yuma. The main character and walking disaster had decided to duel right in the middle of the slums. Aniki’s mood soured when he realized who he was dueling. Or rather, how many people were dueling at once. Glancing at the score, Aniki saw two familiar names, and two… okay, yeah. Those two were definitely one-off mooks. No way they weren’t.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
[Yuma: 4000/Shark: 3000 /Scorch: 2400 /Chills: 4000]
Scorch and Chills? Really? Shaking his head at the terrible names, Aniki remembered that Jewels had brought up Shark as a pretty good duelist once or twice. Hopefully, this would be interesting then. Looks like it was Scorch’s turn, as the rather buff, dreadlock-haired man drew a card.
“I’ll flip summon my Flamesaurus [1800/1200], activating it’s effect! Since it was flip summoned, I get to increase its level by one, making it a level five. Now!” He punctuated his shout with a point to the sky. “I’ll XYZ summon number 61: Volcasaurus [2500/1000]!”
A massive dragon, seemingly made of lava stepped out of a swirling, distinctly red-colored galaxy portal. Aniki was… not sure what to think. First off, he’d found a number. Of course, there was also the fact that numbers seemingly got a unique summoning animation, which looked pretty cool. Beyond that, Yuma looked terrified, and Shark looked like he was looking at someone who scrubbed out at locals playing Kashtera, so he was pretty sure that summoning a number was a big deal. Still, Scorch wasn’t done quite yet, it looked like.
“I’ll detach a material from Volcasaurus to activate his effect, destroying Submersible Carrier Aero Shark and dealing damage to you equal to its attack!”
[Yuma: 4000/Shark: 1100/Scorch: 2400/Chills: 4000]
Aniki was impressed. If not for the fact that he knew Thing #1 and Thing #2 were gonna lose the duel, he’d say that was a pretty good closing move. In all honesty, if Scorch felt particularly aggressive, he could probably try and close out Shark’s life points with an attack, since Shark didn’t have any monsters left. Although… Scorch wasn’t done yet. Maybe he would use his brain?
“I’ll activate Volcasaurus again! Say goodbye to your Zubaba Knight [1600/900]!”
[Yuma: 2400/Shark:1100/Scorch: 2400/Chills: 4000]
Or maybe not. Still… That wasn’t a once-per-turn? Why? That felt… dumb. Aniki was pretty sure he remembered it being a once-per-turn, unless…
He was in anime-land. Cards had anime effects. Oh. Oh no. He was in a world where attacking the moon was a viable strategy… maybe not that bad, but still!
“Volcasaurus, attack Shark directly! Get him out of this game!”
Oh hey, he wasn’t an idiot. He just had his order wrong. Main phase two, buddy. Main phase two. Aniki shook his head, but apparently, Shark wasn’t quite out of the game yet.
“Not so fast! I’ll activate my face-down Zeus’ Breath to negate your attack.”
Scorch looked thoughtful for a moment, before smirking. “Fine. I’ll set two cards, then pass turn.”
Back to Yuma then? That seemed like the natural turn order. Plus, he was drawing, and while Aniki wouldn’t put it past the kid to accidentally draw during someone else’s turn, he didn’t think he was quite that dumb. Probably.
The spiky-haired protagonist looked thoughtful for a moment, before smirking. “I’ll normal summon Goblindbergh [1400/0] in attack mode, then because of its effect, I’ll special summon Gagaga Magician [1500/1000]! Next, I’ll construct the overlay network, and XYZ summon Number 39: Utopia [2500/2000]!”
And there it was. While genuinely surprised that Yuma managed to not fall flat with the Utopia play, the duel was probably going to be over pretty soon. When Chills decided to activate his facedown Avalanche to prevent Utopia from attacking and deal 500 points of damage to Yuma when its effect activates, Aniki still didn’t really feel the tension. The ubiquitous 2500 beatstick was out, and it was time for Yuma to figure out the rest.
The gang members nearby seemed to notice Aniki wasn’t particularly keen on sticking around, but they did seem rather curious as to why he was leaving so soon. Aniki thought for a moment, and eventually, his desire to look cool won out.
“Yuma just won the duel, and I don’t wanna watch three more turns of an already forgone conclusion.” With that piece of info said, he started his way up to his card shop once more.
-
—
-
Weasel took a moment to breathe. Not that he’d had anything but time, but the alleyway he was in was just a little safer. It felt safer, anyways. He let out a short chuckle, before twitching at the sound of a car passing. Right. He was fine, he had his card. He was so sure that Scorch and Chills were bluffing about these “numbers” cards, but…
He knew the card wanted something. To go and steal other people's decks, to grow strong. Weasel still wasn’t quite sure about all that, but… the card reassured him. It’d be alright, he had strength now, even if it was still new.
He’d just have to find a way to get even stronger. Maybe then he wouldn’t be so scared.