# The Duel Palace — Celina
My hand moved.
"Trap card! Sole Drowning Mirror Force!"
A transparent shield came between me and the lightning. The bolt struck was waved back. For a moment I saw its jaws still open in surprise.
Then the wave took it with it. Back into Tony's Deck.
The clouds broke. Sunlight came down on the track.
Celina LP: 1550
"She survived!" Melissa shrieked. "The great demon sent home without laying a finger on her!"
It hadn't been a miracle. I'd set that card knowing exactly what would happen. I just hadn't known whether he'd counter it, the way he'd everything else.
Tony was laughing up at the clearing sky.
"I knew it! You didn't use it on Gozuki, so it had to be for direct attacks. I just had to make you spend it."
He'd thrown his strongest monster into my trap to clear it out of the way.
Clearing the road for what?
"One card face-down. Turn end."
Two face-downs. One he'd set three turns ago and never touched. A trap you ignore for three turns isn't forgotten. It's waiting.
# Council Chamber
Jaeger stood, but not still, face turned to the screen as if watching a play. "Please, don't let me interrupt. It's such a good duel."
The Chairman, for the first time since we had met him, didn't laugh.
Riley hadn't let go of Reiji.
I kept my eyes on the duel, partly so Jaeger wouldn't see me watching him. Mayor. The man who knows where every road and pipe in this City leads, including the ones that go down.
# Turn 6 — Celina
"Draw!"
Polymerization.
Lunalight Perfume had been in my hand since the first turn. It could revive Cat Dancer right now. My first instinct was to do it.
My second was to remember what Tony had done to every card I'd used.
Amon Garam once had said in Osiris training hall, smiling the way he always smiled when he was about to humiliate someone: "A hidden card is worth two on the field, because your opponent has to fight both the card and his imagination." I'd thought it was cowardice dressed up as cleverness. Against Tony, it was simply true.
So I kept Perfume back.
"Lunalight Tiger's Pendulum effect! I revive Cat Dancer with her effects negated. And use Polymerization! I fuse her with White Rabbit from my hand!
"Return, Level 8 — Lunalight Panther Dancer!"
She came again, landing front my D-Wheel and looked back at me over her shoulder. Just for a second. Something in my chest unclenched.
"Pendulum Summon! Blue Cat, in Defense Position! And when it is special summoned, her effect doubles Panther's original ATK—"
"Infinite Impermanence." The pale collar snapped round Blue Cat.
I wasn't surprised. I was almost relieved. He'd answered the card I'd shown him. The one I'd kept back was still mine.
"Then the plain way. Panther Dancer's effect! She attacks each of your monsters twice!"
I frowned. No Veiler or any card this time.
"Panther Dancer, attack Archfiend Zombie-Skull!
"And it's effect, she can attack all your monsters, the monster won't be destroyed for first time, and it's attack increases by 200 each time!"
She raked it across the stomach. It staggered and held.
Tony LP: 3550 → 3250
ATK: 2800 → 3000
"Again!"
She sprang off the track and drove both claws through its skull. The green light in its eyes went out.
Tony LP: 3250 → 2750
ATK: 3000 → 3200
His field had became empty. Except for that set card. I set Lunalight Perfume and Reincarnation Dance.
"Turn end."
In his suite, Yuya let out his breath, and guilt came right behind the relief. On the screen, Tony was looking at Panther Dancer like a kid at a festival waiting for the next firework. Yuya knew that face. He'd seen it in the mirror before his every Entertainment duel.
That was what made it hurt.
# Turn 7 — Tony
Tony looked at his draw a long time. Then he looked at me, and he wasn't smiling.
"You really love that cat, don't you?"
I didn't answer.
"Yeah. I figured." He laid down a card. "Archfiend Heiress."
[DARK / Fiend / Effect / Level 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 0]
A slight girl in a black dress rose beside him, small horns curling from her temples, a lace veil over her face.
"Equip Spell — Falling Down! If I control an Archfiend, I take control of the equipped monster!"
A chain tipped with a hooked iron collar shot towards Panther.
"Crimson Fox's effect from my Graveyard! I banish her and negate it!"
The ghost of my fox lunged at the chain—
"Skull Meister, effect activate!" A robed figure with a skull on top of face rose behind Tony and lifted one bony finger. My fox cracked like porcelain and vanished.
[ Dark / Fiend / Effect/ Level 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 400 ]
The collar closed round Panther's throat. She dug her claws into the track, sparks flying, cape whipping, head twisting back towards me.
Then she was standing beside Tony's D-Wheel. Facing me.
A card is a tool, Academia would have said. Tools change hands.
It hurt anyway.
"Remember the card I set three turns ago?" Tony said quietly. "Continuous Trap: Archfiend's Ransom."
The card flipped up. The art showed a horned figure with a bag over one shoulder, walking away from a burning house.
"I can only activate it while I control a monster I took from my opponent. Once I do, I take every spell and trap card you control! I can't use them. But Neither can you!"
Black chains erupted from the card. My wolf and tiger snarled as they wrapped round them. The silver moon-like circle cracked, and both columns were dragged across the track and planted behind Tony, grey and dim.
Then the chains peeled my face-downs off the field. Reincarnation Dance. And Perfume.
"What? Your Pendulum monsters also came?" Tony was genuinely shocked for the first time.
"What-what, Pendulum monsters are spell cards?!" Mellissa's voice echoed.
Only Blue Cat remained. Black Sheep and Yellow Marten in hand.
I had set Perfume for insurance, it wouldn't had hurt to let it stay in my hand because I couldn't have use it in his turn. But it was too late. I really intensely wished that only if I had Super Polymerization in my hand. But if or somehow just doesn't matter.
"Well, guess that's it. How mysterious you people's Pendulum monsters are." He scoffed, amazed.
Was he herding me somewhere? I couldn't see it. But I was enraged.
# Council Chamber
"He stripped her," the man in red said.
"He robbed her," the elder woman corrected.
"How sad," Jaeger said brightly. "To have one's things taken away. One feels so very small."
Nobody answered him.
# Tony's turn — Battle Phase
"Battle! Panther Dancer, attack Blue Cat twice!"
My own monster destroyed other one in first attack. He didn't activated Panther Dancer's effect. Why? Did he thought it wasn't needed? Is he looking down on me?!
"Blue Cat's effect! I Special Summon a Lunalight from my Deck—"
"Ash Blossom and joyous spring, effect activate!"
[ Fire / Zombie / Tuner / Effect / level 3 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 1800 ]
A lightpink-haired girl with a bell on her sleeve blew my effect out like a candle.
"Archfiend Heiress, direct attack."
She lifted her veil. Her face was pale and serious. A spear of dark light hit me in the face, and I doubled over the handlebars.
Celina LP: 1550 → 550
"Tony has taken everything!" Melissa cried. Then, more thoughtfully, as if a realization struck her late: "You know, I keep thinking it. Doesn't she look just like Hiiragi Yuzu from the last match? Are they sisters?"
# Roget
In his chamber, Roget chuckled.
"Sisters. Oh, dear. Such a low level of thinking."
On one screen, the blue-haired girl gripped her handlebars. On another screen, a replay, paused, the pink-haired girl waved to the crowd. The same face, twice.
"Not sisters, my dear commentator. Something far more valuable." He set the queen gently back on its square. "I truly am in luck. Two leverages over the Professor. One would have been a gift. Two is a winning omen."
# The Duel Palace — Celina
"Turn end," Tony said. Then, quieter: "Hey. You okay?"
He'd taken everything in one turn, and he meant the question to ask me!
"Worry about yourself!" I said, furiously.
He grinned. "There she is. That's the Celina-chan."
In his suite, Yume had stepped up to the glass. He'd seen her face when the he took her monster, like someone reaching for a shelf and finding there was nothing. He woke up with that feeling most mornings.
"Don't let it make you reckless," he whispered. He didn't know her well enough to know that she is gonna be.
# Turn 8 — Celina
"On each of your standby Phase," Tony said. "Falling Down costs me 800 life points."
The chain on Panther's collar pulsed red into his chest. He winced.
Tony LP: 2750 → 1950
He'd known stealing her would cost him, and decided she was worth it.
"Draw!"
Lunalight Fusion.
"Because you control a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, I can use a Lunalight from my Deck as material! I fuse Black Sheep and Yellow Marten from my hand with Gold Leo from my Deck!"
He'd stolen Panther. Now her presence was helping me.
"Beasts that dance in the darkness, become a blade that cuts the night apart!
"Fusion Summon! Level 9 — Lunalight Sabre Dancer!"
[DARK / Beast-Warrior / Fusion / Effect / Level 9 / ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2600]
The blade of moonlight shattered, and she stepped out: white-haired, golden and deep yellow armour, a curved sabre in each hand, face serene.
"Black Sheep returns Blue Cat to my hand. And Sabre Dancer gains 200 ATK for every Beast-Warrior banished or in either Graveyard."
I'd counted every one as it fell every turn. Nine.
Sabre Dancer ATK: 3000 → 4800
"Forty-eight hundred!" Melissa screamed.
Two targets. Heiress, 1000 ATK. Panther, 3200.
Then I looked at his last face-down. Tony had an answer for every attack I'd made all duel. Attacking Heiress will end the duel. But if that card stopped an attack, then it all will be for laugh.
"Sabre Dancer, attack Panther Dancer!"
Gold against silver, claws against blades, two of mine forced into each other. Then Sabre Dancer's blades crossed, and Panther came apart in golden light.
Tony LP: 1950 → 350
Falling Down crumbled. Ransom's chains rose like snakes and wrapped Sabre Dancer. She turned her serene face to me and broke into moonlight.
The trap shattered. My wolf and tiger tore free and leapt home, and the pendulum circle shined again above me. My face-down cards slid back as well.
"When the monster I took is destroyed or leaves the field, all the cards will go back." Tony said, not in the slightest caring. "And of course, the attacking monster will also be destroyed."
Of course why would he tell his opponent the effect. But it has been worked in my favour. Not all for nothing.
Everything came back. Except the two I'd paid with.
In his suite, Yugo shot to his feet. "Why'd she hit the cat? Attacking the other would had ended the match!" He counted on his fingers, lost count, and dropped back down. Then, quieter: "...If somebody grabbed my D-Wheel, I wouldn't care about the race either. Idiot."
# The Duel Palace — Celina
"Hey, Celina." Tony waited until I met his eyes. "You know you could've won, right?"
Something cold slid into my stomach.
"Heiress was three thousand eight hundred damage. I had one thousand nine hundred and fifty life points." He nudged his chin at his remaining face-down. "That isn't a attack blocking card. It wouldn't have stopped anything."
So the card I'd built my reasoning on was nothing? But why he would tell his opponent such information?
"But that's not really why, is it? You couldn't stand watching her stand next to me. Your pride wouldn't leave her there, even to win." No mockery. That was almost worse. "I get it. I'd hate it too."
Pride coming in, huh. Too prideful to not reach out. And too human not to care.
Sartorius used to lay tarot cards across a table in the Academia library and tell students their fortunes without looking up.
I never once cared about these stupidity. Believing in one's fortune but not oneself. But one day, he told me in Osiris class my fortune without even asking me. Showing the card he drew for me: the Chariot. "Strength that charges where the heart points, rather than where the road goes." I'd just proved him right by discarding my victory.
But it didn't matter for me. For him to still think he still understands me is funny.
"Don't flatter yourself. Of course I didn't want her taken. Watching my monster stand on your side was disgusting. I'll admit that much."
I pressed one of the face-downs that had just come home lifted.
"But don't mistake that for not having a plan."
For the first time in the whole duel, Tony blinked in confusion.
"Lunalight Perfume! I Special Summon one Lunalight from my Graveyard!"
The air filled with a scent like night flowers, and a moon filled the sky, moonlight gathered on the track.
"Return to me — Lunalight Cat Dancer!"
She rose slowly, ribbons unfurling, stretched like someone waking, then looked straight at Tony and smiled.
"Blue Cat, in Defense Position. Turn end."
"Why didn't you attack me?" Tony asked. Genuinely dazed. "It could had end things.
"Cat dancer can't be destroyed in battle," Tony said, half rueful, half delighted. "I can't get past her."
"No. You can't. And I want to make you feel helpless. To crush you miserably and end the duel while I know you have nothing you can do to counter me."
"Hah. So heartless. So wild."
# Council Chamber
Jaeger clapped three times, softly. "Bravo."
"Two monsters to recover her cards for the victory," the man in gray said. "A poor trade. On top of that, she didn't finish her opponent off but gifted a chance to turn tables."
"It depends'" Reiji said.
"She made a mistake," I said. "Without knowing it won't be for nothing."
"She did."
"And she still didn't break."
At the corner of Reiji's mouth, something like approval came and went.
# Turn 9 — Tony
"My turn!"
Tony drew, and set it. "Heiress stays in Attack."
"You'd be safer in Defense."
"Probably. But if I'm going down, I want to go down standing. That's how we do it in the Commons. Turn end."
# Turn 10 — Celina
"Lunalight Sabre Dancer's effect, from my Graveyard! I banish her and give one Fusion Monster I control 3000 ATK until the End Phase!"
Sabre Dancer's ghost rose, faint as mist, and held out both blades to Cat Dancer, hilt first.
Light ran up her arms like fire. Her ribbons went stiff as steel and blazed silver-white, and her lazy, eyes snapped open like two full moons.
Lunalight Cat Dancer ATK: 2400 → 5400
"Oh, you're kidding! That's what you were waiting for?"
"I told you I had a plan."
Not entirely true. My plan had been to win last turn, and I'd thrown it away. But I still want to crush you to dust.
Pride had cost me. It hadn't cost me everything.
"Cat Dancer, attack Archfiend Heiress! When she declares an attack, you take 100 damage!"
A ribbon snapped lazily against Tony's helmet.
Tony LP: 350 → 150
Cat Dancer leapt, higher than any of my monsters had gone all duel, ribbons streaming behind her like a comet's tail. Heiress looked up and bowed her head, like a girl accepting a dance.
"Moonlit Twin Blade!"
Silver fire burst outward in a ring, swallowed Heiress, and slammed into Tony's D-Wheel. Breaking the balance and having him crash.
Tony LP: 150 → 0
"Winner... Celina!"
Whole stadium applaused. Even the Tops in their lounge clasped with smile.
...
I'd won. Not cleanly. I did made the kind of mistake I'd have looked down on anyone else for, and he'd said it while I already knew.
And still I won.
Tony laughed. "Man. That was a good one." He held out his hand.
I took it.
"You played well," I said. In Academia we never said that to an opponent. "Too well. I hated it."
"Nicest thing anyone's said to me all week. But what would you had done if there wasn't such a effect to return the cards?'
"It doesn't matters, I would had defeated you anyhow." I said after a pause. "You were right, about my monster. Don't expect me to say it twice."
"Wouldn't dream of it. Next time, hit the little one."
"Next time there won't be a little one to hit."
He laughed. Then two guards stepped onto the track behind him, and the laugh went out of him like a light.
# Commentary Booth — Melissa
Melissa leaned far.
"Look at you all! Right now you all look the same: jaws on the floor, right!? How many of you thought she was finished? When that Summoned Skull came down? When he stole her whole field? I heard you cheering for the end!"
She grinned.
"Well, that's the power of a female Duelist! Yuzu showed you one match ago, and Celina just showed you again. So to everyone who ever said a girl can't ride, can't duel: never underestimate us. We can kick ass too!"
The stadium erupted. Girls in the Commons stands were on their feet screaming. Even a few gloved hands in the Tops' boxes applauded.
# Suite — Shinji
"He had her," Shinji said, voice shaking. "That was our chance."
Tony, whole going, raised two fingers in that lazy salute.
Shinji wasn't looking at Tony, and there was nothing friendly in his eyes.
# The Duel Palace — Celina
Tony didn't look back at me. He was smiling. As though he was satisfied with defeat and had fun. It was as like Yuya used to say.
"Duel for fun and smile, huh?"
I remembered all the things Yuzu had told me as well, more clearly.
I muttered, "stupid."
What's the point to making your enemy laugh and smile. Only defeating them matters. No matter how as long as I played like a Duelist.
...
Yuya's hand curled into a fist on the glass. Tony had dueled the way Yuya's father used to talk about dueling: to make everyone watching feel something. That was who they were putting underground.
"This isn't a tournament," he muttered under his breath. "It's a cage."
...
Yume found himself smiling a little. She'd done the reckless thing he'd feared, then admitted it in front of thousands and won anyway. Then he looked at the windows. Remembering the Council.
"There's always someone at the top looking down on everyone else," he murmured. "Who's looking down on them?"
...
Yugo stretched until his shoulders popped. "Bet she's annoying to duel. She was like Rin." He relaxed himself, stretching his shoulders. "Doesn't matter... When will my turn come?"
# Roget
"How very fortunate."
A red light blinked on his screen. A message from the Council. His smile stopped halfway.
The Mayor have entered the Administrative Council chamber.
His gaze went to the Rook at the edge of the board.
"Variables," he murmured. His smile didn't move, but his eyes had gone cold. "How tiresome."
# Council Chamber
Jaeger started moving.
"What a splendid match. I do love the Friendship Cup. So much hope." He turned his face to the five elders. "And so many young people, going down."
The members' gaze tightened.
Jaeger turned his red lipped smile on Reiji, on Riley, and finally on me, and held it a moment too long.
"Shall we begin, honoured members? I believe we have great things to discuss."
Behind him, the great doors that were still open, swung slowly shut.