Trading Game (Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V SI)

"Alright then, what should I do now…" She pondered, wondering what she should do next as she sat in one of the many fast food diners that exists in Heartland city, a simple meal that consisted of rice and fried chicken, or what was left of it, in front of her.

She had basically used what was more or less her entire reservoir of DP that she had acquired from selling Kaito of all people a playset of Galaxy Cyclone, and once more she was back in square one.

She was broke once more, all she had was her clothes, deck of cards and a mountain of other cards stored in what was honestly her dimensional storage of cards, and her newly acquired second hand duel disk which, arguably, she liked far more than the shield like design of the Academia mandated one.

After finding that her DP that the system managed had been reduced to nil with her transfer to this dimension, she almost had the thought to simply bash in the Academia duel disk that she had for reasons as the possibility of a tracking device being implanted in it was high, and as a way for her to vent her many, many, MANY, frustrations.

And believe her, she has many things to be frustrated with in her current situation.

But much to the chargin of the side of her that wanted to fall to her destructive urges, her calm and logical side won and managed to instead make her sell the darn thing instead at a pawn shop, and she got just enough to buy a second hand duel disks.

And honestly, she quite liked the look that the duel disk gave off, its design is much more preferable than the Academia mandated one. Though that could also be affected by her extreme dislike of anything that's currently connected to that man.

"I'll probably want to get some DP…" She mumbled aloud, tapping her fingers on the table as she began brainstorming. There are multiple ways for one to gain DP, which acted as currency in this dimension as well shockingly.

The methods that one could use to acquire DP are of course, varied, one could take on a job, part time or not, and receive them, they could of course sell cards like she had done while she was in the orphanage as the Red Hat, and like most, win them off of duels, like how she gets most of her earnings, be it in her own Duel World or dueling others.

But… "I really don't feel like dueling anytime soon." She muttered lowly to herself as she closed her eyes. The recent events had really shaken her, especially her 'defeat' at the hands of the Professor.

It infuriated her to no end. The man had all but dared to not only desecrate the game that she held dear, but was also willing to blatantly cheat in the middle of said game, and his actions caused her to be separated from everyone else.

And though she knew that they could at least fend for themselves, she still couldn't help but worry on how they are, especially now that they were all separated in dimensions

Along with the numerous amounts of Obelisk Force and other Academia cronies that she had to beat just to get near that man, dueling basically did not stop without any break, she was quite honestly burnt out from dueling for the time being.

And despite the prospect of playing with XYZ, a summoning mechanic that she hadn't played with for over a decade, she was gatekeeper by several things.

One was of course, the fact that she currently does not have some good XYZ monsters in hand, though honestly she could probably play her Machina deck and add some XYZ monsters and call it a day, and that's not mentioning how from getting that pack she also has some Infinitrack cards, though sadly not any of their good pay offs like Earth Slicer.

But honestly what worried her the most was the possibility that she would use whatever chance of dueling as a way to vent her frustrations, and though she would have normally done so in the previous world, dueling in this world could result in some actual damage being dealt to the duelist.

And simply the thought of her hurting a poor sod simply to vent her frustrations did not sit well with her conscience. 

So instead, she chose the second option, one that she had done just today to ear enough to buy the meal in front of her. She leaned on the chair that she sat as she brought up her duel disk, using its interface to surf the web as she looked at the card market, trying to find how much certain cards cost, what their rarity were, along with their market value.

And… she doesn't know if she should be surprised honestly, the situation in the card market is just as bad as it was back in the Fusion Dimension, though of course catered to XYZ Monsters instead.

And worse of all, for some ungodly reason that she knew not of, the most famous line of XYZ Monsters ever printed didn't appear to even be in the market.

She was of course, talking about the Number Monsters, the line of monsters that are based on numbers, ranging from the number 1 to 107, not including of course their Rank Ups, Rank Downs, Chaos Changes, and the stupid card that was Numeronius.

The fact that those cards don't exist was… worrying. Especially when she thought that, should others of the original cast of ZEXAL appear in this dimension just like Kaito did, and not have what are arguably their signature Boss Monsters.

And guessing from how Gem Knight Pearl of all things was considered a high rarity card with multiple zeros behind him in price range, she could certainly guess what level is the current state of the game in this dimension.

And as she continued to scroll and scour the net to see what cards are out, and trying to remember which set those cards were released in and what cards could possibly out there, and after scouring the rare hunter site where usually the 'good' cards were.

And she could simply sigh as she leaned further back to the comfortable sofa chair that the restaurant provided. Though she hadn't yet seen what are the most played decks around, though considering there isn't an oppressive dueling school that forces everyone to uniformly play a single deck like the Academia, she at least thinks that there would be a lot of different decks being played around.

That does at least make her a little excited, the chance of seeing and playing against decks that she hadn't played against for more than a decade did make her heart race, and the fact that those duelists would more or less have no connection whatsoever that man made it all the better.

And after wasting a good time researching on the net, she turned off her duel disk, and stood up from her seat, correcting her hat on her head, and made her way to leave the establishment and towards the place that she had researched beforehand.

Surprisingly, or perhaps it was unsurprisingly considering the absolute state of both the Academia and Academy Island, there were quite a lot of card stores in Heartland, though that was a given with how large the city was, it was basically a state of its own.

Though such was expected as it was basically this dimension's main center for professional dueling entertainment, boasting the largest stadium for dueling in the world.

It completely amazed her, how much that this world and all of its dimensions and their society are built with dueling as a large part of its foundation, though she hadn't visited the other two she could give a good guess that they too followed suit. 

She was headed to one of the smaller card shops that she had found on the internet, wanting to at least start small on her new business of selling cards, knowing that those were the places where people would usually trade their cards, and where if need be, she could simply sell the cards to the shopkeeper there.

She needs to have a good amount of DP by the end of the day, especially if she wants to have a roof over her head to sleep tonight.

But even with an urgent quest on her hand, even with her System giving her a mission of all things for her to sell cards to what it deemed to be background and minor characters, she took her time to reach her destination.

Because… well… she needed some time to relax, to calm down her heart from the rush of events that had happened a day prior, so she took in the sights, marveling at how colourful this city was much in contrast to the arguably monotone buildings that the Fusion Dimension, or at least the one city that she was born in, looked like.

It was… nice. This change of pace. A small smile started to grow on her face as she continued walking towards the small card store in a chipper mood, honestly not knowing what to anticipate.

And soon enough, her destination was in sight, a small building with a large open space in front of it, one which was filled with some metallic boxes, and with a good number of people who were surrounding a single table watching an ongoing match.

She took a peek over someone's shoulder, eyes slightly widening as she saw the duelists not dueling with their duel disk, but on top of one of the available metallic boxes, which was some sort of solid vision contraption that seemed to project miniaturized versions of their monsters.

She did note that they do have their duel disks in hand, and though she wondered why they weren't dueling with them,  she simply kept silent as she watched the match unfold.

Or so she would say, but there really wasn't much of a match left to watch.

"Ha! This is the end! I'll finish you off with Heavy Armored Train Ironwolf!" The red spiky haired boy declared with a huge grin, and the miniaturized metal train rushed in and followed a shining orange energy track, attacking his opponent directly.

And without a monster on the field to protect her, the silver haired girl received the attack directly, gritting her teeth and looking down as her bangs hid her eyes, her Life Points reaching zero and losing the match.

Myu Chiyoda: 0LP

And with the duel ending, the miniaturized holograms soon disappeared, turning back into motes of light, and a boisterous laugh filled the open area of the small card shop. "Guahahahaha! You see that! That's the strength of the great Allen Kozuki!" The red head laughed aloud, receiving a look from the bespectacled girl standing behind him.

"A-Allen! Y-you shouldn't boast like that!" She chided him, her eyes looking at the crowd that had formed clearly nervous by the many looks that they gave to the boy.

Instead of heeding her warnings however, the boy merely turned and grinned towards her, placing his hands behind his head as he relaxedly declared. "He~ why should I? It's true that I'm strong! I managed to get into the Clover Branch after all!"

The duo then began to walk away, with the red haired boy continually boasting of his victory and how good he was for managing to get into this 'Clover Branch' whatever it was, and as the crowd dispersed, she strolled closer towards the silver haired girl who looked saddened and frustrated at her defeat.

"If I may ask." She said as she stood beside the sulking girl, earning her a glance from the twin tailed girl. "Why didn't you duel with your duel disk?" She asked the girl, still quite curious as to why they would not duel with their duel disk though they both have them.

The girl frowned at her question, but still answered her question even so. "You're new here aren't you." She said, more of a statement rather than an answer as she looked away. "This place is a retro dueling shop, it has these old dueling boxes that were made before the creation of duel disks. So the people here use them while they duel here since they can't find anything like this anywhere else."

"Ah." She certainly did remember the original show having something similar to this, though it being more clunky and certainly larger than the one that she vaguely remembers from the show many years ago. "I see."

"Hmph." The girl harrumphed, taking her deck in her hand and shuffling through them, seeming quite frustrated at what she assumed was its current state. She didn't quite get to see what her deck was, and honestly she was quite curious as to what it was.

"If I may ask," She started, gaining another glare from the silver haired girl. "What exactly is that, Clover Branch that the boy talked about? He sure made it seem like it was important."

And this time, the girl really gave her a look that asked her as if she was an idiot, one that made her feel quite embarrassed honestly. "You've never heard of the Clover Branch? Of the Heartland Duel School?"

Ah, so it was a famous branch of the dueling school that's named after the city then, it should be something famous just like that place.she widened her eyes, acting like she was shocked and hit the palm of her hand. "Ah! So it was a branch of Heartland Duel School! I knew that it sounded similar!" She lied.

And attempting to continue the conversation, she asked the girl another question as she innocently tilted her head. "Then are you one of the school's students then?" 

And the girl then lowered her head even further. "I…" She started only to trail off, and seeing the girl uncomfortable with her question, she immediately tried to change the topic of the conversation, shaking her hands in front of her.

"Ah! You don't need to answer the question if you don't want to!" She hastily said. "I was just… curious! Yes! Curious! I didn't quite get to watch your match, so I was wondering whether you were a student like him. Not that it would matter or anything!"

Having thoroughly all but embarrassed herself, she scratched her cheek as she tried to look away to not be more embarrassed. "I'm a card trader you see." She said raising up the card book that she brought with her, bought incredibly cheaply in the same shop where she had traded her duel disk.

"And since it seems that you're having a problem with what seems to be deck building. So I was wondering if I could perhaps help you with it, and maybe sell some cards while I'm at it." She whispered the last part, though at their proximity she probably heard her.

Ah, she was most certainly looking like a suspicious person again, she should calm herself down and cool her head! She coughed in her hand, and asked another question to the silver haired girl. 

"Well, if you want me to, that is. Honestly since I only saw the end of the game I couldn't even tell what deck you were playing and what cards you would benefit from even having, though then again having staples would probably just help, but since I don't know what the current 'meta' was I can't exactly say what good staples would be in this format…" And she continued to mutter to herself, going on into her own world. 

"Staples…?" The silver haired girl muttered aloud in confusion as she placed her deck down, and her head immediately snapped towards her as she stared at her with a gleam in her eyes.

"Yes!" She exclaimed excitedly as she took the girl's hands with her own, earling a startled gasp from the girl as she pulled her up from her seat. "Staples, you see, are cards that are useful in almost every single deck! Be they generic trap cards, spells, quick-play spells, or even monsters!"

And she continued by giving the girl some examples. "For example cards like Monster Reborn, or perhaps Raigeki and Mystical Space Typhoon, or cards that are similar to them in use as they are splashable in almost every deck!"

"Raigeki?! M-Monster Reborn?! T-those are incredibly rare cards!" The silver haired girl stuttered at the examples that she gave off. Oh. Well. she forgot that those 'staple' cards that she mentioned was basically incredibly rare even though the cards should have numerous reprints.

But then again, this was a world where originally Blue-Eyes, one of the most reprinted cards in the games history, was pretty much at three copies due to a mad man's crusade on making it so that only he could have them.

Even after all these years she still had trouble differentiating the card market in the world before and the one that she lived in now, even though she had just researched it mere minutes ago, it was still ingrained in her mind.

And as she had completely and utterly creeped out the silver haired girl in front of her, she felt someone bump into her, making the girl stumble and almost fall, had it not been her managing to catch her.

"H-hey, you alright?" She asked her, and glanced at the boy who had all but bumped into her and kept walking without a care, slightly glaring at him as she took on his appearance.

Suffice to say the boy was… something. His appearance was eye-catching to say the least.

The black haired boy wore a pure black trenchcoat, one decorated with what seemed like multiple belts looping around it, matching with his black leather pants and contrasting his dark purple shirt, and to finish off his attire was a royal purple duel disk and black fingerless gloves.

It was… the most ridiculous outfit that she had ever seen having been reincarnated in this world. And she was talking more ridiculous than Cronos' who added what she might as well describe as pink frills to his outfit, the brief look of Mr. Heartland and his mish mash coloured suit that she saw on the blimp that advertised the coming World Duel Carnival, and even that man and his choice to make children her age and teens wear gaudy masks.

Then again the last one probably wasn't much of a fashion choice but more of a way to reduce the Obelisk Force's individuality, yet another thing that made her loathe that man even more than she already has.

It was as if someone had chosen the most edgiest piece of clothing that one could find, all that he was missing honestly was some eye liner and perhaps ear piercings. It most certainly didn't help that the boy looked like what she remembered to be a generic anime protagonist.

The boy continued to stroll proudly, as if ignoring having even bumped with the silver haired girl whose name she still did not know of, and confidently sat down in one of the dueling boxes.

Or more specifically, stopping in front of the person who was facing the red haired boy that had just beaten the girl in front of her mere moment ago.

"Hmph. So you're telling me that that was all that a Clover Branch student could do then." He mockingly said, placing an elbow on the machine as he leaned forward and rested his head on his palm, grinning as he saw the boy react to his obvious taunt.

"Hah?" And boy did he look quite riled up from that single comment, a vein seemingly appeared at his head as the boy, Allen she believed he said, glared at the newcomer at the blatant insult that he had just said. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me." The boy said smugly, changing his seating position, now crossing his legs and putting them on top of the machine. "When I had heard that someone from the illustrious Clover Branch would be dueling, I would have thought that he would have given more of an interesting match."

Then the boy's black eyes turned towards the silver haired girl beside her, and she flinched at the words that he said next. "Although I guess that could be a given, with how weak of an opponent you had been pit against."

"Oi!" The red haired boy growled out, slamming a hand on the dueling box as he stood up, furiously glaring at the black haired boy. "You-you can't just insult someone's dueling like that!"

"Oh?" The boy said, mockingly raising an eyebrow at the boy's comment. "And why shouldn't I? It's quite clear that she was below average. Then again, that's a given to the Diamond Branch student." And the girl flinched again at his declaration seemingly making herself even smaller at the scrutiny of the crowd.

At this point she was frowning heavily at the black haired boy who strode in like he owned the place, disapproving of his attitude and lack of mannerisms, and quite honestly she had half the mind to even confront him of it.

But she won't. She couldn't. Unless she could get carried away with the anger in her and do something that she might regret later on.

Instead she put a hand on top of the twin tailed haired girl's head, patting her reassuringly as she continued to glare at the black haired boy who continued to shoot out barbed words and riling up that Allen boy.

"That's it!" Allen roared, slamming his deck on the duel box and abruptly sitting back on his seat. "We're dueling! Right here and now! If I win, you'll apologize!"

And the boy in front of him dared to feign ignorance, humming as he looked away. "And? What would I get when I win then?" He asked, all but assured that he would win should they even duel.

"Che. Whatever the hell you want!" Allen barked out, not heeding to the cries of the bespectacled girl behind him that was telling him not to be antagonized by the boy who was blatantly doing so.

And as if he was waiting to hear those exact words, the black haired boy grinned, pulling out his own deck and placing it on the machine. "Well alright then. Now that seems like an adequate prize."

With two decks now placed on the dueling box, after the two of them shuffled of course, the large metal bow then started to glow, the top surface lighting up as it showed the card zones, a sign of the start of the two boy's duel.

""DUEL!!"" 

Allen Kozuki: 4000LP

Kuroi Yuusha: 4000LP

She took notice as this was the first duel that she had watched in a while that wasn't played on a duel disk, and her frown deepened as she saw something that the black haired boy had done.

"I see. So that's why he was confident." She scoffed, earning a confused glance from the silver haired girl beside her.

"I'll go first!" The red head declared, taking the first turn as he forgo drawing and took out a card from his hand. "I'll normal summon Ruffian Railcar!" The boy said loudly, slamming the monster card onto the table.

And the monster appeared, a miniaturized red railcar with golden sweepers and spikes on the front. Appearing right above the card that was just placed by the boy.

Ruffian Railcar -  Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1800/1000

"First attack! I'll activate Ruffian Railcar's effect!" Allen declared, activating the effect of the monster that he had just summoned. "Once per turn, I can inflict 500 damage to my opponent! But it can't attack this turn!"

"Not that it would matter considering you are in the first turn." The black haired boy hummed along looking quite unconcerned even as the small railcar shot out twin beams of lasers towards him and burning him slightly.

Kuroi Yuusha: 3500LP

"And I'll end my turn." And with that lackluster play of burning for a mere 500 after summoning a single monster, Allen passed to his opponent with a single monster on his field and four cards remaining in hand.

And his opponent scoffed at him for that. "Really? That's it? I guess I shouldn't have expected much from someone of the Clover Branch of all places." The boy said, making Allen growl in anger.

"Oh yeah! I'd like to see you do better! Hurry up and do your turn!" He angrily shouted.

And to that, the black haired newcomer gave him a confident grin. "With pleasure." He said, placing his hand atop of his deck. "I'll start my turn then. I'll draw," And drawing for turn, the boy started with six cards in his hand, quite confident that he would be able to easily break this board.

Though honestly, who wouldn't be?

"I will start my turn with the spell, Allure of Darkness." The boy said, placing the spell card down and started to explain its effects. "This card you see, allows me to draw two cards, then banish a Dark Monster from my hand, or if I don't, I'll send my entire hand to the graveyard."

"So a Dark deck then." She muttered aloud, placing a hand on her chin. Her mind raced as she thought of the many possible Dark XYZ decks that could be played within this format, though with how rare information is for certain cards she couldn't be quite sure what kind of deck he was even playing.

Done with the draw spell's explanation, he then drew his two cards, and decided which from his seven cards would he banish should he have a Dark Monster in hand, though seeing as he played the card he should probably have one in hand.

He then took out a card from his hand and revealed it to his opponent. "I will be banishing Evilswarm Kerykeion from my hand." He said, banishing the Evilswarm monster from his hand and shuffled his hand.

And she huffed as she saw what kind of deck the black haired boy was even playing, fitting to his dark theme it seems. "Evilswarm. I guess summoning Ophion could easily end out games against certain decks."

"Y-you know what kind of deck he's playing?" She heard the silver haired girl ask aloud, and to that she grinned as she puffed up her chest. 

"Why yes! I must admit that I am quite knowledgeable on this game." She boasted with a big smile on her face, one that disappeared instantly as she took on a more serious look as she assessed the gamestate.

"Although considering the situation, it could be bad. Should that boy play the card I mentioned, the XYZ Monster Evilswarm Ophion, it could certainly mean the end of the game if that Allen boy is playing the deck that I think he's playing."

She crossed her hands in front of her as she continued to explain, or rather mumble aloud. "The 'lswarm' is an archetype of Dark Monsters that's divided into two, the Steelswarm, which is a tribute based archetype, and the Evilswarm which focuses on Rank 4 XYZ Monsters, both connected with an array of 'Infestation' spells and traps called."

And she continued to explain the basics of the archetype. "Since he's playing Evilswarm and is dueling against trains his field would probably end in Ophion that prevents the special summon of high Level monsters and an Infestation spell or trap, probably either Pandemic or Terminus."

"How-?" The twin tailed girl didn't get to quite ask her question as their focus was pulled back to the ongoing match.

"Now, since you control a monster and I don't, I can special summon Evilswarm Mandragora from my hand." He said, summoning a monster with its innate summoning condition as he summoned the archetype's own Cyber Dragon.

Evilswarm Mandragora -  Dark/Plant/Level 4/Effect: 1550/1450

"Now then, I will normal summon "Evilswarm Castor." The black haired boy lazily declared as he placed the card onto the table surface, a holographic image of the blade wielding armored warrior appeared, its tattered red cape blowing as it raised its weapon.

Evilswarm Castor -  Dark/Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1750/550

"And now Castor's effect!" Yuusha declared. "During the turn this card was normal summoned, I can normal summon one 'lswarm' monster in addition to my normal summon/set!" He said so, explaining the monster's effect as he took out another card from his hand.

"I'll be normal summoning Evilswarm Heliotrope!" And the boy dropped his second monster onto the field, summoning the vanilla insect-like monster, its miniaturized holographic image swinging its blade wildly as it appeared.

Evilswarm Heliotrope -  Dark/Rock/Level 4/Normal: 1950/650

"H-he has three Level 4 Monsters!" She heard the girl beside her gasp, seemingly quite shocked at how easily the boy got three bodies on the field with the same Level and Attribute that he could XYZ Summon with.

But defying the crowd's expectations, the boy decided to instead go for damage. "Battle." He declared with a grin. "I'll be attacking your monster with Evilswarm Heliotrope." And the miniature monster roared as it rushed in with its sword swinging.

"As if! I'll activate the effect of Construction Train Signal Red in my hand!" The boy declared, revealing a card in his hand. "When an opponent's monster declares an attack, I can special summon this card from my hand!"

The boy slammed the card onto the table, and the red train then appeared onto his side of the field, being summoned in defence positon.

Construction Train Signal Red -  Earth/Machine/Level 3/Effect: 1000/1300

"And if I do summon it, I can change the attack target to this card and proceed to damage calculation! Whatever that is!" And the red train then parked and stopped in front of the other monster that he controlled, receiving the attack from the Dark monster.

And Allen grinned. "And too bad for you, but Construction Train Signal Red can't be destroyed by that battle!" He said as the miniaturized hologram wasn't destroyed by Heliotrope's wild swing, the monster backed off as it returned back to stand atop of his card.

Yuuki however, continued to act calm and composed, much to Allen's chagrin. "Then I'll attack it with Castor then." And the Warrior monster moved according to his orders, striking down and destroying the recently summoned train with ease.

"Now then, why don't we move on?" The black haired boy said as he moved on from the Battle Phase, going on to his Main Phase 2 to continue with his plays. "I'll overlay my Evilswarm Mandragora and Evilswarm Heliotrope!"

A black whirlpool appeared atop of the table, one that sucked up both Castor and Heliotrope as they turned into dark beams of light. "With these two monsters, I'll construct an Overlay Network!" Said beams of light then entered the dark whirlpool of power, creating an explosion of light.

"XYZ Summon! Descend to this world! Evilswarm Ophion!" And as she had expected, the boy summoned the monster that was arguably the Boss Monster of the archetype, a walking floodgate that was essentially only played to counter against Dragon Rulers.

Or so she say, but the deck doesn't really mesh well even against that deck, especially since it already has an main deck out in Blaster's effect, one that bypasses the protection of Infestation Pandemic, that and it also didn't have quite the good game against Spellbooks.

The Dark Dragon then appeared, flapping its wings as it descended from the whirlpool of power, landing onto the ground as it stared menacingly at its master's opponent, two orbs of darkness circling around the monster's body, showing the Overlay Materials that it had.

This was it. This was essentially the first XYZ Summon that she had seen ever since she came here. And though the spectacle would have been more grand had it been an actual duel with duel disks instead of on this duel box, the sight still somewhat took her breath away.

Evilswarm Ophion -  Dark/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 2550/1650 OV: 2

"Now, while Evilswarm Ophion has XYZ Materials, Level 5 or higher monsters can't be special summoned." The boy said with a smug smile, enjoying how Allen's eyes widened, perhaps already knowing that Trains would normally go into high Leveled monsters.

"And I'll also activate its effect." Yuusha declared. "Once per turn, I can detach one XYZ Material," He said as the Dark Dragon roared and chomped down on one of its Overlay Materials, "I can add one 'Infestation' spell or trap from my deck to my hand." 

Evilswarm Ophion -  Dark/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 2550/1650 OV: 1

And just as she had expected, the black haired boy then added one of the two cards that she had declared as an example. "I will be adding the Quick-Play Spell, Infestation Pandemic from my deck to my hand."

Adding the Quick-Play Spell to his hand, Yuusha then shuffled his hand and continued with his turn. "Now I'll set two cards face-down." He said, setting two cards from his hands on his spell and trap zone, one of which she assumed was the Infestation Pandemic that he had just added to his hand.

"And I'll end my turn." He said with a smug smile. Ending his turn with two monsters, and XYZ Monster and floodgate in Ophion, and two set backrow, an unknown and what she was quite sure was Infestation Pandemic, and two cards remaining in his hand.

It was quite the optimal play for the deck that the boy was playing, as far as she knew that is. Ending on a floodgate and protection in Infestation Pandemic is quite good, especially considering that he's playing against trains of all decks.

"Che. It's my turn! I'll draw!" Allen said, drawing a card from his deck angrily, drawing the fourth card in his hand. The red haired boy briefly checked the cards that he had in his hands, and grinned as he found a play that he would do.

"I'll activate the effect of Ruffian Railcar again!" He declared as he pointed towards the only monster that remained in his field. "And deal another 500 points of damage!" And the small red train then shot its beam of energy once more, and it hit his opponent and reduced his Life Points even further.

Kuroi Yuusha: 3000LP

"And now I'll summon Express Train Trolley Olley!" He said with a grin, placing the monster card onto the table surface, and the coal carrying train then appeared right beside the bright red train.

Express Train Trolley Olley -  Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1800/1000

And as Allen summoned another monster, she a gasp from the girl beside her. "He has two Level 4 monsters on his field!" She said so, expecting for Allen to go into his own Rank 4 XYZ.

"Hmm, so it's like that then." The black haired boy hummed, looking quite calm even at the notion that his opponent would XYZ Summon. "I'll flip up my set card then, the Trap card, Infestation terminus."

The unknown set card that Yuusha has set the was flipped face up, revealing its art that depicted both Constellar Ptolemy M7 and Evilswarm Ouroboros, the zone where the card was flipped shining at the declaration of the trap's activation.

The boy then raised a finger, never losing that smug smile of his as he began explaining the card's effects. "This card you see, allows me to target one 'lswarm' monster that I control and 2 cards that you control, and lets me banish the first target and return the second targets back to your hand!"

And at the card's explanation, Allen's eyes widened as large as dinner plates. Knowing that the only two targets that the black haired boy could legally target was none other than the two monsters that he has on field.

And the black haired boy then said the targets that he will be choosing. "I will target my own Evilswarm Mandragora, and the two monsters that you control~!" He said, pointing and giving out the targets for the in archetype Icarus Attack that doesn't destroy but bounce instead.

"Bye bye~!" And just as he said, the three monsters were removed from the field, with Mandragora getting banished while Allen's two trains were returned to his hands.

The red haired boy started to sweat furiously, having had his entire board easily broken and not even managing to XYZ Summon. And that wasn't even mentioning how he had already used his normal summon for the turn, leaving him on a state of not able to summon any monsters at all considering that he can't summon Level 5 or higher monsters due to the existence of Ophion.

"D-darn it! I'll end my turn!" The boy said angrily as he tried to look away. Five cards in hand, three of which were apparently dead cards, and two being the known trains that he had summoned previously.

And seeing that it was his turn once again, the black haired boy held his head even higher as the smug grin on his face came even wider if that was even possible. "Hmm~! Then it seems that it's my turn~! I'll draw!"

Yuusha drew his card for the turn, making him have three cards in his hand and moved on to his first Main Phase. "Well then. I thinks it's time for us to end this." The boy said as he closed his eyes briefly, raising a card from his hand before placing it into the field.

"I'll be normal summoning Evilswarm Kerykeion!" And the black haired boy's newest monster then appeared onto the field, being a corrupted and grown version of Constellar Rasalhague which carried with him the same face helmet and the Caduceus, swinging said rod as he appeared onto the field.

Evilswarm Kerykeion -  Dark/Spellcaster/Level  4/Effect: 1600/1550

"Now then, let's get right into the Battle Phase!" He said with a large grin, moving on towards the Battle Field immediately without any further ado. "I will attack you directly with Kerykeion and Ophion! Evil's Swarm!" He declared as he motioned his monsters to attack.

And they did, with the miniaturized Kerykeion shooting a burst of dark energy from his two staffs, while the XYZ Dragon shot out a beam of darkness from its mouth, hitting the red haired boy directly and draining all of his Life Points in a single turn. 

Allen Kozuki: 0LP

"D-Darn it!" Allen screamed out as he slammed his hand onto the table in frustration, the crowd cheering at the victory that the newcomer had easily achieved against someone of Allen's level.

And beside her, she watched as the silver haired girl that the boy had beaten earlier watch in shock. Not believing that someone that had beaten her, someone that was stronger than her, had been easily defeated in such a manner that he couldn't even summon his Ace Monster.

"Now then." The black haired boy began as he kept grinning and looking down on the defeated duelist. "I believe that you owe me something, is that correct?" He asked smugly, and Allen scowled.

"What do you want." The red haired boy growled out, and the black haired boy answered.

"Oh, it's nothing much." he said as he began to look at his hands, as if he was checking his own manicure as he went on. "You see, I personally came here to Heartland City because of the upcoming World Duel Carnival, and I couldn't help but find one of its contestants interesting."

Allen's eyes narrowed as the black haired boy kept droning on, the boy's red eyes now falling onto the red haired boy, pulling a small piece of paper before sliding it towards the boy. "I need you, Allen Kozuki, to tell your sister to meet me there and be prepared to duel."

And the red haired boy's eyes widened as dinner plates as he heard what the black haired boy wanted. "Wha-!" And having done what he was here for, the black haired boy stood up and started walking away, the crowd parting and giving him way.

"Wait!" Allen shouted out, rising from his own seat, but the black haired boy didn't stop. "Who in the hell are you?!" He shouted again, and this time, the black haired boy did stop.

And he then turned around flasihly, his pure black coat breezing in the air as he does a spin to meet the teal eyes of the train duelist with his own blood red ones. "You ask who I am?" The boy said in a low tone, before raising one hand to point towards the sky.

"I am Kuroi Yuusha! The best, greatest, strongest duelist in this world!" He declared boldly with a full face splitting grin, his bravado and confidence shocking the entire crowd to freeze. And with that done, he turned around and left the venue, which then exploded into conversations.

"The greatest duelist in the world?!"

"He's just bluffing! No way some kid like that is that strong!"

"But he just beat Allen so easily… and he's from the Clover Branch to boot!"

She frowned as she saw the boy leave and the chaos that he had left. The boy's attitude was honestly quite bad, but it was true that he did manage to at the very least get a win against that Allen boy.

"That went as well as I had expected." She said aloud as she watched the crowd argue with one another like headless chickens, talking about the boy who had just given them quite a shock with his quick and fast turn 4 OTK.

The probability of him having already done his research on his opponent, especially shown by how he seemingly knows the boy's sister, was extremely high. Which means that he could have knowledge on what deck he would play.

And how to devise a complete counter, as Ophion would instantly hard counters any and all train deck shenanigans as it would essentially prevent any of them to even be summoned, barring of course if he were to play Infinitrack cards that could Level modulate.

"Y-you knew that Allen would lose?" The silver haired girl said aghast, eyes widened at the expectation that someone as strong as Allen, someone who had beaten her, would so easily lose, and for her to predict such an outcome.

"It was quite obvious." She said aloud with a shrug. "He certainly came here with a goal and a plan, that black haired boy, him riling up Allen was probably a part of it, his plays were certainly sloppy after all."

"Sloppy? E-even though Allen managed to reduce his Life Points by 1000 points?!" And at that she merely gave her a dumbfounded look.

"Well, honestly what else could I call it?" She said, looking at the red haired boy who was now being consoled by the bespectacled girl that followed him, which soon enough turn into a lecture on why he shouldn't have even dueled against someone who was clearly antagonizing him.

"He could have maybe prevented the trigger of Infestation Terminus if he had gone to the Battle Phase instead and threatened Mandragora with Ruffian Railcar instead of activating its burn effect. But that can be chalked up to his unfamiliarity with the deck." She mused.

"Removal spells wouldn't have worked since he had Infestation Pandemic set, but if he were to have somehow triggered it then Infestation Terminus would have been offline." And that made the girl beside her blink in confusion.

"What do you mean offline?" She asked.

And she answered, raising a finger as she did so. "Infestation Pandemic makes all face-up Evilswarm monsters that they control be immune to the effects of other spells and traps. And since one of the conditions of Infestation Terminus, an 'if you do' effect, was to banish one of his own Evilswarm monsters," She motioned to the girl as the gears in her head began to work, managing to come to the conclusion.

"Ah! It-it's effect wouldn't activate!" She said aloud with astonishment, a look that was incredibly similar to the one that Mei would have whenever they would talk about the game and strategies along with its rulings.

The memory of the purple haired girl made her heart clench, the anger and resentment that she had for that man separating them and the unknown fate of her little sister and friends and family filled her with rage.

One that she smothered with cool calculated logic, attempting to divert that anger into something more productive. She would have her revenge at him later. Soon. But not too soon she hoped.

She knew that he would be coming here, to the XYZ Dimension soon enough, it was where his infamous invasion happened after all. And even if he didn't come here personally, then he would most certainly send someone that he trusts, along with what she assumed were their dimensional transportation tools.

She'll pour all her pent up rage and anger at them then, for now she needs to get some DP to get through the day.

And maybe, strengthen the duelists here so that they can be stronger to fight against the upcoming invasion while she was at it.

-

"I guess I should first introduce myself." The girl said, placing a hand on her red hat as if emphasizing it, her amethyst eyes that had held a dangerous glint in them turning back to give her the friendly look from before.

"You can call me Red Hat, it's usually what I go by as a card trader." The girl said before taking off said red hat which was her epithet, revealing long flowing blood red hair that reached the taller girl's lower back.

How she managed to even hide that amount of hair in such a small hat was beyond her.

"Well, you can just call me Yuuna." She said with a blinding smile.

She gulped, calming herself down and coughing in her fist as she began to introduce herself. "I'm Myu." She said, giving a small bow to the card trader.

The card trader, who introduced herself as Red Hat, or rather Yuuna, was wied.

Well, weird wasn't the right way to say it, she's eccentric to a fault. Or at least, that was the hunch that she at least gave out.

But if there was something that she, that the girl known as Myu Chiyoda could know at least was her, was that the knowledge that she possessed was good, no, she could even believe that the eccentric red garved girl was even more knowledgeable than her teacher at her teachers at the Diamond Branch.

And it was that same girl, who had easily managed to not only decipher but also dissect someone's deck simply by seeing it being played once.

The fact that she managed to know what Allen's deck and its main strategy, that being one that the boy copied from his sister, and knowing that his opponent, Yuusha had managed to craft a perfect counter for that strategy, along with what apparently that counter strategy entailed.

She… didn't think that she could find anyone with this amount of textbook knowledge anywhere, she was even sure that even that Sayaka Sasayama didn't have this amount of textbook knowledge.

No, it wasn't correct to say that this was textbook knowledge, this Red Hat was able to take that textbook knowledge that she had and perfectly use them, to perfectly implement them in their deck was an amount of skill that only Pro Duelists would have, but even then that usual is limited to their own deck.

And this Red Hat managed to do so with a deck that she had only seen basically in passing was unheard of, it should practically be impossible.

And yet, the girl in front of her, the same girl who had gave her the proposition of not only giving her some card recommendations for her deck, but also would even give her some limited tutoring on what her deck would soon be in exchange for a good sum of DP.

It was basically almost everything that she had, her allowance and the DP's that she had gotten from helping her parents with chores that she had been saving, but if it would give her more possibility of winning, if it will make her a better duelists that could make it so that she could move out of the Diamond Branch of the Heartland Duel School, then she would pay whatever she had.

She didn't think that this would have been a trick of any kind after all, the girl seemed too enthusiastic, she seemed too genuine to be pulling any kinds of tricks on her.

So that was why she had trusted her and showed her her deck, spreading the cards on a secluded space where there were only two of them for the red hat wearing girl to see and for her to think of a way to make it 'more playable' as she would say.

And as soon as the girl had scanned over the cards in her deck, blinking her eyes several times before closing them for a few seconds and opening them again as if in disbelief, and basically gaping at her choice of cards.

She could only look away in shame as the girl groaned, she knew that her deck wasn't the best, honestly it was far from it as shown with her win and loss record, but it was the deck that her father and mother had given her. And it was her one and only deck too.

"Alright." The girl said, taking a deep breath and calming herself down as she placed a hand on her head. "I know the cards that you have at least, and thankfully I do have some cards that you can probably use."

Only to let out a sigh as soon as she does so. Looking away the girl gave out a comment on her deck. "Honestly, your deck is a piece of work. Playing those kinds of cards of all things,,," She trailed off only to shake her head a few seconds later.

"Of course they'll cost you quite a bit." She said as she pointed to three of the cards that she had presented. "These ones for example, will cost you quite a bit. Though since you're buying them in bulk, I'll give you a discount. They'll be 750DP each."

"7-750!" She gulped at the price of the card that was in front of her, it was more than the price of a normal pack of cards that she could buy in the stores, and it was only for one of them?!

"You're buying specific cards, not packs. Of course their price will be higher." Yuuna said as if she had read her mind. "No, you just said it aloud." The taller girl sweatdropped at her and shook her head slightly.

"Honestly it would have cost more considering the card was a rare and that I only have three copies." The girl mumbled, but not loud enough for her to hear. "Moving on, the spell card will cost you the same." And she nodded as she began to read the card's effects.

"Honestly… it's been a while since I had seen those cards played, but at least there's a good strategy that you can make with your card pull, of course with those cards that I have given you."

Saying so the girl pulled out her binder, one which she had seen briefly filled with cards that she could only dream of having, and filled with cards that she didn't know existed, and the red hat wearing girl pulled out several cards.

Her eyes scanned through the cards that the girl presented, gulping as she read their effects and thinking how they would even be able to use them. "T-these are the cards that you think will help my deck?" She asked nervously as she looked up to the taller girl.

Said girl then looked at her in the eyes and nodded her head confidently. "Yeah, they will most definitely help your deck." She said, having full confidence in the cards that she had given her.

"Anyway, it's a pretty good strategy, other than the fact that it could produce… bricky hands with the amount of bricks that it runs, but I'm sure that you know that already since you've been playing those cards already." She said as she continued to explain the deck.

She's already explained about these 'bricks' that she would have, and though a lot of the other things that she explained about the deck flew over her head, there was one thing that she caught.

"It's a strategy that was quite popular back then actually, with it being a meta strategy and all." The red hat wearing girl mumbled to herself.

"Anyway, it was a strategy that was called-"

-

"H-huh? A-a duel? W-with me?!" 

"Un." The silver girl that stood in front of her determinedly nodded her head, very much excited to try out and test her newly edited deck in a live duel. And the one that she had chosen as an opponent, was the girl who seemed to always be around that Allen boy, Sayaka Sasayama.

Or so she had heard from Myu, the girl was apparently the smartest duelist in her branch, always getting a perfect score on any tests.

Not that that really mattered to her, academics wasn't really something that an interdimensional hopper with basically no form of identification like her would need right now. Not to mention how she could probably breeze through most subjects, not including high school.

She was bound to have forgotten things over the years, it was why she regularly reviewed later stuff in the semester to have an easier time on doing tests.

Which, again, didn't matter to her anymore since the school that she had attended had all but probably turned into a dictatorship that would soon begin their dimensional invasion and commit dimensional genocie.

If she doesn't get a free pass for having a large blank in her education after going on a few years trip to save the dimensions she would throw a fit.

She gave a small smile as the bespectacled girl gave a nervous look to the red haired boy who was slumped in one of the empty dueling boxes beside her, his mood still quite bad after his defeat at the hand of Yuusha.

"Che, do whatever you want." The boy grumbled as he stood up from his chair, walking back and crossing his arms as he stood behind the short haired girl. Still flustered at the sudden challenge to duel, the girl continued to stall as she mumbled aloud to herself.

"B-but I'm not that great of a duelist! I-I'm only good at reading and remembering and I keep getting nervous when dueling and-"

And with a loud groan, the poncho wearing boy slapped the glasses wearing girl on her back, earning an incredibly squeaky yelp from the girl who then turned to glare daggers at him.

But before she could open her mouth to say anything, Allen was the first to speak and vented some of his frustrations. "Hurry up and just duel already! If I hear any complaints…" He gave her what was basically an ultimatum.

"Hiee! O-okay, okay! I'll duel! I'll duel!" The girl cried out as she hurriedly took the empty seat, placing her deck onto the duel box after shuffling it hurriedly.

Myu took the opposing seat, placing her own deck onto its place as the duel box then glowed, indicating the start of the match as they all drew their five starting hands and began their duel.

""DUEL!!""

Sayaka Sasayama: 4000LP

Myu Chiyoda: 4000LP

"I-I'll go first!" The bespectacled girl yelped out, taking the first turn as she began to scour the cards in her hand for playables to set up her board. Looking from a good distance, Allen huffed as he saw the girl that he had beaten earlier in a duel against Sayaka of all people.

"She won't win." He said quietly with a huff. "There's no way that a girl who lost against me can even win against Sayaka." 

"Well, that's quite the belief that you have in your friend." She drawled out beside him, making the boy jump up slightly at her sudden appearance. In response she gave him a smile and a small wave, one that the boy reciprocated with a short nod.

"Uh-well, yeah. Sayaka's one of the best duelists that I know." The boy said with a puff of his chest, gaining back his confidence as he started to talk about his friend. "There's no way that that girl who plays that many Normal Monsters can beat Sayaka's deck."

"Yeah, well, certainly a deck with twelve vanilla monsters is a bit too much." She said as she remembered the girl's deck before she sold her some of her cards, quite honestly shocked at how she was playing that amount of Normal Monsters.

Seriously. The girl wasn't even playing cards like Law of the Normal or Heart of the Underdog! She was genuinely just playing a mash up of high attack Normal Monsters.

And she wasn't even playing a good normal monster deck like Pacifis. Then again calling Pacifis a Normal Monster deck would actually be quite wrong since it's more like Field Spell control.

"But anyway," She waved the thought and memory off. "Her deck has been pretty much revamped. I don't doubt that she could even win against your friend there. I'm sure that the new cards that she has will help her."

Allen raised an eyebrow at her confident declaration, "Oh yeah? We'll see." He said with a scoff before they both turned back to the match as Sayaka played her first card of the match.

"I'll start by setting two card face-down." She said, placing two cards in her spell and trap zone to start off her turn. "And I'll set a monster face-down." And she set another card, this time being a monster that she set in face-down defence position.

"And I'll end my turn." And with just that she ended her turn, ending with a set three and pass with two cards still remaining in her hand.

It would depend on what cards were set, and what deck was the girl even playing in the first place, but with a board like that it shouldn't be hard for Myu and her newly edited deck to be able to push through.

"Then it's my turn! I draw!" The silver haired girl said as she drew her card for turn, drawing up to six cards in her hand. She briefly glanced and looked at the card that she drew for turn, and decided on which of the six cards in her hand she would play.

"I'll start by activating the spell, Unexpected Dai!" She said, taking out the first card in her hand and placing it onto the table's surface, the spell and trap zone which she placed it on shining.

"And that's one of them." She muttered aloud as she watched Myu played one of the new cards that she had sold her.

"If I control no monsters, Unexpected Dai lets me special summon one Level 4 or lower Normal Monster from my deck!" She said as she then took her deck and chose her target, revealing it to her opponent.

"I'll special summon Megalosmasher X in attack position!" The twin tailed girl said, placing the monster card onto the table directly from her deck, and the Dinosaur Monster based on the infamous Predator X then appeared onto the field.

Megalosmasher X -  Water/Dinosaur/Level 4/Normal: 2000/0

"And next, I'll normal summon Rescue Rabbit!" The girl said with glee, summoning arguably the best normal summon that her deck, that the Dino Rabbit strategy could make as a start of her turn.

And as she placed the monster card, the small goggle and hard hat wearing rabbit appeared onto the field, blowing its whistle as it appeared right next to the menacing giant Water Dinosaur beside it.

Rescue Rabbit -  Earth/Beast/Level 4/Effect: 300/100

"Wha-! She already has two Level 4 Monsters on her field?!" Allen exclaimed with wide eyes, surprised by how easily Myu managed to get two monsters of the same level onto the field.

"It's a similar strategy, to the one that had beaten you previously." She said aloud, and the red haired boy's head snapped towards her. She continued to explain even as she watched the match continue to unfold with Myu activating the monster's effect.

"Rescue Rabbit is a monster that supports Normal Monsters, it can banish itself from the field to special summon two Level 4 or lower Normal Monsters with the same name from the deck, but they're destroyed during the End Phase." She explained as she watched Myu summoned two more Megalosmasher X, thankfully not drawing any of the three copies in her opening hand.

Megalosmasher X -  Water/Dinosaur/Level 4/Normal: 2000/0

Megalosmasher X -  Water/Dinosaur/Level 4/Normal: 2000/0

Allen's eyes widened as he saw the silver haired girl summon three of the same monsters with a relatively huge attack, and assembling three monsters of the same level with ease. "For the Evilswarm deck, the target is either their own Heliotrope that you saw just then, or Mystery Shell Dragon that has the same statline as Megalosmasher over there."

"Battle!" Myu declared as she went and gone to the Battle Phase and forgoing to even XYZ Summon. "I'll attack your face-down monster with my first Megalosmasher X!" She declared the attack, and her first Dinosaur roared as it struck.

Sayaka's eyes widened a bit as she saw the girl and her three monsters attack, but managed to calm herself as her face-down monster was flipped face-up and revealed as the attack continued.

For the face-down monster was a four winged angel, his golden wings shining under the sunlight, it's shine only seconded by the golden glowing halo at the top of his head, the monster had his four wings protectively covering his body protectively.

It was a monster that she hadn't seen in quite a while. A staple in some of the decks back in the good old Goat Format.

Shining Angel -  Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 1400/800

But the monster's protective wings were no match for the maws of the great predator, and he was easily destroyed by a single chomp of the gigantic Water Dinosaur, being sent to the graveyard and activating the recruiter's effect.

"Then Shining Angel's effect activates!" Sayaka declared as she had her monster destroyed, activating its floating effect. "When he's destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, I can special summon one Light Monster with 1500 or less attack in attack position!"

The girl took her deck and searched through it, taking a monster that was a legal target from her deck and revealing it to her opponent. "I'll special summon Nova Summoner in attack position!" She said as she placed the monster onto her field, and the miniaturized winged Fairy Monster appeared above the card.

Nova Summoner -  Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 1400/800

"Ho? Summoning Nova Summoner instead of another Shining Angel." She said with a raised eyebrow as she saw the choice of monster that the girl decided to summon, and narrowed her eyes. "Right, it's the Type specific recruiter that can special summon in defence. She can save some Life Points unlike Shining Angel that has to special in attack position."

"Then I'll attack it with my second Megalosmasher X!" Myu continued on as she declared her second attack, the small Dinosaur roared as it lunged forward and chomped at the newly summoned recruiter, this time dealing damage to the girl.

Strangely, there wasn't any of the backlash from the girl receiving the attack. It was like none of the miniaturized holograms that the duel box produced has no mass unlike the ones that the duel disks do, which would make sense as it was an older model.

Sayaka Sasayama: 3400LP

"But Nova Summoner's effect will trigger!" The bespectacled girl declared once more, activating her other recruiter's effect. "When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, I can special summon one Light Fairy Monster with 1500 or less attack!"

And once more the girl took out another monster from her deck, revealing another copy of the same monster that was just destroyed. "I will special summon another Nova Summoner in defence position!" But this time, she summoned the monster in defence position.

Nova Summoner -  Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 1400/800

"Che, then I'll attack your Nova Summoner with my third Megalosmasher X!" And Myu once more rushed to attack, sending her third and last Megalosmasher X to attack the recruiter, and destroying it.

"Nova Summoner's effect activates again!" Sayaka declared for the third time this turn, activating her other recruiter's effect. "Since this card was destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, I can special summon one Light Fairy Monster with 1500 or less attack!"

And for the third time of this turn, the bespectacled girl took out a card from her deck as she revealed it. "I'll special summon Little Fairy from my deck in defence position!" She placed the card onto the field, and the small fairy, miniaturized to fit the dueling box, appeared as she waved her wand.

Little Fairy -  Light/Fairy/Level 3/Effect: 800/800

"Ghh!" Myu growled angrily as she failed to perform an one turn kill thanks to the wall of floating recruiters, and moved on to her Main Phase 2 instead. "Fine then! I'll overlay two of my Megalosmasher X's!" 

The two great predators which was summoned with Rescue Rabbit roared out, both turning into beams of blue lights as they entered the spiral of black that appeared in the middle of the dueling box. "I'll construct the overlay network with these two monsters!" And said black spiral then exploded and spread out light.

"XYZ Summon! Appear! Evolzar Dolkka!" And the monster then appeared, arguably one of the strongest XYZ Monster that the game has, the white XYZ Dragon spread out its wings as it appeared with a roar, appearing with an explosion of lava.

Evolzar Dolkka -  Fire/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 2300/1700 OV: 2

She was honestly very much surprised to find Myu with a Normal Monster Dinosaur deck, but it surprised her even more for her to have Dolkka of all monsters as her one and only Extra Deck option.

It was arguably the best Extra Deck monster that the girl could have. And while Laggia would also be a good choice as it is a Solemn on legs, Dolkka would be the better one to have since it was a double monster negate.

Which, in a format of XYZ Monsters, is quite the good effect to have. Then again monster negations are always appreciated.

"And I'll end my turn." She said, ending her turn with a board of Dolkka, her two tribal monster negates, and a copy of Megalosmasher X on her side of the field, with four cards still remaining in her hand.

"Then it's my turn again. I'll draw!" Sayaka said as she started her turn, drawing a card for her turn and making her start her second turn with three cards in hand. 

"I'll start by activating the effect of Little Fairy!" She called out, activating the monster's effect. "Up to twice per turn, I can send one card from my hand to the graveyard and increase this card's Level by one!" She explained.

And to pay the cost, the purple and lilac haired girl revealed a card in her hand that she would discard to pay for the cost of activating the monster's effect. "I'll discard Dancing Fairy from my hand, to increase her Level by one!"

"I won't let you! I'll activate the effect of Evolzar Dolkka!" Myu responded, activating her XYZ Monster's effect on response, and the miniaturized Dragon roared. "When another monster's effect is activated, as a Quick Effect, I can detach one XYZ Material from this card to negate that activation and destroy that monster!"

Evolzar Dolkka -  Fire/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 2300/1700 OV: 1

The miniaturized Dragon took on one of the two orbs of lava that orbited around its body and took it inside its mouth, letting out a roar that shook the small table, negating the effect and destroying the Fairy Monster.

Sayaka however kept calm even as her monster was destroyed by the effect of Dolkka. "Then I'll activate my face-down card. The trap card, Angel's Tear!" She said, flipping up one of the two face-down set cards on her spell and trap zone.

"Angel's Tear lets me banish 4 Fairy-Type monsters in my graveyard, and special summon one Fairy-Type monster from my graveyard!" And the lilac haired girl then took what was basically her graveyard and chose cards that she would remove from it.

"I'll remove Shining Angel, two Nova Summoner, and Dancing Fairy from play, to special summon Little Fairy!" She then placed the monster card onto the table field, and the wand wielding fairy returned to the field.

Little Fairy -  Light/Fairy/Level 3/Effect: 800/800

"And now I'll summon Dancing Fairy!" She said, placing the monster card onto the field and the three miniaturized dancing fairies appeared onto the field floating right above the card that she had just placed, the second copy of the card that she had discarded and banished earlier. 

Dancing Fairy -  Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 1700/1000

"And now I'll activate the spell, Fairy Dust!" And continued her play by activating a spell card, the spell and trap zone placed under it shining slightly. "This card lets me target one monster that I control, and until the end of this turn, it becomes Fairy-Type, and also increase it's Level by one!"

She then pointed towards the target, that of course being the Level 3 Little Fairy that she had summoned back from the graveyard. "I'll increase the Level of Little Fairy by one!" Small glitters of light surrounded the wand wielding fairy, increasing its Level without the help of her own effect.

Little Fairy -  Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 800/800

"Now I'll overlay the Level 4 Little Fairy, and the Level 4 Dancing Fairy!" Sayaka said as she pointed towards her two monsters, the both of them turning to beams of golden lights that then entered the spiral of darkness in the middle of the dueling field.

"With these two monsters, I'll construct an overlay network!" And with that declaration, she continued to chant a summoning chant. "XYZ Summon! Appear, hero who continues fighting with an angelic smile! Fairy Cheer Girl!"

And the XYZ Monster then appeared onto the field, wielding two golden pompadours, her giant butterfly-like wings flapping as she appeared, smiling a blinding light as she danced around.

Fairy Cheer Girl -  Light/Fairy/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 1900/1500 OV: 2

"And since she was summoned using Little Fairy, whose Level was increased with the effect of Fairy Dust, she gains an additional effect!" The girl started and continued to explain. "A Fairy-Type XYZ Monster that Summoned using the targeted monster as Xyz Material gains 500 attack, also it cannot be destroyed by battle!"

Myu's eyes widened as she saw a golden light shower over the dancing cheerleader and with said miniaturized monster giving a wink, having her attack boosted now enough to even contest and go over Dolkka.

Fairy Cheer Girl -  Light/Fairy/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 2400/1500 OV: 2

And now the tables has instantly turned, with Myu not having any other Extra Deck option, not that she could sell any that she has considering most that she has are archetype specific and not generic XYZ Monster, barring the one copy of Utopia that most certainly was not going to sell right now, Myu was in an incredibly tough spot.

"She is pretty good." But she had to give props to her opponent, Sayaka had managed to play incredibly well in this game. And excluding the choice of cards that she was running in her deck, like that Fairy Dust spell and Angel's Tear trap card, she hadn't even done a single missplay in the match.

And of course, just as she had said that, the lilac haired girl did her first missplay of the match. "I'll activate the effect of Fairy Cheer Girl!" She declared, activating her newly summoned XYZ Monster's effect.

"Once per turn, I can detach one XYZ Material from this card, to draw one card!" The girl declared, and the small pom pom bearing fairy jumped high as she used one of her two Overlay Material as cost.

And seeing that, Myu's eyes widened as she pounced ta the opportunity to remove the biggest obstacle that she faced. "I'll activate Dolkka's effect in response! Detaching one more XYZ Material to negate the effect and destroy Fairy Cheer Girl!"

And with a roar, her monster does just that, taking in its last Overlay Material to activate its effects to negate the effect and destroy Fairy Cheer Girl, with Sayaka's eyes going as large as dinner plates behind her glasses as she saw the XYZ Monster activate its effect for the second time of the turn.

Evolzar Dolkka -  Fire/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 2300/1700 OV: 0

And destroy it did, with the Fire Dragon XYZ Monster taking in its last XYZ Material, it then opened its maw and shot out a torrent of hot lava towards the cheerleader Fairy, who could do nothing but raise both of its pom poms in an attempt to defend itself, but to no avail.

"Wha-! It can activate that crazy strong effect more than once per turn?!" She heard Allen exclaim loudly beside her, and she could only wryly smile as she tip her hat and nodded at that.

"Well, there are some catch to why Dolkka has such a strong effect." She started off, instantly gaining the red head's attention as his head snapped towards her. "For starters, Dolkka is xenophobic, same as Fairy Cheer Girl actualy."

"X-xeno what now?" He said not understanding the word that she had used to describe the two tribal XYZ Monsters.

She merely sighed as she shook her head and continued to explain what the word meant in regards to this card game. "It means that they can't be brought in by any other decks. Evolzar Dolkka needs exactly two Dinosaur Monsters to be XYZ Summoned, while Fairy Cheer Girl needs two Fairy Monsters to be summoned."

And after hearing that, the boy's eyes widened as he struck his palm with his other hand in understanding. "Oh! So it's like that! You should have just said so!" He said, before turning back to watch the ongoing match, seeing the lilac haired girl who had turned the tides now once more pushed into a corner.

Sayaka gulped as she reassessed the boardstate, with her having used her normal summon, and no other cards in her hand that she could use to try and turn the tides, she could only close her eyes and continue.

"I'll end my turn." She said dejectedly as she ended her turn with merely one set card in her spell and trap zone and no monsters on field, along with no cards left in her hand, having an open board where Myu could easily OTK through with her monsters.

And seeing that, the silver haired girl grinned as she started her turn. "Then it's my turn! I'll draw!" She said as she drew her card for her turn, raising the amount of cards in her hand to five cards in hand.

But she did nothing with them as she instead proceeded immediately to the Battle Phase. "Battle! I'll attack you directly with Evolzar Dolkka!" And the XYZ Monster complied, rushing in to attack to finish the game.

"I-I'll activate the continuous Trap! Miraculous Descent!" Sayaka declared aloud, flipping up her last and only card, revealing it to be a continuous trap card. "T-this card lets me target one of my banished Fairy monsters and special summon it!"

She raised an eyebrow at the choice of card that she chose to run. Another card that was quite slow, but does pair with her Angel's Tear. And as she activated the Call of the Haunted for banished Fairy monsters, she chose her target from her plethora of banished Fairies.

"I'll-I'll special summon Nova Summoner in defence position!" She yelped out as she hurriedly took the card from her banished pile and placed it onto the table, the recruiter returning back onto the field as the miniaturized hologram appeared.

Nova Summoner -  Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 1400/800

"Again?!" Myu shouted out, thoroughly annoyed at the recruiter continuously coming back onto the field. "Fine! Then I'll attack it instead!" And as a replay happened, she chose the newly summoned monster as Dolkka's attack target, and the Dinosaur complied as it destroyed it.

But since it was destroyed and sent to the graveyard, along with the Continuous Trap that was equipped to it.  "Nova Summoner's effect activates again!" Sayaka declared activating the monster's graveyard effect. "Since this card was destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, I can special summon one Light Fairy Monster with 1500 or less attack!"

And she took out the remaining target that was in her deck. "I will special summon the third Nova Summoner!" Said choice being the last copy of Nova Summoner, being summoned in defence position to stall out for another turn.

Nova Summoner -  Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 1400/800

"Gunununu! I'll attack your Nova Summoner with my Megalosmasher X!" And Myu rushed in once more, sending her last monster to once more attack the recruiter and destroying it by battle. 

And of course, the last copy of Nova Summoner also floated. "The effect of Nova Summoner activates again!" Sayaka said. "This time, I'll special summon Shining Angel!" And the monster that she chose to float to was the second copy of Shining Angel, the winged monster appearing on the field with its wings defending himself protectively.

Shining Angel -  Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 1400/800

And sadly, Myu had no other cards to continue attacking, moving onto her second Main Phase as she was struck by her own hubris of wanting to end the game quickly. "I-I'll set a monster." She said, setting a monster face-down.

"And I'll end my turn." And simply ended her turn with that, ending with a board of three monsters of Dolkka without material, a Megalosmasher x, and an unknown face-down, and four cards still in hand.

"M-my turn! I-I'll draw!" And Sayaka started her own turn, taking a deep breath as she drew her card after managing to survive a turn. But as she saw the card that she had drawn for turn, her eyes went wide as her lips trembled.

"I-I'll end my turn…" And she simply ended her turn, having apparently not drawn anything that was playable for the turn and passing with simply her defence position Shining Angel.

"Then it's my turn again! I'll draw!" And now Myu started her turn once more, drawing up another card and immediately playing it. "I'll summon Sabersaurus!" And as she placed the card, the miniaturized holographic projection of the bladed red triceratops appeared above the card, summoning the second best Normal Dinosaur Monster.

Sabersaurus -  Earth/Dinosaur/Level 4/Normal: 1900/500

"And I'll flip up my face-down monster! Evoltile Westlo!" And she continued by flipping up her third monster that she had set in her previous turn, revealing it to be a small green reptile that was Evoltile Westlo.

Evoltile Westlo -  Fire/Reptile/Level 3/Normal: 700/1900

"And Evoltile Westlo's effect activates!" The girl declared. "If this one is flipped, I can special summon one 'Evolsaur' monster from my deck!" And she then revealed the card that she would summon using the small Evol engine that she had randomly sold to the girl in bulk and with a high discount given how genuinely… bad the cards were honestly.

"I'll special summon Evolsaur Cerato in attack position!" And she fully swarmed her board with monster as she summoned her fifth monster, that being a small orange ceratosaurus with wings and armored body parts, one who has a mixed bag of effects of both Stratos and Shura.

Evolsaur Cerato -  Fire/Dinosaur/Level 4/Normal: 1900/1400

"Now when Cerato is special summoned by the effect of an 'Evoltile' monster, it gains 200 attack!" And continued by explaining the monster's miniscule attack boost, the miniaturized monster in question glowing bright red as it received said boost.

Evolsaur Cerato -  Fire/Dinosaur/Level 4/Normal: 2100/1400

"Now Battle!" Myu exclaimed as she immediately moved to the Battle Phase. "I'll attack your Shining Angel with my Megalosmasher X!" And the first attack was declared, with Sayaka not being able to do anything as her monster was destroyed by the water predator's attack.

"S-Shining Angel's effect!" She squeamishly declared. "I-I'll special summon another Shining Angel in attack position…" And she then summoned the last copy of the monster, it's mandatory effect summoning the last four winged angel in attack position.

Shining Angel -  Light/Fairy/Level 4/Effect: 1400/800

"But I'll continue! I'll attack your Shining Angel with Evolsaur Cerato!" And she continued her assault by attacking the newly summoned Shining Angel with her Cerato, destroying said monster and dealing battle damage for the second time of the game.

Sayaka Sasayama: 2700LP

"S-Shining Angel's effect…" Sayaka said dejectively as she took and summoned a monster that her last floater would float into.

"Well, Cerato's effect activates too!" Myu said as she chained her monster's effect in the destruction of Shining Angel. "If this card that was special summoned by an 'Evoltile' monster destroys an opponent's monster by battle, I can add one 'Evoltile' monsters from my deck to my hand!"

Finished with explaining the monster's additional effect, the silver haired girl revealed the target that she would add with Cerato's effect. "I'll add another copy of Evoltile Westlo from my deck to my hand!"

"I'll… special summon Learning Elf…" And summoned a strange monster that she once more hadn't heard of, the book carrying elf fixing her glasses as she was summoned onto the field.

Learning Elf -  Light/Fairy/Level 3/Effect: 1400/1500

"Well that doesn't matter! I'll attack your monster with Evolzar Dolkka!" And the XYZ Monster roared as it struck, shooting a ball of molten lava from its mouth and hitting the summoned Elf, destroying it into motes of light.

Sayaka could only watch with dread as her Life Point counter on the table surface went lower and lower with each attack.

Sayaka Sasayama: 1600LP

"L-Learning Elf lets me draw one card when it's sent to the graveyard." Sayaka said, and she drew one card from the destroyed Eld's effect, increasing her hand size to two.

Not that it would matter sadly, if she doesn't draw something like Battle Fader or something similar to the card, then the match is already over with the next attack. "And I'll attack you  directly with Sabersaurus!"

And the attack passed, the red bladed Dinosaur Monster managing to strike the glasses wearing girl directly, reducing her Life Points to zero with that final attack.

Sayaka Sasayama: 0LP

And as Myu won against Sayaka, the student who was argued to be the smartest duelist of the Clover Branch of the Heartland Duel Academy, the crowd went wild.

She didn't quite understand what the importance was for her to come from the Diamond Branch of the dueling school, but she could give a guess that it was something similar to the discrimination that the Osiris Red would recieve back there, something that she never did get to see firsthand since the advanced class that she was placed on hadn't been divided yet into the three main dorms.

Myu glowed under the cheer of the audience, though the silver haired girl seemed quite surprised that she had even won the duel herself, so she decided to instead put her attention to the boy beside her.

Allen stood slack jawed at his friend's defeat, not thinking that Sayaka would have lost a match against someone like Myu who had lost against him just not even half an hour ago.

And he turned to the source that was the reason for the silver haired girl's victory, the strange card trader who had sold the victorious girl cards that had allowed her to easily swarm the field. 

"So." She started as she looked back at him and gave him a grin. "Care to see what cards that I have to sell, dear customer?"