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Part 8 : Stammering Aster

Aster Phoenix was not entirely sure exactly what he was doing at Duel Academy. As the hottest star on the professional circuit, what was the point of his having been enrolled as a sort of Guest Student Lecturer here? That was what his status amounted to, after all, although he had not actually done anything that would have struck him as an equivalent to studying. He’d given a lecture or two, and had spent the rest of his time defeating scores of aspiring duelists. It might be a pleasant enough way to kill off a few empty weeks in the schedule, but it certainly wasn’t what he’d expected.

At least he’d been permitted to retain his own wardrobe and not been required to wear any of the varicoloured outfits sported by residents of the various dormitories. Not that they weren’t all right so far as uniforms went, but they weren’t in his style. Not many guys his age went in for neckties on a voluntary basis. Before he’d come here, he’d expected his neckwear might draw some comment, though there he’d been mistaken. What had surprised him a little was that he’d drawn a few comments at a party for the elite duelists of the school on his choice of shoes, which could serve as evening wear anywhere.

Not many days after that, he’d been opening his mail, working his way through a fairly thick pile at good speed, when he opened a personal letter. That surprised Aster, as he didn’t think anyone who knew where he was would be likely to write him a personal letter. After reading a couple of sentences, he knew the letter was not for him. It was written from an uncle to his nephew, and Aster didn’t have any uncles. He quickly replaced the letter in its envelope, turned it around, and saw that it had been addressed to Zane Truesdale, the double doctorate candidate whose box for mail was directly next to Aster’s.

Aster had met Zane frequently at dueling events in the outside world. He set out to find Zane in order to return the letter with an appropriate apology for not having had time to notice the address before opening it. It did not take Aster long to find Zane, who was, as often, conversing with Alexis, whom Aster vaguely remembered as having been present at one or two gatherings. They seemed not to be enjoying their conversation much. When Aster approached them and excused himself for interrupting, they both seemed pleased if anything. Alexis excused herself and hurried away.

Aster made his apology and handed Zane the letter. Zane seemed unconcerned and cordial. Even the explanation that Aster had seen it was from his uncle did not seem to cause him undue concern. As it seemed Zane might be about to ask him a question, Aster did not hurry away. Zane glanced through the letter, then took a second look. Then he asked sharply, “How much of this did you read?”

“Just into the second sentence, really. As soon as I could tell it was from someone’s uncle, I knew it wasn’t mine and folded it up again. If there was anything important in it, I didn’t see it, really I didn’t.”

Zane seemed to come to himself. “I’m sorry. The last few days have been... a little unsettling. This changes quite a lot of things, but you wouldn’t have anything to do with it anyway. I’m sorry I snapped.”

“Forget it. I’m sorry I didn’t notice the front of the envelope. I had a big pile of mail to open.”

Zane expressed again that everything was fine, picked up a couple of bags that had been on the ground next to him, and began to walk away. Aster noticed one small bag left behind, picked it up, called out to Zane, and handed him the bag. Zane took it, thanked Aster again, and walked off. Alexis reappeared a moment later.

“You’re Aster Phoenix, of course,” she began. “Could I ask you something?”

“Why not?” Aster replied. “And you’re... Alexis Rhodes.”

“Right. I know you’ve met my brother Atticus.”

“It would be hard to forget Atticus,” Aster said. And he meant it. Who would be likely to forget Atticus? At the gathering of elite duelists freshest in Aster’s memory, Atticus had been the first of several people who had commented about his shoes. Atticus himself, despite the formality of the occasion, had appeared in flip-flops. Aster thought it interesting that someone who’d made such a unique choice himself in that department would be striking up such a conversation.

He’d replied, “Same to you, dude.” (It was one of Aster’s greatest accomplishments that he was one of the few people on the face of the planet who could say, “dude,” in conversation without sounding dim or undercultured; it was “dude” as James Bond might have said it.)

Atticus had smiled and said, “They’re great; you bring any of your own?”

“I didn’t bring a lot of different clothes with me,” Aster had said, shaking his head.

After that, Atticus had asked if he might want a pair, Aster had admitted that it might be possible, and they’d parted. But Aster had seen several others apparently paying close attention to their conversation - the clever but somewhat socially inept Bastion, Chazz with the expensively and Jaden with the naturally messy hair. Even Zane had glanced over at them once or twice. And then both Chazz and Bastion had later had something to say to him about shoes.

Jaden had not taken the opportunity to speak to Aster until just before the end of the party, saying, “I have a question for you. Do you ever... like, you know... get your giggle on?”

The slightest flicker of interest had crossed Aster’s face before he replied, “Get my giggle on... now I suppose this might involve something extreme like... oh, tickle torture? Well... let’s just say... it has been known.” He nearly winked.

“Sweet! Be seeing ya!” Jaden had called as he’d hurried away.

And now here was Alexis apologizing for Atticus. “My brother’s being a bit of a bad influence around here. For some reason, he’s been getting a lot of my friends into some weird thing. I don’t know what it is. But I’ve seen four or five of them going around in flip-flops. It’s probably part of some secret society, because it’s usually at about the same time of day and they always seem to be going in the same direction. And none of them seem quite like themselves any more. I’m starting to worry about it, because the Academy’s unsettled enough without the top duelists acting out of character. Zane’s gotten concerned about it, too. I’m surprised Atticus hasn’t tried to get him into that little group, not that it would work...”

Aster almost opened his mouth. He stopped himself just in time. Some instinct just warned him off of letting the words cross his lips. He didn’t tell Alexis that he’d seen something in the bag he’d returned to Zane, and what he’d seen, though partially due to being hidden by wrapping, was clearly a pair of flip-flops.

As Aster was to learn later, the days that had passed since Zane’s visit to the Sacred Dueling Room had been strenuous for him. Zane had struggled against his own ticklishness as mightily as he could, but his incredible vulnerability to Jaden’s inane phrase had stunned him more than it had anyone else. Zane had tried to resume his regular routine the day afterwards. He’d resisted the urge to follow the flip-floppers to their private beach at the secluded cove. But before the day was out he’d given in to the temptation to summon the group into conference, which had led to Jaden’s inevitably trotting out his catch phrase, which had exerted the same influence over Zane as on the previous day. The next day, he’d
had an idea of sorts, tortured into a form he found bearable. From what his father had said all those years ago, maybe it wasn’t that tickling ought to be avoided completely, but just that it would be a dangerous thing to inflict tickle-torture on Syrus. Possibly his little brother wouldn’t be able to stand it. Zane wasn’t entirely happy with this conclusion (he recognized a pleasure in his own ticklishness and its power over him that he distrusted by instinct), but it was the best he could do. If he could distract the tickling attention of Atticus’ little group, and draw all their tickling to himself, then at least they would leave Syrus alone, and that might be a sort of happy compromise.

With that in mind, Zane had found his way to the beach where Atticus and the others discarded their flip-flops and had their sand duels. At least he’d been able to see to it in the days he’d been attending that Syrus’ feet were tickled less and less often, which Syrus himself had hardly seemed to notice in the midst of his excitement over being in on the same activity as his big brother. On the day before Aster had opened the letter from his uncle, Zane had managed to get his feet tickled almost right away, and through some
superhuman effort of will had managed to fight the tickling for almost the full duration of time the group of tickling devotees could stay at the cove. Although Zane had resisted actually becoming an official member of the group and wearing his own pair of flip-flops, Atticus had then informed him that he appeared to have de facto accepted membership, and should act like it. Accordingly, and not sure whether to be annoyed or delighted by his enjoyment of the act, Zane had procured the pair of flip-flops Aster had just stopped
himself from telling Alexis were in his bag.

Aster asked Alexis, “Has anyone been acting really out of character lately?”

Alexis answered, “Some of the guys definitely haven’t been themselves. Syrus is dueling better for no good reason, which you’d think wouldn’t worry anyone, but it’s definitely out of character. Bastion has started almost missing the answers to questions in class, and Chazz has been polite twice to students in the Slifer Red dorm, which is the one thing that might worry anyone. Jaden and my brother are basically still their same goofy selves. And there’s a new student who’s gotten into the group, named Tyranno something. I don’t know if he’s acting unusual or not. But the strain is getting to Zane. He worries a lot about the Academy, I think because he’s probably going to be Chancellor here some day in the future, when he retires from the pro circuit. Twice, now, in the last two or three days, Zane has suddenly had to leave the room in the middle of a meeting or some group activity. Once I thought I saw Jaden look at him and whisper something, but I doubt that would have anything to do with it.”

“I don’t really know anyone well,” said Aster, “but I agree that I’d find Chazz being polite to anyone who isn’t clearly his equal or superiour very surprising. I may be seeing Zane later this afternoon. If I think there’s anything strange worrying him, I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks so much.” Alexis gave a grateful smile. “Oh, I see a couple of my friends coming towards us. They’ll probably turn into real pests if they meet you; I’ll go head them off.”

“Thanks. Not that I mind meeting people, but I have to think about something.” As Alexis left, Aster began making connections. He had not been sure about there being a connection between Jaden and Atticus, but now it seemed pretty clear. And Atticus was definitely linked to flip-flops, which presumably had something to do with the pair that Zane had just acquired, a pair about which it appeared that Alexis knew nothing. If that should turn out to be because Zane was keeping something secret, then it didn’t seem to be too great a stretch to link Zane to Jaden’s getting his giggle on... very interesting indeed...
Had Aster been less honourable than he was, he’d have learned even more about Zane than he
surmised. A quick glance through his uncle’s letter had informed Zane that he’d better study it in private. As Aster and Alexis were conversing, Zane was discovering quite a bit about his family history.

Zane had at first been unsure of what to make of the letter. He knew that his father and uncle had not been on speaking terms for some time. But his uncle had just learned an important piece of Truesdale family history, something important to pass on to the next generation. Zane took the letter to his room and read it carefully.

His uncle wrote of a shocking discovery he’d just made. Zane’s grandmother had given birth to twin boys some five years before his uncle had been born. As the twins had died less than a year after their birth, and as any reference to them sent their mother into a terrible fit of depression, they had been no longer mentioned by anybody. Neither Zane’s uncle nor his father had known of their brothers’ existence until his uncle had discovered that piece of lineage just before writing the letter.

While the fact of the twins’ existence was sad enough, they were an important piece to a Truesdale family puzzle, a piece that had been conspicuous by its absence. Zane and Syrus had puzzled their uncle by their reticence on a certain subject, but learning of his twin brothers had given their uncle the explanation. There was much that they had apparently never been told, which was bound to make a huge difference in their lives.

What Zane had presumably never been told, their uncle wrote, was the story of the central figure in the Truesdale family saga, Terence Truesdale, who had lived and died several centuries ago. Terence Truesdale had been the most intense (and the most talented) foot tickler anyone had ever known. He had begun a practice in his youth of “capturing” his friends and tickling their feet until some time after they begged for more and agreed to let him keep one of their shoes. These shoes he displayed in the top of a tree on his property, so that on a daily basis people would be eager to pass by and see who had been most recently added to Terence’s tickle list. After he’d tickled all his friends and added
their shoes to his collection, Terence had branched out, tickling acquaintances and even strangers. Some tried to avoid the encounter, but the greater their resistance the more sure his ultimate victory, such was Terence’s talent. It was not long before he’d acquired the soubriquet of Terry the Tickler, a moniker which changed a little over time until he was known throughout the land as the Terrible Tickler. Eventually, he’d tickled every male in town at or over his minimum age, at which point he’d moved on to a new town and begun tickling the entire populace there. Terence had tickled his way through, at best guess, approximately 654 towns by the time of his death. Legend eventually had it that he was the inspiration for numerous fictional characters with a penchant for tickling, for his
fame had spread far and wide during his lifetime and afterwards.

From that day onward, almost every Truesdale son had grown to become passionately devoted to tickling from one end or the other, often both. It was the most persistent family trait. There was, however, one consistent exception to the rule. The fourth son of a fourth son, whenever that phenomenon occurred within the family, could never bear tickling or even any mention of it. And Zane’s grandfather, his uncle wrote, had been the fourth son of an only Truesdale child. Therefore, learning of the unmentioned twins had given Zane’s uncle the key to understand much about his own life and relationship with his brother.

Zane’s and Syrus’ father had been the dreaded fourth of a fourth who could not abide tickling. Therefore all the tickling he’d received as a child from his Truesdale-natured-tickle-obsessed brother had been genuine agony for him. It had led to the estrangement between the brothers. Their father might have warned them off, but the fourth-of-a-fourth phenomenon had not yet been discovered, there being no sort of family lore to that effect.

A distant cousin who had written the family history all the way back to Terence had been the first to co-ordinate birth order with the aversion to the family passion for tickling, bringing the fact to light only a few months previously, and not communicating the knowledge beyond a small circle within the family. The knowledge of having submitted his little brother to treatment certain to alienate the fourth son of a fourth son had given Zane’s uncle a good deal of unease. He wished he could apologize properly to his brother, whom he had tickled regularly when they were both children. He’d taken his brother’s
horrified reaction to the family tales of Terence the Terrible Tickler to be the same internally as his own, for he’d feigned horror in the best Truesdale style at the stories of Terence’s tickling exploits.

He’d never known or understood properly that his brother’s distaste had been so deep and genuine. At this point, an apology was presumably something that probably would go unaccepted. He could live with that. But it had occurred to him that Zane and Syrus, the sons of such a father, might have been very ill-prepared to grow up with the deep family passion for tickling and/or being tickled inside them both. Doubtless tickling or any mention of it had been prohibited in their home when they were younger.

And now they were both out in the world, or at least at Duel Academy, perhaps tormenting
themselves due to a lack of awareness of their family history. This was a common thing for the sons of a fourth-of-a-fourth, and more especially likely for Zane and Syrus as they had had almost no contact with any of their few extant family connections. There was the knowledge, for good or ill, and, without asking for any intercession with his brother, Zane’s uncle presented the story to his nephew for Zane to make of it what he could in the hopes that Zane and Syrus might be spared agony or misunderstanding.

Zane was not sure that he could just trust his uncle. After all, his father was not the sort arbitrarily to break family ties for no reason. There was quite a fair chance that his uncle might have provided some perfectly good reasons for being cut off. But he recalled the agony and the urgency in his father’s voice when his father had told him that he must never tickle Syrus again. And then Zane wondered just why the memory had stuck with him so strongly for all those years.

If he were being completely honest with himself, he would acknowledge that the moment struck him as one of the most tragic times in his life. But
there had been similar warnings from his father or other people that had not left him with anything like the overpowering feeling of emptiness he’d worked for years to avoid acknowledging. The more Zane thought, the more right this new explanation felt. He still hesitated to embrace it, but he was convinced that it at least merited testing. And there was one thing he could do. Zane changed into his new flip-flops and left, choosing a route that ran no risk of being observed by Alexis.

Aster had long finished his speculations by the time Zane departed. The little time that had passed had only strengthened Aster’s belief that his time here at Duel Academy might have a strong purpose after all. What had appeared to be a rogue interest in tickling on Jaden’s part might have been one thing. But if there had sprung up a tickling ring that had come to involve Zane Truesdale, then Aster felt almost sure that a group of such allure might well be a sign of the involvement of his father.

Aster’s father had been a card creator with the particular responsibility of being in charge of the line of the Destiny Hero cards that had been the basis of Aster’s deck from the moment of his first duel. Dr Phoenix had disappeared shortly after the creation of a Destiny Hero card so powerful that it had been deemed too strong for mass distribution. Most of the people who had assisted Aster in his quest to find his father had assumed that the new Destiny Hero card would be the vital clue to finding Dr Phoenix. But Aster and a small circle of his father’s friends thought another line might be more promising.

As a card creator, Dr Phoenix was, naturally, not a competitive duelist or a coach. He had, however, managed to become involved as a training consultant for a group of top-ranking duelists. This group had met regularly at the Phoenix home and experimented with various patent training methods designed to improve their performance.

When the eventual best method of training had been discovered, one member or another of the
Phoenix Training Group had won three consecutive World Championships. Naturally this had created heightened interest among other teams and unaffiliated duelists. In time it had been determined by leading analysts that superiour play under pressure of competition had been a greater factor in these victories than the strategies or deck building of the various champions. Interest in their training secrets had increased.

The only outsider who ever discovered Dr Phoenix’s top training technique had been his son. One night young Aster had been unable to remain asleep. Wandering out of his bedroom to find his father, he’d heard rather a lot of noise coming from the training quarters. He’d crept in to find a strange duel in progress and his father monitoring the play.

“Daddy,” Aster had asked, “why are Jeffrey and Artur laughing so much while they duel?”

“It’s our new kind of training, Aster. And you gave me the idea for it.”

“I did?”

“Oh, yes. Do you remember when I was asking you the multiplication tables and your kitten came and put his big, fluffy tail in between your toes?”

“I remember. I like when Kitty does that; it tickles,” he’d said, giggling.

“And you kept answering the multiplication questions I asked you, but it wasn’t easy for you. Well, that gave me the idea to see if it helped the people in our training group to improve their dueling to see how well they could duel with their feet being tickled. Only instead of Kitty the others are tickling Jeffrey’s and Artur’s feet while they’re dueling. All the duelists are taking turns dueling while their feet are tickled. It helps them improve their concentration so that when they have real duels against difficult opponents they can remain calm and not get too excited about dueling.”

Aster had been very pleased and proud to have helped inspire one of his father’s best training methods. Later, when his father had disappeared, he’d wondered if his father’s vanishing had been connected to tickle training in any way. He’d always thought it likely, sometimes more so and sometimes less so. But the possibility never entirely left his head as time continued to pass and his search went on.

Any organized group indulging in tickling activity was likely to pique Aster’s interest at least until he made certain that his father had not been involved with the group at all. But any group involving top duelists always seemed worth extra-careful attention. And here was a group which had recently added one of the best - Zane Truesdale - at least, if Aster’s guesses were correct. On that front, he felt fairly secure. Now exactly why his father should have established such a group, and under what motivations, Aster could never entirely decide. He’d like to think the whole thing quite blameless, but could not be completely certain. Still, he’d managed to keep believing that he would find out in time.

Aster then tried to get some reading done. This was proving to be less than a notable success. Then he gave up trying to read, went to a window and noticed Zane walking somewhere quickly. Zane - in more of a hurry than Aster might ever have thought natural for him - and, as Aster saw, wearing flip-flops.

By the time Aster had gotten out of doors and reached the approximate spot where Zane had been walking, Zane was well out of sight. This was no particular cause for worry. Aster might not have had Ty’s exceptional skill for tracking, or Zane’s sixth sense of where Syrus might likely be found. But in this situation Aster’s sixth sense proved just as useful.

Guided by instinct, Aster moved almost sightlessly through the grounds of the Academy and towards what he was certain of finding. And find it he did. Glimpsing the pile of discarded flip-flops as he turned the last corner to reach the preferred viewing point at the secret cove, Aster arrived just in time to witness the tail end of Zane challenging all six of the others, vowing to defeat the lot of them in a maximum of twenty-five turns. Zane would also allow each of the six to choose whether to go first or second after drawing his opening hand.

Aster was impressed by Zane’s challenge. He’d seen other top duelists issue challenges of that to groups of decent opponents, but usually they retained the privilege of going first themselves in order to set up some high-powered combination play. Zane could not have tricked up his deck excessively. Also, with the limit on number of turns he would presumably not be using cards like Future Fusion or Different Dimension Capsule, which required waiting a couple of turns before getting powerful cards into hand or onto the field.

Aster watched the other six deciding on the order in which they would duel Zane. Then his glance wandered about to take in details of the little secluded beach where they were meeting. For a moment his eyes were held by the pile of flip-flops. His toes wiggled once or twice, as if anticipating that they’d be getting the opportunity to come out and play. But the impulse to shed his own shoes and join the little group passed. After all, he was here on his quest. He watched.

And what Aster saw was a great display of power dueling from Zane. Cyber End Dragon and
Chimeratech Overdragon were brought out almost at once in duel after duel and mowed down all competition. Syrus lost on Zane’s second turn. Only Atticus required five turns to defeat. In the end, Zane beat all six opponents in a total of nineteen turns. Aster admitted to himself that he was really impressed. Zane seemed to have dueled with an incredibly strong sense of purpose.

Zane, having dispatched his six opponents, was then quite decided about his prize. He ordered them to line up in order of foot size, lying in a row on the sand. Aster almost laughed out loud to see the comical line of bare feet ranging from Ty’s big dogs on one end down all the way to Syrus’ little tootsies on the other. Zane, who had never before tickled anyone else within the confines of the flip-flop group, then announced that he only had a limited time to remain with them.

“I have to be back for a meeting in an hour. So today will be just a preliminary. When I have more time, I intend to bury you all in the sand. But I have a second challenge for myself today. I think I can get you all to go crazy in a total of half an hour.”

Zane then had them all grab each other’s hands, bringing Syrus over to the other end when he started on Ty. Then he tickled his way down the line as ruthlessly and efficiently as he’d dueled. Ty’s trained resistance, Chazz’ arrogant egoism, Atticus’ spiritual resolve all were mowed down. One by one, they burst into laughter nearly at once, shocked by Zane’s unexpected expertise. Bastion and Jaden were unable and unwilling to put up any resistance at all. By the time Zane had Jaden in hysterics, he still had a good fourteen minutes left for Syrus. He warned his little brother to be prepared for something he should have gotten a long time ago.

Aster watched with interest as Zane tickled his brother’s bare feet with an almost demonic intensity. Syrus, for his part, was in agonies of torture at once. But there was more to it than that. Zane seemed even more dedicated in tickling Syrus than he’d seemed in tickling any of the others, though Syrus didn’t offer any particular difficulties in the matter of forcing laughter. And Syrus seemed, despite his ticklish agony, to have found some sense of peace or rightness about the universe.

Aster, who frequently admitted to himself how one of his fondest wishes would be to be tickled by his father again, immediately felt a strange sort of sympathy with Syrus and sensed that Syrus hadn’t been tickled by Zane for a longer time than suited him. There was definitely an aura of some sense of rightness being restored to the universe. And Zane seemed more mesmerized by Syrus’ little barefeet than he’d been by all the bigger feet he’d just tickled.

Aster mentally filed away these impressions. They might have nothing to do with his quest. But there was certainly a good deal of potential in this group. For an instant, Aster was again nearly on the brink of removing his shoes and joining the others, but just then Zane’s time for tickling Syrus came to an end. Aster was just able to get away before Zane got up, dug through the pile of flip-flops for his, stuck his bare feet into them, and headed back to the main buildings.

Aster, who watched Zane go, then thought of joining the remaining six. They seemed to be continuing their practice, and there ought to be at least a good time to be had. But he still hesitated. This group definitely seemed connected to his mission in some way. He wanted to think things out carefully. Resisting temptation, Aster returned to his own room.

The following day’s mail brought Aster the answer that overnight he’d almost come to expect. The Sacred Dueling Room... 4:15... he would be further along on his quest. Aster was quietly pleased.

4:15, and Aster entered the Sacred Dueling Room right on time. He smiled ever so slightly to himself as he removed his shoes in the antechamber. He’d always liked seeing pictures of dressed-up young men with bare feet when he’d been a boy. Pity he hadn’t had as much opportunity as he might have liked to be a rule-breaker. He left the anteroom, entered the Sacred Dueling Room proper, and saw the robed and hooded stranger for the first time.

“You are, of course, Aster Phoenix,” spoke the digitized voice. “You understand the terms?”

“I do.”

“If you win our duel, I provide you with the assistnace you require. If you don’t, you assist me. Do you agree?”

“I agree.”

“Then we duel. You’re welcome to go first.”

“Thank you.” They readied their duel disks and drew their cards. Aster began. “I’ll start with Destiny Draw. I discard Destiny Hero - Dasher to the graveyard and then draw two cards. Now I’ll set a monster in defence mode and a face-down card and end my turn.”

The stranger seemed pleased with the opening draw. “I’ll start with a special summon of Cyber Dragon. And if you’re drawing extra cards, I’d better reduce your hand size, so I’ll add Spirit Reaper.

Now, Cyber Dragon will attack your defensive monster, and when Spirit Reaper attacks directly, you’ll have to discard a card from your hand.”

“But my defensive monster is Destiny Hero - Defender,” said Aster, “so it isn’t destroyed.” This was true, as Defender had 2700 DEF, more than enough to withstand Cyber Dragon’s 2100 ATK. The stranger’s life points went down from 8000 to 7400. The stranger set one card to end the turn.

Aster drew. “It’s another Destiny Hero - Dasher,” he said, “and I can use the effect of the Dasher in my graveyard to special summon this one.” When the other chose not to respond, Aster went on, “Now I’ll destroy Spirit Reaper by trying to equip it with Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade.”

“And I’ll activate Raigeki Break to destroy your Destiny Hero - Dasher.” The stranger discarded Treeborn Frog to the graveyard as the activation cost.

“I think that was a mistake,” said Aster. “First I’ll make sure you don’t get a draw from Defender’s effect and tribute Defender to summon my Destiny Hero - Double Dude. Now I can remove Defender and the first Dasher from my graveyard to return the Divine Sword to my hand. Then I can equip it to Double Dude and end my turn."

“As I have no spells or traps in play, I can special summon Treeborn Frog from the graveyard. But it won’t stay on the field long. I tribute Treeborn Frog for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. When Zaborg is tribute summoned, I must destroy one monster on the field, so I’ll destroy Double Dude.”

“That doesn’t matter,” said Aster, as I’ll clear the field of monsters with my face-down Torrential Tribute.”

“Then all I can do is set one card and end my turn.”

Aster drew. “I didn’t get a monster I can special summon with my second Dasher’s effect, but I won’t need it. First, in my Standby Phase, because my Double Dude was destroyed, I get two Double Dude Tokens. Next, I play a second Destiny Draw. This time, I’ll discard Destiny Hero - Malicious, so that I can then remove him from play to special summon another Malicious from my deck. As I still have my regular summon, I’ll use it for Elemental Hero Stratos, which lets me take any Elemental Hero or Destiny Hero from my deck into my hand. And I choose Destiny Hero - Dogma, which I can special summon by tributing Malicious and my two tokens.”

“Then I activate my trap - Black Horn of Heaven, to negate that last summon and destroy Dogma, so that I won’t have to lose half my life points in your next turn from Dogma’s effect.”

Aster removed Dogma and Double Dude from play to reclaim his Divine Sword, equipped it to Stratos, the only card left on the field, and attacked. The stranger’s life points dropped to 5300. Then Aster set a card and ended his turn.

The stranger drew, and brought Treeborn Frog back in defence position. “I’ll put one more monster in defence position, and end my turn with one card in my hand.”

Aster really liked his draw. “I think you’ll regret bringing back your Treeborn Frog,” he said, showing the card he drew. “I drew a monster I can special summon with my second Dasher’s effect, and I will bring out one of my favourite Destiny Heroes, my Diamond Dude. I think I’ll choose defence mode. And nowit’s time for my face-down card - Inferno Reckless Summon. Because I just special summoned a monster with an attack strength of 1500 or less while you have a monster on the field, I can summon up to two more copies from my hand, deck or graveyard, and you can summon copies of any face-up card you control. But
your only face-up card is Treeborn Frog, and that’s limited to one per deck. So that’s two more monsters for me, and none for you. Now I’ll activate Diamond Dude’s effect. If the top card on my deck is a normal spell card, I send it to the graveyard and then I can activate the effect on my next turn without paying the cost. Since I have three Diamond Dudes, I can look at my top three cards - and look at this! Dimension Fusion, Lightning Vortex and Heavy Storm. So much for your monsters, spells and traps next turn! Heavy Storm first to clear your traps away, then Dimension Fusion to fill any monster zones I have open with monsters removed from play, and finally Lightning Vortex to destroy all your monsters. I won’t even attack you now. To be as safe as I can be, I’ll switch Stratos to defence mode and end my turn. You might manage to hang on for another turn or two if you get lucky and find a stalling card, but I’ll be way ahead.”

The stranger seemed displeased with the draw. “Thousand-Eyes Restrict won’t help me here - who ever said that it’s no good playing Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 in a Monarch deck? That would be the only way to stop your spells effectively - or Silent Swordsman LV7. Well, even though it won’t really help, Ill bring out Cyber-Stein anyway. I might as well go out in a blaze of glory. I’ll pay the 5000 life point price to bring out a fusion monster - why not Gatling Dragon, just to see how many of those annoying Diamond Dudes I can wipe out?” Three coin tosses followed. When all three turned up Heads, the stranger seemed wryly pleased. “Not that it really matters, but I can destroy your Diamond Dudes with Gatling Dragon’s effect, and now it will attack Stratos, so goodbye to your field presence. And just for style points, I’ll attack with Cyber-Stein. Maybe I should have switched Treeborn Frog to attack mode just for a little extra ding, but I didn’t, which means that all I can do is set one card and end my last turn.” Aster’s life points, reduced for the first time, stood at 7300.

Aster drew, still half suspecting a trick. “So that really was your last turn? Are you conceding?”

“Yes and no.”

“Well, then, I’ll start with Heavy Storm’s effect.”
“It makes no difference. Whatever you do, I’ll chain my trap card - Self-Destruct Button. I
have a confession to make. I didn’t change Treeborn Frog to attack mode on purpose. Self-Destruct Button can only activate when I have fewer life points than my opponent and the difference is at least 7000, and of course our score is exactly 7300-300. Now both our Life Points become zero.”

“So the duel is a draw,” said Aster. “What, do we duel again?”

“Not at all,” said the other. “You give me the assistance I require.”

“But you didn’t win,” said Aster.

“I didn’t have to win. Remember exactly what I said.”

Of course! Closing his eyes and shaking his head, Aster recalled that the agreement had been based on whether he had won or not won rather than which of the two of them had won, in which case a draw would have led to either a cancellation or a replay. But as it was, he hadn’t won, and therefore was obliged to yield to the request of the other.

At the stranger’s direction, Aster entered the Secret Chamber. The scene he beheld was curious. Unlike the seven earlier occasions when one of the Academy boys had entered that chamber, Aster was not alone with the mysterious stranger. Syrus, Chazz, Jaden, Bastion, Atticus, Ty and Zane were arranged in seven parts of a circle on their tables.