Dueling life in a futuristic world

08/Sept/35MT

You would think people would at this point realize that annoying me is a good way to get themselves into hospital or expelled, right?

“Penta-Summoner, duel me!”

Well, going by this annoying red rank that has just decided on following me out of the action duel field after practice this Thursday morning, apparently not. Today, my daily source of annoyance is this guy.

I facepalm, then turn around and face him, my left eye twitching. “When will you learn your lesson?!” I exclaim, “The event is next month. Can’t you wait a few weeks!?”

Based on his confident expression, he doesn’t get it. “NO! I won’t wait any longer! You think you're so much better than us!” and draws out a duel blade. “Not this time!”

‘Oh, shit.’

I hate duels like this. I know I will not get any satisfaction in beating the tar out of him. How about a bet? Is he using a normal beatdown deck, or is he more advanced than that? Because right now I’m leaning towards normal beatdown like the other red ranked scr… wait, no, Mia, Aiko and Yasuna aren’t scrubs… Anyway.

Haru is having more fun than me. “Ooh, Yuumi, he’s a cutie.” She comments.

I resist the urge to give her my duel disk to show how much of a cutie this simple braindead idiot is, but ultimately decide against it.

Looking him straight in the eye, I tell. “Do you really want to do this? Because I won’t accept surrender.” It was cruel, but based on the expression he made, it worked.

“N-n-YES! LET’S DUEL!”

…

Or not.

“Before that, can I know the reason you are so intent on self-harm?” I simply ask.

He stumbles. “I won’t waste away in red rank like my brother! NO! I’m going to come out of here a legend! Now, no more chit chat!”

‘O joy, a delusional overachiever.’

I was not waiting for him to place a monster down and turn this situation into a much bigger deal, so I strap my duel disk and say. “DUEL!”

He copies me.

5 minutes later…

“Why….?” He asked, laying down on the path with some bruises. In the end, I let him surrender after some small amount of damage. I didn’t want to create more of a scene than this already is.

I raise an eyebrow. “Why what? Why did you lose? Simple, your deck is garbage.”

“YUUMI!” shouts Haru, looking like I have just said something terrible.

“What do you want me to tell him, Haru? That it was a close match? Because it wasn’t!” I am really annoyed. There is already a crowd forming, and it’s only a matter of time before rumors spread about this.

‘ “Penta-Summoner bullies red rank!” I can already see the clickbait forum posts.’

The other problem with this now is that there will be more people looking at this for a reason to duel me before the event. Sure, most respectable duelists will wait, as getting a win against a penta-summoner in a live event is a great way to get your name out there, but there will also be the ones which just want to boast about it no matter what, and the only conclusion that they’ll make of this is that they can just go up to me and issue the challenge. That was always the case, but this will only broadcast it.

Unfortunately, that was already happening. From the crowd forming around me, two yellow ranks step forward.

————

“WHY!!!!” I yell into my pillow.

I’ve just spent the best part of an afternoon dueling various lower ranked duelists and it wasn’t fun. I’m done with dueling…

‘Ok, maybe I’m being harsh, but I’m close to burning out. I really need some space… It’s only been one month…’

With all of those duels I’ve gotten up to 870 Elo, so while not even halfway to blue rank, it was progress nonetheless. I wasn’t speed running blue rank though; it was just a preliminary objective that I wanted to get out of the way to focus other things.

[“Bip”]

My phone sounds a notification so I go to grab it, finding a message from the Director.

————

“Yuumi!” Mia greets with a cheerful smile.

Next to her are Yasuna and Aiko, who also copy her gesture.

“Ayo!” greets Yasuna.

“Hello Yuumi.”

“Hey y’all.” I causally greet them.

Yasuna looks at me up and down with a confused expression on her face. “Hey… I know you’re proud of that club, but are you sure this is appropriate? I mean… You’re already getting looks…” she carefully looks around at the tower lobby where we were standing.

“Ah! Ask the Director…” I trail off…

I was wearing my cheerleading outfit, which in public is embarrassing… I mean, it’s not like I’m ashamed of it, after all I’m meant to jump around with it in front of thousands of people, but walking around the campus with it on is distracting. Too much skin showing and the breeze is… chilly. It’s getting cold here, even though it’s only September and the academy has already issued us the winter version of our regular uniforms. It’s the same outfit but with leggings and a long-sleeved jacket plus a pair of gloves and winter boots. Yea, not so inventive on the part of the academy, but hey it works.

So what does this have to do with the Director? Simple, he told me to meet him with Aya, Yasuna, Aiko and Mia, and for some reason, he also requested me to show up in this outfit. I would call him a pervert if I didn’t know he was already married. But that left the question of why? I’m not sure myself.

Also, bold move calling Aya… This is going to be a disaster. Thank go- Solus I’ve already introduced her before.

Right on time, Aya arrives and, after carefully judging the reactions of the others, greets them. “H-Hello there…” she starts of stuttering. “I hope we can work together…”

‘Oh boy.’

Yasuna is fuming, and Mia is visually cringing. The only one that seems comfortable around Aya is Aiko… Odd. I would’ve bet she would be the most affected, but she’s not.

Mia is the first to break the silence, stepping towards Aya and greeting “Hello Aya. I hope we can work together.”

I can see that she’s a little apprehensive, but that’s being expected. Yasuna, on the other hand, just stares at her without a word. She’s the one that most despises her. After all, she’s the only one who suffered directly because of Aya. Sure, Mia and Aiko also got hurt, but that had more to do with circumstances other than her direct intervention.

Shyly, I try to break the silence. “H-Hey, how about we go up—” *Smack* “Mff.” I let out a small grunt, then quickly turn around to find who I’m about to turn into… Let’s leave it there. I find a tall guy wearing a blue rank uniform and a smug smile on his perfectly symmetrical face.

“Hey cutie, wanna hang out?” He confidently suggests, not noticing the pissed expression on my face.

————

After dealing with a certain fellow, we all rode the elevator to Light’s office, where a very exasperated Light Haswell stood. Apparently, he had seen it all using the security cameras.

“I mean, I understand why. But did you really have to break his arms?” He asks me.

Maybe that was too harsh, but I don’t care. fucker thought he could slap my ass in the middle of the central tower lobby - which was full with students at the time - and get away with it because he was a hotshot. No way, I don’t care if you used to date the cheerleader club’s president, knowing her it was probably just a one nighter. Anyway, I defeated him at then made sure he would learn to never do that again… by twisting his arms until they crunched… Probably not that big of a deal here, most likely day in the nurse’s office, so more of a blow to his ego.

“*Huff*,” I turn my head with a pout, crossing my arms. “Let it be a lesson for any other student that wants to get fresh with me. Also, if you hadn’t told me to bring this uniform, I doubt it would have happened. Why did you do that, anyway?”

He hesitates “H-Hmmm. How about I start with the reason I called you five?”

I frown at him - ‘avoiding my question?’ - but decide to let him explain himself. “Tch, fine.”

Light looks over to the right where a 2 meter tall projected display stands. “A week from now, the Dragoon City Cross Academy Seasonal Winter Tournament will take place. This is a fundamental tournament for the NWDA.”

We turn to each other, surprised by this.

‘So this is why he wanted to delay the event until next month. Got it.’

After a few moments of silence, the Director continues. “The Dragoon City Cross Academy Seasonal Winter Tournament comprises challengers from the 600 to 1200 Elo range. 600 to 900 for the novice bracket, 900 to 1100 for the intermediate bracket, and 1100 - 1200 Elo for the advanced bracket.” The holographic screen shows these three brackets. The Director then presses something on the desk and the previous image zooms out. “After the main tournament, another round of playoffs will occur, this time to decide the best duelist out of all that entered. As you can guess, this is more of a ‘For fun’ event. Normally, the result will be pretty obvious.” the bracket shows the winners of the two lower brackets dueling each other and then the winner going against the winner of the higher bracket.

He gives us a moment to process what he just said.

I raise my hand up.

“Yes?”

“How many people are we sending to the tournament? Here in this room, you have 4 contenders for the lower bracket and 1 for the intermediate one.”

“We are sending 4, two to the lower bracket, and one for the intermediate and advanced brackets.”

I raise an eyebrow. “What?”

“Let me explain. The tournament goes based on Top Elo, meaning the highest Elo a duelist ever had. By these rules, Aya can enter the advanced bracket.”

‘How much did I bring her down for her fall to yellow rank?’

“WAIT!” Aya interrupts. “You can’t put me in there! They’ll tare me to shreds!”

We all turn our heads to Aya after her outburst.

She shrinks back. “H-Hmm, I- I mean, I’m just a yellow rank….”

I roll my eyes. “Come on, you had to have dueled enough blue ranks by now.”

Aya is getting more and more uncomfortable. “They are not just blue ranks, Yuumi! Don’t you get it? They are the best of the best at that Elo range! And I’m just a fucking… a fucking rank-down…” She looks down at the floor.

After a few moments of silence where we are all just left flabbergasted looking at her, she slowly walks to the elevator… and then the doors close.

‘What the fuck happened to Aya?’

The director looks at me and then says. “Well… That was something…”

…

“Yea.” is all I’m able to say.

…

…

Aiko, Mia, and Yasuna are left like me, stunned.

Light facepalms. “Great, another setback. Well, anyway, Mia is going to go to the Intermediary bracket with Yasuna and Aiko going to the novice one.” he explains.

“And Aya?” I inquire.

He looks away, then says. “Try to talk with her. I know it was harsh to rank her down, but even I didn’t expect this.”

I nod, but then notice there is something missing. “What about me?”

He gives a smug smile then reveals. “What do you think that outfit’s for?”

…

…

…

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”