Ammokkx

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

"Mhm, just like that!" Rui encouraged her brother as he copied her moves. "Making sure you have attackers on the field is important. They may be called attackers, but they're also your main way of defending yourself," she continued to explain it. She tapped on her own cards to demonstrate.

"Then I guess I will attack your level 0 attacker with my level 1 attacker?" her brother asked in return.

"Well... yes, but not quite. It's true that if you attack a level 0 like that they're destroyed, but you can't actually choose your attack target. You have to say which unit attacks, and then I defend. But in this case, I'll use the level 0 to block," she patiently explained to him. Sora turned his level 1 on the side to exhaust it and Rui moved her level 0 to the trash. "This way I can prevent you from attacking this turn entirely, as your level 0 can't go through my level 1. On top of that, with your level 1 exhausted like this, you can't use it to block on my next turn," she continued to demonstrate.

Meanwhile, Lumia continued her conversation with Wolf. "Aha... just talking about it, huh? Wouldn't that be bad for us?" she asked the other Avatar. "After all... without their problems, we have no hope, do we?" she mused, staring at the two siblings playing their match. "And... Nee-chan is the type to keep to herself. She won't talk about what's on her mind with me, either."

"It's my turn again. I'll draw, colour boost and then..." Rui paused a bit as she got everything assembled on her field. She turned one of the Yellow cards on its side to play another Level 1 attacker, but also turned her other colour on its side straight after to play a different type of card from her hand.

"Attackers aren't the only cards. There's also one-time use cards called Incantations," she explained, sliding the one she just used over to Sora so he can read it. "With this card, using a yellow colour, I can prevent one of your attackers from blocking this turn. With your level 1 exhausted, I could launch two attacks if I wanted, but I'm only going to use one. Here I go," she further explained, turning the card in question on its side. "And since you can't block now, my attack would go straight to your Life Cards. Now we look at my attackers's level; 1. When I can attack your life cards like this, you take 1 damage plus the level of my attacker. Since he's level 1, that makes for a total of 2. Life cards that are damaged get added to your hand, so you could use them on the next turn if you wanted to."

Rui took a small pause, needing to breathe before continuing. "Even though I could use my other attacker right now, it'd leave me without anything to protect myself on your next turn. That's why it's sometimes better to wait. I still have plenty of cards in my hand, so I don't want you to get rid of too many of my Life cards. Did you get all that? It was kind of a lot, so I can go over it one more time if you need to."

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

Rui waited for a bit, made sure Sora had left and let out a sigh of relief. "I'll have to apologize later..." she muttered to herself, walking over to her closet to swap out her clothes. Once changed into something casual, Rui checked the date on her phone briefly. "We don't have school tomorrow, and I think mom's doing the laundry today..." she muttered, exiting her room so she could bring her uniform to the washing room. She passed by Sora's room on the way, pausing when she heard voices coming from it. She heard something about Life cards and Avatars.

'Sora's also trying his best, huh?' she mused to herself before continuing on her way. Rui bumped into her mother halfway down the stairwell.
"Dinner is ready." she told her daughter.
"I'll be right there. I'll let Sora know," Rui answered her, then rushed to drop off her laundry. Once that was done she returned up the stairs and knocked on Sora's room. "Sora! Dinner's ready," she said without opening the door. There wasn't much response, so Rui just assumed he wanted to be left alone for a little while.
'We're not eating together today, either?' she pondered to herself. When Rui heard her name called by their mother, though, she knew she had to run down to join her parents at the dinner table. Naturally, both didn't seem to mind all that much that Sora didn't show up. They'd just leave a portion for him to heat up at his discretion, like always.

Meals in the Kadomori household really weren't that much fun in the end.

Rui made sure to make her exit the first chance she got. Upon returning to her room, Lumia looked up at Rui. "Ah! There you are! I totally thought your forgot about me," the card-bound girl pouted.
"Sorry, sorry! Mom called me over." Rui explained herself. She rushed over to her bag and took out the box of cards she'd picked up earlier. "Let's go join Sora."

Unlike her brother, Rui had the decency to knock before entering. "I'm coming in, Sora!" she warned him, clutching everything she needed with one arm and closing the door behind her with the other. "I promised to help you out, didn't I?" she said to him with a gentle smile. She joined him on the floor without waiting for any of his input.

"Let me see, let me see... ah, are you looking at the rules again?" Rui commented. "I think it might be easier to learn by doing... I found somebody to practice with at school, but you haven't yet, right?"
"Ah, Nee-chan, wait!" Lumia said from Rui's pocket. Rui pulled her out. "If you're going to fight Sora, you can't use me or Wolf for your deck! If you do, it'll be a real fight!"
"Oh... is... is that so? Then if I could find another Avatar, would it be fine?"
"Mhm, I think so." Lumia replied.

Rui pulled open the booster boxes from the store and looked through the cards. She pulled a few avatars, but while there was a green one among them for Sora's deck, Rui couldn't find a yellow avatar to replace Lumia with. "It doesn't really work well with my deck, but if it's just to teach you the rules it should work, I think..." Rui muttered to herself as she divided the cards between them. She'd look at upgrading Sora's deck later once he actually got used to the rules a bit.

Lumia and Wolf, meanwhile, were placed against the wall on the far side. Their cards being propped up against it meant they could still see what was going on, just at a far enough distance so the two of them wouldn't accidentally have a fight as Commanders. Conveniently for them, it was also out of earshot while the siblings were talking.
"Nee-chan and Sora-kun are hopeless, aren't they?" Lumia asked wolf while pulling up her shoulders. "I swear, one moment they're squabbling and the next Nee-chan's scrambling for his attention... well, I guess I'm partly to blame for that. She probably wants to make up for the memories I stole," Lumia darkly muttered at the end.

"With our decks and avatars set, we can start playing. On the first turn I draw a card," Rui explained as she took the first move. She wanted to show Sora how the game was properly played. Next to drawing a card from her deck she also took a card off a smaller pile, placing it down on her field and showing its artwork. "Don't forget to play a colour card at the start of your turn! Without these we can't play any of our stronger cards, like this!" she explained, turning it on its side to bring forth a level 1 attacker to the field. Rui also set a level 0 from her hand.

"I can't attack on the first turn, but you could on yours. Now it's your turn to try it out, Sora!"

Yu☆Gi☆Oh!: Soul Mirror

The guy being about twice Kei's size didn't seem to deter the little runt from running his mouth of, but the glare of death afterwards was another story entirely. 'Crap, I think I made him mad...' he thought to himself, trying to maintain eye-contact. Maybe if he shouted really loud this guy would run off like a bear or something. The man seemed to have something to say, given the growl, so Kei braced himself for the worst.

"Vending machine is part of my territory, if your just going to keep walking about, what you expect? People come and go from my territory in happiness from taking from my vending machine. Are you insulting my territory? Are you insulting me?"

"...w-what??" Kei replied in abject confusion. His territory? What was the guy on about? And why was he talking like that? Kei took a step back. "Fine- fine! I'll look at where I'm going next time!" he tried to placate the other man, but they were having none of it. Thought Kei was insulting him. Kei, for his part, was regretting speaking up in the first place. If he ran, maybe he could avoid getting decked. Instead, though, the man thought of a different solution.

"We Duel now, I beat you, You restock Vending Machine." he said to Kei.

"I- HUH?!" he shouted, growing more and more confused. Why the hell would Kei need to restock the vending machines? This guy made no sense, but if it's a duel he wanted, then... well, he'd probably best stop picking his nose to not dirty his cards, but on the other hand...

"Gaaah! I don't get any of this, but if it's a duel you want, I don't back down from anyone!" Kei's reply boldly sounded. He jumped back and opened a little bag attached to his belt, next to his deckbox. He took out a device and strapped it to something on his arm. After the two were connected, a blade folded outward. He looked down at the card he was still holding for a brief moment.

"I'm counting on you, partner." he whispered to it, slotting it back in with the rest of his deck so he could insert the whole pile into the Duel Disk. After the auto-shuffler worked its magic, Kei and his opponent both shouted out loud:

"DUEL!"

Kei shouted "I'm taking the first turn!" and drew five cards from his deck. He looked down at it with a grin. "Let's go, everyone! I summon Blade Knight from my hand!" he excitedly shouted, grabbing the middle card and slamming it down onto his open zones. The Solid Vision projectors got to work immediately, materializing a gallant knight in light blue armor. It slashed its sword to the side once, then took a battle stance.

Blade Knight: 1600 ATK

Kei giddily began bouncing in place. "Cool... so cool...! Seeing my friends come to life like this is the best!" he said to himself. After calming down, Kei stretched out his arm and pointed at the opponent. "I'm ending my turn with this! Bring it on!"

Call To Action: Marginalized Groups Must Be Recognized In The Rules

dear god just lock the thread at this point

EDIT: oh shit you can still edit posts in locked threads. That's funny.

Call To Action: Marginalized Groups Must Be Recognized In The Rules

why in the fresh hell is this argument still going

It got added to the rules, big whoop. Move on lads.

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

"Nee-...chan?"

The sound of Lumia's voice snapped Rui out of her sobbing. She slowly pulled Lumia's card away from her chest. The girl inside had only just woken up from her slumber. "...! Nee-chan, what's wrong?!" she immediately panicked upon seeing her commander's tear-stained self. Rui got up from her bed, grabbed a tissue or two to clean herself and only then gave her answer.

"S-sorry, it's... it's nothing, Lumia." sounded Rui's reply, cagey as always.
"It's not nothing! You were crying!"
"I'll be fine, Lumia. As long... as long as I keep winning," Rui muttered, her voice still a bit shaky.
Lumia felt a sharp pain in her heart when she heard her commander talk like that. "Nee-chan, you..." Lumia tried to force out an answer, but nothing came. She looked off to the side. "Do you really want to make it come true that badly...?" she whispered to herself. The air was heavy between the two of them.

The air being heavy wouldn't stop Sora from coming through the door unannounced, though. "Sora? -ow!" Rui yelped in surprise, hitting her ankle against the foot of her desk.

"Teach me how to win." Sora asked Rui, staring her straight in the eyes. She looked away immediately.

"E-even if you say that, right now is a little..." she uncomfortably shifted in place. Her brother had the most awful timing sometimes. Rui thought up of a good excuse though. As if remembering something all of a sudden, she said: "Sorry! I haven't changed out of my uniform yet, and, and mom gets really mad if I don't! I need to get changed for dinner, so-"

...which, while not untrue, also meant she had to un- and redress. Rui's face steadily grew more embarrassed as she kept digging her hole deeper and deeper. "Get out of my room for a minute, please!" she hurriedly ordered him, shoving Sora straight back out of the room and leaning against her closed door. Heart still pounding, Rui yelled "Sorry, Sora! I really promise to teach you after dinner, okay?!" through her door.

All of that just because she didn't want him to notice her swollen eyes.

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

"Home, huh...?" Rui repeated after him. She really didn't want to go back. It was funny; moments ago she was ready to walk through the door that was only a few houses removed from them. Now that she'd ran into her brother, though, Rui just wanted to run away again. She wanted to keep talking to him here outside, keep being free from her burdens. She knew it couldn't be that way. "I guess we should. It's getting a bit late," she agreed with Sora, turning around. "Mom's probably going to be mad that I got back late, so... just let me go in first, okay?"

The two walked the rest of the street down to their own home, but Rui insisted on being through the door first. "We're back," she shouted through the door, took off her shoes in a hurry and made absolutely sure she was in the house quicker than Sora was. As to be expected, their mother was quick to intercept Rui in the middle of the hallway. She didn't immediately spare a glance in Sora's direction.

"Where have you been?" she asked, "Why didn't you respond to my texts?" she demanded answers, "Your father and I were worried about you." she chastised. All of her attention, all of the questions, they went straight to Rui.

"I'm sorry, mom..." Rui initially apologised, but managed to weave in something else: "Actually, it was Sora that picked me up to come home. He said I should still study, so..."

Their mother narrowed her eyes at Rui. She glanced over in her son's direction, then back at Rui. "Next time, you should come straight home. And besides..." her mother continued to lecture. Rui grit her teeth.

"...shouldn't you thank Sora, mom? Without him, I..."
"He's not important! You should just focus on your studies and..."

...Rui really did hate it here. She endured her mother's lectures, stood there patiently and took the verbal bashing, even long after Sora had left. No matter what she tried, she couldn't get her parents to acknowledge their own son at all. She hated them. She really hated them. Rui couldn't do a thing about it. She endured and endured until she was finally released from the iron grip of her mother's tongue.

"Dinner will be ready soon, so go get changed."
"...Yes, mom."

Rui slumped back to her room, defeated. She closed her door behind her, took a seat on her bed and pulled out Lumia's card. The girl was still sleeping peacefully.

"You... you'll make my wish come through, right?" Rui muttered. She began to sniffle, "I-It'll def-finitely *hic* come true, right...?" and sob. Rui clutched Lumia's card to her chest, let herself fall onto her side and cried. "What... what can I even do?"

Yu☆Gi☆Oh!: Soul Mirror

Kei came back only to see Aiya be missing. 'Maybe she just went to the bathroom?' he thought to himself, briefly, but then the store's owner called him over. When Kei saw him slide over another damn note he wanted to slap his face and let out a groan, but the drinks in his hand prevented him from being too dramatic about things. Aiya knows where the vending machines are- the least she could've done was drop by! Why did she insist on leaving notes all the time?!

"I wanted to tell her to be careful out, but she was out the door before I could get a word in," the middle-aged man behind the counter told Kei. He popped open one of the sodas(might as well, right?), took a swig and cast a sidelong glance at the owner.

"Careful? Whaddaya talkin' about old man?" Kei asked.

"I've told you not to call me- ah, nevermind. It seems there's a lot more violent crimes happening lately... I just don't want to see kids like you two caught up in it, that's all."

Kei resisted the urge to tell the shop owner that, just because he was short and had a bit of a babyface, it didn't make him a 'kid'. "Well, don't those types usually hang out in, like, shadier places? I think my route's pretty okay," Kei dismissed the store owner's concerns. The man insisted, however, that these were no ordinary crimes. Suspects seemed to be out of their minds, acting different from how they usually were. "Well, whatever you say..." the boy handwaved the warnings again.

Kei didn't stick around the shop for much longer after that. Nobody there had much of an interest in dueling him, and it wasn't as much fun without Aiya around anyway. Kei opened up his deck case without breaking pace and almost habitually pulled out a single card from his deck.

Silent Swordsman LV3.

"It kinda sucks I didn't get a chance to use you today, partner..." Kei talked to his card, pausing his walk back home after he said that. "I really want to fight strong guys with you. I want to show the world what you can do." Kei raised his card up to the sky, towards the sun. "One day, us two are gonna reach even the heavens together! I'm gonna make sure of it!"

There was this... connection with Kei and that card. He knew it from the moment he laid eyes on it all those years back. Kei couldn't explain it, of course, but... it's like he could feel a warm presence. A friend. Satisfied with having talked to his friend, Kei took a step forward and-

*THUNK*

-crashed right into some guy, again, the second time that day. "Gah- what is with today?!" Kei complained as he rubbed his back in a futile attempt to relieve the pain felt in his rear end. He looked up and wanted to complain to the stranger, getting halfway through his sentence: "Hey, can't you watch where you're-". The reason Kei cut it short was because this was not the first time they'd met. "You're... from back at the vending machines. Are you doing this on purpose?" Kei complained anyway.

Yu☆Gi☆Oh!: Soul Mirror

"N-no way!" Kei stammered out as he was helpless against Aiya's onslaught. He was forced to watch his monster easily being crushed by the overwhelming might of Aiya's combos, leading to Kei folding his arms over the table and resting his head between them in frustration. "I may have lost 100 times in a row... but next time, for sure, I'll finally get my first win over you...!"

"It's finally Shinrei's turn again!" sounded from the TV. Kei scrambled upright again to watch. The duel field was much the same as when it left off; Shinrei with a last remaining Cyber Larva, a set card on his field and the opponent's two dragons.

"I open my trap card, Rebirth Judgement!" Shinrei declared, the card on his field springing up. "I've had enough of this duel. All the monsters in my graveyard become Machine-type, including my Thunder Dragons. I'll banish them, their fusion and all my Cyber Larva to call forth a new monster!"

"Huh?! He's not summoning Cyber End?!" Kei yelled in surprise. Indeed, after sacrificing the monsters on his field and in his graveyard, Shinrei debuted a monster nobody had seen him use before.

"Cyber Eltanin gains 500 ATK for each card used in its summon, meaning it has 3500. Further, all your monsters are sent to the graveyard."

The commentators went wild. "What a turnaround! Has Shinrei been aiming for this the entire time?! While the challenger's lifepoints are high, a direct attack would wipe them out in one swift move!" they yelled.

"Go, Cyber Eltanin! Draconis Ascension!" Shinrei declared, and in a brilliant flash of light, the opponent's field and life were wiped out in a single move. The tournament officials declared Shinrei the winner as the reigning champion simply turned around and walked off-stage.

"Aaargh, no way! I thought he'd lose this year for sure!" Kei moaned in disbelief. "Nevermind that complimentary soda, I'm gonna be buying drinks for the two of us... hey, can't we say those two cancel each-other out?" Kei begged his female friend, not wanting to admit he lost the bet both placed at the start of Shinrei's match.

In the end, though, Kei still went out to buy drinks for the both of them. He stood in front of the vending machine, bought a drink and then got another for free as a lucky bonus. "Whoa! Is she psychic or something...?" Kei muttered in disbelief. He didn't waste the vending machine's generosity, though, so he just made his way back with the two cans in hand. Now that he had some time to himself, he began to think back a bit.

'Honestly, I'm happy to hang out with her, but... I wish these moments lasted a bit longer.' Kei's thoughts plagued him. 'She's probably off to another job soon. Maybe I should get her something for next time...?' he continued being distracted. Kei didn't exactly look at where he was going, so he bumped into somebody and was bumped flat on his ass. Both cans were sent rolling off, but luckily neither of them spat open. "Ow, ow...! Hey, sorry about tha- huh?"

Kei went to apologize to the person he bumped into, but they didn't seem to respond to him at all. The other person just blankly stared ahead, got up and ignored Kei wholesale. His face furrowed into a frown and he stuck his tongue out after them for being so rude about it. "Man, I swear, it's like the third time some jerk's bumped into me like that this week..." he complained, gathered his belongings and got up to meet back with Aiya.

Yu☆Gi☆Oh!: Soul Mirror

Yu☆Gi☆Oh!: Soul Mirror

---

"I can't believe it!" blared the voice of one of the announcers currently talking over the final match of one of Japan's regional championships. "After winning the last two years, it seems our defending champion Shinrei is finally backed into a corner!" they commentated, with the camera focusing on Shinrei's stoic face. "Even though his life is only 800, he played a 400 ATK monster onto the field! What's more, the opponent controls two high-level monsters! Is this the final turn of the duel?!"

"Looks like you wish to donate the title of champion to me. I'll be glad to take it off your hands." Shinrei's opponent taunted him while pushing the glasses on his nose a bit further up. The challenger's field contained Luster Dragon 2 and Hyozanryu. The challenger said: "I'll attack your Cyber Larva with Hyozanryu to bring an end to this duel!" and with the command of its master, Hyozanryu charged up a beam of energy in its mouth to fire at Shinrei's monster with. The attack hit true, throwing up a cloud of smoke as Shinrei's life was reduced to 0.

...or, at least, that's how it should've ended. When the smoke cleared, Cyber Larva was still on the field and Shinei's life remained untouched. "Did you really think Cyber Larva wouldn't have a special effect?" Shinrei replied in a monotone tone of voice. "When this card is attacked, I reduce battle damage to 0 and special summon another Cyber Larva from my deck upon its destruction."

"And Shinrei barely manages to hang on this turn! However, his opponent still has a powerful monster left to attack with! Is Shinrei merely buying time until the next turn?!"

The crowd's cheers reached the cameras microphones, ringing clearly throughout the footage. The match between the title-defending Shinrei and the challenger was far from over, leaving spectators at home glued to the screen. Two of those spectators, residents of Kaleido City, were Kei Okoichi and Aiya Tenshi. They'd gathered at their usual hangout spot- a local game store. It was broadcasting the championship over the TV hanging in the corner of the room, with the volume high enough so all present could clearly hear the hype.

"Man, that's the regionals for you..." the boy among them spoke up. "Just watch, next year it's gonna be me up there! I'm gonna win the whole thing," Kei told his friend, grinning from ear-to-ear. Though he was boasting, Kei also kept his eyes focused on the table in front of them. Like the tournament, Aiya and him were having a friendly match of their own. It was just an over-the-table, casual duel though; if you wanted to duel with a Duel Disk, you had to go outside for that.

"Right, uh, it was my turn right...? I'm switching Mystic Swordsman LV 4 to attack position and equipping it with Sword of Dragon Soul," Kei said. With it, he'd raised up his monster all the way to 2600 ATK... but he knew he couldn't go in for the kill. The monster on Aiya's field had just as much attack as he did and, even worse, Kei was down to only 900 LP. If he attacked carelessly now, it was curtains for him. "I'm gonna end my turn, but this duel ain't over yet! Today's the day I break my 99-duel loss streak, Aiya!"

Kei's hand had two cards and he still had a set card on the field. He figured he could probably pull this back as long as Aiya didn't somehow clean his lifepoints out in the next turn.