"First, I summon, level four, Wight Writer: Depressed Poet," Kayda announced as she slapped a card onto her disk. A skeleton in a black hoodie and some frayed friendship bracelets appeared on her field holding a worn out copy of the Death Note. "Whenever this card is normal summoned, I can add any Wight Writer's spell or trap card from my deck to my hand." The screen of her duel disk flashed as it displayed all the different spells and traps she had available in her deck.

Look, there's a level four monster, Dark Rebellion stated pointedly. Now get out another one and summon me.

She selected one card and added it to her hand. "Then I set two cards face down and end my turn." Kayda glared with purpose at the stranger in the hood. He didn't seem phased by the fact that her deck archetype was something created by a penguin (a very chill one) in a Discord chat, instead he seemed calm, too calm for her liking.

The voice in the back of her head was telling her to leave while she still had the chance, but for whatever plot related reason, Kayda was a Number hunter, and she needed his number – and for more selfish reasons than the last main character Number Hunter that existed in Yu-Gi-Oh! There was no way she was backing out now, not after she jumped out of a tree to get the better of him. It took effort to be that epic, and she wasn't about to let it go to waste.

"My turn then." It was hard to tell in the dark, but it looked like her opponent was inserting a card into his disk. Her suspicions were confirmed when he spoke. "I activate the spell, Light's Howling from my hand!" He held up another card, face up for her to see, but before her eyes could focus, he flipped it away and inserted that into his disk as well. "By sending one card to the graveyard, I can send one of your set cards back to your hand and deal you 400 points of damage!"

Kayda grimaced and took a startled step back as one of her cards returned back to her hand. A swift wind blew down the path, and her life point counter dropped to 3600 with a gut lurching beep. "Damnit," she growled.

But he wasn't done. "Next I activate another spell from my hand, Abandonment's Final Hope. If a monster card was sent to the Grave due to spell, trap, or monster effect this turn, I can special summon it to the field in defense mode void of its special abilities, and with its attack and defense points cut in half. Come on out! Photon Magnetism!"

There was no way to see into his Augmented Reality. There was no way to know how big it was, and she couldn't even tell what it's defense points were. Kayda glanced nervously at her 1400 attack point, Depressed Poet, before referring to her disk to check his card. Her stomach sank a little. Even cut in half, his monster's defense points were equal to Depressed Poet's attack. She frowned.

Kayda...that's a level eight right there, first turn, no release -- and he sent one of your traps back to your hand in the process. I wouldn't mess around too much with this guy. Summon me and get this over with so we can go home and bitch about that Netflix Death Note movie that neither of us have seen yet.

"I don't think he's done," she growled through her teeth.

"And you would think correct." Even the stranger's voice appeared to be grinning. "When Photon Magnetism is successfully summoned, I can bring out another monster with the same level without a release. Come on out! Level Eight! Magnetic North Pole!"

Kayda didn't even have to check her disk, because she knew what he was doing. If her first hand hadn't been so lousy, she would have done the exact same thing.

"Xyz summoning is the best summoning," her mother's voice echoed through her head.

"Not now, Mom," Kayda snapped.

"What?" The stranger asked, his arm dropping down an inch.

"Not you, continue."

"Right." Her opponent raised his arm to the sky. "I overlay my Level Eight, Photon Magnetism and Magnetic North Pole to build the Overlay Network!" His eyes grew droopy as he raised his arms to the sky. Kayda was sure everything he was seeing was fine and impressive, but since she couldn't see the Overlay network being built – or even his monsters for that matter, his whole xyz summoning act was kinda a lost cause. "Come on out," he called awkwardly to the sky, because without an appropriate soundtrack, all summoning chants sound dorky and unimpressive. "The mightiest of monsters. Terror that lurks in the deep, come forth and unite the sky and sea in the perfect storm. I Xyz summon, Bright Abyss Photon Serpant!" 

"Oh my god!" Kayda yelled and threw her arms out in a flourish. "You went to so much work for this monster and now I can't even see it! Screw you and your Augmented Reality. Either bring two duel gazers or throw down holograms! As the main character, I feel very uncomfortable not being able to see what I'm fighting."

Depressed Poet nodded, her neck bones clicking together loudly.

"Don't worry about it," the stranger stepped to one side and gestured to her nonchalantly. "It only has 3000 attack points --"

"Nani –"

"-- Speaking of which, Bright Abyss! Attack her Depressed Poet! Photon Hurricane!"

Kayda cursed not so silently and ran through the settings on her duel disk to activate the dual duel (dual duel duel duel duel....dual) holograms. It took half a second for her projector to connect visuals with the stranger's augmented reality, but it was enough. The monster materialized before her eyes, and even she had to admit it was impressive. It was some sort of white sky serpent with wings of frothy ocean water. Its massive body tied knots in the air as its diamond head drew back to strike.

"Well shit."

1600 points of damage coming your way. Brace yourself.

"DR, if you become the Ignis of this show I will never forgive you."

She barely had time to do anything as a column of blue destruction barreled down from the mouth of the beast. Her monster was gone instantly, and Kayda lifted her arm in an effort to block the attack, but no amount of arm lifting would have been enough to subdue this monster. The column hit her square in the chest, sending her body flying backwards. She hit the ground in a lump and groaned. "Not fair," she coughed and glared at her opponent. "Augmented Reality should be even less tangible than Solid Vision holograms."

The stranger chuckled and set one card face down. "Haven't you see Zexal? Augmented Reality is the most violent dueling system there is."

Kayda slowly got to her feet and rubbed her head. "Actually...I kinda forgot, right. Damnit."

"How could you forget?"

Yeah, seriously, how could you forget? Your parents are from the Xyz dimension for crying out loud. Dark Rebellion added, his thundering voice completely unamused.

"Well, to be fair." She flipped her purple forelock out of her face. "I got through at least twelve episodes of Zexal before I gave up on it."

Suddenly the stranger's mood shifted. A pair of bright eyes flashed dangerously beneath the hood, one of them gold, the other one green. "No more games. I set one card and end my –" suddenly his sentence was cut short as a bright blue light started pouring from the deck box strapped to his belt. At first was just a gentle glow, but then the lid of the case flipped open and light enough to bask the entire street flooded out from the case.

"What the – "

"Damn all things," the stranger cursed. His face was now cast free from all shadows. He had a dark blue duel gazer tattoo over his left eye, causing the iris to turn green, while the gold was probably his natural eye color. Light blue hair fell over his face, framing a startled expression. "Turn end. Move fast!' He snapped.

"Got it," Kayda replied shakily. "I draw!" She glanced down at her card and gave it a confident nod. "Okay I guess this will do for now." She was about execute a killer well thought out strategy totally wasn't just hoping the heart of the cards would fill out her already fairly adequate main character dueling skills, when suddenly her arm went slack and a cold feeling of numbness began spreading from her fingertips. A sharp, fiery pain began to burn behind her eyes, and the lid of her extra deck case flipped open just like it did with the stranger. Her mouth spoke before she even knew where the words came from – the words weren't hers to begin with.

"I activate my trap, Plot Armor MC!" The set card flipped open and Bright Abyss slithered back a few inches. "This card allows me to do one stupid asspull per duel so long as I pay 1500 life point. And pay them I will!" Her life dropped to 500 points and her heart sped up dramatically. She wasn't in control anymore, and the writing in this chapter was getting progressively worse. Beams of purple light shot out from her deck case. Dark Rebellion, she thought weakly. What are you doing to me?

Her voice continued without her. "I activate the spell, Wight Writer's Tenth Muse to bring back Depressed Poet back from the graveyard –"

"Did you just activate a spell from your deck?" Her opponent demanded, his hand shielding his eyes from the obnoxious bright lights streaming from both their cases.

"Hey, I'm allowed one asspull." Kayda grinned sadistically. "To cheaply parody what a dragon obsessed billionaire said once before. Screw the rules, I am the main character."

Her opponent's eyes furrowed down into a glare.

"Now if I'm allowed to continue – I activate the second effect of Wight Writer's Tenth Muse. If there is a level four or below Wight Writer on my field, and it's the only monster on my field, I can summon an undead friend to keep him company. Come on out Wight Writer Pentameter!" A weird, pulsing five legged creature appeared onto the field next to Depressed Poet."

"And they'll be together forever beyond the grave." Her grin widened manically as she threw her hands to the storm churning sky. "Because I build the overlay network with level fours, Wight Writer Depressed Poet, and Wight Writer Pentameter!"

The sky glowed with thunder as the overlay spiral shattered the ground between them. Kayda had never felt a power so great, she wanted more. She needed it – in that moment her eyes began to glow. A roar like the sound of a thousand screaming bats erupted from the overlay network and she drew the piercing card from her extra deck in an arch of light.

"Cloaked in shadows and something something something something. I call upon the most dangerous and talkative of dragons! Are these chants really necessary? I mean – " She shook her head. "I xyz summon, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!"

"Did you just insert a gif into the chapter so you wouldn't have to describe what he looked like in the text?"

"Shaddup."

Dark Rebellion's roar shook the ground as it took to the field in an explosion of purple static. Her opponent's hands flew to his ears to shield from the roar, but it was already too late. His hood fell back from his head and he glanced down at his own belt in horror.

A second roar startled the air, bathing the entire block in a mirage of mind bending screams. Kayda's grin widened even more as the light coming from his extra deck highlighted the horror on her opponents. The second dragon call disturbed her a bit – since she thought only her dragon was capable of acting up so much, but since she didn't feel like hitosunii -ing with the guy (in every sense of the word) she reasoned that the dragon roaring from his case wasn't one of the dimensional dragons. Part of her was curious to what it could be, another part of her wanted to force him to bring out his number.

And the last part just wanted to kick his ass, and make him hit the ground like the loser in a high stakes Zexal duel. It was only fair.

"Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's effect activates!" Her voice echoed with resonance of her dragon. It was like they were speaking as one. She and the dimensional dragon that shouldn't have been hers to begin with. "I use two two overlay units to cut the attack points of your monster in half!"

"You did what –"

Kayda cut him off with a swipe of her hand. "That's not all, my dark rebellion gains the attack points cut from you Bright Abyss." Dark Rebellion's electric scream lit up the night as his attack points rose from 2500 to 4000 and Bright Abyss fell to 1500.

Her opponent's eyes scrunched against his duel gazer as he pressed his lips together in a sharp glare. "But I'll have life points left by the – "

"I'm not done," she snapped before she could catch a hold of her tongue. "When I have a Dark Attribute Xyz monster out on my field, I can activate this spell from my hand! Wight Writer's Final Rage! When this card is activated, I can send it and the rest of my hand to the graveyard –"

Her opponent's eyes widened, and the dragon roared again from his extra deck.

"-to double Dark Rebellion's attack during this battle phase!"

"8000 attack points," he gasped.

"You better believe it." Her grin spread unnaturally across her face, her eyes glowing bright pink as it did. "Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon, attack his Bright Abyss! Lightning Disobe –"

"I WON'T LET YOU!" He screeched. Suddenly her opponent's voice seemed strained, and even Kayda wasn't expecting the outburst. She took a startled backwards as the light in the stranger's case exploded like a mini supernova. The burst seemed to saturate every fiber of his being in shell of electric cyan. The stripes of his dueling tattoo began to glow and spread, seeming to cut deep into his face, causing rivers like radioactive lava to force veined tattoos down across his skin.

He threw his head into his hands and forced his eyes closed as he let out an aggravated yell. But then he threw that arm into the air, and when his eyes opened, they were alight with flames of stars. "Catalyst supernova, spreading radiation into the eternal night. Unite the shells of stars in the ultimate destruction. Become my servant, Ga – NO!" He threw his head into his hands, fisting his fingers through his hair wildly as he stumbled about like a zombie. "I don't even have the monsters for this to work -- STOP!"

"Um...sir. Angry dragon about to beat your – "

"Shut up!" He growled, the veins of light pulsing in his face dangerously. "I activate my trap. Photon Shock!"

Dark Rebellion's strike collided with Bright Abyss, and suddenly Kayda couldn't see anything. The roars of the dragons filled her head to bursting, and then even her mind seemed to shatter into a thousand tiny pieces. And in that moment, the only thing she could focus on, the only thing that made an ounce of sense was the voice of her opponent explaining the effect as her body flew through the air. "When a photon monster is going to deal me damage, the same amount of damage gets bounced right back to you."

There was a long moment of pause as the two of them hit the ground and their life points hit zero. Slowly Kayda's vision began to clear, and when she looked up, she was surprised to find that the stranger was already back on his feet. The staff he had strapped to his back earlier was held tightly in his right hand as the duel disk sank back into his D-pad and his dueling tattoo faded from his face. The glowing veins took longer to fade. "You might be the protagonist of this joint," he said without turning to face her. "But I'm a legacy character."

Kayda slowly sat up. "Do I get a name from you, or are you just going to be a mysterious badass and hope it gets revealed in a later chapter?"

He paused, still not turning to face her. "I suppose you're right. The author doesn't update this frequently enough, so I might as tell you now." He shot a glance over his shoulder; his gold eyes were tired. "My name is Tenjo. Tenjo Haruto – or whatever order you say it in. But call me Hart if you want. Everyone who watched the dub does." He started walking down the street swinging the stick around carelessly. "Keep the Hot Topic gift card. I'll duel you for it someday."

Kayda kept her eyes trained on his back for as long as she could, then there came a point when he was no longer in sight. She tore the mask off her face. "Damnit."