Chapter 69. Morning Duels.

The next morning, I was rudely awakened by Bastion, yelling at us to join them for Dueling practice. “Good friends! We must be prepared for future Shadow Rider attacks! We must practice, to become better Duelists, and-!” “Alright! Just shut the fuck up and let me get dressed!” I yelled back at him after his long winded speech finally brought me past my breaking point. Blair giggled as she got up as well, however, she was much less… nimble on her feet due to last night. She lasted longer than before, trying not to lose out the myriad of spirits that also invaded our bed last night, but by the end she pushed herself too far.

I sighed watching her squirm and flinch in pain as she tried to get dressed. “Blair… Why don’t you just sleep in… Watching this… Is difficult.” I muttered while putting the blanket back over her, cringing over watching her move. She smiled a bit connivingly while holding her head up, waiting. I frowned, but obliged her, having one last kiss before I would leave. After our lips parted, she nodded in acceptance at me as I left. “Enjoy your day~” She spoke teasingly, but almost sounding like some sort of housewife seeing her husband off to work.

I shook that thought away while joining Jayden and Syrus in our ‘Dueling Practice’. Which was essentially dueling each other while talking. “So… Will you finally tell us how you lost?” Jayden asked while setting his Clayman in defense mode. “Fat chance. Damn!” I yelled, having to sacrifice half my life points for Jirai Gumo to attack due to a bad flip. “Jayden, he might not want to talk about it for a reason.” Syrus spoke while walking on eggshells. His Roid Monsters destroyed, only letting him use his supercharge to gain cards for his loss.

“Perhaps it was down to bad luck. Rakki’s deck is certainly volatile.” Bastion said with a smirk, his Hyrdogeddon, spawning in another of itself to attack Syrus directly. I sighed while Jayden used Polymerization to summon Wingman, his favorite card. “Just call it a misplay.” I muttered while Jayden attacked. “Much like that.” I said with a smirk, revealing my face down. Bark of Dark Ruler, using more of my life points to increase my Gumo’s damage to outclass Jayden by 100 points.

Jayden scoffed while sending his Wingman to the grave. Placing two cards back down on his field. “I’ll tribute my Gumo for Jinzo, and attack you directly.” I spoke, seeing our life points equal. “Well I guess mistakes happen with the best of us.” Jayden said with a grin, lowering his life points directly. I smirked back, memories of this game flooding back into my mind. No holograms, death threats, soul dealing… Just a game friends played with each other on a table. It was refreshing in a way, playing just like I always wanted to when I was younger.

“This is why we have practice. In order to not make mistakes when our lives are on the line.” Bastion said while defeating Syrus now that he had his water dragon. “Aww…” Syrus muttered, having lost while Jayden comforted him. “Don’t worry about it too much Sy. Bastion is one of the top Duelists here, just behind me of course.” He teased, causing Bastion to scoff. “Would you care for a rematch Jayden?” Bastion asked, cleaning his cards from the table.

Jayden laughed a bit while drawing his next card. “Hah! Looks like you were your own downfall Rakki. I drew Elemental Hero Sparkman, and I use the effect of Underdog to draw again.” He drew another card, and quickly showcased it to me. “I summon my Sparkman to the field, and use my Mask Change spell card to special summon Masked Hero Blast. With that, I use his ability to gain 500 more attack points for each of your monsters, and his other effect that allows me to banish one Hero monster from my graveyard to lower your Jinzo’s attack equal to their attack, and I choose my Wingman.”

I sighed seeing where this was going, since I had my Jinzo on the field, I couldn’t even activate my own trap card that might save me. “Now that your Jinzo only has 500 attack points, I attack you.” I nodded while placing my Jinzo back in my deck, since the Duel was over. “That’s Game.” Jayden said with a smile, saluting his victory. “Yea, that was fun. Ended a little fast though.” I said, a surprisingly little amount of sarcasm in my voice for having lost. ‘I guess I don’t mind losing if the game doesn’t really matter for anything.’

I was a little surprised, seeing how Jayden’s attitude towards Dueling was rubbing off on me, and even more surprised how happy I was that Jayden won using my cards that I helped him pick out. Almost like I was proud in myself for seeing my own decks being proven strong. ‘That’s probably it… I just want to know that it was just bad luck that my decks didn’t work.’ “That’s a little sad that I only won using your cards though.” Jayden said with a shrug, leaving me to hit his arm lightly. “Don’t… I wouldn’t have lost any other way.”

Jayden looked at Rakki’s smirk, and gained a smile seeing Rakki happy. Rakki was Jayden’s friend, and Jayden always wanted his friends to enjoy life just as much as he did. Rakki may have had a hard life that Jayden didn’t want to pry into, but he knew that he could do his best to help Rakki at least be happy in the moment, like right now. That was all Jayden could do. Was it enough? Jayden didn’t know, but seeing Rakki right now told Jayden that it was a step in the right direction.

Jayden hit my chest with a large smile. “You saying I couldn’t beat you without your own help?” He asked with an accusatory grin. I looked away and shrugged. “I never said that… I may have thought it, but I never said it.” Jayden laughed while cleaning his own cards up from the table, all of us just shooting the shit while casually Dueling with each other. Who won? Who lost? Were we playing our best? No. But it didn’t matter. It was more about us guys just hanging out.

“Rakki, you have a girlfriend. C-Can you give me any advice to get a girl?” Syrus asked with his face completely red. I scoffed at the innocent kid while shuffling my deck. “Syrus…” I said looking him up and down, judging his popularity. “You need to be more… confident.” Syrus frowned while looking away. “Confident?” I nodded at his response while explaining. “Most girls aren’t going to want to date a guy that doesn’t believe in himself. I mean look at you. You look like an abandoned puppy.”

Syrus shrunk in his seat, so I felt I shouldn’t push him too far. “If you’re not ready for a relationship yet, then you’re not. Don’t force it.” ‘Like some other small minx I know…’ I let out a sigh thinking about how fast things changed between Blair and I. “Well, what about you Jay? Do you want a girlfriend?” Syrus asked, turning his head to Jayden. Jayden shrugged innocently. “Not really. I’ve never really seen the appeal with most girls.” I frowned at his weird way of saying that, but he moved on to Bastion.

“What about you Bas? Any girls you like?” Bastion shook his head with the smile of a monk. “No, the work of a Duelist is too important to be distracted with such matters.” I stifled a laugh, knowing that during this arc he would be eating those words. “Oh, children! Already here for breakfast I see? Well it won’t take a moment.” Banner walked in, and interrupted our conversation on his way to the kitchen, marking the beginning of breakfast.

“Besides that, do we have any idea how many more Shadow Riders could be attempting to take the keys?” Jayden asked everyone. I shrugged, really not knowing how many were left, most were forgettable. ‘Except…’ I thought while stealing a glance at Banner’s back, knowing there was one right under our noses. “It is truly impossible to know Jayden. We can only fight to the best of our abilities to protect these keys from any who attempt to awaken the beasts.” Bastion answered perfectly, like he was writing an answer for a test.

“We’ll see…” I muttered, wondering if there was any way of perhaps taking the beasts for myself. A strange feeling of curiosity and desire for them wormed its way in my mind.