(54) The tournament goes on

Date: 16/Sept/35MT

I slept so well I don’t even remember when I went to bed… It was that good…

Obviously that only happened after Neko and Nana were done dolling me up, and holy shit I look good with make up… I didn’t consider it, probably because of the apprehension my memories bring towards girly stuff, but with just foundation a little of blush and some eyeliner I can turn myself into a drastically different person.

I want to look good. Not really to attract anyone, but just to entertain myself… That makes me a diva, doesn’t it? Fuck it then, call me one. I feel good about myself, and after so much time looking down and feeling like I stole someone’s character, that’s a welcome change.

While Nana focused on my face, Neko went to grab some dark purple, glittery nail polish and pointy gel nails. It was strange to see these things on me, but I’ll admit they looked marvelous. Haruna also joined in painting my toe nails… She has a thing for feet.

So I’m keeping some things they did to me last night. Not the whole face makeup with glitter and stuff that made me look like one of those toxic E-girls, but I think the nails look nice, so I’m keeping that. Just have to keep in mind to maintain them properly. I might let go of the gel nails. They’re not that long, but they might be a little inconvenient for duels, but for now I’ll keep them like this.

One of the few things I remember before falling asleep that night was looking down on my body, seeing my nails glow in the dark with that spacey glitter and feeling glad deep inside, like a weight had lifted off my shoulders.

On other news, there was something I forgot yesterday. Something so important I’m ashamed to even admit I forgot it. Not that the news helped, but I got a notice from Lancer telling me that my order would be delayed until the end of next month… I asked why they were having problems and got hit by: “The conflict with the Protectorate has the Union rationing civilian Visonium acquisition.”

… That’s when I remembered… As I was fooling around with the three, an entire war was unfolding… Something that apparently would challenge the very definition of the term…

I stare at my reflection in the mirror. A girl with long wavy purple hair down to her back looks back. She has two big lilac colored eyes with dark eyeliner surrounding them with fake eyelashes bellow and a pointy protrusion above the cheekbones. Two two discolored lilac bangs frame her triangle shaped face. Her small nose placed between her light pink lips and light glittery red blush that covers the top of her cheeks and the bridge of her nose, highlighting the area,

I know that this is me. It doesn’t take time to register. I was the one who did my makeup this way for the match and I feel good about it.

To my left is Haruna, who insisted we go in like this today, something about 'spreading our wings.' This is supposed to be a low Elo match, so good luck with that, but I’ll leave the judgement for later.

‘Wait… Oooohhhh, I get it, we’re supposed to be ones to make up for the lack of action…’

“Hey Yuumi, done zoning out? It’s time to go. Chop, chop.” Naeko on my right reminds.

I lean away from the sink and respond. “Yeah let’s.”

“Finally.” Nanako comments, rolling her eyes. She’s leaning against the door. “You girls take way too long to get ready.”

“““Says the make-up artist.””” We three echo before awkwardly looking at each other, thinking about what had just happened.

Nanako recoils, then offers, “Let’s just go….”

We nod and walk out of the changing room into backstage, where Yasuna, Aiko and Mia are waiting to be called up.

Yasuna is fidgeting on a bench while looking intensely at her deck, while Mia and Yasuna are looking at each other’s decks more calmly

They packed the backstage much tighter than last time. Yesterday there were just the duelists from the advanced bracket, but now the intermediary and the beginner tournaments will run parallel to each other. Both lower brackets contain a total of 32 initial duelists each, but as a result, there is no losers bracket, its single elimination.

I recommend opening this image in another tab.

I turn to Haruna and say. “Alright, I have to make sure these duelists don’t throw. I’ll meet you girls up at the platform when we’re called up.”

She nods, giving me a thumbs up. “You get them up to snuff, girl!”

I smile back before walking through the packed backstage, urging people away while trying to not get myself in any embarrassing position.

I finally arrive next to Yasuna and say. “Ayo! Ready for the match?”

She looks up from her deck and tilts her head. “Sorry, do I know you?”

“… Really Yasuna. It’s me, Yuumi.”

Her mouth hangs open and she stammers. “W-What happened to you?!?!”

‘… Oh, come on, I don’t look that bad!’

I cross my arms and say as much. “Yasuna… I’m not sure what you meant by that, but I hope you’re not about to say you don’t recognize your bestest of friends.”

She scratches the back of her head, adjusting her green ponytail. “Sorry Yuumi, but I didn’t. What’s up?”

‘Just like that, huh? Tch, fine.’ I sit next to her and ask. “I was just looking over here and saw you were a bit troubled, mind telling me what that’s about?”

She averts her eyes and fixates them on her duel disk with a view of her deck. “I’m just a little nervous, that’s all.” She reveals, looking at the celling. “This was all so sudden. I’m worried my deck won’t hold up to tournament standards.”

…

…

“Hahahhahaha!” I can’t help but giggle at that.

“Hey!” she shouts. “This is not a laughing matter!”

I turn to her, still giggling. “HA! Yasuna! Hahaha! Maybe if you were in the advanced tournament! Here, your only real opponent will be Aiko!”

The beginner bracket, like the name suggests, only invites novices from the 600-900 elo range. That means red or low yellow… From personal experience against those types of duelists, they aren’t even worth remembering… DM trash with a special summon or two thrown in the middle if you really want to get fancy.

I place my hand on Yasuna's back. “You’ll crush them, Yasuna. Trust me.”

Now back to looking at her deck with a smile, Yasuna asks. “You sure Yuumi?”

“100%.” I say with no hesitation. She can already crush yellow ranked students at the NWDA, and her deck is miles ahead of any deck these people would have. “You’re only worry might be getting banned from tournaments till 800 elo, maybe even 1000.”

She smiles, looking down at her duel disk. “Thank you. I guess I needed that.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. That’s what friends are for.”

Yasuna nods.

[“And in a surprising turn of events, the AGVA will take home this round!”]

[“Calling duelist designated: NWDA A,”]

“Is that you or Aiko?”

She shakes her head, crossing her arms. “That’s Aiko. Guess you have someplace to be?”

‘Shit, didn’t even get to talk with her.’

I get up quickly and say, waving back. “Yes, see ya later!” while running to the platform.

She waves back. “Tell her not to kill them!”

I almost trip on my feet upon hearing that. ‘I know she was joking, but hits way too close to home…’

I didn’t get to talk with Aiko before the duel. In retrospect, I should’ve checked the bracket order. Anyway, after getting to the platform, it raised up like before and the duel was underway.

Now… About the duel… I won’t say it was cringy to watch, not even bad per se, but it was boring. In only 4 turns, Aiko got a pretty sweet deskbot board setup. I didn’t give her links or the synchro monster, she can’t do those summons and I’m pretty sure she has no interest in synchro anyway, but pure deskbot can still pack a punch.

Especially when her opponent was using… wait for it… That magician normal beat down deck I found on GlobalNet… I’m not kidding here, it was so bad I even checked that with Haruna and she confirmed my suspicions. This guy from the— What was it again?… ‘Matteo Donovan Dueling Foundation?’ Anyway, he just net decked.

‘Now that I’m checking the tournament brackets again, it seems they are only participating with 1 duelist in the intermediary bracket and 3 in the novice one…’

Each academy can send up to 4 duelists to the tournament and only one can be in the advanced bracket, but other than that, it’s up to them where they send their duelists. The normal setup is 1 advanced, 2 intermediary and 1 novice. But smaller academies with fewer resources usually ignore the advanced bracket all together, in favor of focusing on more realistic goals.

Returning to the duel, it ended with a massive attack from Aiko which made her opponent surrender… After flipping scare iron scarecrow… Which only stopped one of the 4 4400ATK point monsters. He thankfully conceded before getting maimed.

‘I may need to warn Aiko before she does something she’ll regret later. Duels are no fucking joke… That’s a silly thing to say, but its truth.’

On the topic of not joking around, Yasuna. Holy shit, slow down, girl!

Her duel was a little later than Aiko, on the second first round of the beginner bracket, but she was ruthless; the duel was two turns long, and she went second… I’ll leave it for you to guess what happened. Hint, hint, I heard Haruna call out at least 20 synchro summons.

‘I just hope she can’t get DQed for her skill, not matching her rank in the middle of the tourney. That would be embarrassing.’

Anyway, I’m on the backstage again. We’re waiting for Mia to be called up. She’s in the intermediary bracket, so I’m excited to see what her opponent can come up with, just hope I don’t get disappointed again.

Between the end of Yasuna’s duel and now, all we’ve been able to do was take a shower and a short one at that. Thankfully, our makeup’s waterproof, so we didn’t need to clean it off and reapply it. That would’ve taken too long considering the half an hour break between 2 rounds. Aiko’s and Yasuna’s duels were practically back to back.

I’m already kind of tired and there’s still 3 more rounds today, 4 if you count this one. I just hope Mia’s duel isn’t a long one. Because I’m seriously worried about running out of stamina in the middle of a duel. Not really sure what would happen if I did, probably just warn Haruna I’m getting exhausted before getting to that point.

[“And the dream achievers take another round! Where will their spirit take them next!?”]

[“Calling duelist designated: NWDA”]

“It’s time, let’s go girls!” Tells Haruna.

“Yup.” I confirm with a nod.

We four walk to the platform while Mia goes to hers.

‘Let’s see what the “Spring Forest Institute” has to offer.’

The platform rises, bringing us to a familiar arena. It’s smaller than the one used in the advanced bracket, holding fewer spectators. Instead of a dome looking out into the cosmos, only the walls are made of glass and the space station partially obstructs the view.

Their cheer squad consists of 5 members who each don a simple camisole and hot pants. They have extensive freckles decorating their faces, with long, pointed ears and an otherworldly yellowish complexion, something so noticeable I see from all the way here on the opposite platform, and dyed their hair in a golden blonde color. A classic elven look, makes sense considering their Academy's name.

We, on the other hand, have a more traditional uniform, with a color changing chromicolor crop top and mini-skirt currently colored white with blue highlights, the colors of the NWDA, and matching sneakers. We put on flashy make up but nothing too themed, just the generic e-girl look, not that the three know what that means, but here it’s kind of standard.

The central platform finally rises and I can see Mia with a wide smile waving at the audience while Haruna does her usual call out.

“Coming all the way from NWDA Island, make some noise for twin sister of Bot Queen Aiko Nagasawa! Top Monarch Mia Nagasawa!”