A Heart to Duel For; Yu-Gi-Oh! Protagonists x Reader

Chapter 27: Enter the Shadow Realm

"Alright Vanessa," I said. "I'll play your game."

She smirked, her red eyes lighting up in satisfaction. "Wise choice, (Y/n). But don't be surprised if you can't win."

I had assumed the 'game' would be a duel but before I could reach for my deck, Shadow Vanessa snapped her fingers and the Shadow Realm disappeared around me, along with herself.

Instead, I found myself back in my old middle school classroom. I watched as children scrambled for seats before the bell stopped ringing, wearing backpacks much too big for their small frames and thin shoulders. The braver ones began talking to those around them, but one girl in particular caught my eye as she sat down right at the front of the classroom. Her dark hair was split in two braids and a pair of purple rimmed glasses framed her face. I knew who it was immediately.

The girl I was looking at was Vanessa at eleven years old. Two seats away on her right, I saw the younger version of myself sitting quietly next to the person who would soon be my best friend for years to come: Sara Pearce.

A middle aged man wearing a green cardigan over a white collared shirt stood at the front of the room to address the class.

What's going on? I tried to make sense of what I was seeing and why. What did Shadow Vanessa gain from showing this to me?

I looked around the room for clues.

The most obvious one was the writing on the large whiteboard that spanned across the entire front wall. "Welcome to 6th grade Social Studies!" it read in scrawling purple marker. The monthly star student poster was empty with no names written on it yet, and the grey lockers at the back of the classroom didn't have their locks in place.

No one seemed to notice I was there. I reached out to touch one of the desks but my hand went straight through it. Did this mean I was looking at a memory? If I was right, this was supposed to be my first day of sixth grade at Adelfell High. The middle and high schools were merged together in one building because there didn't seem to be a good enough reason to have separate schools for such a small town.

Mr. Jenkins had asked everyone to tell the class their name and one interesting thing about themselves. I always hated those kinds of ice breakers, but I watched on as my old class—many of whom I was still classmates with currently—introduced themselves and met each other for the first time.

They went around the room, first Benjamin, then Gabrielle, Sara, and several others until it was Vanessa's turn.

"My name is Vanessa Thompson," she introduced herself with a confidence not many ten and eleven year old kids had. "I play Duel Monsters and I'm going to become the number one duelist in the world."

I focused back on my younger self to gauge her reaction to Vanessa's words. I remembered wistfully thinking that we could be friends. Surely someone like her who vowed to be the best duelist in the world was a person worth being friends with. But things hadn't gone as I'd hoped.

After a few more kids introduced themselves, it was finally my younger self's turn.

She stood up and gave a shy glance towards little Vanessa. "I'm (Y/n) (L/n). I also like playing Duel Monsters and I want to be a duelist someday too."

Vanessa returned the gaze, a flicker of hope in her eyes. She hesitated for a moment before finally asking, "What deck do you play?"

"Lightsworns."

Vanessa's eyes narrowed thoughtfully but she didn't say anything, instead looking at my younger self with the same critical gaze that I'd been staring at her with.

The scene changed, warping into what I quickly recognized was the room where the exhibitional tournament tryouts had been conducted just a few months ago to determine who would have the honour of playing against Japan's top student duelists.