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

Chapter 8: A Shining Victory

I groaned, squinting up at the bright sky. I was flat on my back, winded from Borrelsword's attack. My muscles twitched to move but my body didn't obey right away. It took all of my willpower and strength, but somehow I managed to stand, my knees still weak. I stumbled a little but caught myself before I could fall again.

I took in a few breaths, trying to catch my breath before starting my move. "Draw." I hesitated for a moment, fearing that it could be a dead card. With a silent prayer, I looked at it. It was Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn. I had used a copy of him during my first turn to summon Michael.

However, he wasn't strong enough to stand up to Borrelsword Dragon. And I couldn't summon anything from my extra deck because I was lacking the means to special summon multiple monsters like I had for the Soldier of Chaos. But that was the thing. I wouldn't be special summoning from my extra deck.

"I normal summon Raiden in attack mode and activate his effect." I drew out two cards and sent them to my graveyard. It started to glow again, brighter than it ever had this whole duel so far. One card slipped out, waiting for me to take it. I picked it up and showed it to Takeru, a projection of the trap card appearing in front of me as well, rising from the ground.

"I'm going to activate Lightsworn Judgment's graveyard effect. When it goes from my deck to the graveyard, I can add Judgment Dragon to my hand," I explained.

A card in my deck shone white and I took it out, holding it between two of my fingers.

"I set the trap last turn with Michael," I said, recalling how I didn't shuffle back all the Lightsworn monsters in my graveyard to boost up my life points. "I only took out one Lightsworn monster with his effect so that I could keep four different Lightsworns in my graveyard because it would let me summon this."

I put the card down and waited for my monster to appear. The white dragon soared down from the sky as if he had come from the sun. His wings were feathery like an angel's and he looked up at Takeru's Borrelsword Dragon fearlessly.

I felt at ease with him in front of me. He was one of my three best cards, the first being Michael and the last a monster I hadn't summoned in this duel. A strange sense of tranquility washed over me and I realized that I was smiling.

"I use Judgment Dragon's effect," I continued. "I pay 1000 life points to destroy all other cards on the field."

Judgment Dragon's effect was explosive, but the dragon himself was calm, and with a gentle sweep of tail made the opposing dragon fall to its knees. Multiple beams of light pierced through Borrelsword Dragon, breaking the metal that made up its body. It rose its head and let out a last cry before collapsing and disappearing into dust.

Takeru's eyes widened in shock and disbelief. A lingering silence fell over the stadium. He was now defenseless, and his Will of the Salamangreat spell card was also in the graveyard now.

I found it hard to say the next words because of the way Takeru's face fell at his monster being destroyed. Was this a way to repay someone for being nothing but kind to me? I looked over at him, seeing how his lips were pursed. But he was staring back at me, head held high. Somehow, I understood what he wanted.

"Judgment Dragon attacks directly," I finally said.

Takeru grunted and stumbled to his knees from the damage, but as he got up he smiled at me. I still felt a little guilty, but at the same time I felt proud that I summoned my dragon.

I ended my turn and Takeru did his best to make a comeback, but with my Judgment Dragon on the field it was easy to destroy his monsters, and he wasn't able to summon a monster with over 3000 attack points.

A few turns went by but it was clearly a losing battle for him. I attacked with Judgment Dragon one last time and his life points finally hit zero.

The holograms faded away and my duel disk deactivated and snapped together back into its stationary form.

Takeru walked over to me, an unreadable expression on his face. He wasn't smiling and I couldn't tell what he was feeling. He stopped in front of me and then suddenly smiled, holding out his fist. "Good game (Y/n)."

The last of my guilt washed away seeing that he wasn't upset, and I was left feeling giddy, a fizz of excitement welling up inside me at my victory.

I won the first round! I really did it!

I grinned and fistbumped him. "Thanks Takeru. That Borrelsword Dragon was really cool."

"Thanks! I liked that move with the Soldier of Chaos," he said. "Really threw me off there."

"Thanks," I replied gratefully.

"(Y/n) goes on to the next round." The announcer was saying as we walked back to our seats, the other duelists shouting out congrats to me. The crowd cheered, nearly drowning out his next words. I had to strain my ears to hear him. "The final duel of round one will now commence. Yugi Muto versus Yusaku Fujiki."

"Good luck Yusaku," I said, turning to him.

He looked at me for a moment, his bright eyes unblinking, and nodded. "Thanks."

He got up slowly and followed Yugi into the arena. They shook hands firmly, both boys' faces set in grim determination. The duel was tense, even more so than Yusei and Yuya's duel.

I wasn't even sure who I wanted to cheer for. Yugi was nice, but it wasn't like I wanted Yusaku to lose. Conflicted, I watched the duel with less enthusiasm than I had hoped to, but it was still an amazing duel to watch.

Yusaku won by summoning a swarm of Link monsters that easily overtook even Yugi's most powerful Dark Magician monster. The duel ended with an attack from Yusaku's Decode Talker.

Yugi smiled at Yusaku and I watched as they exchanged a few words before returning to the rest of us.

"Yusaku Fujiki is our last winner for round one," the announcer said. "Congratulations to him, (Y/n), Yuma and Yusei. We will now have the semifinal matches, starting with Yusei and (Y/n)."

Yusei stood up, stretching his arms. He looked over at me and smiled. "Ready (Y/n)?" He asked.

I smiled back at him and got up to join him at the gate. "I'm ready."

Now that my surprise had worn down from the fact that I was in a tournament, I came to a realization. There was no doubt about it; this is where I'm supposed to be. The duel disk that was awkward for me to hold at first felt like second nature now, and it feels like I've known these duelists for years instead of just a few hours. All of this felt right.

Yusei stepped into the arena and I walked beside him, excited to see what else this tournament had in store for me.

A/N: I hate how I wrote this chapter for some reason but I can't figure out why :/

Regardless of that, thank you all for your patience and support for this story! It means a lot to me that you enjoy it. I promise that I have a really good plot coming up after this little tournament arc. Thanks again!