Chapter 9: Tomoyo the Assassin
The fifth day of the tournament had arrived. That morning Tamao and the Four Witches were having an emergency meeting. Jaden acquiring The Eye of Timaeus had caused some very unexpected problems for Tamao’s plans. As a result, Jaden had become a very serious threat, one that needed to be dealt with immediately. There had been some debate over the problem. Mika wanted a rematch with Jaden, but Tamao had come to a decision.
“Tomoyo, you will eliminate Jaden Yuki from the tournament.” Tamao commanded.
“But Lady Tamao, I know I can beat him! Give me another chance!” Mika demanded as she stood up from her chair.
“I believe one failure is quite enough for us.” Tamao said coldly. “We cannot afford to let revenge cloud our judgment. Tomoyo shall eliminate Jaden, end of discussion.”
Mika sat back down with a look of irritation on her face.
“Do not fail me Tomoyo.” Tamao said to her underling.
Tomoyo nodded and then got up and left to hunt down Jaden.
* * *
Later on another part of the island, Jaden was observing a duel between a Miator student and a Spica student. He did not know whom either of them was, but he had taken an interest in the duel because of the Miator student’s very aggressive playing style. Jaden had seen the students of Miator duel before, and he had never seen them duel like the one before him was. Yubel had appeared next to Jaden to watch the duel as the Miator student finished off her opponent with a powered up dragon monster. With her opponent defeated, the Miator student walked away with a cold expression on her face.
“Is it just me, or have the Miator girls become a little more ruthless?” Yubel observed.
“It’s not just you, that’s the second Miator student I’ve seen duel with such anger.” Jaden agreed.
“You remember the summer when we were here looking for the Wicked Gods?” Yubel asked. “We overheard Amane tell Nagisa that most of the students of Miator were like caged birds. Well now they’re more like ravenous hawks.”
“I wonder if this is because of the new student council that Tamao started?” Jaden theorized. “Amane did say that the school changed when they took over.”
“It is not just the student council, but the power of the Orichalcos that is responsible for this change.” Timaeus said as he appeared next to Jaden in his knight form. “The Orichalcos is starting to bring out the darkness within Miator’s students. And if it is not stopped it will spread.”
“You said before that the Orichalcos ended up turning the people of Atlantis into monsters.” Jaden noted. “Will the same thing happen here?”
“It might if the darkness is not stopped.” Timaeus said gravely.
At that moment Yaya and Tsubomi showed up on a walk. They went over to Jaden after noticing he was there.
“Hey Jaden.” Yaya greeted.
“Oh hi Yaya.” Jaden greeted back. “How’re you doing since that duel yesterday?”
“I’m still a little sore but okay.” Yaya answered.
“Say, I’ve been noticing how different a lot of the Miator students are.” Jaden told the two girls. “Is it really because of Tamao’s student council?”
“You bet it is.” Tsubomi answered. “Nobody can say for sure, but the rumors are that it’s because of the clubs that the student council started at Miator. They say they’re like some kind of intense boot camp.”
“That’s just not right.” Jaden said with a slightly sad expression. “Dueling is supposed to be fun.”
“Jaden Yuki!” a voice suddenly called.
The three turned to see a Miator student with raven-black hair and icy blue eyes. The skirt of her uniform was shorter than most of the skirts worn by Miator, and she wore black fingerless gloves on her hands. Immediately Jaden recognized the girl as one of the Four Witches.
“That’s Tomoyo Mikage.” Tsubomi observed with a slightly frightened expression. “She’s supposed to be the second strongest member of the Four Witches. They call her the assassin.”
Tomoyo continued to give Jaden and icy cold stare, causing Jaden to step forward.
“I guess you’re here for me.” Jaden said to Tomoyo with a serious expression.
“I have been ordered to eliminate you from this tournament.” Tomoyo explained. “You have twenty five points, I have thirty. If I win you shall be out.”
“That’s a pretty big if.” Jaden said confidently. “I don’t suppose I have a choice in this.”
In answer to Jaden’s assumption, Tomoyo threw a small knife from her pocket that passed dangerously close to Tsubomi’s head, causing a few strands of hair to be cut. This caused Yaya to stand protectively in front of Tsubomi and glare at Tomoyo.
“I do not wish to use force, but I will if you continue to resist.” Tomoyo stated.
“Then I guess it’s game on.” Jaden said as he activated his duel disk.
With their life points set to 4000 the duel began. Tomoyo had the first draw.
“I summon Mystical Elf in Defense Mode and end my turn!” Tomoyo announced.
A blue skinned female elf with long blond hair wearing a green dress appeared on the field on her knees, her hands brought together as if she were in prayer. Jaden drew his first card.
“First I play Polymerization and fuse Elemental Hero Clayman with Elemental Hero Sparkman to summon Elemental Hero Thunder Giant!” Jaden announced. The electric giant dropped from the sky onto the battlefield with a loud thud. “Now I discard one card to activate Thunder Giant’s effect and destroy Mystical Elf!”
Thunder Giant raised his arms forward and shot the elf with a bolt of lightning. The elf shattered into triangles of gold light.
“Thunder Giant, attack Tomoyo directly!” Jaden commanded. “Voltic Thunder!”
Thunder Giant raised his arms and threw a ball of electricity at Tomoyo. The impact reduced her life points to 1600.
“I lay down a facedown and end my turn!” Jaden announced as he placed a card in his duel disk, and with that Tomoyo drew her next card.
“I summon Sonic Bird!” Tomoyo announced. A large eagle wearing goggles and a jetpack appeared on the field. “When Sonic Bird is summoned, I can add one Ritual Spell card to my hand. And the card I add to my hand is Orichalcos Ritual!”
Jaden knew what was coming next. He had seen it in his duel with Mika. Tomoyo was going to use the Orichalcos Ritual to sacrifice both their monsters and summon the Dark Orc of the West.
“Now I activate Orichalcos Ritual and sacrifice my Sonic Bird and your Thunder Giant to summon Swift Goblin of the South!” Tomoyo announced.
With that the mystical circle of the Orichalcos Ritual appeared on the field. The two monsters screamed in pain as lightning bolts shot up from the circle and slowly deconstructed them bit-by-bit. When both monsters were finally destroyed, a pillar of black flames erupted from the circle, eventually clearing to reveal a slender creature with beady red eyes, greed skin, pointed ears, and a hooked nose. It wore a black helmet and black armor on its torso. In its right hand it carried a curved sword. At the same time Tomoyo’s eyes began glowing red.
“What’s going on?” Jaden asked with a confused expression. “I thought the Orichalcos Ritual summoned Dark Orc of the West.”
“The Orichalcos Ritual is capable of summoning four different monsters.” Tomoyo explained. “Each one is held by a different member of the student council. Now because I am unable to attack I end my turn!”
Jaden drew his next card hoping to find a way to destroy the Goblin. Unfortunately nothing in his hand was capable of doing so. His only option was to buy time until he drew The Eye of Timaeus.
“I summon Elemental Hero Burstinatrix in Defense Mode and end my turn!” Jaden announced as the female hero of flames appeared on the field in a crouched position.
“I summon Neo the Magic Swordsman to the field!” Tomoyo announced after drawing her next card.
An armored warrior with blond hair appeared on the field next to Swift Goblin of the South. But as soon as the warrior appeared his skin turned green and his hair turned grey. His ears and nose became long and pointed.
“Let me guess, your Swift Goblin turns all your monsters into Fiends.” Jaden observed.
“That is correct.” Tomoyo confirmed. “In this case they become Goblins. Now my Swift Goblin of the South attacks Burstinatrix with Shadow Blade!”
The Swift Goblin charged forward and sliced Burstinatrix in half with his sword. The two halves shattered into gold triangles.
“I activate my facedown, Hero Signal!” Jaden announced, but when he pressed the button on his duel disk to activate it, nothing happened. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“I’m afraid because my Swift Goblin is on the field, neither of us can activate Trap cards during the Battle Phase.” Tomoyo explained. “Now for my next move, Neo attacks directly! Magic Sword Slash!”
The goblin swordsman charged and slashed Jaden across the chest, and just like in the duel with Mika, the damage felt real. The strike had reduced Jaden’s life points to 2300.
“There is more!” Tomoyo added. “Due to the effect of Swift Goblin of the South, when a Fiend-Type monster inflicts battle damage, the player who took that damage must send cards from the top of his deck to the Graveyard equal to the amount of damage he took times 100! Which means you must send seventeen cards to the Graveyard!”
Reluctantly, Jaden took the seventeen cards from the top of his deck and inserted them into the Graveyard slot on his duel disk. He was distressed to find that one of the cards sent was The Eye of Timaeus.
“No way, if Jaden runs out of cards to draw he’ll lose instantly!” Tsubomi exclaimed from the sidelines.
“He’ll find a way to win.” Yaya said reassuringly. “Just like he did against Mika.”
“My Swift Goblin has 2600 ATK points, 300 points more than the amount of life point you have.” Tomoyo pointed out to Jaden. “You could of course try to continue to defend yourself, but because you are unable to activate Traps during the battle you can only do so much. And because you lose cards for the damage you take you’ll lose eventually lose automatically. You can choose to lose quickly or slowly. I’ll let you decide.”
Jaden reached for the next card on top of his deck, hoping for a miracle. When he touched the card it began glowing with a white light. With a blinding flash Jaden found himself standing in the same ancient temple where he had met Timaeus. Just as before Yubel was standing next to him in solid form.
“What are we doing back here?” Jaden asked.
“You are here because you need my aid.” A voice answered.
Jaden and Yubel turned to see a man wearing a dark blue cape and blue armor similar to Timaeus’s. Jaden noticed that he bore a striking resemblance to Seto Kaiba.
“Let me guess, you’re one of Timaeus’s two brothers.” Yubel observed.
“That is correct.” The knight answered. “And I am here because you cannot defeat your current enemy with Timaeus’s power alone. Please allow me to fight by your side.”
“Well I could certainly use your help right now.” Jaden said as he stepped forward and offered his hand. “Would you mind telling me your name?”
“I am Critias.” The knight said as he shook Jaden’s hand.
In another blinding flash of light Jaden found himself back in the duel hold the card he had just drawn from the deck. The card he held was the same type of card as The Eye of Timaeus. Just as before Jaden found that he knew how to use the card.
“I play The Fang of Critias!” Jaden announced, and with a huge gust of wind appeared a navy-blue dragon with a blue-grey belly and a pair of large incisor fangs. “Now I combine Critias with my facedown Trap, Hero Signal to form Hero Force Dragon!”
The large representation of Jaden’s Trap suddenly lifted off the ground and went into Critias. Critias’s scales turned black and his belly grey. A red mask appeared on his face and a long red scarf appeared around his neck. On his chest was a large golden H that looked like the one that appeared in the artwork of Hero Signal.
“Did he just turn a Trap card into a monster?” a surprised and very confused Yaya asked.
“Now because I summoned Hero Force Dragon I can Special Summon four Heroes from my deck!” Jaden announced. “So now I summon Elemental Hero Bladedge, Elemental Hero Wildheart, Elemental Hero Bubbleman, and Elemental Hero Neos!”
With a loud roar form Hero Force Dragon the four Heroes appeared on the field in a flash of white light, greatly surprising Tomoyo.
“Don’t worry, the monsters summoned by Hero Force Dragon can’t attack.” Jaden explained. “But his ATK rises for each Hero that was summoned by his effect, which means Hero Force Dragon’s ATK goes up from 2400 to 4000!”
“That’s stronger than both of Tomoyo’s monsters!” Tsubomi happily exclaimed.
“Hero Force Dragon, attack Neo the Magic Swordsman!” Jaden commanded. “Hero Heart Blaze!”
The masked dragon reared back his head and breathed a stream of crimson flames at the goblin swordsman. Neo burned away and Tomoyo’s life points dropped to zero. With the duel over the remaining monsters on the field vanished. The number on Tomoyo’s point counter dropped from thirty to twenty-five, while the number on Jaden’s counter rose from twenty-five to thirty.
“This is not over Jaden Yuki.” Tomoyo stated before throwing a smoke bomb.
When the smoke cleared Tomoyo was gone, though nobody saw any point in pursuing her. Jaden breathed a sigh of relief as Yubel appeared next to him.
“That was a close one.” Yubel commented. “If that duel went on any longer you would’ve lost.”
“It’s a good thing that Critias showed up to help us out.” Jaden pointed out.
“I am happy to be of service to you.” Critias said as he appeared in front of Jaden with Timaeus, both of them in their knight forms. “But the battle is far from over.”
“I know.” Jaden replied. “There are still two other members of the Four Witches. Plus Mika and Tomoyo aren’t out of the tournament yet.”
“Don’t forget about Tamao.” Yubel pointed out. “She’s probably the one pulling the strings.”
“I still don’t quite believe that Tamao is behind all of this.” Jaden said to Yubel.
“Those influenced by the Orichalcos are capable of many things.” Timaeus told Jaden. “Do not underestimate this girl Tamao.”
* * *
A bit later at the student council room of Miator, Tamao and the Four Witches were having a meeting about the duel with Jaden.
“Care to explain how you were defeated?” a very displeased Tamao asked Tomoyo.
“Forgive me my lady.” Tomoyo said as she kneeled before Tamao. “I did not anticipate that Jaden Yuki would have a second card like the one he used against Mika.”
“A second card?” Tamao asked with a startled expression. “What was this card called?”
“The Fang of Critias.” Tomoyo answered. “It had the power to create a Fusion monster from a Trap card.”
“How is that possible?” Hiyori asked. “I’ve never heard of a card like that.”
“Oh it’s possible.” Tamao sighed as she stood up from her chair. “It seems that the Knights of Atlantis have chosen to follow Jaden Yuki. If we do not stop him soon our plans to create a new world will be ruined. We must eliminate him soon.”
