Look natural. Look like you belong. Like you have a purpose and reason for being here. No matter how scruffy Phil looked with his untamed beard, wild eyes, and patched-up clothing, Phil kept those words in his mind. Those words were the key to getting almost anywhere you wanted to, though oftentimes they would be paired with a high-visibility vest or a clipboard.

  Phil had neither of those. The closer he walked to the flight of stairs looming out from the darkness amid flashes of blue strobe lights, the more he infused his steps with purpose. No hesitation, no confusion. Nothing but purpose and a surety that he was meant to be there. The man with the rasta cap clutched snugly over ragged hair dyed with streaks of purple glanced his way, but ultimately said nothing. Phil placed a foot on the stairs.

  Nothing. He nodded a casual greeting toward the rasta cap man and continued his ascent. He didn’t look back, nor did he glance around at his surroundings. The rest of the club hardly mattered, and Phil knew Jean and Tilla were probably out of sight by now.

  Where would this lead, he wondered? The fact that there was a second floor was obvious, but the contents of that second floor were less so. Would this be a typical case of the head honcho wanting a nice corner office with a window at the highest point in the building? Or was he about to stumble into a second floor full of people dancing their hearts away?

  Phil placed his palm on the wooden railing but yanked his hand away as quickly as he'd placed it. The surface was full of splinters threatening to push deeply into his skin.

  Soon Phil made it to the top of the stairs. A room spread out before him. It was sparsely furnished, with only a handful of bare wooden chairs scattered in a loose circle around a pool table. Above the pool table hung a light attached to the ceiling with a bronze chain. Around the light was a circle of blue stained glass. As the light streamed through the stained glass lampshade, it made the room look as if it was entirely underwater – an aquarium of vice and greed. There were no people around the pool table, nor even in the room at all. It was utterly empty, almost entirely silent other than the faint echoes of techno music drifting its way up the stairs. In a way, the room felt alarmingly similar to the waiting room of Blue Friday, except for here there was no dead woman on a red velvet couch.

  At the opposite end of the room was a solitary door. It was painted blue, like all the other doors in the building that Phil had seen so far, but unlike the others, this paint was not chipped, cracked, or peeling in any way. It was rather well-maintained, thick, and plentiful all around. Whoever painted the door had doubtlessly put much more effort into this one than all the others.

  Deep in his gut, Phil knew this detail indicated the room beyond the blue-painted door was important. With even strides he walked up to the door. His hand brushed against the brass doorknob. The metal was cool to the touch. It felt quite nice in his palm.

  The doorknob moved easily enough. The door smoothly opened without a hint nor creak of protest. Inside was a small room, perhaps no larger than a 15x15 square in size. Most of the space was dominated by a large wooden desk covered with various stacks of papers, three medium-sized ashtrays, two pencil holders, and a bust of Julius Caesar’s head. Stabbed through the largest stack of papers was a long, thin needle as long as Phil’s hand and as thick as one of his fingers. Near the corner of the desk was a half-empty bottle of whiskey.

  Next to the desk was a small wooden table, on which sat two empty glasses, a pack of playing cards, and a third ashtray practically overflowing with cigarette butts.

  The walls of the room were mostly bare. Painted stark white and stained yellow with cigarette smoke, it looked all the stranger compared to the constant blue themes of the rest of the nightclub. The only decoration was a long samurai sword hanging from the far wall. It was unsheathed, revealing the nearly four-foot blade in all its glory. Next to the sword was the sheath. It was colored deep blue, and several polished lapis lazuli gems adorned the edges of it. Underneath the sheath was something far more interesting – a metal safe fitted snuggly into the wall.

  Behind the desk and underneath the samurai sword sat a man. His attention was only partially on Phil. The rest of his focus was on a floor-to-ceiling window that gave a view out onto the darkened streets of Domino City. The man wore an elegant three-piece business suit, one that was colored a dark enough blue that it almost looked like it was black in color to the casual observer. His body was well-built, not overly muscular but with enough strength to it that it felt like he could easily handle himself in a physical confrontation. Scars littered his exposed skin, from his knuckles to the backs of his hands, up his neck, and over his face. Some were simple white lines, while others were like great canyons carved deep into his bronzed flesh. His eyes were stern, grey and unyielding like they were made out of pure granite. The man’s hair was close-cropped. Hints of grey poked out from the very edges of his hairline, but most of it was pure jet-black in appearance.

  The man took a deep drag of the cigar in his right hand, casting one last look out to the streets of Domino City before turning his full attention to Phil. He glanced down at the golden watch strapped around his wrist.

  “I do not believe I have any appointments scheduled until several hours from now.” He said in a ragged smoker’s voice.

  Phil did not answer him at first. He reached over to the corner of the room to grab a chair with a blue cushion on the seat, dragging it over and plopping down on it with a sigh of satisfaction.

  "Customer complaint," Phil said with an easygoing tone. “You’re the boss, right? You ordered your boy Chet to intimidate me into taking a dive at the underground arena.”

  The man smiled. “You seem so calm, but your eyes… they betray your anger.”

  Phil let a thin smile cross his face. “He sent men with knives after me and my brother. He burned down the house of a man I have a great debt to. He did that all on your orders.”

  The man fell silent. His eyes roamed around observing Phil’s face. Then he spoke. “I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Guriko Matsunobu. I am indeed the head of the Mori family. I ordered Chet to do those things. I feel no regret. You are a decent duelist from what I have heard. If you take dives at the proper times and places, we stand to earn quite a lot of money.”

  The way Guriko spoke was as if he was speaking about the day's weather, without any sort of concern about the arson attack he'd ordered, or the men with knives he'd sent after Phil and Jean.

  “My question for you…” Guriko said after taking another drag from his cigar, “what do you think you can do about that?”

  Phil’s thin smile turned into a fully formed grin. There was not a hint of mirth contained in that expression of his.

  “Let’s play a game.”

  Phil took out his deck from his pocket and pulled his chair over to the wooden table. Guriko’s face warped, the man nearly laughing before his eyes caught sight of the shadows moving and the laughter died before it could even start. Guriko’s eyes turned deadly serious.

  “Another one of you lot.” Guriko spat out a thick wad of dirty saliva into the corner to accentuate his disgust. “You learn some fucking parlor tricks and suddenly the world is your oyster.”

  “You lot?” Phil asked with a raised eyebrow. For Guriko to lack any sort of surprise toward the initiation of the shadow game, and his words upon seeing the shadows move… looks like there was another mage in town. It couldn’t be Yugi. If Guriko had faced Yugi, the yakuza boss would either be dead, seriously injured, or gotten a personality change from the penalty game.

  Guriko did not elaborate. The yakuza stood at his full height, a good six foot five in total. In his left hand was a stack of cards, clutched so tightly that a few of them seemed to bend slightly.

  “To the death?” Guriko sneered out the question. “You seem different than the last one. The last one just wanted to cooperate. Yeah. To the death. I can see it in your eyes.”

  Cooperate. Did this have anything to do with the freezer room full of corpses?

  Before Phil could give that any more thought, Guriko spoke once more with his back turned. The yakuza boss was looking up at the katana on the wall, as if pondering some deep question.

  “May I know the name of my opponent?”

  Phil tilted his head slightly. Guriko’s tone had changed to sound solemn, as if they were two warriors with swords facing each other on a grassy plain, a scene right out of a samurai movie.

  “Phillip Jenson.”

  Guriko nodded to himself. Then, in a blur of action, Guriko tore off his suit jacket with one hand. The cloth ripped away like paper to reveal a mass of scarred skin covered in ink. His entire back was filled with a tattoo of a snarling red Eastern-style dragon that looped across his flesh in every which way. Not a single speck of the skin on his back was empty of color.

  “I am Guriko Matsunobu!” Guriko repeated his name with a voice as solid as steel. He turned to face Phil. “And it will not be my death today!”

  Cigar in one hand and deck in the other, Guriko leaped over his desk, his landing causing the floor to tremble.

  Both men sat at the table. As soon as they did, any and all sounds from downstairs cut out entirely. The office was utterly silent.

  “Oh, it will be.” Phil quietly spoke. “Chet died screaming and in, from what I understand, horrific mind-breaking pain. It will be the same for you.”

  Guriko produced a coin, flipping it into the air accompanied by only one word. “Tails.”

  Phil nodded. That meant he was heads.

  The coin landed. Heads.

  Phil: 4000 Guriko: 4000

  Phil didn’t wait. As soon as the outcome was revealed, he drew six cards and began his turn.

  “One monster in face-down defense position, and two cards face-down. Pass.”

  Guriko's eyes glanced around the office. A slight frown flickered across his face upon seeing the shadows thicken and swirl even more before his mouth settled into a more neutral look.

  “Cautious. Just like what I’ve seen of you in the battle box.” Guriko said. “Fine by me. I summon Mataza the Zapper (1300/800) in attack position!”

  Movement stirred from the shadows as a samurai warrior in green armor stepped out into view. Not a single note of surprise could be seen on Guriko’s face upon seeing it.

  “My battle phase begins. Mataza, attack the face-down monster!”

  For a moment Phil’s hand tapped away at the surface of the table. He knew what Mataza’s effect was. Annoying, but not seriously threatening until it was buffed up with some equip spells. Eventually, Phil made up his mind and flipped over his face-down monster.

  “Giant Germ (1000/100). When it dies, you take 500 damage and I can summon any number of Giant Germs from my deck to my field in attack position.”

  A giant purple orb appeared on the field, being slashed in half by Mataza’s sword almost immediately. However, instead of disappearing, the bisected purple orb simply hovered in the air, now two orbs instead of one.

  “Not bad!” Guriko praised, not even flinching as the effect damage burned away at his skin. “Mataza can attack twice per battle phase, however! Mataza, strike down the second germ!”

  Phil too took the damage stoically, his face unchanging as 300 points of battle damage were removed from his life point counter.

  “Giant Germ will burn you for another 500, even if I don’t have any more copies to summon from the deck.” Phil declared.

  Phil: 3700 Guriko: 3000

  “One card face-down and that’s my turn.” Said Guriko. A lazy smile tugged away at the yakuza boss’s face.

  It was difficult to tell for sure since this was merely the opening exchange of the duel, but the way Guriko carried himself… it almost felt to Phil as if the man was used to a duel. Far more used to a duel than his subordinates, at least.

  Interesting.

  “I draw.” Phil’s eyes quickly scanned his hand. But before he could speak, Guriko moved.

  “After your draw, I activate the continuous trap card Curse of Darkness!” He shouted. “Each time a spell card is activated, the player that activated it takes 1000 points of damage!”

  Phil clicked his tongue while suppressing the urge to mutter ‘for fucks sake’ as a seriously annoying trap card was revealed. That meant unless either of them had a healing card, Phil could only activate three spells and Guriko was limited to two. So, either Guriko was confident in his ability to win with only two spell cards, or the man had a way to avoid the burn damage.

  "Who needs spells anyway? Spells are for losers.” Phil smirked. “Trap card, Good Goblin Housekeeping, activates! I draw one card and put one card from my hand to the bottom of my deck!”

  This was one of the cards he’d ‘inherited’ from Chet. It wasn’t particularly useful in the short run, but in the long run it could get some decent value.

  “Next up, I sacrifice Giant Germ to tribute summon Shadow Ghoul (1600/1300).”

  A green insectoid creature squeezed through the door behind Phil to stand next to its master. Its body was littered with glowing red eyes, and its six knobby legs skittered around even as the creature stood still.

  "It gains 100 attack points for each monster in my graveyard," Phil explained.

  Shadow Ghoul (1600/1300 -> 1900/1300).

  Phil took a moment to look at the field. Other than Mataza the Zapper and Curse of Darkness, Guriko’s side of the board was empty.

  Perfect.

  “Shadow Ghoul, get that samurai off of my board!” Phil shouted.

  The wicked-sharp claws of Shadow Ghoul tore through the samurai’s bamboo armor like it was made of paper, covering the room with bright red blood that slowly dissipated into nothing.

  Phil: 3700 Guriko: 2400

  Phil’s turn ended with that. Guriko picked the top card off of his deck like nothing had happened.

  “Firstly, I activate my continuous spell card, Soul Absorption!”

  This time Guriko winced as a crackling nebula of blue lightning formed around his body, searing his skin and filling the room with the smell of burning arm hair. But he wasn’t done yet.

  “Second spell…” Guriko grunted. His teeth were already gritted in preparation for the pain soon to be caused by his own trap card. “Different Dimension Capsule! It will banish a card from my deck face-down. Then, two standby phases after its activation, the card will be added to my hand!”

  Another nexus of crackling lightning tore at Guriko’s body, but this time it was slightly offset by an orb of blue fire that shot into Guriko’s chest, causing the man to sigh in relief.

  “Each time a card is banished, Soul Absorption heals me for 500 life points.” Guriko explained.

  Phil: 3700 Guriko: 900

  Phil nodded in understanding. So this was Guriko’s strategy. With Soul Absorption, as long as he was proactive enough with banishing cards, he could easily offset the cost of Curse of Darkness. Gradually he could feel his evaluation of Guriko as a duelist rising. Was it possible that the head of the Mori family was actually somewhat decent at Duel Monsters?

  “After that, I discard Thunder Dragon from my hand to add one Thunder Dragon from my deck to my hand. Then I do it again, discarding the second one to add a third!”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Phil’s eyes narrowed. It was no longer a possibility. Guriko knew what he was doing. This was a fucking banish deck. Probably not on the level of a Chaos Warrior deck from GOAT format (otherwise known as one of the best decks in the format), but until proven otherwise Phil had to treat it as pretty darn close.

  “I summon Freed the Brave Wanderer (1700/1200).” Guriko said. As soon as the metal-clad warrior stepped onto the field, the yakuza boss activated his effect. “Banishing two light-attribute thunder dragons, I can use Freed’s effect to destroy one monster on the field with higher attack than him.”

  Phil watched as a bolt of light struck the side of the insectoid Shadow Ghoul, smiting it where it stood to leave his field empty of monsters. Guriko gave a sigh of relief as two more orbs of blue fire shot into his chest from the effect of Soul Absorption.

  Phil: 3700 Guriko: 1900

  “With one thousand points gained from that exchange, I can now activate another spell card.” Guriko said, laughter tumbling from his lips. “I activate Allure of Darkness! It lets me draw two cards, though in return I must either banish a dark monster from my hand or discard my entire hand to the graveyard. I choose to banish D.D. Scout Plane to fulfill that cost.”

  Phil: 3700 Guriko: 1400

  The more Guriko was struck by the lightning, the more he seemed to revel in the pain. His face was filled with a tormented grin of satisfaction, even as the skin on his chest became cracked and bloodied from the magical damage. The blood formed great streaks on his chest, its red color seeming to combine with the red ink of the tattooed dragon to make the mythical creature look even more alive.

  “Freed, strike directly!” Guriko declared.

  Phil: 2000 Guriko: 1400

  Phil held his arms out wide, welcoming the strike. The damage barely even registered in his mind. He laughed, a slight bubble of blood collecting in the corner of his lips and popping. “What a fucking slugfest!” He shouted.

  Guriko laughed as well. “In my end phase, the effect of D.D. Scout Plane (800/1200) activates! Since it was banished this turn, I can special summon it in attack position!”

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  Phil was pissed. Lumina could see that easily enough. He was using whatever scraps of damage made their way past his crazy pain tolerance to stoke the fires of his anger. Guriko wasn’t bad at the game. To evenly trade blows with Phil when he wasn’t just screwing around was a solid feat.

  Yet unknown to Guriko, those blows were nothing more than Phil testing the waters. A few questing jabs, each one targeted in a way that would reveal Guriko’s skill level and strategy in a way that Phil could understand and adapt to.

  Lumina had seen Phil do that time and time again. And now that those pieces of information were known to Phil, the real game would begin. And of course, the guy was enjoying it. Despite being locked in a duel to the death, Phil was enjoying every part of the back-and-forth brawl.

  Lumina took another sip of tea from her thermos, setting her back against the wall while she waited for the counterattack. Though her eyes were focused on the game, she always made sure to keep Guriko in her peripheral vision. One could never know what an enemy would decide to do when the game was over and death stared them in the eye.

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  Phil glanced over at the armored man and the eye-like spaceship on Guriko's side of the field. Two monsters, one continuous trap, one continuous spell, and Different Dimension Capsule, which would stay on the field until two standby phases passed.

  “I activate my other face-down.” Phil said. “My second Good Goblin Housekeeping! Since I already have a copy of it in the graveyard, I can draw two cards this time instead of one, while only having to put one back on the bottom of my deck.”

  Phil made his choice quickly, looking through his cards and sliding one on the bottom of his deck.

  “Sangan (1000/600) in attack mode. Battle phase, Sangan destroys your spaceship!”

  A ball of brown fur and four green limbs shot across the field to sink its teeth into the eye-like spaceship, raking its claws against Guriko’s arms for good measure.

  Phil: 2000 Guriko: 1200

  “Main phase two!” Phil shouted, “I’ll take that 1000 points of damage to activate Share the Pain! By tributing Sangan, I force you to tribute a monster of your own. That then activates Sangan’s effect to add Shining Angel (1400/800) from my deck to my hand.”

  Phil: 1000 Guriko: 1200

  Guriko snorted but moved his Freed to the graveyard with no comment.

  Now, unless he drew Emergency Provisions, Phil could no longer activate spell cards without first destroying Curse of Darkness.

  “Set one card face-down, pass.” Phil ended his turn.

  Guriko drew a card. “One standby phase has passed.” The man declared.

  Phil took the information in stride. He’d played that card a few times back on Earth. It was pretty handy to search out a specific counter card or the cornerstone of a strategy, since it could take literally any card from the deck to add to your hand after two turns. Monster, spell, or trap, it didn’t matter at all.

  “I normal summon The Agent of Creation – Venus (1600/0). Her effect activates, allowing me to pay 500 life points in return for summoning one Mystical Shine Ball (500/500) from my hand or deck. I will use this effect twice!”

  A mystical angel gracefully stepped onto the field. Three orbs hovered around her body, each one a different color of red, blue, and purple. Two wings sprung from her back, which glowed in unison to summon two ethereal shining balls onto the field.

  Phil: 1000 Guriko: 200

  “Venus! Attack my opponent directly!”

  Phil smirked. “You’ve activated my trap card! This one’s an oldie but a goldie, the continuous trap card Spellbinding Circle! By targeting your Venus, it can no longer attack or change its battle position while my trap remains on the field!”

  “That doesn’t stop my Mystical Shine Balls from sealing the deal!” Guriko countered. “Both of them will attack!”

  “Kuriboh! I never leave home without it!” Phil spat out in response. “By discarding one Kuriboh from my hand, I change the damage from your first ball’s attack to zero!”

  In the blur of action that followed, the two-winged angel was stopped in her tracks by a circle glowing with several mystical symbols that clamped itself around her waist. A glowing beam from the first Mystical Shine Ball was intercepted by a fuzzy ball of green fur that exploded into harmless chunks of fluff on contact. The second beam slammed right into Phil’s arm, but not a single flicker of pain made its way across Phil’s face.

  Phil: 500 Guriko: 200

  “I place a card face-down and end my turn.”

  Right as Phil drew a card, Guriko let out a light sigh and stood to stretch his arms. Phil glanced up at the man, watching him move across the room to his desk.

  “Easy now,” Guriko said in reply to Phil’s curious stare. “With such an intense duel, you can’t fault a man for wanting a drink.”

  It was the truth. Guriko pulled upon a drawer to withdraw a full glass of amber-colored whiskey. He walked back over to the table and retrieved the two glasses that were placed in the middle of the field.

  The lid of the whiskey bottle was unscrewed. Phil could only stare. From where he sat opposite of Guriko, he could smell the liquid inside the bottle.

  The whiskey gurgled as the first glass was filled, and then the second was as well. Guriko pushed one of the glasses toward Phil and held his up to give a toast.

  “A duel to the death?” Guriko offered the toast.

  Phil stared at the glass of brown whiskey on the table before him. Was it just him, or was the drink singing a song reminiscent of the sirens of Greek myth? He could feel his tongue darting out to wet his lips, which suddenly felt terribly dry. No longer was the game of Duel Monsters on his mind. It was shoved to the back, replaced by a simple glass of whiskey.

  Was it just him, or was the glass growing larger? There were beads of condensation dotting the outside of the container. Several pieces of ice slipped in by Guriko almost looked like clear rocks floating merrily in the liquid.

  He could still remember how it used to feel. The touch of a cool glass in his hands, the sensation of the ice brushing against his lips, the burn of the drink slipping down his throat.

  It was as if every detail of that glass was magnified to the utmost, and the rest of the room was reduced to nothing but a faint blur in his peripheral vision.

  Phil let out a long, shuddering breath.

  “Four years," Phil said in a hoarse voice. He could feel Lumina’s gaze on his back. She was watching him, concerned. Concerned that he’d slip back into old habits. “Four years, two months, and fifteen days sober.”

  His hand brushed up against the glass. It felt like moving a mountain, but he slid the glass away from him, toward Guriko.

  “It’s good whiskey. Expensive.” Guriko continued to tempt Phil. The words were said so sincerely, but to Phil they sounded like venom dripping from a snake’s fangs.

  “Sure smelled like it.” Phil’s voice was still hoarse, like he hadn’t spoken a word for years. “But I promised a very dear friend I’d quit for good. That I’d stop letting her down. And do you know it? She believed me. She believed that a dumbass like me could do it. I haven’t touched a drop since then.”

  Phil took a good long look into Guriko's eyes. His words were as much a reminder to himself as they were a verbal repeat of his promise to Lumina. So she could know he hadn't forgotten. “I don’t ever want to disappoint Lumina like that again.”

  For the first time since Phil entered the yakuza boss’s office, Guriko’s air of confidence and surety faltered for a moment. Guriko let out a wry smile, one tinged with sarcasm, and buried beneath that so deep it could barely be seen, there was a hint of bitter cynicism.

  “Must be nice.” Guriko said. He didn’t press Phil anymore, but took the abandoned glass and drank it down to the last drop.

  “It is.” Phil could feel a hand on his shoulder. It was cool to the touch, calm and reassuring. From the touch alone he could feel that Lumina perfectly understood his words.

  “Now, back to our little tango.”

  Phil tore his attention away from the bottle of liquor and back to the game at hand. The balance between the two players was even. Their life points were similar, neither could activate spell cards without healing themselves first, and while Phil had no monsters at his command at this moment, Guriko only had two weak monsters that could attack. Of course, those two weak monsters could easily kill Phil with their next attack if the situation wasn’t reversed. The situation was the same for Guriko. The moment Phil saw a monster with at least 700 attack points, the game would be over unless his face-down card could prevent the attack or the damage.

  “I’ll go ahead and summon Shining Angel (1400//800) in attack position. In my battle phase, Shining Angel attacks your balls.”

  A calculating look flashed through Guriko’s eyes. “Your attack activates my trap card, Zero Gravity! The battle positions of all face-up monsters on the field get switched!”

  Phil shrugged. His monster was now in defense mode, but the only card on Guriko’s field that could clear the angel was Venus, which couldn’t attack.

  “Set one and pass.”

  Guriko drew a card. “My second standby phase begins. Different Dimension Capsule will now leave the field and add the banished face-down card to my hand. Now! By sacrificing Venus and a Mystical Shine Ball, I tribute summon Seiyaryu (2500/2300)! Following that, by banishing the dark attribute D.D. Scout plane and the light attribute Mystical Shine Ball from my graveyard, I can special summon Chaos Sorcerer (2300/2000), who I added to my hand through Different Dimension Capsule, to the field!”

  Phil: 500 Guriko: 1200

  The room shook as two powerful monsters burst through the window to litter the walls with shards of glass. First was a dragon, covered in pink scales and with a jaw that looked like the head of a double-bladed axe. Though it carried itself with a rather ferocious air, its scales made the dragon feel like a sort of savage beauty. Next was a familiar, black-robed sorcerer. Its hands glowed with white and purple lights, and it stared at Phil with a mischievous smile. Finally, two more motes of blue flames soared into Guriko’s chest, causing him to sigh in relief from the pain of the duel.

  Yet Phil merely grinned, saying nothing in response to the two summons.

  “Chaos Sorcerer’s effect activates!” Guriko declared. “Your Shining Angel will be banished!”

  Phil: 500 Guriko: 1700

  Bit by bit Guriko’s life points were climbing back up.

  “Monster Reborn!” Guriko revealed a spell in his hand. “Bringing back Freed the Brave Wanderer (1700/1200) to my field in the attack position.”

  Phil: 500 Guriko: 700

  “My battle phase begins.”

  Guriko’s side of the field was filled with countless terrifying monsters. A pink-scaled dragon. A laughing sorcerer of darkness. A solemn knight in plate armor. A strange floating ball of light.

  Phil’s grin widened. He could feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins, his back against the wall and his feet a mere hairsbreadth from death.

  The first of Guriko’s monsters struck.

  And Phil flipped over his face-down card.

  “Ha! Times like these are good to make a guy really feel alive! Now, callin’ out straight from the grave, here’s a card courtesy of that dumbfuck Chet! In response to your attack declaration, here’s a good ol’ Mirror Force, which is an old friend of mine! All of your attack position monsters are destroyed!”

  Guriko tried to brace himself, but he was still thrown off balance in his chair from the destructive backlash of Mirror Force washing over him. Once his breath was caught, Guriko ended his turn, his strong demeanor finally broken.

  “I told you.” Phil laughed mirthlessly. “This duel is it for you. I’m going to feed you to my amphibian friend. He’s hungry, ya’ know. Always hungry. Fuck. If you would have shown some caution there, this duel might still go on. But here we are. I draw.”

  Phil’s movements were practiced and smooth. He hardly even needed to think about his plays. “First off, I activate the spell card Spiritualism to return your Curse of Darkness to your hand. Since your trap only deals damage on the resolution of a spell activation, I don’t take shit from it. Second, here’s Rescue Cat (300/100) to the rescue! Using its effect, I can sacrifice the cute kitty cat to special summon two level three or lower beast monsters from my deck. I will bring forth two copies of The Wicked Worm Beast (1400/700)!

  Phil glanced up to look at Guriko’s hand. “Third, because I can see you still have a hand, allow me to put another nail in the coffin. Spell card, Last Will, activates! Since a monster was sent from my field to the graveyard this turn, I can special summon a monster with 1500 or less attack from my deck. I’ll grab another copy of Rescue Cat, which then will use its effect to shit out two copies of The All-Seeing White Tiger (1300/500)!”

  In an instant two hideous humanoid figures covered in worms and tentacles bloomed onto the field, with two tigers with white fur and black stripes leaping in right after them. The situation had been completely reversed from what it had been a turn before!

  “Damn, looks like you would need four Kuribohs for this lot!” Phil said in a voice full of mock cheer. “Get ‘em boys.”

  Guriko was swarmed with monsters that bit and clawed at his skin, tearing through his life points and leaving him in a bloodied, yet alive mess on the floor.

  That was by no means a mercy from the monsters. The breast pocket on Phil’s coat trembled. A green, warty leg revealed itself, followed by another and another until all four were present. They were longer than they should have been to fit inside the pocket, easily reaching from Phil’s chest all the way down to touch the floor. Next was the head of a frog. It stared at Guriko’s fallen form with a pair of baleful pink eyes. A long croak filled with malice tore through the shadows, sending them into frantic swirls as if a windstorm had kicked up in the office.

  Phil held up a hand.

  “Just a moment buddy. Before you ice him, I have some questions about money.” Phil made to get out of his chair, but by now Guriko was beginning to struggle to his feet. Slow at first, the yakuza boss braced his back against his desk to fully rise.

  “Money?” Guriko sneered through a mouthful of blood. “Why the hell should I give you anything? You’re gonna kill me either way.”

  “Oh for sure,” Phil blatantly admitted, “but the difference is how nasty it’ll be. You give me the code to that safe and I promise my friend will make it quick.”

  “Torture is unreliable.” Guriko countered. His back was no longer braced against the desk.

  “Not when I can easily check the code you give me by putting it into the safe and seeing if it works.”

  Guriko closed his eyes as if to think about Phil’s demand – and then he vaulted over the desk, plucking the samurai sword off the wall and swiveling around to face Phil. The cigar had fallen from his hands to lay smoldering on the desk. Phil took a step backward, but Guriko, even as bloodied and wounded as he was, moved faster. Kicking off the chair behind his desk, he jumped forward with a powerful shout, samurai sword gripped in both hands for a deadly forward slice.

  Lumina planted herself between Phil and the blade before Guriko’s arc through the air finished. Her form flickered into view. Her hands bore no weapon to parry the blade, but Phil had no time to worry. Before he could even fully process it, Lumina was reaching out with her palms outstretched.

  The bottom edge of the blade just above the hilt was caught tightly in her hands. Phil almost expected a spray of scarlet blood to spurt out, but there was none. It was the duller part of the blade, he belatedly realized. So long as it didn’t slide against her flesh, it wouldn’t cut. Lumina grunted in effort. Her biceps bulged. By no means was she a bodybuilder, but Lumina still possessed the athletic figure of a woman who lived a very active life.

  Guriko tugged on the blade in an attempt to saw its edge against her flesh. Lumina abandoned it immediately. Her aggressive action surprised Guriko. His blade continued its arc through the air to thud into the floor. With Lumina redirecting the strike and then abandoning her hold, Guriko's full strength had sent the weapon digging deep into the wood.

  The redirected strike left Guriko slightly hunched over. No longer did his full foot and a half of height advantage matter. Her head surged through the air to catch Guriko’s face with such force that his nose broke on impact and dyed Lumina’s hair with a shock of red. Guriko was sent stumbling back, a movement that only worsened when Lumina sent her knee slamming into Guriko’s balls. Phil winced from secondhand pain upon seeing the blow.

  Guriko’s grip on the sword loosened. Lumina wasted no time in plucking the weapon up, yanking its tip out of the wood like a hot knife through butter. Guriko’s fists rushed forward.

  And that was the end. Gripping the samurai sword in two hands, Lumina slashed through his right arm. Though it was mainly a display piece, the weapon was still deadly sharp, enough to cut through most of his arm in one blow. Even though it was not completely severed, the appendage was still completely unusable. A second blow tore through the tendons in his left arm. A final third blow sliced into his calve to bring the large yakuza boss to the ground in a puddle of blood.

  Lumina stood aside to let Phil march forward. Her hands were covered in Guriko’s blood, as was the sword, her hair, and her forehead. Rivulets of it dribbled down over her dress, but somehow the white cloth remained completely unstained.

  “The hard way it is. Guriko, meet Lumina. She’s pretty damn handy in a brawl.” Phil muttered loud enough for Guriko to hear. “Safe code. Now.”

  Guriko laughed. The sound was hollow, almost chilling. “Naw. Look at me – I’ll be dead in less than a minute.”

  Phil glanced over the man’s wounds. Lumina had hit at least one artery. Looked like it was in his leg. Guriko spoke true. An artery cut would cause death by blood loss within two to five minutes if he remembered his Boy Scout first-aid training correctly.

  “Safe code.” Phil repeated. Lumina crouched down. Her hand was glowing with light that felt hot even to Phil, from where he stood a foot away. Her other hand fell on top of Guriko’s mouth to quiet him.

  Even so, his muffled screams still filled the office as Lumina cauterized his leg wound enough so that he wouldn’t bleed out for a while longer.

  “Safe. Code.”

  “FUCK YOU!”

  “Wrong answer.” Phil traded places with Lumina. His foot rose and fell on Guriko’s leg. “Safe. Code.”

  He ground the heel of his shoe into Guriko’s freshly cauterized wound.

  This time Lumina’s hand wasn’t there to stop his screams.

  But no one came. Everyone else was on the first floor, where nothing could be heard over the sound of techno music.

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  Phil walked out of Guriko’s office. His shoes left bloody footprints behind. On his back was a knapsack filled with banknotes and a stack of 40 Duel Monsters cards. To his best estimate, it was nearly 3 million yen. In other words, around $20,000.

  Behind him, behind the half-closed door to the office, the sound of flesh being eaten could be heard. There were no more screams coming from the office. They’d stopped abruptly a few seconds ago.

  “Hey, Lumina.” Phil spoke. His voice was tired.

  Lumina looked at him.

  “What the fuck am I even doing?”

  Lumina opened her mouth, but hesitated.

  “I spent the last ten minutes torturing the shit out of Guriko for a safe code so I can give his fucking blood money to Arthur Hawkins while pretending it’s not blood money so the dude doesn’t understandably freak out. And then I fed him to D.3.S.”

  Phil gave a short, incredulous laugh. “For fuck’s sake. I hear myself talk and I don’t even know what to think.”

  “Phil…” Lumina put her arm around his shoulder and drew him into a one-armed hug while her other hand worked with a handkerchief to try and clean the gore from her hair. But words failed her. Lumina knew full well her perspective was different. She was a duel spirit. She’d lived for untold millennia. She’d been through two full rounds of the corporate wars. Beyond that, the rest of her resume could just be summed up with the words ‘overworked office lady’.

  Phil stopped next to the pool table. Behind them, the chewing stopped. D.3.S. had finished its meal. The office door creaked fully open. Webbed feet padded away at the wooden floor, eventually pausing so that the frog could downsize and leap into Phil’s pocket.

  Phil wryly smiled. “Guess there ain’t no two ways about it. What’s that Frenchie phrase Jean likes… c’est la vie. That’s right. C’est la vie.”

  Such is life.

  Lumina did not know what to say to that either. Nor did she have much time to think about it. Phil’s nose scrunched up.

  “Smoke?” He muttered in confusion.

  Lumina’s eyes sharpened. “I smell it too. Something’s burning.”

  “Shit.”

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