Episode 58. - Equal Rights & Justice For All

"Well, it's official," Gene grumbled, "I think I'm one of those 'rush duelists'. But they don't play the Light Civilization. This is useless..."

Suzanne was having problems with her own play, that day. Something in her own deck seemed quite off, and she could not tell what it was. She merely looked at Gene with pointed disdain, not bothering to hide it for the sake of staying in his good graces.
"And how are you ever going to know that if you don't try at it?"

Gene continued in his surly tone...
"I've seen enough of them to know. I really do like this swift attacking business. But each and every one of them I've seen gets shut down around the fourth turn and loses if they don't go first. Their opponents don't seem to respect them much either."

Suzanne shrugged, "That sometimes goes both ways, sir. People who don't respect their opponents will be like that regardless of what they lose to, as long as they feel outclassed."

"What I want just won't work. One doesn't do what I feel like doing, with Light cards... yet I don't want any other kind..."

Tom came up to them just then. The final was in progress, and he was now merely waiting for his duel. He made his suggestion to Gene.
"If you want the deck to be effective, you will have to accept using the best cards for the job. Add Fire cards to it when you are building it and it should be fast enough for your purposes, I think."

"But for some reason I don't want any Fire cards," Gene insisted. Tom shrugged and walked off. Suzanne pouted. She was beginning to share that exact sentiment, but her understanding of the game was still in only the beginner stages, and the idea of not having Fire's destructive capability at her disposal, was somewhat frightening to her.

Gene stood there for awhile, thinking. He had seen quite a few rush decks for the day, including one Fire deck that was so fast that nothing short of perfect discarding could seem to stop it. Suzanne had pointed out to him that the deck was mostly lucky and not well-constructed, but its speed had still impressed him.

The bonus duel was now about to begin. Tom seemed to be in an even more carefree mood than his usual. He would be going first.

"Why do I keep opening with Surfers?" he laughingly complained, having drawn his five cards. He placed one into his mana zone, and passed the turn to his opponent.

Llew Silverblade laughed and said, "Why do I keep opening with Ghost Touch? Scarlet Skyterror to mana. End turn."

"That's a good thing for you," Tom said, "You 'ghost toucher' you."

The onlookers seemed to find some great humor in this, though Gene did not get the joke himself. He was not particularly familiar with the card or the joke involved. He was about to ask Suzanne what it was when Tom's Kaijudo spiked oddly.

"Natural Snare to mana, end turn."

"Bloody Squito to mana. Cast Ghost Touch."
Llew's card stripped away his opponent's Miele, Vizier of Lightning. Gene sighed. The fastest part of Tom's deck was the Light, and Llew's darkness was slowing it down already. He would have to personally make sure to be able to do something about that ability of the darkness, he decided then.

Tom drew his next card.
"So many Surfers! One to mana. Cast Energy Stream... end turn."

Silverblade laughed, and sent one of his own Aqua Surfers to his mana zone. Tom sent a Crystal Paladin to his own, and cast a new Energy Stream.

"Building force rather than striking... It seems so much more sensible," Gene now thought, "And yet, I--"

His train of thought was interrupted by the mild surge of Kaijudo that accompanied Llew's similar play, in the form of a Brain Serum. He had sent another Aqua Surfer to mana to accomodate this play, making Tom laugh at the duel's general progression.

"Ballas, Vizier of Electrons, to mana. Summon Aqua Knight. End turn."

Llew charged Fire mana. A Volcano Charger. A Thrash Crawler summon followed this, returning the Charger card to his hand. He ended his turn with this simple defending tactic, leaving Tom free to move forward yet again.

"Bronze-Arm Tribe to mana. Natural Snare, on your Thrash Crawler."

The play did not seem to affect Llew at all. In fact, he smiled and said, "Thought so."

"Clearly, you can get that mana back, sir," Tom laughed, "But for now... Aqua Knight, break shield! Ikei!"

There was no trigger, and now Llew charged mana in a form unexpected. A Velyrika Dragon. He cast Terror Pit on the Aqua Knight. Tom smiled, resummoning it on his next turn. Llew charged a Cranium Clamp to mana and summoned an Aqua Hulcus, then followed it with a Crystal Memory.

"Rumbling Terahorn to mana. Summon Magris, Vizier of Magnetism," Tom now smirked. He instantly summoned the card he drew also. Ballas, Vizier of Electrons, and attacked the next shield with his Aqua Knight.

Suzanne turned away now, wandering off. Gene wondered why, and attempted to focus his question through his Kaijudo, finding it to be harder than usual. The waves of energy given off by the two current duelists were apparently insufficient to amplify his own in the way he had been becoming accustomed to.

Eventually, he did manage to focus enough, but all he was able to fundamentally do was 'inform' Reusol of what he wanted to know.

"Why did you leave? Don't you want to watch this play out?"

Corile's answer seemed a bit jumbled to Gene. Apparently Suzanne could not use her own ability that well under these conditions either. It felt much like disinterest, but also seemed to contain some measure of frustration. That, he could identify. The feeling of unfulfilled ambition. Suzanne wanted something and the current duel would not give it to her.

Gene, on the other hand, felt as if there was quite a bit he could learn from this. The next play was one that brought him great shock, and something akin to pain. Silverblade sent his Volcano Charger back to his mana zone, and with the extra mana afforded to him by Tom's Natural Snare, now cast one of the new Fire spells.

"Blizzard of Spears."
The bursts of flame made Gene think of a card he had seen, but the feeling lasted only for an instant, as he was overwhelmingly assailed by an altogether different feeling and realization.

"That spell... i-it... everything would... No! That's scary. Everything would be destroyed, even if I played stronger ones, it would still..."

The spell left Gene with a feeling of helplessness and dread that he was rather unused to, until he noticed that the Aqua Knight still had not been destroyed.

"Relax. There must be a way. There's always a way."

"See?" Tom laughed, "I magically convinced you that was the better move. Instead of casting Lost Soul on my good hand. It's because I'm a wizard. I summon Rumbling Terahorn, and search out a Ballas, Vizier of Electrons, to summon that too. End turn."

"Or, you tried to convince me that you had a good hand..."

"I have an Aqua Knight. Good enough. You can't touch it, really."

Llew shrugged and cast Apocalypse Vise, clearing Tom's field again. Gene cringed. He would definitely have to find a way. By this point, he would hope that his opponent had no shields left, and all he would need would be a way to get just one creature through.

"Okay, so you have some fiery deathtraps..." Tom admitted. He summoned a new Magris, drew a card, and then a new Hulcus, ending his turn.

"At the rate you're going I'll just have to deck you out," Silverblade smirked, sending a Cranium Clamp to his mana zone and summoning another Thrash Crawler to retrieve the first, then cast Volcano Charger on Tom's Hulcus.

"They certainly do kill a lot of things, don't they..."

Tom cast Natural Snare on the Thrash Crawler, despite the fact that Silverblade had taken the other up with the first, and launched another attack with his Magris.

"Corile, on your Vizier of Magnetism, and cast Energy Stream. Summon Bloody Squito. End turn," Silverblade said, making Gene even less comfortable. He truly hated when duels got this far. The opponents could do far too many things, whereas he was left able to do little.

Tom drew his card and placed his Natural Snare in his mana zone, to summon his Magris and Aqua Knight now. He ended his turn with this.

"Crimson Hammer to mana. Cast Energy Stream. Summon Thrash Crawler to pick up Thrash Crawler, and cast Spiral Gate on your Knight. End turn."

Tom charged mana, and summoned an Aqua Knight and a Rumbling Terahorn. Gene's interest finally died. Even the fact that Tom had retrieved his Crystal Paladin no longer held his attention. The game had gone far beyond the point at which he could relate.

"Corpse Charger to mana. Summon Thrash Crawler to regain and cast Blizzard of Spears," Llew said. The spell destroyed his Corile and Squito, as well as Tom's Magris and Terahorn, and returned his Aqua Knight to his hand.

"Skippy!" Tom laughed, drawing his card. He summoned his Aqua Knight yet again. Llew sent another Cranium Clamp to mana, and played a Eureka Charger.

"I summon the Bazagazeal Dragon, to attack your Aqua Knight!"
This new move definitely restored Gene's attention. The fact that Tom summoned the Knight again a moment later was even more interesting to him. Beside that Knight, he brought forth a Dava Torey, Seeker of Clouds.

"Hehe! More attack! End turn!"

Silverblade laughed, sending a Eureka Charger to mana and casting a Corpse Charger to revive his Bloody Squito. This, he summoned alongside Bazagazeal, and the great dragon struck down the Seeker of Clouds. Gene had been awaiting the mental imagery of the battle, but there did not seem to be any beyond the faint awareness of blades clashing for an instant before Dava Torey was destroyed. Llew ended his turn, the great dragon returning from whence it came.

Tom drew his card, smirked, and his Kaijudo finally rose to the level Gene was used to feeling from other such duelists.

"Time to go for game!" Tom laughed aloud, "Miele, Vizier of Lightning, to tap your Bloody Squito, and evolve it into Craze Valkyrie, the Drastic, to tap your Thrash Crawler wall! And here comes my Aqua Knight! Can we say 'game over' now?"

"Hopefully not..." Llew replied, as the Craze Valkyrie shattered his fourth and fifth shields. The fifth triggered. A Terror Pit, to drag the Aqua Knight away. Gene could catch a smattering of the imagery of it evaporating to escape.

"Hm... Volcano Charger to mana. You have a Paladin... but it needs to evolve... Cast Crystal Memory... even if you have Dava Torey you can only have one... Unless I'm wrong--"

Tom took this moment to interject with; "And you may in fact be wrong..."

"And you sent the Paladin to mana when I wasn't looking..."

"I'm very sneaky, sir," Tom smirked. Llew decided to risk it... and cast Lost Soul...

One Dava Torey did indeed appear in the battle zone as a result of this, but the Paladin and Knight were now the only other things discarded by the Kaijudo Kid. Llew breathed a sigh of relief, and sat back in his chair.

"Sweet. Now let's hope..."

"Hope that I don't draw any of the major cards that allow me to attack for game?" Tom said, sliding his next card nonchalantly off the top of his deck, "Wait... oh look! Major card! Craze Valkyrie, evolve into Craze Valkyrie! To tap the 'wall of Thrash!"

"You're not serious..."

Disbelief, however, did not change such fact, and the doubly-evolved Craze Valkyrie swooped in for the win. Tom smirked at his defeated adversary and congratulated him on a good game, before taking the attention of the crowd.

"That one was odd..." Gene said, as he now sat next to Suzanne. She was looking out the window with a slightly frustrated expression on her face. He mentally nudged her, and she turned to him with a glare that softened immediately when she realized that he had not done it just to make her pay attention to what he was saying.

"The more I try to understand, the less I actually understand..." she complained now, twirling her hair around her finger with a sad expression. He was about to offer the usual semi-comforting 'it's only a game' when something within made him think better of it, and, in that moment, question why he thought of it as comfort anyway. Instead, he changed the subject to something he knew she actually did understand, in the hopes of getting her mind off the current feeling of confusion.

"That reminds me, you haven't updated me on the most recent sales figures yet. How are we doing? Is there much difference?"

His gamble paid off. Suzanne immediately snapped back to her business-mode, her mind seemingly happy to have something to analyze and calculate.

"Sales of the new set have been better than projected in nearly all regions other than the British Isles, and we presume that is because the World Champion's tour hasn't quite reached there yet. Sales of the older sets are still rising steadily in the areas that have official KC leagues, but not as much in the places we haven't implemented them. Grand Champion Echizen suggests that the reason for the slower sales in Japan is because of forty card restriction--"

"Forty card restrictions?" Gene asked, confused, "Don't we have those here too?"

"Er... no, the Japanese maximum and minimum allowed content number is forty. All decks must be exactly that many cards."

"I see," Gene laughed, "That must be interesting. Why don't we have that?"

Suzanne paused, her mind quickly analysing, checking if she had ever had the reason explained to her by Yodaz or Jasper or anyone. Finally, she looked at him with a puzzled face.

"I don't actually know, sir. We just... don't."

"Maybe it would get more players into the game if we had it too. It seems like it would make decks a bit easier to build for beginners if they did not have to think about the optimal number of cards to put in."

Suzanne blinked a little. The thinking had caused her to stop her hair-twirling. That thinking continued a bit longer now, until she finally said softly...

"I'm a beginner, and I don't think it would make it easier. I have a hard enough time deciding what to put in and leave out as it is... I don't think I could build it with only forty cards. It's very different from before, when I used to just copy Yodaz's deck and swap a few... things."

Gene's face fell. He had managed to steer right into another topic that made his employee uncomfortable. He smirked to himself now too. He could not remember ever being this nice, in general, before, but he had somehow been happier lately, and it extended to nearly everything. Reusol shimmered in his mind, apparently also pleased about that.

Corile seemed to notice this shimmer, and it cheered Suzanne up immediately too. Gene's own happiness surged higher when he realized this. The power to make other people happier simply by presence was one he seldom had...

An hour and a half later, the trio sat in the KirriCorp limousine, on their way back to the hotel. Tom had taken his deck out and was shuffling it, his Kaijudo slowly rising as he did so. Suzanne monitored this development with caution until finally, the power seemed to cap at the level Tom desired, and he spoke.

"What did you think of my performance today, Mr. Kirricort," he asked casually, "I noticed you watching rather intently."

"Oh, er... it was good," Gene nodded, suddenly aware of psychic pressure on himself, "But honestly, I was not watching all that closely. I was thinking, mostly."

"Oh? About what, if you don't mind me asking?"

"How to counter or play around Blizzard of Spears."

Tom did not manage to hide his surprise, but quickly turned the situation to his advantage, as he always did.
"I see. If you cannot find one, will you be adding an errata to that card as well?"

Suddenly, Tom found his psychic influence pushed back by a shimmering force. He instantly looked over at Suzanne, but the woman was not even apparently attentive, and he could sense no Kaijudo from her. That meant...

"I don't see any mathematical reason to do that..." Gene said, "Suzanne, do we have any mathematical grounds for adding an errata to that card?"

"No, sir," she replied, still reading something off her laptop screen, "It can be a little difficult to play around, that's all."

"Isn't it the same for the other cards you've errataed, though?" Tom pointed out, pressing his Kaijudo against Gene's anew. Suzanne noticed this time, and added her own to the mix, not shielding Gene directly, but disrupting Tom's. Now, Tom was even more surprised when Reusol, rather than Gene, responded to his question.

"The errata applied were meant to correct only one issue. The aim was not to reduce the powers of the cards themselves."

Tom reacted coolly to the twist in events, pulling both Reusol and Corile into his mindspace to continue the discussion. There, they found themselves in the presence of the expected being. Crystal Paladin.

"I was not aware that you had also joined our ranks," the Paladin now addressed Reusol, "Welcome and congratulations."

"Do you know how to counter a Blizzard of Spears?"

"Everything can be countered and defended against," the Paladin responded, its shield shimmering in Reusol's soft radiance as if in confirmation of this.

"Yes, I noticed that you have countered both Corile's effect and Cranium Clamp's effect by the method you have chosen. But what about me? My allies break shields, we do not draw new allies to us. What would you suggest I do?"

"You cannot use aggression as some sort of magical shield against your problems," the Paladin responded, "One needs a defense."

The last sentence was stressed as a clearly important thing.

"My speed is my defense," Reusol insisted, "I do not mind being defeated by those who can reduce it. I am asking if there is a different way to avoid those spears. One that I personally can put to use."

The Paladin did not answer this. It merely resonated with what it had said before. It was Corile that offered answer.

"Ask Chilias for help. He should be just about fast enough. My power, and that of Clamp, are no longer enough to completely stop Chilias," Corile pointed out

"You all and your 'errata'. Aiming to reduce everyone to equality by force... is that not the same as communism?"

Just as Tom himself usually did, his avatar knew just what to say. One could not take the businessman out of Gene Kirricort, and this comparison left Reusol with no counter. Corile, on the other hand, did have a cryptic, final response.

"We must defend their right to attack..."