Arakai

Episode 7: What's a Key Ally? A Duelist's Soul!

It is now Friday. While eating breakfast, Sora rolls his eyes through his mom reacting to the morning news. It's the same report about the underground dueling machine accident that Sara's parents had talked about at the end of the last episode, and Sora thinks it sounds completely unbelievable. This serves as a reminder that Sora's mother seems to have something against Arakai, hence why Sora had never even tried the game before, and why he's had to keep it a secret from her for the past week or so. He's planning on heading to DCG again today, but this trip would be important. This time, he's looking to power up his deck.

Clearly it wasn't going to keep working forever, it was just an ordinary Blaze starter deck save for the addition of NEXUS and some extras he got from Hayate and Shiina. Losing against Ryuzo was fair enough, but Sara had beaten him pretty handily too, and everyone assuming he'd let her win had kind of gotten on his nerves just a little. Sure, he felt attached to the deck (especially NEXUS), but he wanted a better deck that could win games against better duelists.

Sora is once again drifting off at school, his mind always coming back around to thinking about Arakai and what he'd like to add to his deck. In class, he's basically just making notes about cards, which Sara teases him about. Sora tells her to forget about it- he wants to know what happened with that Henri guy. Things seemed pretty intense when they last saw each other. Sara is concerned that she might have worried Sora, and reveals that her and Inoue went to the principal and explained the situation, so the student council might do something about it. Sora says that they'll probably listen to her over Henri, since she's the council president, but Sara admits that despite that, she still needed Inoue's support to tell them.

On his way to DCG, he talks with Hayate about the game, as he doesn't really have any idea of the card pool he's working with yet. Hayate tells him he can probably get help from the DCG regulars with figuring out how to build his deck, and would you look at that, Tatsuya is already there when they arrive. Sora approaches him only to be told to buzz off, because he is apparently busy "thinking". Sora questions why Tatsuya was so helpful to them yesterday then, and Tatsuya admits he had no choice. Sara's chewed him out before about his attitude towards others, so having her at DCG as well as school is a problem for him. Wait, she's not here is she? Tatsuya panics, only to return to his snooty attitude once he sees she's absent.

Sora asks if he left early yesterday because he was scared of her, but he clarifies it was actually because he had "business" with his parents. It's obvious he hopes Sora will stop asking questions about it. Sora thinks this all sounds weird and sad, but decides he doesn't care to pry further. Well, since Tatsuya isn't obligated to help, he says he's not going to. Sora says he just wanted to look into getting a better deck, and Tatsuya says to just ditch the trashy starter deck and get a REAL meta relevant deck! He leaves Sora and Hayate to debate over options between themselves. Undead? Blaze primal Beatdown? Fire spells?

"I don't know, really... But I guess if I can win with them, it's worth getting one?"

Sora can't decide, and doesn't really seem to feel a spark from any of the options he's presented with. He also has way too many questions about the game's higher play level, and Tatsuya is starting to get ticked off by them asking him for help. The situation is suddenly interrupted by a boy with a loud voice bursting into the store, turning the energy right up!

"Alright, who's down to FIGHT me?! In a duel, I mean! The other way is cool too, though-"

His loud intrusion startles Sora, but Shiina seems familiar with him. She puts down her magazine and the two start talking, which Sora literally can't help but overhear due to the volume. This rough-looking boy is named Kazuki Hiranuma, and he's a regular at the store who comes in every now and then and is always up for a challenge (when he isn't at the gym, of course)! Tatsuya witheringly says he's more like an 'irregular' than anything else. This causes Kazuki to approach their way, loudly greeting Tatsuya and spreading his arms out for a hug. Tatsuya looks as if he's seeing his life flash before his eyes, and puts Sora between him and Kazuki. Kazuki blinks just in time to notice Sora before he runs into him. He must be a newbie here! He offers Sora a handshake, which Sora accepts, but Kazuki puts way too much oomph into it and shakes him up and down, leaving him feeling dizzy.

Shiina introduces the two boys, and explains that despite Kazuki's competitive nature, he's apparently a pretty casual player. She tries to not-so-subtly nudge Sora towards facing him as a less daunting starting point. Kazuki doesn't even notice, mumbling to one of his cards and completely distracted. Sora questions if he's okay, only for him to randomly ask Sora what his 'Key Ally' is. Tatsuya rolls his eyes, because oh great, this again. Sora is confused, and Kazuki explains that all great Arakai players in history have an ace Ally with whom they share a special bond (Tatsuya interrupts to dispute this). Kazuki believes your 'key ally' says a lot about you as a duelist, so, Sora Ryuko, what is YOURS? He pokes a finger at his chest. Sora is uncertain, but says it probably has to be Blade Dragon, NEXUS, right?

"That's a traditional choice, but you don't seem confident in it. That's right, you have to be..."

Kazuki appears to be in deep thought, before suddenly roaring, full of emotion and fire!

"JUST TRYING TO FIT IN!!! You have no idea what you stand for at all! I can't stand for that!
There's only one other way I can find out what you're made of, so we GOTTA duel! I won't lose to a guy like you!"

Shiina muses that Kazuki ignored her but challenged Sora of his own accord anyways. He seems very invested in this, but Sora's not sure. He doesn't want to duel until he's got his new deck first, and he needs to get back to that. Tatsuya interjects in an overly sarcastic and smarmy tone that Sora really should duel Kazuki, it'd be much more even than his prior duels, and would give Tatsuya a good excuse to leave because of how brainless it would be.
Sora looks to Hayate for advice, who just awkwardly grimaces and gives him an uncertain thumbs up. Sora sighs, he's really been hung out to dry with this crazy guy huh...? He sits down to duel with Kazuki, and true to his word, Tatsuya takes the chance to slip away.

Kazuki is playing a deck of white Astral cards, and this is Sora's first time seeing the nation. It is very different to anything he's seen before, so Sora quickly finds himself invested in the duel after all. Kazuki is extra dramatic, loud and flashy about his plays, so Sora gets time to study his moves and gets all the cards explained for him. Astral has a combo playstyle, and is focused on card advantage and consistency. It's also themed around space and has MECHA in it, which Kazuki is passionate about. He's a fan of mecha anime, and nothing gets his blood pumping like giant robots fighting! Sora notices that Kazuki's Astral deck uses a special zone called the Exile, where it sends cards to add back or use later. Although Sora is able to get an initial advantage by destroying Kazuki's weaker allies, they appear to just be resource generators, not real threats. Kazuki does everything he can to match Sora's power, and the duel turns into a really tense slugfest, neither duelist willing to budge at all!

Things are coming down to the wire, and both players are running out of cards. He's been saving NEXUS until a moment like this, and it finally hits the field! Kazuki starts to get even more hyped up, because now it's REALLY on! Sora squints, questioning if he wasn't already hyped up before... Kazuki uses effects to draw and add a bunch of cards, getting lucky and making a sudden comeback! Now he has everything he needs! Kazuki continues to go on about how he's not holding back anymore, and recites an epic speech from the heart about an 'envoy of justice', his own key ally, who will now meet Sora's to decide whose bond is stronger! Go, Super Galaxy Soldier, Brave-Nova! Its effect shuffles back Kazuki's Exiled cards to send NEXUS to the exile, which takes Sora completely off guard! All of a sudden, he has no chance! While Sora's strategy breaks down and he gets desperate, trying to find a way to still win, Kazuki is talking to Brave-Nova. He's a very strange opponent, like no one Sora's ever faced before... but it's apparent he underestimated him. He's really strong!

"So you can see it too... The power of a duelist's soul, right?"

Kazuki grins, clearly glad (in his own weird way) that Sora respects his skill. He dramatically finishes Sora off with a direct attack from Brave-Nova! Hayate points out that it kinda just looks like Kazuki got lucky, but Kazuki simply says that luck is a skill too. Either way, he's still feeling the rush, and thanks Sora for an awesome duel! It makes him wanna go pump iron or something, he's all hyped up! Sora says that maybe Kazuki was onto something with that 'key ally' stuff- Brave-Nova totally won him that game, and was really powerful after all.

"Brave-Nova is powerful, but I use it because I like it! It reminds me of what Arakai is really all about!"

Kazuki zones out and has some wistful flashback of being in a sunny park in the past. It's unclear why this is relevant to anything or what prompted it. Sora asks Kazuki if he has any advice on how to win more games. Kazuki has been moved, and he says that after seeing Sora's fighting spirit, he's certain that the bond between him and NEXUS is real. His game completely fell apart without it! It's understandable, but if that's the case, he'll keep losing duels. He needs to be strong enough to stand on his own without NEXUS, and so the rest of his deck also needs to be strong enough. Sora says that's why he needs a new deck, but Kazuki tells him not to throw away his old friends. Suddenly, his weird words begin to make sense to Sora... he gets it now! What he's saying is that he's got to build around NEXUS!

"I've made up my mind... I'm going to make my current deck the best it can be. Why get a whole new one if I already like this one?"

Sora says he wants to keep NEXUS so he can keep the... soul of the deck, if that makes sense? Sora shrugs it off and says it's probably stupid, but Kazuki is grinning like an idiot.

"Right on! Now that's what I'm talkin' about!"

Sora tells Hayate that he wants deckbuilding help from Kazuki. Hayate looks at him as if he's gone insane, and Tatsuya screams WHAT so loudly they can hear it from the other side of the store!

Featured Card: Super Galaxy Soldier, Brave-Nova