365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Finals

1/8/19

Judai was happy. Dueling against synchros added a whole new level of difficulty to the game, and thinking of ways to get out of their abilities and destroy them was challenging in a way that Judai hadn't experienced in a non-life-threatening duel in years.

It felt liberating, because he felt for once that having fun with these duels was okay. He wasn't using his full deck, considering it was far too overpowered (aka Yubel) and he didn't want to give away all the tricks up his sleeve, but it meant that the duels were more challenging and forced him to use different strategies.

"It's now time for the finals! Whoever wins this duel will take the grand prize of three hundred thousand yen and the chance to participate in the esteemed Spring Blossoms Tournament in April! Finalists, you have five minutes to switch out any cards with your extra deck!"

Judai hummed, looking down at his deck before grinning up at Winged Kuriboh who'd once again taken to lying on his head.

"Well, if we're planning on having some more fun with this, then how about we go back to our roots? What do you say, partner?" Judai said, and Winged Kuriboh cried back happily in agreement. After a few moments of deciding which cards to take out, he swapped in two cards from his extra deck that he hadn't used in a long time, before stepping out to the field.

Just before the duel started, he looked up to where Yusei sat and gave him a smile and a wave. He saw Yusei give him double thumbs-up in return, which only made him smile wider.

The other duelist was quick to pull out a bunch of synchros that cleared Judai's board with their effects and within a few turns, Judai was left with an empty board against 4 high power monsters with well over 2500 attack each. However, his opponent didn't have a back row anymore, having used it to pull out his monsters through gratuitous use of search spells and traps to bring his tuners back from the graveyard, and he didn't have anymore cards in his hand.

It was perfect.

"Draw!" Judai exclaimed, smile still there to the disbelief of everyone else in the stadium. "I summon Winged Kuriboh in attack mode, then place one card face down and end my turn."

"Oh no, Judai seems to be in a pinch! Is this it for him?! He's only got 2000 life points left, and his opponent still has a full 8000!" The announcer yelled, hyping up the audience. Judai had to keep himself from smiling wickedly, barely keeping it normal in his excitement.

"Draw!" His opponent yelled. "That Winged Kuriboh of yours may save you for this turn, but it still gets destroyed! Angel of Zera, attack Winged Kuriboh!"

Now Judai let himself grin wickedly.

"I activate the spell card Transcendent Wings! By sending one 'Winged Kuriboh' on my field and two cards from my hand to the graveyard, I can special summon 'Winged Kuriboh LV 10' from my deck!" Judai said, quickly placing his upgraded partner on the field. It had been so long since he'd pulled this combo off on someone, but doing so filled him with pure glee.

"My attack still goes through though-!"

"Nope, not anymore! I activate Winged Kuriboh LV 10's effect! During my opponent's battle phase, I can tribute it to destroy all attack position monsters you control, and you take damage equal to their combined original attack!"

"What?! What the hell is that card?! NOOOOOO-"

His opponent had no possible counter, and the sound of his life points hitting 0 was beautiful.

"Gotcha'! That was a fun duel, bro!" Judai winked, giving his signature two-fingered salute.

"A-An OTK?!" The announcer yelled, the entire stadium bustling in excitement, "H-he pulled off a clean turn-around in a single turn and won! Everyone, the winner of the New Year's After Party Tournament is Judai Yuki!"

Up in the viewer's box, Jack was gaping down at the field and Yusei was grinning like he was the cat who caught the canary.

"Winged Kuriboh LV 10? What the hell?" Jack asked, "Isn't that from like, years ago? Same as those Elemental HEROs he was using, though I don't think I've ever seen that archetype in particular listed in a card list before, and I've had access to years of card lists."

"Yup," Yusei replied, "And those Elemental HEROs are to Judai like Stardust and Archfiend are to us."

"Ah. You still haven't fully explained who he is, you know."

"He'll do it when he's ready, it's not my place to tell," Yusei said before standing up and grabbing his laptop. "Right, it's about time for me to collect my winnings now."

"...Yusei?! YOU BET ON JUDAI?!" Jack yelled in shock.

"There's no need to yell-"

"You never bet, what the hell- wait, HOW MUCH DID YOU BET?! Hey, get back here! Don't walk away from me mister-"