365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Spring Blossoms Tournament Final

4/20/19

"Judai's managed to hit his opponent hard with Flame Wingman, burning away Sato's Naturia Hydrangea for a whopping 1900 points of damage! He's making a comeback from behind - Sato's life points are now down to 3300, while Judai's are still at 1200!"

Judai counted his blessings at the fact that his finals opponent was playing a Naturia deck, since he'd actually played against the archetype before thanks to the VR game and had a fairly good idea about how the deck worked and what the stronger Synchro monsters were capable of doing.

As it was, he had Flame Wingman on the field and a set Wroughtweiler to get back a Polymerization later, and a couple face-downs just in case to make sure Wingman didn't get blown away. His opponent had out Naturia Forest, which made him really, really glad they hadn't been able to Synchro Summon out that one monster he remembered from the game that could negate spells - otherwise, he wouldn't have Flame Wingman on the field right now since his Polymerization wouldn't have worked, plus his opponent would have a free extra monster in their hands. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to get rid of the Naturia Mantis that was still on the field, so that was still free for the other guy to use.

What was the guy's name again? Sato?

"Have you not been listening to the announcer say it every two seconds?" Yubel asked amusedly.

"Who cares about his name, he's going to lose anyways - look at that hand you've got and that back row, you win next turn guaranteed," Haou said, and Judai could practically feel his pride leaking off of him.

He's still a respectable opponent, come on, Judai replied, slightly exasperated but seeing where Haou was coming from.

"He didn't manage to summon the right monsters, it could've been way more challenging," Haou retorted, giving a miffed sniffle as Judai got the impression of him crossing his arms, "Unless he somehow manages to get out that one Synchro monster you were thinking of he's screwed, which he won't be able to even if he tries."

"Draw!" His opponent yelled, pulling out a card from his deck and barely glancing at it before pulling out another card from his hand, "Alright, here we go! I summon Naturia Cherries to the field, and they're a tuner monster!"

Judai watched on, his ever-present, relaxed grin still there like it had been the entire day when he was dueling. He found it annoyed his opponents, which was always a plus since it's not his fault that they all can't have fun with a duel - at least he'd had a few matches today where they'd actually been playing and enjoying for what the game was.

Sheesh, it's like they thought you couldn't have fun with the game if you went pro, which was a terrible way of thinking in Judai's opinion - thinking that way would only sap the joy out of it and make it just another thing to do for money and a job.

"I tune Naturia Mantis to Naturia Cherries to Synchro Summon Naturia Beast!"

Ah, just what Judai was waiting for! This was why Haou said the poor guy was screwed... because he was.

"I activate my trap card, Discord!" Judai chirped with happy grin, flipping over the card he'd drawn and set last turn, "Neither player can Synchro Summon!"

"Excuse me?!"

"It's also sent to the graveyard in my third end phase after its activation, but... well, let's just say I don't think we'll be getting there."

His opponent fumed at that claim, his eye twitching as he scowled down at his cards, "Fine, I set one card face-down and switch Mantis to defense position, then end my turn."

"How much you wanna bet that's a Mirror Force?" Yubel hummed.

"I say it's a Torrential Tribute," Haou replied with a huff, "Either way, it doesn't matter."

"Sweet, my turn then! Draw!" Judai exclaimed, glancing at the card before smirking at his luck, "Well, would ya look at that? I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your face-down!"

"Are you kidding me right now?" his opp- Sato, right, it was Sato - groaned in response, placing his set card into the graveyard.

It was neither Mirror Force nor Torrential Tribute - it was Solemn Judgement. Thank the stars that one was off the field, because Judai needed his next card to activate if he wanted to win.

"Next I activate the field spell Fusion Gate, which destroys your Naturia Forest in the process! On each our turns, this lets us Fusion Summon one monster from the Extra Deck without Polymerization as long as we banish the material monsters instead," Judai said, watching as the arena changed from projecting a peaceful forest full of various creatures and bright colors to a swirling vortex and a floor that looked like it came straight out of a computer program, "I banish my face-down Wroughtweiler and the Elemental HERO Clayman in my hand to Fusion Summon Elemental HERO Gaia in attack position! Then, I activate its effect - when it's Fusion Summoned, I can halve the attack of one monster you control and add that same amount to Gaia's attack points until the End Phase, and I choose your Mantis!"

Elemental HERO Gaia - 3050 ATK

"Let's battle! Flame Wingman, attack his Mantis!"

Naturia Mantis got burned just as badly as Naturia Hydrangea had, shattering into pieces a second a later as they were destroyed.

"Now, you take damage equal to Mantis' attack points, so that's 850 damage," Judai reminded, watching his opponent's life points drop to 2450, "And now, it's time to end this! Gaia, attack Naturia Cherries!"

Elemental HERO Gaia - 3050 ATK vs Naturia Cherries - 200 ATK

Yeah, that was definitely a finishing blow right there. Gaia shattered Cherries with a powerful blow, wiping out the rest of Sato's life points with barely any resistance.

"Gotcha'! That was a fun duel!" Judai winked, causing the crowd to go wild as they started chanting his name just like the last time he'd won a tournament.

Sato sighed but smiled good-naturedly a few seconds later, taking his defeat with grace, "It was - I wasn't expecting you to just straight-up ban Synchro Summons like that, but it's a good strategy considering your deck. Maybe we'll have a rematch someday."

"I'll be looking forward to that," Judai replied, gathering up his cards before getting ushered off the stage by staff so they could fix up the arena for the awards ceremony.

"And the winner of the Spring Blossoms Tournament is Judai Yuki! He's still undefeated, even when facing off against the pros, and has proven his worth to fight with the best of the best! Everyone stick around for the awards ceremony in-"

Time to find Yusei, Judai thought to himself as the doors shut behind him, not minding the fact that he only had fifteen minutes until he was needed back on stage.

Yubel and Haou snorted at this, though he easily ignored it in favor of slipping past people in the hallways and making his way towards the champion room.

"Of course, the first thing you think of after winning a huge tournament is 'Where's my boyfriend, dammit?'," Yubel teased, doing her best to poke at him in the back of his mind.

"He's like a lost puppy at this point," Haou added on amusedly.

Yeah no, Judai was definitely ignoring them - also, damn it, he was not like a dog at all! He much preferred Yusei's comparison of him to a fox.

...Okay, maybe he wasn't ignoring them that much, but he blamed his inability to on dueling all day and using up all his mental power on that. He was pulling Yusei into bed to sleep as soon as they got home, that's for sure.