The bracelet that leads to the future

Chapter 9: The lost

Chapter 9: The lost

"Zaizen! Watch this, I'm going to win!" Shima Naoki exclaimed triumphantly and carelessly slapped a card down on the table, resulting in a couple of other cards almost falling off.

"I don't think using that card now is a legal move Shima..."Aoi commented with a quiet sigh, having just watched Naoki's confused face as he had struggled to plan his move for a long time.

Aoi's explanation of why the move didn't work was only a distant and muffled noise to Yusaku, who was sitting across from Naoki, facing him in a dueling club training duel.

The cards in his hands felt like they had no weight, Yusaku needed to focus to keep them steady in his hand. It felt like floating, like everything around him was just rushing past him.

He just couldn't focus. It had all felt like that in the last few days, since...

"Of course, ... I knew that was against the rules..."Naoki finally answered Aoi with an unsure smile pretending to be confident. "I just wanted to test you... dueling training and all..."

Trying to form a clear thought, Yusaku half registered that Aoi sighed and had an annoyed look on her face.

In the past there had been days similar to this, where he had glided through his day barely thinking about the people or places around him and using lists of three things he needed to do to get through.

But what had been happening in the last days was different. Yusaku tried to understand it by remembering three things that had happened in the past days, but he found he just couldn't get his mind to focus.

"There! If I do this and attack then I should win?" Naoki muttered, unsurely giving a sideways look to Aoi. She only weakly nodded, telling him that he could go ahead.

"Of course, I do! That was the plan all along!" Naoki cheered loudly, earning a few sideways looks from the people on the other tables in the dueling club.

Naoki slapped a different monster card on the table and equipped it with a simple equip spell. The monster was facing Yusaku's side of the field, that had no monster to oppose it.

"Now attack!" He almost screamed, closing his eyes. "The great Brave M... I mean... Naoki will win."

Yusaku registered his surroundings a bit more after the loud noise. The blur that had been the class room became a bit clearer and he saw Aoi giving him a concerned look. A quick observation of the board made him aware of the duel, he had been half-heartedly playing.

"I activate an effect from my graveyard..." Yusaku said emotionlessly, still not really thinking and only being able to half focus. Even though he wasn't playing his normal deck, he instinctively executed a series of moves that reversed the attack and caused his opponent's life points to drop to zero.

Naoki's face was one of complete shock, clearly having not understood the sudden turn of events or how the moves Yusaku just used worked.

Yusaku didn't feel any satisfaction in winning and he stopped thinking about the duel the moment it ended as he dwelled on his thoughts again.

There was a small moment between the three of them, were the only thing that could be heard was Naoki whimpering in disbelief that he had lost.

Yusaku was staring at the table aimlessly, out of the corner of his eyes he thought he could see Aoi looking at him before his surrounding became a blur again.

He struggled to put together his list of three things that happened.

He went to the hot dog truck like he usually does and then there was a nightmare last night, but it was all different...