Clash of Countrymen

It was a rather chilly day outside, but Ken was unaware. He was taking a break from the burden of school, and dueling... It seemed like his life was becoming an endless pattern of reading textbooks and cards, neither of which he liked in the least bit. Now, Ken was free. Enjoying one of the things he enjoyed most: basketball. Lining himself up with the goal, he stood behind the line that indicated the end of the three-point shots, and acted as if someone were guarding him. He bounced the ball with his right hand, and began at a brisk pace. Then, suddenly crossed it behind his back to his other side. The ball was now in his left hand.

Miru had just entered the gymnasium, looking around the area. It seemed nearly vacant, save for the one person within it. He seemed like he was having fun. She walked towards the basket he was trying to shoot and stood under it, looking up at it. It seems like not only was the school keeping track of their dueling grounds and dorms, but even their gymnasium was in a good state. She put her hand on the pole, and then faced towards Ken. Before he could make his shot, she shouted. "HEY!"

Ken, upon hearing this dropped the ball. A little startled by the sudden greeting. Looking torwards her, he smiled shyly. "Oh... Hey." Was all that came from his mouth. He scratched the back of his head, he hadn't even noticed her walk in. *Who's that?* He thought, eyeing the girl under the goal.

She walked towards him, picking up the ball, spinning it on her finger. "I don't think I've seen you around, what's your name?" Miru tiled her head to the side and smiled. She wasn't expecting anyone to actually use the gymnasium.

"Ken." He replied, watching her spin the ball. *Hm, someone here who might not be ass at basketball.* "Your name?"

Miru turned around and shot the basketball into the basket. She giggled, and then turned around to face Ken. "Ken, hm?" she placed her finger on her left cheek, looking up and thinking. "My name is Miru Tokei, an Obelisk Blue member at this school," she put her finger down and looked at Ken. "What are you doing here all alone?"

Ken watched as the ball hit the ground, she had shot it clean through the middle. He was genuinely impressed at her performance. "Just screwing around." He said. "I haven't had much time to play lately... And no one here likes to play either." Still looking at the ball, now bouncing torwards the entrance. "Miru Tokei... You're from Japan, eh? What part?"

This guy didn't really seem like he cared about much. Maybe he's just really that bored? It made Miru wonder. After hearing Ken's question, Miru chuckled to herself. "That's right, I'm from Japan. Where, though?" Miru thought about it for a moment. "My family moves around a lot, so I can't tell you that there's any concrete areas. We're currently residing in Tokyo. What about yourself?"

"Okayama Prefecture." He responded. "Well, I *did* live there, but in the summer, me and my uncle moved to the U.S.. A big city called New York City." Ken was fascinated by the cities of the United States, it was very differently from his home. And the less like home, the better. He didn't like being reminded of the things that happened there. "My family's kinda spread out. Mom lives back in Japan, Fukitsu is at her boarding school, I'm here, so yeah."

Miru looked at him with a puzzled expression. Did he not mention his dad? Miru put a finger on her chin, looking up and thinking about it. Would it be alright to ask something like that to a person she just met? Will it bring out some kind of bad emotions. Miru decided that she will never know unless she asked. She leaned in towards Ken, smiling and closing her eyes as she did so. "What about your dad? Was there a reason you didn't mention him at all?"

Ken stared back at her. Did she *really* just ask what he thought she did? As much as he wanted to leave her alone in this fucking gymnasium, Ken controlled himself. "Don't worry about it." He mumbled, not loud enough for her to hear clearly.

"Is something the matter?" Miru asked with curiosity. She couldn't understand what he said, but she knows she heard him say something. "You were a bit more cheerful before, and now you've gone all silent."

"I said don't fucking worrying about it." He replied, clearly audible now.

Miru was slightly taken aback by this. He seemed like he was becoming more hostile. Miru looked at the ceiling, and then put a finger on her chin, thinking for a bit. "You know, that's not a way to treat a lady. You won't get any girlfriends like that," Miru chuckled to herself. She put her finger down, and then leaned in towards Ken. Her expression becoming more serious, and the air around her shifting to one of malice. A shadow crept across her face, with her eyes being similar to that of a hunter trying to attack its prey. She slowly spoke. "How about it, then? We'll have a duel to settle this discussion. If I win, you'll answer my questions, but if I lose, I'll drop it and then leave you alone. Deal?"

"Why does everyone want to know about that?" Ken asked, slightly annoyed. "Oniyuri's the same way..." He then walked over to the bleachers, and seized his duffel bag that contained his valuables. Taking hold of his Duel Disk, he inserted his deck and strapped it on. *I thought I'd go a day without needing this.* He thought as his Duel Disk was activated. "Sure, I don't care." Ken felt bad now. Miru had seemed like a nice person, she had provided him with company. He just didn't like discussing matters related to his father. Things that die should be left dead and in the past. Or that was at least his philosophy.

Miru activated her duel disk, something she already had on her arm since entering the gymnasium, and then shuffled her deck. "You'll understand why in a moment~" Miru said, happily. This will be an interesting duel for her. She inserted her deck within the duel disk, and then walked to a distance far from Ken. "Alright, who will go first? I do not mind if you want to go ahead and do that."

"K." Ken said. "I'll activate the effect of Korra, the Heretic from my hand, so I'll send him to the Graveyard to Special Summon one Darkest Diabolos, Lord of the Lair from my deck. I'll send another Korra to the grave from my hand and use the same effect, except I'll be summoning one Darkest Diabolos Wyvern. Now, I'll set one monster from my hand and end my turn."

Miru drew her card. She then looked at her hand and pondered for a bit. It seems like Ken was able to rapidly summon monsters in a single turn. "I'll set down one monster in defense position, and then set down three cards. That will conclude my turn. Your go."

"I draw, and I'll activate Lair of Darkness. Now, I'll place Darkest Diabolos, Specter of the Lair in my right Pendulum Zone and activate its effect. So I'll be banishing the middle card in your Spell/Trap Zone." Ken watched as Miru's Limit Reverse was removed from play. "And I'll attack your facedown with Lord of the Lair."

Miru watched as her monster was destroyed by the stronger creature. "Guess my Quilbolt Hedgehog just couldn't stand up to your dragon," she giggled. That's one monster done for this turn.

Ignoring the remark, Ken shrugged. "I'll be ending my turn there."

Miru drew her next card, and then looked at the field. Two strong creatures, with next turn probably bringing out another one. "I'll set down one monster on my side of the field and then end my turn."

Ken drew. "I'll place Darkest Diabolos, Shadow of the Lair in my other Pendulum Zone." He said as his monster materialized. "And I'll be activating Specter's effect again, so I'm banishing the left facedown." He watched as the card was removed from play. "Now, I'll be attacking this set monster with my Lord of the Lair."

The card reveals itself to be Apocatequil. Unable to defend itself from Lord of the Lair, it is immediately destroyed. Miru put a finger under her chin, looking up at the roof. She seemed to have been ignoring what was going on within the duel and going off into her own world.

"I'll end my turn there." Ken said. "It's your turn."

Before Miru could begin her turn, she raised one hand. She knew she was outmatched, and decided that she got all she needed from this duel. She closed her eyes and smiled. "I surrender," she said.

Supay manifested beside her, bulging one of his eyes out at her. "Are you being serious? You're just quitting like that?! You're such a pathetic duelist!"

Ignoring Supay, Miru closed her duel disk and walked over to Ken. She tilted her head slightly to the side, smiling. "You really are a great duelist, but it looks like I was right about you after all," she said. She composed herself and then pointed at Ken's duel disk. "I don't know if you can hear duel spirits, but your cards were making really loud sounds. They were in despair. Why?" Miru then motioned her hand at Ken, pointing at him. "Because of you. You were playing this duel with malice because of something that's holding you down. Not only did you hurt yourself, but also your friends. As a duelist, our cards are very special," she said. She dug into her pocket and showed a Supay card. "This little guy is kind of obnoxious, but I still care for him a lot. When I get sad, he notices it. Any emotion I show, he knows about it, and the performance of myself and my cards also decrease. I will admit my deck wasn't enough to beat you, not by a long-shot, but your cards were suffering the entire time."

Looking behind Miru, he saw the strange, round creature behind her. He had some experience with these apparitions, but had never thought much of it. "I think I was ten years old at the time." He started. Miru seemed to care about him for some reason, so the least he could do was explain what dragged him down. "I stayed late at school to play basketball with a few of my friends. My brother, Satoshi, had walked our little sister home so I could stay. After a few hours passed, and it started getting dark, most of us had went home. Just me and two other guys were still at school. I usually walked home by myself if I stayed late, but my dad walked all the way from the other side of town to walk with me." Ken's gaze shifted to his feet, he lowered his head a bit as he continued.

"We were just walking home, nothing special so far about our stroll. But dad heard someone running down the sidewalk we were on. He couldn't see who it was, cuz three or four of the street lights weren't working. I hadn't noticed anything, and just kept talking. But I guess he knew exactly what was happening, and he shoved me off of the sidewalk onto a patch of grass. When I looked up, I saw Satoshi. He was sitting on dad, and he shoved a steak knife through his chest..." Ken decided to leave it at that. He didn't want to talk about how he had heard the voice of Diabolos, and how it had protected him from his brother. It was already hard enough talking about losing his father, but there was something else that bothered him. Why did his brother do it? He simply couldn't believe what his mother had told him concerning Satoshi's mental health. There had to be some reason behind it. "So yeah, you could say I'm dragged down."

Miru listened to Ken's story, nodding a few times, and then put a cupped hand over her mouth, thinking over it. "Was that really your brother?" she began to pace around the room. "Not that I'm doubting your memory or anything, but it was dark. Also, it sounds like your brother just did this randomly," Miru continued. "If this wasn't some random person taking your brother's form, or just someone else entirely... And you believe that this is really your brother, what if he was possessed?" Miru stopped pacing, but still kept her cupped hand over her mouth. She looked slightly down to the ground. "It wouldn't be the first time I've heard of it. Sometimes Duel Spirits can be powerful things, and for whatever reason, they can take control of human bodies for their own purposes. Do you think that may be a possibility?"

"It really doesn't matter anymore though." He said. "Why would it matter to me if he was possessed or just crazy? It's not like it changes anything. Plus, he disappeared after that, and no one really knows where he is." Sighing, he looked up. "Eh, shit, there I go rambling." He said with a chuckle as he scratched the back of his head. "Sorry for gettin' pissed at you earlier. I've probably wasted your time."

Miru smiled at Ken. "I know you're trying to seem tough, but it's alright. I won't think any less of you for showing 'weakness'. We all have our problems. I know this matters to you, so don't lie to me, or yourself. No one will gain anything from this," Miru said. "You're fine to me. If I didn't like you, I wouldn't be standing here talking with you. My time hasn't been wasted. In fact, it's one more person I've gotten to know, so I think it's worth my time."

Ken shrugged, Miru was alright. After turning around to run back over to the bleachers he had left his bag on, he took off his duel disk and threw it in his duffel bag. Walking back up to Miru, he smiled. "So, wanna get something to eat? I'm hungry now."

Miru beamed. She was getting hungry, and a meal right now would be good to have at the least. "Sure!" Miru smiled. "Do you know any good places around here? I haven't explored the island in-depth yet, so I don't know if there are any gourmet spots."

Supay scoffed. "Gourmet she says. It's just an excuse so she could eat and not feel like a co-"

Miru smiled, still facing Ken, and then took out Supay's card, making a ripping motion without actually ripping it.

Supay disappeared slowly, apologizing to Miru all the while.

Thinking for a moment, his gaze moved up to the ceiling before meeting Miru's. "Uh... I think there's one just past the burger place I go to." Ken said with a smile. "Guess we can go there." Taking a step forward, he took hold of Miru's hand and grinned. "I'll show you."

Miru was surprised at Ken's sudden movements, but she didn't entirely show it, only having her eyebrows raise. She looked at Ken's hand holding her's. Perhaps she should just play along with it for now? She didn't want to hurt his feelings. She smiled at Ken. "Alright. Let's go to this burger place, then! I hope they have some really big ones, I'm a bit hungry."

Ken's other hand would drift off to enter his left pocket, and began to fiddle with the cylindrical object inside. "I thought you wanted the... Other place." He said, not interested in attempting to say the fancy word she had mentioned before, since it would probably come out incorrectly. "I mean, I'm down with whatever though." Ken added with a shrug.

Miru put her hand on her mouth, trying to stifle a laugh, puffing her cheeks out. "You didn't sound like you cared about the other place, so I went with the place you seem to be more comfortable with," Miru said, composing herself. "What do *you* want to eat? I can't be the one deciding everything. I don't think that'd be too fair for you.

Ken chuckled before sighing. "I don't like decisions, so I'm gonna put the pressure on you." He said.

"There ya go! Let the lady decide!" A loud, yet sinister voice boomed. When Ken would turn to see what had made the noise, he would come face-to-face with a giant, demonic dragon.

"Dude... Why now?" Ken asked, a bit annoyed that his Duel Spirit friend had decided to pop in just before he was going to go eat.

"Cuz, I CAN!" The Diabolos retorted. "And you wouldn't last five seconds without me. I saved you from death, scared your brother shitless... AND I'll be your wingman! Aren't I such a good friend?" The dragon asked, quite happy with himself.

"Yeah, ok." Ken sighed, not even sure what to say.

But the ever-so-observant beast chuckled. "Nah, I'm just kiddin', thought it'd be fun to embarass my little buddy." The Diabolos chuckled as he mock patted Ken's head. "Try not to be a total edgelord, you little bastard." He jokingly whispered before disappearing.

"Well... At least I'm not the only one who gets annoyed by those things." Ken laughed.