Crystal buzzed around the shop as the remaining contestants met at the tournament bracket draped with a quilt that appeared to have not seen the light of day in seventy years. In her business suit, she looked more like an auditor than a patron.

While appearing to have put in more physical exertion than his sixty-year-old body could handle, Mr. Montgomery was on cloud nine, “A very good show for that first round!” The paper read, “I am proud of each and one of you for the level of expertise and conduct you all have held yourselves within this-” He squinted his eyes behind his glasses, “within this establishment!”

“Does every major tournament go on like this?” Sarah nudged Isaac, speaking at a normal tone as Mr. M continued to recite the now smudged notecard he prepared the day before.

Crossing his arms, eyes closed as if he slept while standing, Isaac maintained his stone faced expression, “Nah. But this is a big moment for Montgomery. Might as well let him have it.”

“-these hallowed halls, er, hall.” Finishing his recital, he adjusted his glasses one more time, “Oh yeah! As most of you know, since the attendance for this event was far larger than expected, I want you all to know that semis and grand finals will be held same time tomorrow morning. An unexpected surprise, but one that I feel you all could adjust to since tomorrow’s Sunday.”

“Shit.” Isaac swore under his breath.

Sarah leaned over, finally witnessing a change of expression beneath his dark hood, “What is it? Got church in the morning?”

“Yeah.”

She stood upright, unable to hide her shock. “You? Church?” Looking him up and down, she could easily count at least eight pentagrams.

Crossing his fishnet wrapped arms, Isaac looked off to the side, “Every Sunday. I’ve never missed a mass in my life.”

“I’m sorry, I thought you were a-”

“A what?” Isaac put his hands on his hips and loomed over the small blonde girl, “A satanist? It’s an aesthetic choice, Weatherford.”

A snort could be heard from behind her, particularly emanating from a certain ACE creature.

Shifting her focus back to Richard patting Mr. Montgomery’s back as he stepped down his makeshift podium, Sarah tried to steer her way out of that S-tier difficulty assumption. When they finally took the cloth off of the board, she scoured it for her name.

“Sarah Weatherford versus... “ She finally landed on her name, “Crystal?!”

Popping into the room, Crystal forced her way between her best friend and the guy who looks like he’d never heard a song below 120 BPM, “What’s up?”

“What the fuck? When did you enter? When did you play?”

Crystal lassoed her arm around Sarah, “Let’s see… I did my qualifiers yesterday when Mark up there asked me to try out and play when one of the contestants dropped out. I knew I had a bye round when Ultradeth told me he’d make it happen since I had work this morning.”

Questions buzzed in Sarah’s mind. Her ‘ape brain’ had already clocked out and her logical side, seldom did she appear, was having a problem weighing up all the contrivances.

“Let’s start with an easy one: who the fuck names their kid ‘Ultradeth’?”

Suddenly filled with stilted laughter, Crystal suddenly began to count the number of holes in the ceiling tile, “Oh, y’know… A friend of mine… On a game… That I started playing… Yeah.”

“Crystal. You said you would never lie to me when we made that pinky promise, remember?” Sarah began to sweat as all the puzzle pieces clicked into place.

Loosing a deep sigh, Crystal stood upright, head and shoulders above her best friend, “Okay, fine. But can we talk in the corner? This spot’s a little…” She snapped a quick stare at Isaac.

Securing a corner of the room, Crystal took a seat and put a stack of cards on the table before her. “So… I want to start by telling you that I’m not crazy…”

“The card talked to you too?”

“How the fuck did you know?!” Crystal stood, slamming her hands on the table. Realizing that she had caught the attention of the remainder of the room, she sat back down, more red than the tie she wore loosely around her neck.

Sarah sat down across from Crystal and saw the card on the top of her deck. “Tell me Crystal, what did the card say to you?”

“Oh, Ultradeth is hella chill!” She sat back in her slate black pantsuit, “He likes to pull pranks on people, but overall, he’s super rad and stuff!”

The purple card between the two glittered in the same way Carbuncle and Ortelanus did. The art depicted a bleach-boned skeleton in a rich crimson robe as lime green fires swirled around and congregated in his bony hand adorned with many rings, a rainbow of gems.

“You said he plays ‘pranks’?”

“Yeah!” Picking up the card, she brought it close to her face and whispered something under her breath. Locking her focus forward, she sat back and smirked.

Looking around, Sarah tried her best to see something. She looked to Carbuncle and Ortelanus across the room to see if they reacted accordingly. Aside from doing his cute little prisyadka she showed them he could do on their break, the two seemed normal.

“Whoa!”

The entire room’s gaze this time shifted to Kyle, holding onto Marty’s grip in one hand, and his falling pants in the other. What started out as laughing quickly turned into whistles of admiration as his underwear revealed more than what was expected.

“Like that!” Crystal set the card back on the stack. “I made him promise to only do harmless little pranks, even though he keeps saying he wants to ‘sew the seeds of chaos’ or something.”

Fuck. That sounds like an ACE creature… It must’ve already bonded with her since she said she dueled yesterday and can already do that. I hope it doesn’t manifest like Freakazoid did. But what if I…

A strange urge nested within her.

I could take her. She just started playing. It’ll be an easy win and all I need to do is play it out. Shouldn’t take twenty minutes…

She shook her head. But what if I’m wrong about Carbuncle’s ability? What if Crystal dies in the ACE duel as well? What if it was just a one time thing? We need to take this slow and see if I could have her as an ally as well.

“Tell me Crystal…” Sarah chose her words carefully since she knew the card could hear them, “What else did your friend say? Anything about other places?”

“He said he could be doing something, but didn’t really care about it. Said he’d rather watch from the sidelines and see the world n’ stuff.”

Sitting back and looking all around her friend, she noticed something strange. Even though he is already bonded, he isn’t a spirit like Carbuncle or Bruno’s card was. She was tempted to call Carbuncle over and take on the sudden possible enemy.

“Well…” Sarah sighed, scratching the base of one of her pigtails, “If you say he’s cool, then I trust you.” She already started kicking herself internally as she said it.

Fuck. Shit. I can do it. I can fucking do it.

“Wow. Getting kicked out really has changed you! You would’ve called me ‘crazy’ and a ‘psycho’ not to mention a ‘nerd’ for playing a card game in the first place! Now look at us!” She motioned all around her, “You would’ve never set foot in a place like this a few months ago!”

Sarah laughed alongside Crystal, “Yeah. A whole lot has changed as I’m sure you’ll find out.” Her expression hardened, “But if you feel anything is wrong about that fucking card, tell me first. I fucking mean it.”

“Let’s just keep it one game.” Crystal sloppily laid her cards in front of her, “I’m sorry boo, but I promised I’d go fishing with papi tomorrow. I’ll give this to you, but I’m definitely gonna make you work for it!”

Sarah raised her eyebrow, holding the sleeping Carbuncle in her lap. Her mind screamed for her to turn this into an ACE duel. “You? Fish? Was I gone that long?” Setting her own cards in front of her, she giggled, “Weren’t you the one who said if you were five feet away from some kind of roof, you’d melt?”

“Pssh! I still ain’t wrong, but it’s his birthday and your dad finally threatened to fire him if he didn’t take time off. Momma would go insane if he was around the house!

How about I go first?” Crystal drew her card. After some re-reading and whispering, she placed down a red card, “I’ll summon Scrapper in offence position!”

“I think that’s the wrong game.” Sarah pushed her bangs out of her face, “Who told you to do that?”

This time, a snort could be heard from a nearby judge’s table where only a man in a Hawaiian shirt sat.

“I end my turn!”

Placing down her fish rock, Sarah only had one option in her hand, “I’ll also summon a Scrapper in offence position.” She stuck her tongue out. The sensation faded away, only to be replaced with pangs in her lower stomach from remorse for even thinking about possibly putting her best friend’s life on the line like that.

“It’s a pretty good card, huh?” Crystal flipped over two rocks, “I’ll summon my Toaster Fibre! And that’ll do it for me!”

“Hey dude, Scrapper’s gotta attack every turn it’s on the field.”

“Oh geez!” Crystal turned the card sideways, thankfully she seemed like she had a grasp on the basics, “I’ll break your shield, then!”

Picking up the card, Sarah smirked, “Looks like you broke into my The Bell Tolls, that lets me pop a creature on your field, so I’ll get that Scrapper.”

“Oh nice! I run one of those!”

She began to pat her lap as Carbuncle landed on the ground and stretched his legs. After a few seconds of consideration, he shrugged and leapt onto her knee high ebony skirt. As he settled in, he suddenly leapt up.

“Squeak?”

With a few light pets, he finally settled into her lap. “Alright, your turn!”

“Shit. I hate having to do this…” Placing down a Rapid Growth, she placed down a third fish rock. “I’ll also have Scrapper target your shield.

You know you can block with your Toaster Fibre, right?” Sarah scanned around the room once more. Marty scratched her head as she played against Jesse. Kyle looked on, the look of surprise blatantly apparent on his face.

“Hmmm… Nah, I got a big brain play going on…” Crystal wiggled her eyebrows and tapped the side of her head, almost getting a guffaw out of Sarah.

Picking up her card, Crystal continued, “Trust me, you’re totes not gonna like what happens next…” Slapping an exposed piece of cardboard on the table, she grinned wildly, “I’ll play Soul Shred, reducing your Scrapper’s attack power by two!”

Shit. Since he only has one point, he’s immediately destroyed.

Placing Scrapper in the graveyard, Sarah looked at her empty field. After a motion from her opponent to continue, Sarah placed down the card that would turn this game around.

“I’ll summon my Gemless Carbuncle, giving me an extra play point!”

Crystal’s eyes glittered as her head cocked to one side, gaze still locked on the shimmering Behemoth card before her. “Ooh! So this is your ghost friend?”

“I dunno, I’m pretty sure they’re aliens or something from another dimension…” Sarah scratched her head and pointed to the sleeping fox-dog-cat sleeping in her best friend’s lap, “Also he’s not really a ghost anymore, as you can tell.”

Crystal raised her hands in surprise as if the interdimensional creature actually presented a threat to her.

“Wait… So you mean I’d have a super rad lich follow me around everywhere and people would see him?!” She eyeballed one of the cards in her hand.

“That’s gonna be a weird story to tell your parents, right?”

Ruffling the back of her short dyed blonde hair, Crystal’s gaze shifted to the table before her, “Dios mío, eso sería un problema…”

“Sí, buena suerte.” Sarah stuck out her tongue, playing one more Scrapper, and motioned for Crystal to pick up her turn. “By the way, thanks for telling me you’ve got your ACE in your hand!”

“Oh!” She placed her fish rock and knocked her forehead, “I was gonna play that card anyways, so it’s not like it was a surprise or something!” Crystal played her own holographic creature on the field, costing all four of her play points.

Holy shit, five attack points for four play points is kinda nutty. Rotewasser said ACEs should be overpowered since he didn’t design them… ‘All other creatures on your side of the field lose 1 attack. Whenever a creature you control is sent to the graveyard, break 1 of your opponent's shields.’

“Isn’t reducing your own attack points a bad thing?” Crystal pulled out a gloss from her purse. She quickly applied it before deftly putting it back in her bag in one fell swoop.

“Yeah, but most Metalliches do something similar to that while having some fucking nasty effects as well. In fact, one can turn every one of your opponent’s creatures into [Blockers], but destroy a shield every time one of your creatures gets blocked. Pretty fuckin’ wild.”

“That is super wild!” Crystal’s eyes shimmered once more.

Placing down her sixth play point on turn four, Sarah nodded, “Yeah, I’ve experimented with them a few times.

But this is something I’ve really been working on!” Slapping down a Storm Silver Compass, Sarah began to go through her deck, “Storm Silver lets me search a card when he’s summoned, letting me find the exact tool I need for the job. I’ll fetch a Bhuran, Legendary Guide.”

Turning Scrapper sideways, she pointed at another of her opponent’s shields, “Next turn, I’ll evolve my Carbuncle into Kellja.”

“I don’t know about that…” Looking at the shield she picked up, Crystal’s smile stretched to a sly grin, “It says here I can use the [Shield Skill] of my Soul Shred for free when it’s broken as a shield!

Pointing at Sarah’s Gemless Carbuncle, Crystal slid the card into her graveyard, “I’ll go ahead and take care of your little guy now to stop you!”

Carbuncle raised his head and looked around a bit from his current lap pillow before settling back down.

“Oof. Good fucking play! You’re picking this up pretty quickly!”

Blushing deeply, Crystal picked up her card, “Th-thanks, Sar-bear…”

“Don’t think you won yet, biiiiiitch! I’ve got a back up plan.”

Drawing her card, Crystal stole a glance at Richard laughing loudly as a man who looked kinda similar was joking along with another man in a general store brand wolf shirt. “Time to show off a cool trick I learned recently!”

“You learned how to play a few days ago!”

“You know what I mean! I’m summoning a Meatgrinder Fibre!”

Wow. I haven’t seen that card since I dueled Mike. Have I really been playing this game for months now?

“So, I’m supposed to send a card on the field and destroy a creature on your field… I’ll send Meatgrinder Fibre. Is that right?”

Picking up the card, Sarah nodded. “Yeah, that works.”

“Rad. So, I’ll destroy your Storm Silver Compass. And since my Meatgrinder Fibre was sent to the graveyard, Ultradeth breaks one of your shields too.”

“Shiiiiet…” Picking up the card yielded no results.

“Dope. I’ll, like, use Toaster Fibre to attack another shield.”

Most cards with [Blocker] in the game don’t allow creatures to attack at all, so after confirming that Toaster Fibre is one of the few exceptions, Sarah let her continue.

“Okay, so now Toaster Fibre dies when it’s used in battle, so that’s another shield with Ultradeth…”

“Holy shit! That’s why you didn’t block earlier?!”

Closing her eyes and crossing her arms, Crystal nodded confidently.

Fucking geez. She might even be better than me if she actually knew what she was doing. Am I fucking glad she’s on my side…

“And that’ll about do it!” Crystal carried on her confident composition. Her flush came back as Sarah laughed and gave her a light clap.

“Also, since you summoned Ultradeth last turn, you can attack with him as well.”

“Oh. Hmm…” Always the one to act out her emotions, Crystal took an almost comical pensive face. “Nah. I think I still got something!”

With only one shield left versus Crystal’s remaining three, Sarah’s mind raced to find a solution. Sitting on seven play points, she could not call her Strike Leader to clean the board and get an attack in.

“Shit. You got me again on an awkward play, but I gotta do it…” Slapping down a familiar Heathen spell, she spent six of her play points to reach the creature she could only reach this way. “I’ll hard cast The Bell Tolls, targeting your Ultradeth.”

“Oh geez…” Crystal’s face quickly shifted to a grimace, “He did not like that at all…”

“And I still have Scrapper, so he has to attack one of your shields.”

Bouncing back, Crystal shrugged, “That did ruin a whole lotta my plans, but I think I still got you, Weatherford!” With a wink, she played down another Toaster Fibre.

“And now, check this out! I’ll summon a Revelry Strix, giving my Toaster [Sonic Strike]!” Turning the Toaster Fibre sideways, she pointed at Sarah’s last shield, “Told you I was gonna make you work!”

Looking at Crystal’s last two shields, Sarah smiled widely, “Holy shit, that was good. But I think you’re done now.”

“I’ll use the [Shield Skill] of Death is but a Fiction, returning my Carbuncle from the graveyard to my hand!”

Placing in her eighth fish rock on just turn six, she flipped over three, “I’ll go ahead and summon my newly revived Gemless Carbuncle, gaining another full play point!

Then, I’ll evolve him into the Bhuran I searched for earlier, activate his [Expend] skill, and gain another full play point!” Sarah now had five play points after summoning both creatures that gave her more of the resource. “Following that, I’ll summon Sixth Storm Oracle!”

“And he gives you another play point?!”

“Nah, only Carbuncle and Bhuran give you play points you can use that turn. That’s why Oracle’s effect says he gives you an ‘empty play point’.”

Crystal scratched her head, “I’m not sure I one hundred percent get it, but go off, queen.”

“I’ll evolve my Oracle into another Bhuran, and have both of them break your last two shields!”

Seeing the remaining Scrapper on her opponent’s field, Crystal knew the match was over. “Ah. Good game, girl!”

“Man, you’ve really gotten good at the game, huh?” Crystal sat on the bench outside of the card shop as Sarah waited for her final round of the day. Carbuncle sniffed around on the grass behind them as the last of the sun’s rays bathed everything in a bright orange. Before them was a wide open field, the edge of the St. Louis city limits.

“Yeah…” The last two months came rushing back to her. Finding her way over to Albert’s, picking up the job at the Cardinal Cafe, meeting Carbuncle, celebrating Christmas with her brother, dueling Bruno, her strange encounter with Miranda, and lastly, hearing Mr. Rotewasser’s hypotheses. “It feels weird. On one hand, I would’ve never believed you if you told me it was so short, but on the other, it really only has been eight weeks since I got kicked out.”

Crystal roped her arm around her best friend’s neck, “You ready to come back? I think I heard your pops say he’s ready for you to come home!”

Am I? Normally, I’d say ‘yes’ immediately, but I almost feel like I’m having too much fun… Plus, I know I’ll miss spending time with Albert…

“I dunno, I-”

“misery.”

A spectre wrapped in purple wisps suddenly appeared over Crystal’s shoulder. Clothed in extravagant robes and adorned with a tight gold circlet around it’s bare skull, it hovered ominously.

“I don’t think that’s gonna work on her, ‘deth. I kinda already told her about your favorite prank…”

“Oh come the heck on, dudette! Why did you have to do your man dirty like that?” The skull could not emote, but it still looked disappointed as he crossed his arms.

Sarah crossed her arms in return as she eyeballed the phantom. Instead of the green that both Carbuncle and Fier Horen were made from, Ultradeth took on a more ghastly purple coloring.

Holy fucking shit, he looks rad as hell!

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Deth.” Sarah held out her hand, knowing all too well she would just pass through. “Looks like we’ll be working together from here on out.”

“Hey babe, you don’t gotta call me that! Mr. Deth was my old man, call me ‘UD’ or something rad like that.” He hovered in front of Sarah and gave her a once over back, “Holy crap Crystal! You never told me your friend is an absolute babe-arino! How big are thos-”

Never-fucking-mind.