Kaiba's hand cut the air. "Round four begins now," he said. "Bakura versus Mai Valentine."
Mai's heels rang like small hammers on the gantry as she stepped up, coat swinging, hair draped over one shoulder like a pennant. Her lips set into a confident line, but her eyes—violet, bright, assessing—never left the pale boy already waiting.
Bakura smiled that theatrical, courteous smile that always looked borrowed from the wrong play. His white hair seemed to glow in the halogen. The Duel Disk folded around his forearm like a patient animal.
Joey leaned forward, knuckles whitening around the rail. "You got this, Mai," he said, half under his breath.
She didn't look back, but her shoulders tipped a fraction in acknowledgment. Across from her, Bakura tipped his head, the gesture halfway between greeting and predation.
Mai — LP: 4000
Bakura — LP: 4000
They drew.
Mai — Turn 1
Mai's cards slid between long, lacquered nails. She glanced at the five and the corner of her mouth tugged upward.
"I'll set the tone," she purred. "I Normal Summon Harpie Lady 1 (ATK 1300, WIND). Her effect pushes all WIND monsters I control +300 ATK. She becomes 1600."
A violet-winged woman spiraled down from a gust that smelled faintly of rain and ozone, feathers shimmying into place across her shoulders like armor. She leveled her talons and bared a grin that matched her master's.
"Two cards face-down," Mai said, sliding them home with a click. "Your move."
Bakura — Turn 1
Bakura's lashes half-lowered as he surveyed the field. "How graceful," he said softly. His fingers whispered over the top of his deck, drew one extra breath of cardboard, then chose. "I'll set a monster." A quiet rectangle shimmered and lay itself flat. "And two cards. End."
No flourish. No sound but the blimp and the soft stamp of hologram anchors locking in.
Mai — Turn 2
Mai drew, eyes glinting. "Let's take to the air. I activate Elegant Egotist. Because I control a 'Harpie Lady,' I Special Summon Harpie Lady Sisters from my deck (ATK 1950, Level 6—normally one Tribute, but my magic handles the invitations)."
Three figures swooped out of a violet fan of light, braids streaming, eyes shining with the thrill of altitude. Their landing bent the air. Harpie Lady 1 flipped her braid and smirked at them—sisters in step.
"I'll keep the pressure up. Normal Summon Harpie Lady 2 (ATK 1300 → 1600 under Lady 1's aura)." A second solo harpy cut a clean arc and snapped to formation.
Five sets of feathered eyes turned toward Bakura's set monster.
"Battle," Mai said.
"Sisters—pick apart his facedown."
They dove as one, a swirl of talons and perfume. The set card flipped in the scream of their descent—
A small, hunched shape revealed itself, cloak tattered, scythe tucked demurely behind its back: Spirit Reaper (ATK 300 / DEF 200).
Mai's lips parted. "Tch."
Harpie Lady Sisters struck; the scythe flicked—more suggestion than metal—and the blow diffused like a dream around the little specter. Spirit Reaper rocked, then slowly turned its mask to look at them. The eyeholes were empty.
"Spirit Reaper cannot be destroyed by battle," Bakura said mildly.
"End of Battle," she said, voice tight. "I'll set one more."
Bakura — Turn 2
He drew. His pupils briefly pinpricked and relaxed. "Such splendid birds. I'd keep them caged."
He slid a card into the disk. "Graceful Charity. I draw three, discard two." Papers fluttered between fingers; he let Dark Jeroid and The Earl of Demise slip into the Graveyard like black confetti. "I'll Normal Summon La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp (ATK 1800)."
A brass lamp spun out of shadows and uncorked into a green, muscled fiend with a grin like a scimitar. It flexed, eyes shining.
"Battle," Bakura said. "La Jinn, test the air. Attack Harpie Lady 2 (ATK 1600)."
"Trap," Mai snapped. "Mirror Wall."
The invisible snapped visible—the air in front of Mai's line rippling into a hex of diamond panes, each catching a ghost of her face. La Jinn's arm slowed mid-punch as if pushing honey. His ATK halved to 900; he stumbled, caught a springing elbow from Harpie Lady 2 and ricocheted back to Bakura's side as it shattered into pieces, teeth bared in surprise.
La Jinn's 900 into Lady 2's 1600—700 difference. Bakura's sleeve shifted as his disk chimed.
Bakura — LP: 3300
He did not blink. "Satisfying trap," he said. "My compliments." He set one more card, the hologram's edge humming. "End."
Mai's smile sharpened. On her next Standby, Mirror Wall would demand 2000 LP to hold. She let the possibility dangle like an earring. "I pay," she thought, feeling Joey's presence at her back, the weight of Round Three's line.
Mai — Turn 3
Standby Phase light blinked. She didn't hesitate. "I pay 2000 to sustain Mirror Wall."
Mai — LP: 2000
"Worth every point." She drew and snapped the new card into her palm, eyes flashing. "You wanted a cage, Bakura? Try a dragon's nest."
"I tributeHarpie Lady 2 and Harpie Lady Sisters to Tribute Summon Harpie's Pet DragonATK 2000".
The air pressure changed. The blimp's spine groaned as a sinuous shape cut a figure-eight in purple smoke—scaled, crowned with barbed frills, eyes slit and amused. It coiled around the duel space, hissed, then perched, claws clicking against glass. With Harpie Lady 1 still basking on the field, the dragon's loyalty glowed: +300 ATK boost from its kin. Harpie's Pet Dragon — ATK 2300.
"Spirit Reaper?" she asked sweetly, turning her chin the way a bird considers a worm. "You can stay. For now." The little specter twitched, mask unreadable.
She set one card, eyes never leaving Bakura. "End."
Bakura — Turn 3
He drew. The card's corner ran across his finger; he looked pleased to feel the tiny sting.
"How devoted your pets are," he murmured. "Let's… test that love."
He lifted a spell and let it fall like a small guillotine. "Tribute to the Doomed. I discard Earthbound Spirit from my hand—" Joey swore under his breath; Rebecca's eyes widened— "to destroy Harpie's Pet Dragon."
A sand-colored vortex yawned open under the dragon's talons. It shrieked—high, furious, hurt—and spiraled down into the grit. Mai's mouth opened; she snapped it shut. Her eyes glittered.
"You don't keep a dragon in a bottle for long," she said, voice tight. "I'll bring it back."
Bakura's smile didn't change. "I hope you do."
"And now," he continued, eyes a shade darker, "the card I discarded finishes its climb."
He spread his fingers. Shadows crawled up his wrist like ink in water; the overhead lights hummed louder, then lower, as if their color had been borrowed. From the space between those shadows and his pulse, a figure stepped—taller than a man, sharper than a nightmare, its three eyes a triangle of blue fire.
"Dark Necrofear (ATK 2200)," Bakura said, voice gone velvet and terrible. "I Special Summon her by banishing three Fiend-type monsters from my Graveyard."
"Battle," Bakura said. "Dark Necrofear—strike Harpie Lady 1 (ATK 1600)."
Necrofear's claw seemed to move twice: once through air, once through illumination. The Harpie's eyes went wide, the buffeting aura around her feather cloak rupturing like foam. She burst; feathers slapped the glass and vanished.
Mai — LP: 2000 − 600 = 1400
Spirit Reaper pirouetted in place, scythe swinging idly, the tantalus smile of its mask unchanged.
"End," Bakura said.
His field: Dark Necrofear (2200), Spirit Reaper (300/200),
Joey's knuckles worked. "Hang in there, Mai…"
Mai rolled her shoulders, the line of her neck going proud again. "Always."