In The City

Ramona and Emanulle arrived where they needed to before too long, the plane was very fast but that was a given considering who made it. Once that was taken care of they checked in a hotel, but of course got seperate rooms; it wouldn't be apporiate for Ramona to share a room with a guy being engaged after all.

Emanulle was looking over a map as the two walked, Ramona looking at things from time to time.

"I suppose its not my business, but do you fancy Alice a bit?" Ramona asked as they walked.

The Arkon blinked at the question from the Demi Goddess before shrugging and looking back at the map. "If I do, its nothing but a crush since I don't know them well enough yet. Besides, I gave up on that sort of thing. Let's just say my love life escapades have been something of a bust, there was only one where it seemed like a chance it would go anywhere and they vanished off the face of the earth." He always did wonder what happened to Terri.

"I see. Sorry if I seemed like a pried too much. Its your life and you can live it as you see fit, still if something ever happens with someone and its mutual don't let it slip you by." Ramona left it alone after that.

Manny didn't respond to that at first. "Anyway, to more important news, I think our best bet is watching some of these tournaments. Maybe we'll find something then."

Domino City was exactly as one would have expected the home of Duel Monsters to be. There were kids and teens everywhere playing Duel Monsters. Most were with the standard duel pads, some were on the duel platforms that made holograms of the action and a very few were with the duel disks.

The amount of card and hobby stores was quite impressive. It was as if the whole city revolved around Duel Monsters. Alice would have felt right at home there.

"I wonder if Alice has ever been here?" Ramona asked more herself.

"Who knows. But wouldn't be surprised.." Emanulle spotted someone and went over. "Excuse me, but do you know where they hold duel tournaments?"

The person nods "They hold local tournaments every weekend at the Duel Monsters stadium across town." he says "So, do any of you duel?" he asks.

Manny shook his head. "No, afraid not. I'm interested in learning but I prefer learning as I go then just reading when it comes to these sorts of things. As is, I don't even have a starter kit."

The Duelist nods with a smile "Well, you're in luck. They sell starter packs at every hobby shop in Domino City." he says as he waves "Well, I'm off to a duel. You folks take care!" he calls as he heads off.

Emanulle decided to head to the shop and buy a starter pack and that's when Ramona spoke up again.

"How will we do this? If we ask most people, they'll think of us crazy or attract the wrong attention.." Emanulle was mulling it over.

"We'll think of something." Ramona was thinking already of a few things to get started. Finding out about the Shadow Games overall would be much easier said then done

Indeed it was going to be. Though, the Duelist wasn't wrong, there were starter decks in every shop. The ones that were worth anything, however, cost big money.

There was some kind of commotion outside of one of the card shops down the street a big crowd had gathered for something that was hidden from view.

Luckily for them, thanks to Jack they weren't hurting for money but what's when the crowd caught their attention. Curious more then anything else, Emanulle went to go see what was going on as did Ramona.

There was a duel going on between two high profile duelists. Both were using the newest Duel Disks and it looked like the match was intense! One had two monsters out and three cards face down while the other had one stronger monster out and one card face down.

The spectators were going on about how intense this match was and were naming off the cards that the two were using.

"A bit different from what I'm used to but interesting." Ramona remembered a time period when these duels were of real monsters and not holograms or even like the one's Alice had. It was better that way though. Back then of course they didn't function like they do now so some of the terminology was lost but at least she got the gist of it.

Manny didn't say anything, he just watched.

The duelist with one monster points to the other guys two "Summoned Skull, attack his Alexandrite Dragon!" he orders the skull-looking demon with wings and it moves in to attack.

The other duelist holds up a hand "Not so fast! I activate the trap card, Mirror Force! Which negates your attack and destroyed your Summoned Skull!" he declares as a mirror-like shield appears between the Alexandrite Dragon and the Summoned Skull, reflecting it's attack right back at it!

The first duelist holds up a hand "I play the trap card Seven Tools of the Bandit! Which negates and destroys your traps effects!" he says as his one face down card flips over to reveal a multi tooled pocket knife that sends a beam at the Mirror Force card and destroys it "Which means, Summoned Skull, attack the Alexandrite Dragon with Lightning Strike!" he orders.

The Skull monster sends a wave of lightning crashing down on the jeweled dragon, causing it to explode in a shower of crystals and the other duelists life points drop down by 600 points! This gets a round of explosive cheering from the crowd!

While this was going on, Manny asked one of the nearby people about something. "Excuse me, but who are the two battling right now? We're both new to this."

The spectator that Emanulle asked, looks over to him "The one who just got hit is Nara-Nara. He was the district champ a few years ago and even placed in the top ten during Battle City." he says.

"And the other is the Lightning Count. He won district championship for two years running and came in the top five in Battle City." he says.

Nara-Nara draws a card and smirks at the Lightning Count "I active the Spell Card Monster Reborn and call my Alexandrite Dragon back from the graveyard." he says as his dragon reappears on the field "Then I tribute my Alexandrite Dragon and my Kaiser Glider and summon The Dark Magician!" he says as both monsters disappear and were replaced by a oddly dressed magic-user "And end my turn."

The Lightning Count nods "A bold move. I can't attack without also destroying my Summoned Skull." he says as he draws a card "But this duel is now over." he says as he holds up a card. It was the Flute of Summoning Dragon!

He places a card face up "I summon the Lord of D. and play the Flute of Summoning Dragon!" he says as a man in dragon scale armor appears with a flute and starts playing "And I summon the Rare Metal Dragon and the Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" he says as a silver dragon appears, followed by a sinister looking black dragon with red eyes.

The Lightning Count holds up a card from his hand "And with this card, Polymerization, I fuse my Red-Eyes Black Dragon and  my Summoned Skull, into the Black Skull Dragon!" he says as the two monsters become one vicious looking hybrid of the two "Now, Black Skull Dragon, destroy the Dark Magician with Molten Fireball Attack!" he commands.

The Black Skull Dragon launches a massive ball of burning lava at the Dark Magician, who recoils to the attack, before being destroyed (-700LP)! The Lightning Count motions for his remaining monster "Now, Rare Metal Dragon, finish this duel!" he says as the dragon curls into a spikey ball and rushes Nara-Nara, who holds his arms up in defense as the spikey ball crashes into him! Or so it seemed as his life points drop to zero.

The holograms fade as the crowd erupts into cheers and applause at the duel!

It seemed like it was done, though Manny only got the gist of things since he hadn't finished studying how the actual game was played. However before too long it seemed the match was over so the interest waned a bit, though it was interesting while it lasted.

Though that duel was over another two had started by some who had seen that last duel. One person comes up to Emanulle "Excuse me, would you like to duel?" asks a kid who was about ten, with his older sibling close by.

Emanulle smiled a bit shaking his head. "No thank you. I just started so I don't know what I'm doing just yet.

Ramona's link beeps to get her attention "Ramona, it's Buddy. I believe you should get back here at once. We have an emergency with your family." the A.I. says.

Ramona frowned at this and without another word both of them moved to somewhere more secluded. "Go ahead, I'll still be here. Just fill me in on things."

The Demi Goddess merely nodded, concentrating and at a moment later they were gone.

(Ramona is out)

A policewoman comes into the alley to check on how everything was "Excuse me, sir. Is everything alright?" she asks.

Emanulle was about to leave when he spotted the woman. "I am, thank you I'm just new to this city." He was beginning to think this whole mission was going to be a bust, but he'd give it a bit more time before heading back for Alice's sake.

The policewoman nods "Oh, okay." she walks over to Emanulle and pulls out a piece of folded paper "Here's a map of the city. Try not to let yourself get overwhelmed by all the people dueling and watch out for card thieves." she cautions "Do you need help finding anything?" she asks.

"I was wondering where the closest library was, just trying to find a bit of information on things." He of course wasn't going to say what it was, and two talking about the Shadow Realm would either make people think him crazy or attract the wrong kind of attention so it was sort of a catch twenty two.

The policewoman opens the map and looks at it a bit, then points "Okay, we're here, so the closest library would be here." she taps a spot on the map. The library was only a few blocks away.

"Thank you, I can find it from here." Emanulle then headed to the library after to begin his search again. If he didn't find anything within the early coming days he would have to call it a wash.

(After thinking about, maybe its best just to close this thread and let Manny do his thing off screen for a short bit. That way it opens up room for more interesting threads but that's just me)