My Time in Battle City [Tales of Luna, Book 1]

Chapter 6

Luna looked at herself one last time. She had sold some of her cards the day before to buy some clothes. She hadn't done it on purpose, but somehow she ended up with a white trench coat over a black turtleneck long-sleeved shirt and black jeans. She had thought it looked good before, but now that she was about to go out, she wondered if it was ridiculous.

I look like I'm dressed up as Kaiba for Halloween.

But also, this was an anime world. Who cared how you dressed as long as you dueled well, right? She had to just be confident. But she had to be confident outside.

Seto's grand announcement about the start of the Battle City Tournament had been made already, received with an earth shaking, excited roar from duelists all around Domino city.

That was two hours ago. Other duelists were out there.

Whatever. I will just go like this.

She put on her duel disk and looked at herself in the mirror again involuntarily.

"I look good." She said to herself as she headed for the door.

When she opened her door, she was startled to see Jaden with a fist up.

"Oh, right on time! Was just about to knock!" He said with his usual happy mood. "Let's go, we are burning daylight and there's duels to be had!"

For a second she wondered if he had been waiting to ambush her and duel her right off the bat.

"We should pass by the Tower first, though." Jaden kept talking, however. "Pretty hungry, and we can't start our first day of the tournament with empty stomachs, right?"

"Right. Let's go, then." She said as she stepped out into the corridor and closed her door.

"Nice digs, by the way." Jaden said as he already started to walk, leaving her behind. "Very Kaiba-y"

"Oh, you think so?" Luna feigned surprise.

But as they walked out into the street, there seemed to be a crowd around the building.

"What's going on? Do you think someone famous is here?" Jaden asked as he turned to look at her with that innocent curiosity.

"Mayb-"

"Are you dressed up as Kaiba?" a mocking voice yelled from the crowd.

Luna looked around and recognized the green helmet hair.

Oh no.

"Been itching all over to get a chance to duel you these past two days!" Espa Roba yelled as he pointed a finger at her.

"Itching? Have you tried showering?" Jaden asked, comically serious.

"I want payback for humiliating me in the Kaiba Corp Tower!" Espa said, completely ignoring Jaden.

"Humiliating? To whom? There was no one there!" Luna tried to defend herself.

"You laughed at my connection with the cosmos!" To Espa's credit, he genuinely seemed offended by it. "For that you will pay! I challenge you to a duel, and as per Battle City rules, you-"

"Yeah, yeah! She gets the idea, dude." Jaden interrupted him and turned to look at Luna. "Hey, pretty jealous that you already get to have your first duel. But I don't think I can go another minute without eating anything. So, I will catch up to you later?"

"I mean, I'm kinda offended that you don't want to watch my duel, man." Luna joked, realizing she was also pretty hungry. "But sure. Don't go losing until we see each other again, yeah?"