Dark Aura: Thirty-Nine

"A duel?  Yugi, I just told you—I don't have forty cards!"

Yami smiled.  "I realize that, Felix."  He removed his deck from the card wallet hanging on the side of his waist and held it out to her.  "Please remove any one card from my deck.  We will play this as a thirty-nine card duel."

Felix knew she had no choice: Battle City rules stated that a dueling challenge could not be refused.  Still, she was hesitant as she reached for his deck.  What if she lost this match, too?  No, she told herself.  Don't you dare think like that.  You're going to regain your own duelist's honor by defeating the great Yugi Mutou—and then you'll regain your uncle's by winning your rematch against Kaiba.

"Should I choose randomly?" she asked her new friend-slash-opponent.

Yami nodded.  "If you want."  He pushed the bottom of his deck forward, so that the front edge proceeded in a downward slope: the back upper edge of each card was exposed in form of a staircase.  Felix reached out and began to pull a card out—but the moment she touched it, both she and Yami started in surprise.  For a split second, the world flashed into negative color, and as clearly as if the image had shone through the deck, both of them knew what card she had chosen.

Her fingertips hesitated on the edge of the card, which was now half pulled-out from the rest of the deck.  A pause, and then she reached to choose another.

"Take the card, Felix."

Another pause, and then she pulled out the card she'd originally chosen.  She looked at it, then turned it to show it to Yami.  It was his Dark Magician.

"Are you sure you don't want me to pick another card?"

Yami shook his head.  "You chose randomly, and luck is luck.  What is more, you are playing without your favorite card, so it is only fair that I play without mine."  He placed his Dark Magician safely in his deck wallet and placed the other thirty-nine cards in his Duel Disk.  When he powered it up, a small light on top began to blink, refusing to deploy its projectors with an improperly-sized deck in use.  When Felix turned hers on opposite him, however, the blinking ceased and both sets of holographic projectors deployed.  Felix blinked.

"What was that about?"

Yami shook his head.  "KaibaCorp is probably watching the Duel Disk signals.  It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Kaiba told them to monitor your Duel Disk."

"Or yours."

"A definite possibility.  Either way, Kaiba likely finds it amusing that we play at a mutual disadvantage."  A small smirk played on his face with that statement.

Felix snorted.  "No doubt in my mind."

The smirk immediately became much more obvious.  "Now, Felix—It's time to duel!"