|
Post by Matt Hirama on Sept 25, 2009 18:28:24 GMT -5
It was a boring day in the small Kame Card Shop as Matt Hirama, the newest and only, current employee sat behind the shop's counter, looking at his decks. Business had been slow all day long so far, and Matt had spent the better part of the day working to clean and organize the store. It had been boring and tedious work, but at least it had given him something to do. Now that he had finished those tasks, he had nothing to do but review of his own decks. Of course, he had been going over them constantly over the past few days, minus the time he had spent at Recita's place.
He stifled a yawn as he put the deck he was looking at down on the counter. On the top of the upside down stack, a copy of Chaos Sorcerer could be seen, obviously pointing out a Chaos deck. At this point, Matt didn't really care who saw what deck types he used, considering Chaos was slowly becoming more common with the latest banlist. He kicked his feet up onto one of the shelves under the counter and switched the tracks playing on the store's MP3 to a new song, Ao Iconoclast. With the new track playing, he leaned back and waited for something to happen, or for a customer to come.
|
|
|
Post by Jame Grant on Oct 2, 2009 17:52:39 GMT -5
"Hello!" a man dressed in a pair of jeans and a three stooges t-shirt said as he walked in. Jame said it in English. He seemed happy. Of course if one knew this man personally, they'd know he always seemed to be in a pleasant mood. He had his smile on his face.
"I didn't think I'd find this place." His language went to Japanese. An interesting habit of his is throwing in English words with Japanese. Either it was because he forgot the Japanese equivalent to a word, or just an unconscious slip of tongue.
|
|
|
Post by Matt Hirama on Oct 2, 2009 18:01:08 GMT -5
No sooner had the man walked in and called into the store had Matt shot up from his seat. Perhaps the boredom was getting him more than he had realized, because the speed of his reaction surprised even him. After taking a moment to regain his composure, Matt shifted his gaze to the man that had entered the store. The Duel Monster professor? Well, this was new. Maybe he was here to pick up supplies for his first lessons of the year.
"Hey there! Can I help you with anything?" Matt asked. He was always told that calling people by titles was un-businesslike, and the old man running the shop had told him off more than once for doing so. In this case, Matt held his tongue in order to refrain from getting scolded again.
|
|
|
Post by Jame Grant on Oct 2, 2009 18:11:27 GMT -5
"Yes. There is a special card I am looking for. Two cards actually. One is an old card called Gaea Power. Perfect for my deck. The other I don't know what it is called. It has Ojamas on it standing in a circle. Increases monsters attacks by 800 if only monsters of the same type are in the graveyard. Know the card. Called Solidarity." Solidarity was said in English. Even though he didn't know what its name was, he still seemed cheerful and optimistic. "Don't know the name here though."
"Do you know the card, Matthew is it?" Jame knew the student's name. He had a good source of information and a good memory to go with it. He knew most of the students and other faculty already, even if he had never met them and they didn't know him.
|
|
|
Post by Matt Hirama on Oct 2, 2009 18:37:22 GMT -5
Matt blinked a few times at the Professor addressing him by name. It had surprised him obviously. It was rare to see a Professor that bothered to learn, or let alone remember, a student's name outside of the classroom, let alone a new teacher who had never seen him before. Although Matt had to admit it shouldn't have been quite that surprising. After a moment of silence, Matt nodded and walked over to a small booth and looking through it for a moment. The booth in question held many of their spell cards, so it was only a few seconds before att spotted both of the card in question.
"Please Professor, just call me Matt. I stopped calling myself by my full name years ago. Anyways, how many copies of each card would you like?" Matt asked as he opened the case. He waited for the Professor to answer before he pulled any cards out. He didn't want to pull out too few, and god help him if he pulled out too many. It was a hassle trying to get everything straight and neat after replacing a card.
|
|
|
Post by Jame Grant on Oct 2, 2009 18:55:45 GMT -5
"Three of each please and thank you." The four, words, please, and, thank, and you had all been spoken in English. Jame had a feeling the employee knew what Jame was saying though. After all Matt wasn't a Japanese name. Or was it? Jame still wasn't familiar with the nomenclature of the area.
"These cards will go great with my Gadgets. Such fun cards they are. And when combined with these cards they'll really be a sight." Jame then frowned. "But I'd have to get rid of Rat for Solidarity. Not so much worrying about D.D. Warrior Lady though. She doesn't go to the grave. Oh fun fun fun!" Besides the names of cards and archetype, the oh fun fun fun had been the only other things in English.
"Must be tedious traveling between the island and here every day for work and school though. Money must be worth it. Maybe I'm in the wrong business."
|
|
|
Post by Matt Hirama on Oct 2, 2009 19:10:09 GMT -5
At the Professor's request, Matt removed three copies of each card from the case before shutting and locking it. Matt politely gestured towards the counter as he made his way over to it himself. It wouldn't take long to ring up the price of the cards in question, which kind of disappointed Matt. The one thing about slow days in the retail business, if you were fast enough working with your customers, it could get extremely boring.
"The pay is alright, and it's refreshing to get away from the academy after a day full of duels or classes. Besides, working here, I can learn more about cards and maybe improve my decks." Matt said as he rung the cards up. After a moment or so, he price came up on the register. Since he was buying individual cards in small bundles, the cards weren't that expensive. In fact, the total came up to be about only a dollar in US currency.
"Would you like anything else today?" Matt asked.
|
|
|
Post by Jame Grant on Oct 2, 2009 19:28:53 GMT -5
"Oh such a bargain!" Jame exclaimed in surprise. He took out the money for the cards and handed them to Matt. "Well if this place is such good experience, I'll expect good things out of you in class." Jame sounded pleasant as he said it. He wasn't going to pick on Matt to answer questions during class, but he was going to expect the student to answer some of the questions when the time came, or at least get very good grades on tests.
Jame looked at the three cards. "Yes these should be fun in duels." Jame then frowned though didn't seem that serious about it. "But I have too many continuous traps in my deck as it is. Last thing I should put in it are continuous Magic cards." He chuckled. "Well as long as we know the weaknesses of our own decks they can be minimized," he added the smile once again on his face.
He could tell the place was slow and most likely boring, so he'd keep this student some company for a while.
|
|
|
Post by Matt Hirama on Oct 2, 2009 19:49:30 GMT -5
Matt accepted the money and laid the cards on the counter in front of the Professor. After quickly stashing the money in the cashier and ringing everything up, Matt also placed the receipt next to the cards he had just sold. After closing the cash register, Matt sat back down on the stood behind the counter, not expecting the Professor to stay after he had made his purchase. Yet, before he could get too deep into his own thoughts, he heard the Professor speak again. He nodded in agreement to the Professor's last statement before speaking himself.
"I guess you're running beatdown Gadgets, mixed with Oppression?" Matt asked. Though he wasn't sure if he was right, he had a feeling that within those numerous continuous trap cards was Royal Oppression and some other support to go with it. It's how most Gadget decks ran these days, and Matt had forgotten how they used to be run in the past.
|
|
|
Post by Jame Grant on Oct 2, 2009 21:11:04 GMT -5
"Of course. But not just with Royal Oppression." Jame grinned widely. "But Ultimate Offering, Mirror Wall, and even Stronghold the Moving Fortress. All of them protected by the powerful Imperial Custom. With this field spell," he lifted up Gaia Power, "and at least one of these," he continued lifting up Solidarity, "Stronghold would have 4300 attack points. And can't forget Imperial Custom makes it invincible.
"Oh such a great card that Imperial Custom is. Perhaps I might dedicate an entire class to it. Cards like Mirror Wall won't need their costs paid anymore with it on the field. Gives more life points for Royal Oppression too." Jame seemed very happy.
His voice then dropped to normal and he said, "and then I run out of card spaces and can't use all my cards." He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I really need to get into the habit of leaving at least one card space empty."
|
|
|
Post by Matt Hirama on Oct 2, 2009 21:25:30 GMT -5
Matt listened intently as the Professor spoke of the Imperial Custom trap card. It was an alright card, but the way the man was using it was against the rules. After a few moments of contemplation, he decided to break the news to him.
"Sorry to say this professor, but unless you can keep your life points high enough, cards like Mirror Wall will still be destroyed even if you have Imperial Custom out. It's in the rulings for the card..." Matt said bluntly. He glanced up at the professor for a moment as he waited for the man's reaction. He felt kind of bad for raining on his parade, but in the end, it would save the Professor from the possible humiliation of breaking a rule in his own class.
|
|
|
Post by Jame Grant on Oct 2, 2009 21:30:59 GMT -5
"Really?" Jame seemed down. "I recall hearing a ruling contradictory to that once. Perhaps it changed when the card was made in America. Its happened before."
Then cheerful once more he said, "ah well. It still protects the other cards. Ultimate Offering, Royal Oppression, and Stronghold the Moving Fortress are the big ones in the deck. An invincible trap monster that when combined with Gadgets and Ultimate Offering can get 3000 attack very easily."
He then looked surprised for a moment. "Oh now I know what to remove for these cards I just got." The new point about changed ruling didn't seem to bother Jame one bit.
Of course Gadgets were one of Jame's Fun Decks. In a serious duel in which he would hold nothing back, he had several dangerous decks. They were a secret though.
|
|
|
Post by Matt Hirama on Oct 2, 2009 21:54:33 GMT -5
Matt only blinked a few times to the Professor's mood swing. The guy was only disappointed for a second or two before he reverted back to his other, more cheery self. Matt honestly didn't know what to say about it, except to criticize the good Professor's strategy in his own mind. Unless he ran three of each Gadget, things such as Fissure and other such removal were more than enough to take them out. Taking out both of one gadget would end the threat of the Fortress, unless he had some way of returning monsters from the grave.
"Oh, well... Good luck with that..." Matt said, lacking anything better to say about it, "Anyways, you got anything planned for the first class? No whistles involved I hope."
Matt still couldn't believe that that new teacher actually used a whistle like that when no one was even talking in the class. It was like walking into a library and yelling at the top of your lungs for no reason. It just wasn't a necessary maneuver.
|
|
|
Post by Jame Grant on Oct 2, 2009 22:04:34 GMT -5
"Oh I heard about that. I thought it was a good tactic to use. The teacher takes the position of alpha or the authority figure early on. I prefer the methods of positive reinforcement though." He then added in a sterner voice, "don't think you can get off easy if you do something wrong in my class. I can be just as harsh as a drill sergeant myself.
"The one who raised me was a General, so I know a thing or two about discipline." Jame didn't like to punish if he could avoid it, but he decided that this tactic would prevent at least one student from causing any trouble.
He then was calm once more. "But anyhoo, I'm thinking something simple for the first class. The cards of duel monsters have their own grammar, so I plan on starting with the basic rules to refresh everyone's memory. You know to make up for that 20 percent of knowledge you forget during a long break."
|
|
|
Post by Matt Hirama on Oct 3, 2009 13:49:11 GMT -5
Well, so much for a quick laugh Matt thought after Professor Grants seemed to have calmed down again, though Matt had an inkling the professor was trying to strong arm him into behaving. He didn't know whether it was his dismissal of the previous topic or his whistle comment that had that off, but either way, Matt didn't see anything wrong with his comments.
"I'll just have to do a bit of studying before then, I guess. No need to fall twenty percent behind the rest of the class." Matt said. While he had ignored the sterner comments, once could argue that the way he had worded his sentence indicated he had gotten the picture. Although it reality, he was really more o s student to sit, listen, and learn rather than answer a lot of questions. It's probably why teachers that gave "participation grades" hated him so much.
After a small small silence between the two men, the song playing from the MP3 player changed. The melody was just as upbeat as the last, but was probably a lot more notable at the same time.
|
|