Dance of the Spirits
by BridgitKiido
Disclaimer: I'm just a college student who writes fanfiction as a hobby. I don't claim any ownership of GX.
Timeline: This takes place sometime between episodes 24 and 25.
For Smokey. May your forever home be forever filled with dandelions, and when you dance through the night sky, may your aurora always shine brilliantly.
So this was to be his room as long as he was here. It was a good sized room, on the second floor, and from first inspections the bed seemed comfortable enough. A bit plain for his tastes, but then, nearly empty rooms tended to be that way, and it wasn't like he had brought much of anything with him. Once he had all his stuff sent for, it wouldn't be as empty anymore.
Though, Manjoume wasn't going to send for it all yet. That would come after his victory against Judai in the School Duel. Just thinking about the upcoming duel made him smile predatorily. To say he was looking forward to crushing the Osiris student would be an understatement.
There wasn't all that much to do in a nearly empty room, however, and even though it was fairly late, Manjoume didn't feel ready to sleep quite yet. Eventually, he wound up deciding to step outside and get some fresh air.
This was easy enough to do, because the only room that had been available was in one of the dorms where the door led directly to the outside – in Manjoume's case, to a balcony shared with his neighbors. His intent was to take a brief walk around the campus, burn off some energy, and (possibly) get to sleep easier when he was ready to, but he stopped as soon as he looked out toward the sky.
What could only be described as sheets of yellow and green light had, at some point, appeared in the heavens, and now they flowed through the sky, just fast enough to be noticeably moving, never seeming to end. Manjoume couldn't help but watch in awe, mesmerized by the spectacle in the sky.
"That's right, auroras are rare in Japan, aren't they."
Snapping quickly back to reality, Manjoume turned toward the speaker and was, admittedly, a little surprised. "Principal Ichinose!"
The principal of North Academy was smiling slightly as he held out a package to his new student. "I'm glad you're still awake, Manjoume-san. Here – I brought you your new uniform. It should be warm and fit you well."
"Thanks," Manjoume said, accepting the package. Then, attempting to hide how awestruck he was at the sight of the lights in the sky, he asked, "So, it's an aurora?"
Ichinose nodded. "They're a fairly common sight, this far north, though they're a bit less common this late in the year."
"It's impressive," Manjoume commented.
Ichinose smiled warmly, almost knowingly. "Many students who come here from more southern countries have the same reaction as you. Even those who've lived up north all their lives can be held in awe at an aurora. Even with their known scientific explanations, there are a lot of legends about them, after all."
"Legends?"
"Many," Ichinose said, nodding. "One of the most well-known around here is that an aurora is caused by spirits dancing through the sky."
"A dance of spirits…?"
"Yes." The principal looked up toward the sheets of light, or perhaps past them. "Some claim that they're human ghosts, others that they're the spirits of Duel Monsters, and sometimes even a mix. But the one thing that most people around here agree on is that whenever they dance, there is a reason behind it, determined by the colors of the lights in the sky."
Mildly curious, Manjoume asked, "So, what would this one mean, then?"
"According to the most common interpretation," Ichinose replied, "the yellow implies that some important destiny has begun to come to fruition, and the green means that the spirits are happy with what's occurring in the world. Who knows," he teased slightly. "They might even be referring to your coming here."
Manjoume remained silent.
"Well, they're just legends, anyway," Ichinose said, and he started off toward the stairs down toward the ground. "Have a good night, Manjoume-san."
"Good night, Principal Ichinose," Manjoume replied, and when the principal was gone, he decided to go back inside his room. He had only just noticed how chilly it had gotten.
Taking a seat on the bed, he opened the package that Ichinose had given him. Inside was a long, black coat, trimmed with grey. There was no North School insignia on it yet, but that was probably so that he could decide later which side he wanted to have it sewn on. It was rather light-weight as he picked it up, but the material was strong, and his hands didn't mind the feel of it at first touch.
As he unbuttoned the Obelisk Blue uniform that he had still been wearing in order to try his new one on, he shot a glare toward where he had put his deck. The disturbing spirit of that zero attack monster – Ojama Yellow, he barely bothered to remember the name, and it certainly fit – was floating on top of the deck, twirling of all things.
"What are you doing?" Manjoume asked the spirit contemptuously.
"I'm dancing with the other spirits that are in the sky," the spirit responded cheerfully as he stopped twirling and leapt with an attempt at grace into the air. It's rather difficult for an Ojama to be particularly graceful, but it was hard to not give him points for at least trying.
At least, it would have been, had Manjoume actually cared to watch. "Well stop it. It's annoying."
"But it's fun, Aniki! You should try it, too."
"No thanks." He stopped paying attention to the little gremlin and removed his blue coat, dropping it haphazardly onto the bed. He wasn't the neatest person in the world, and it wasn't like he was going to wear it again anytime soon. He then put on his new black coat, immediately taking a liking to how it fit on him. It was rather comfortable, even as he put on and brandished his Duel Disk as though he were about to duel – no, more than comfortable.
"That looks good on you, Aniki!"
Manjoume ignored the yellow spirit as he put his Duel Disk away and took off his new coat, hanging it from one of the bedposts. He'd stayed up long enough tonight – it was time to attempt to sleep, if he was going to be allowed to do so.
As he climbed into bed, he was asked, "You're going to help me find my brothers, right Aniki?"
"I won't make any promises," Manjoume replied tersely. If he found them, he found them, but he wasn't going to go out of his way to search the four corners of the world just for the siblings of an annoying zero attack spirit. "Right now, I'm going to sleep, so be quiet, okay?"
"Good night, Aniki!" the spirit responded cheerfully before vanishing back into his card, and Manjoume proceeded to shut his eyes, and eventually he drifted off.
He probably would have been rather annoyed if he remembered his dream the next morning, so it was a good thing that he didn't remember his dream that night, where he and Ojama Yellow danced together through the night sky on the waves of the aurora's light.
Author's Notes: Some parts of the aurora legend Ichinose tells are made up by me (for example, the colors – guess why I picked them), while others are based on what details I found while doing research on the internet. My figuring is, it's never stated where exactly North School is except that it's up north, and this takes place in an alternate universe to our own, so they could have their own legends.
And though it's a couple days early, Merry Christmas, everyone.