Prologue
"They won't take you away from me," Akiza muttered. "I'll make sure of that. I'll be sure they won't take you away from me…"
Her words slithered away and she looked at her duel disk. She removed the top card of her deck and looked at it. Squinting her eyes, she gave a small chuckle and threw it into a puddle right next to her. She sat up halfway and crawled over to it. She looked into the water and instead of seeing a card she saw a flower seed.
"It's okay, little bud," she told it, softly touching it and retreating. "It's okay, you don't have to be afraid to grow."
She sat back to her previous position. She was sitting with a beautiful dragon. The dragon's bare skin was a deep crimson red, almost like the color of dry blood. Instead of scales, the dragon had large rose petals covering her body. Up and down her body were red rose petals and their sizes shifted from large to small. The large petals were on the uppermost of her body and the smaller ones were along one of her tails.
The dragon was like a poisonous rose. She not only had rose petals but she also had several tails covered in thorns. The tails looked almost like tree branches but one slap from any of them would be as painful as a tree branch.
Her name was Black Rose Dragon.
Akiza loved this dragon like nothing else. It was her most prized possession but she didn't treat it like it was a possession. She not only treated it like it was the most wonderful pet she had ever had, but even better. She treated the dragon like it was her best friend because, out of everyone she had ever encountered, it was her best friend. The dragon had stuck by her side through the worst times of life and she promised to stick with it through the worst times in life. They were best friends.
She laid back against the dragon. Her surroundings were dark because she was in a dark place. It was in the Rose Garden. She had set up the field spell onto her duel disk as a way of protecting her and her dragon.
There were people after her. There were bad people after her. And she had promised Black Rose she would protect her no matter what it took. It was a slim chance that just anybody could get through the Rose Garden because there were traps everywhere and it wasn't like a normal one where a bit of chemicals could destroy it. She was sure that the bad people would get to her but the Garden was a ploy for the moment.
She had to stay quiet.
The sound of a bubble popping came from the puddle Akiza threw her card into. She looked over at it quite lazily. From the middle of the puddle a beautiful rose grew and it made her happy. She looked at her dragon and the dragon looked back at her. She could tell Black Rose was happy and she felt the same way as Akiza.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?"
The dragon tipped its head at her in response as a nod. Akiza smiled and looked back at the rose. For a few seconds the rose had stayed there blossomed but then it had wilted away and became nothing more than a card. Akiza stood up and retrieved the card. She bowed her head down and said, "They're here. They are very close apparently. I can tell."
The dragon rippled its petals and Akiza could tell she felt it, too.
She turned around, facing the dragon, and told her, "I promised you I would take care of you and that's exactly what I'm going to do. You stood by my side and I'm going to stand by yours. They won't take you away from me. They won't do to you what they want to do to you. I won't let them I'll do that. I'll duel them if I have to…"
She held up her card and looked at it again. It was the Tuner monster "Twilight Rose Knight". She smiled and said simply, "They'll have to kill me first."
"Oh really? I was hoping it would be much easier than that, "said a voice from behind her. Akiza turned around and there was one of the people that were after her and the Black Rose Dragon. He had gotten through the garden with a few scratches but she had already known he had a few men to go in first.
"Of course, you've never felt death before so I don't know how you would know. In fact, I'm willing to bet that you'd give up too easily."
Akiza only laughed and said, "You wanna bet?"
The man laughed, too, and said, "Nope, I want to duel."
Akiza returned Black Rose Dragon and rose garden back to their cards and placed the cards into one of her breast pockets. "I'm not going to be using Black Rose Dragon for this duel. It's too dangerous for her; I won't let her go through that."
"If you wish…" the man said, with a malicious grin on his face.
The duel started and it was the other duelist that had gone first. Before Akiza could even realize she was in trouble, she saw what he pulled out of his hand and screamed.