So...I don't own Yugioh, except for the deck that I make.
It's the middle of summer. The humidity of California made me sweat under the heat. The sweat drenched my shirt as I threw my bag into my Jeep Liberty. Today was one of those days. Those long days that everyone just wished that it was over with. The bad part about this whole ordeal is that I have to suffer another week before I finally graduate from this place. After that, it's off to college.
Yippie for me.
Closing the trunk of my jeep, I walked to the driver's seat and hopped in. Putting the key into the ignition, I held my hand there, not turning the engine on. With a groan, I slammed my head onto the center of wheel, making the car honk loudly. Damn it to hell. Pulling myself off the horn, I looked at the parking lot, filled with students eager to get out of here.
I guess I'm the only one that doesn't feel like leaving for home. Home. It means sanctuary for most people. To me? It was just...memories. Painful memories that resonates in my head. There's nothing but misery, and emptiness-
"Oh Jesus, I'm starting to think like those emo punks."
Quick! Think of something un-emo! Think of...country! That's it! Think of Little Big Town! Boondocks! Tornado! Ok it's working! Good job Joshua, now let's get back to monologuing.
Sometimes, I'm jealous of all of those kids in front of me. They at least have someone to hug, they at least have someone they can bug and tease. They have a family. What the hell do I have?
A father that's rarely home. A mother that's in Paris with some other guy. And my sis... I felt tears trickling down from my eyes as I quickly wiped them away. Shit I'm thinking emo again, quick think of something stupid this time! Justin Beiber! Great! I misspelled his last name!
Chuckling to myself, I opened up my glove compartment and threw my wallet and my phone in there - oh hold on now, what's this? My somewhat sweat covered hand pulled out a medium sized box, wrapped in red wrapping paper, and tied with a yellow bow. A present? When the hell did I...
...can't remember. Maybe if I ask god and tell him to give me a flashback, I can probably think of where I got the damn thing.
Hey, Baby Jesus! I was a piece of shit for a while, but for just this once, can you humor me with a flashback, please?
o0You're Wish's Been Granted0o
Sound of vegetables being cut, split, and crunched echoed with a staccato as two males, sitting from opposite sides, ate their salads in silence. I was sitting on the left while my dad sat on the right.
Everything was quiet. Too quiet.
"Mahna-Mahna." I suddenly blurted out loud as my dad stopped chewing. He swallowed whatever veggie that was in his mouth to stare at me in disbelief. I shut up and slowly continued to chew my tomato in my mouth, and chewed...and chewed...
"Do doo be-do-do..." My dad sang as I blinked.
I wonder...
"Mahna-Mahna." I continued.
"Do-do-do-do..."
"Mahna-Mahna."
"Do doo be-do-do..."
"Be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do-doodle do do do-doo do!"
Ok if you guys actually believed for a second that me and my dad busted out the Mahna-Mahna from the Muppet Show, then you guys are awesome. Unfortunately it wasn't the case. I wish it was, but in reality it was more serious than that. How serious?
"Josh, we need to talk."
It's the "we need to talk" seriousness. The usual seriousness that goes with something of the lines of one parent saying "I'm disappointed" conversation or something similar. Basically it's the "what the hell are you doing?" conversation. I'm pretty sure everyone had that conversation once in their life.
"You've been overexerting yourself. It's good that you're doing well in school, and I'm glad you're doing some extracurricular activities and driving around."
Oh damn, was I wrong. He was actually happy? Huh... anyways, lemme explain what he was talking about. After I got my license, he got me a Jeep Liberty. A week later, he opened up my debit account with ten thousand dollars in there. Spoiling me with five hundred dollars a month for an allowance, I was asked personally by my dad to stop 'whinning, moaning' and have some damn fun.
Spoiled right?
I guess it's not really spoiling when I'm using that money to drive to the beaches to fish, swim, or surf- oh who the hell am I kidding, that is totally me being spoiled haha!
"...but I think you're doing a little too much-"
"I'm not." Ah crap, I immediately went on the defensive, knowing where my dad was going with this. For those who don't know what dear old pa was going with this, don't worry. It'll be explained later through the story. My dad shook his head at my reaction, "You've been pushing too hard after Freshman year-"
"Stop it..."
"Look, what happened to Amy wasn't your-"
"Will you just stop?" I placed the fork onto the table, as I rose from the chair. Somewhat glaring at my father, my dad stared back at me with pity as I tried to control the storm of passionate fury that's thundering in my head. Go to your happy place Joshua. Go to the world of ponies and rainbows. Think of Twilight Sparkles, think about how Tara Strong is the voice of Twilight Sparkle- holy twinkies stuffing! Tara Strong is the voice of Twilight Sparkle! The same voice actress that did Raven from Teen Titans!? Damn, that's some talent- and the rage is now gone.
Anger bottled tightly in the recess of my mind, I cleaned up for myself and threw the leftovers in the trash. Rinsing the ranch filled dish with warm water and dish soap, I hummed the Little Mermaid to myself. By the time I was humming the chorus to Under the Sea, I was putting the now spotless dish into the dryer.
"We should do this again dad. Only without you bringing up Amy and more of me and you singing the Muppets."
"We didn't sing anything from the Muppets-"
"Dad, I was being sarcastic." Drying my hand off I walked my ass out of the kitchen-
"Think fast." Turning around, I was like Larry Fitzgerald as I caught something rather moderate in size. Damn I'm good. I caught that like a boss- wait, a damn honky second.
"What's the occasion?" Looking back up, I saw my dad smile at me. "I want to give you that before I leave for Japan next week." He walked to the sink and followed what I did.
"Not that I don't like gifts dad, but is that really the only reason you wanted to give it to me? You could have saved this for my Graduation." Before he turned the faucet on, he turned to me and gave me that warm smile. The smile that I can't ever erase with my snark comments or my douche-bag of a personality.
"No son, not on this day. Because on this day, you're finally eighteen."
o0Make Sure To Church On Sunday Joshua0o
If Jesus had a voice, he would sound like Dan Green- nah, he'd sound more epic than Dan Green- shit I'm getting distracted right now, back to the story. So I got this as a birthday gift.
Huh.
My birthday.
My eighteenth birthday.
I'm eighteen.
I am the age where I can watch porn legally, and get arrested for dating my sixteen-year-old girlfriend.
Well shit.
That was one word that I didn't expect for a while now. Honestly, I haven't celebrated my birthday for three years now. I guess I totally forgotten about the whole damn thing. How sad, to forget about my own birthday. I'm flattered, but in reality it's just me living for eighteen years now. It's not a big deal.
Groaning, I put the present back in the glove compartment as I started up the engine. A guitar sounded through my stereo as Chad Kruger's voice echoed through the car.
How the hell did we wind up like this?
Why weren't we able,
To see the signs that we missed?
And try to turn the tables?
As soon as I got home, I kicked myself on the bed. Looking at the white ceiling as one of Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe played sorrowfully in my room, I tried to disconnect myself from the world around me and tried to recall the more beatitude moments that I had throughout my life...
...Damn this is embarrassing, I can't think of any. Either that, or I'm really messed up. I'm going to go with the later, cause there is no way I can't think of a time where I was actually happy. I mean I was damn happy whenever I go to surf. So why can't that be my little happy memory?
Defeated for now, I walked over to my desk and pulled out the present that my dad gave me a week ago. Sitting down, I tore open the package. Looking at what was in front of me, in the pile of wrappings that I threw onto the ground, I looked at the box and groaned.
"Dad, you seriously yanking my nuts here? For my eighteenth birthday, you gave me the a boxful of YuGiOh booster packs?" I was a big fan of YuGiOh back in the day. Let me repeat that, with bold letters: back in the day.
Sure, I competed in tournaments, and won; the stack of trophies on the shelves support all that. But that was long ago. I'm not the same as I was before. I haven't picked up a deck since Freshman year. I'm "out of shape".
...and I only dueled for her.
"Jesus, I'm sounding like a goddamned sue."
I'm also apparently bat-shit crazy.
I was about to throw my present away, but felt compelled not to do so. Instead, I pulled out several decks from my desk. Seven in total, each focused on one theme. My life. Everything began to revolve around my life. Fairies represented my relationship with god. Spellcaster was representing the naive ideal of a miracle and shit. I can go on and on about this bullshit, but you guys get the point.
I pulled out one of my deck from it's deck case and looked through each one with. This one was Water themed. Interestingly enough, I actually have three decks that focus on water. It was something, using one of my water deck. I remembered my first card, Blue Eyes, which I traded for Gogiga Gagagigo and Umi. Yes people, I traded my Blue Eyes for Gogigga Gagagigo and Umi.
I know, I'm a dumbass. Don't be judging. You'd done the same if you saw a giant ass lizard roaring to the heavens in the card- oh I'm just shitting with you, I should have kept the Blue Eyes.
Well, in the end, I made it work. It's one of my aces for one of my seven decks. Now it peacefully rests in the near-forgotten deck case that sat in my desk for...god knows how long. Now, no one really considers calling out this monster in most decks, it's just near impossible to do so. For me, it was just hard to let this one go. Especially since this monster made me win most of my duels back when there weren't much synchros out there.
It's been awhile since I shuffled through my deck. Putting back my first water deck back into the shelves, I pulled out my second water deck I intently focused on Legendary Ocean and grinned. This card. Wow, this card takes me back. Ever since the second season of the show (GX, my dad calls it) people have been using Elemental Heroes and all these other monsters that were being a pain in the ass, so I upgraded my deck into something that'll bring the pain back to them ten fold. I made a Legendary Ocean deck.
I laughed when a sudden image popped into my head; a fifteen year old throwing over a table because I activated Daedalus's effect by sending Legendary Ocean to the Grave, then using Atlantis' effect to search out for another Legendary Ocean. On the next turn, I'd make him even more angrier by sacrificing my Daedalus with Neo-Daedalus and just wreck his field and hand in that one turn.
Man, so many trolling during those days.
I guess I'll have to thank my dad. After all, if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have all of these awesome cards if I didn't ask him to get them for me for free.
Speaking about my dad, he was going to Japan to introduce another archetype to the franchise. He, along with his team, offered me to come along.
I declined of course. I didn't want to stay there doing nothing while my dad and his crew worked. I really couldn't help what they did so I thought it wouldn't matter if I went or not. Plus while I'm here in California, I can surf without worry about the damn jellyfish problem back in Japan. Fucking Jellies. They look awesome, but they be like raggedy bitches. You don't know what will hit you until you actually get one to hit you. Like raggedy bitches giving you AIDS, they'll give you a nasty poison sting.
...then again, I have to worry about my girl stalking me. I should have known with her last name, Shindelbeck, she would be some sort of stalker.
I got up and check my phone's messages. There's two: One for a party back in LA, and another is just a little kick back at the beach tomorrow...shoot, they're at the same time. Quick, ASIAN MIND POWER ACTIVATE!
"…kickback."
The asian mind has spoken~ Besides, they're more fun than going over to some party.
Trust me, when you learn to surf, your world opens up a whole lot. I started to hear thunder outside and looked out my window. Although it was dark, I could still see the clouds start to head my direction-
Oh hell, it was already raining. "God damn it, stupid storm is going to affect the damn waves tomorrow." Putting away my deck back in the shelves, my phone rang and I looked at the caller.
"Hey."
"..."
"Yeah, damn storm might not let us surf tomorrow."
"..."
"You still wanna go? Crazy bastard, the waves will churn you and spit you out of its mouth like your its bitch."
"..."
"Oh I'm being a coward now? At least I have an IQ level over 100, what the hell have you dropped to with the constant drops?"
"..."
"I love you too, you fucking dick."
Flipping my phone shut, I threw the damn thing onto the sofa of my room. "Rage-quitting" in frustration, I leaped onto the bed, groaning into the pillow.
"Man... I really don't give a shit what the hell happens now." Those words were muffled into the pillow.
"Man, I'm thirsty. Did dad restock the fridge before he left?" Yup I'm that distracted. Maybe I really am bat-shit crazy. Either that or I just have ADHA...yeah I seriously have ADHD, I misspelled ADHD and I'm not even going to try and go back to fix it.
Hopping off of my bed, I rushed to check the fridge and see some half full Mountain Dew bottle in the back; apart from that? There really was nothing in the damn fridge. "Dad, your team took everything in the damn fridge!"
Looks like I'm going to the store tomorrow. I should probably pick up some Smirnoff and Sprite for tomorrow's party; if I can't go surfing, I might as well go partying. Taking the bottle to my room, I uncorked the cap of the bottle as a satisfying hiss rang into my ears. Chugging the rest of the content down my esophagus, I bellowed out a loud belch, which made a harmonic duo with the second lightning strike.
Nice.
Another crack, but this time it was closer than usual. Taking a peek outside, the rain was pouring hard while one part of the city was literally darkened. A black out? Damn this storm is causing some major problems by the looks of it. Using the TV in my room, I switched onto a channel, and heard the newscaster say that the storm was rather sporadic and that it was forcing cities to have blackouts.
"First the beach, and now the cities, this can't get any worse..."
I cursed while I could hear the hailstorm - wait a god damn minute...why the hell is there hail? It's June! And it's California! While I'm at it, why the hell am I spending the time to bitch about this!? The storm wasn't getting any better, and for some reason it just kept getting louder and louder. It was annoying the hell out of me, not that I wasn't already annoyed with the damn power about to go out.
"Well...at least it's all over-"
Immediately I heard the biggest, earth-shattering, lighting strike in my entire life. Every electrical appliance in my house flickered and flashed while the TV fluctuated. Now I started to panic that the storm might actually fuck up the whole electricity through Laguna!
Then...darkness.
"Oh great, this is just fan-freaking-tastic," I muttered as I felt my way to the bed. Why the bed? 'Cause now there's really nothing much else I could do. The flashlight is all the way over at the cabinet which is on the other side of the house, and right now I'm upstairs. So the chances of me getting there without causing hazard to myself is slim to none.
Like hell I'm going to take that risk.
"Joshua, I'm scared..."
That's what she probably would have said the moment the lights when out...
Hopping onto my bed, I yawned and in two minutes Hypnos took me into his embrace- look at that bros! I be bringing Greek Mythology up in this bitch. Sorry, like I said, I'm bat-shit crazy. Hopefully, I'll wake up and all of this will calm down...
...if only I stayed up longer, I would have noticed how my desk was shining so ridiculously bright to the point where people would wonder how the hell I slept through the damn light show.
There were a few things that was wrong with this picture; the most prevalent one was that, I wasn't in my bed. In fact, I was on something hard. Rocky and wet...cement?
I pushed myself up with my already weak arms and coughed as I staggered to my feet, only to be knocked back down when a strange sensation of pain spread through my side and alerted me immediately when I felt something impact my ribs.
Someone was speaking to me in Japanese...and for some odd reasons I could understand him. I knew a bit of Japanese, but it was never this...clear. It was as if someone was talking to me in English.
I was disoriented by the strike and the voice. "What?"
"Get the hell up punk!" snapped a voice.
"Who...the hell?"
"Americans, drunk in the street, eh kid?" snorted the police officer that looked at me with a dark scowl on his face. He was Asian that's for sure, and was still using his native language, and from the way that he was presenting himself he sounds freaking pissed
"Come on kid. You're coming with me," said the man as he grabbed my arm roughly and jerked me towards him. Of course, I would freak out in this situation as I stared at him with wide eyes...or I tried to. Everything was still confusing to me.
"What? Where am I? Who are you?" I questioned weakly as I continued to shield my face from the early sun glaring down on my face. "W-What's going on here?"
"Stupid tourists. Think you can get drunk in the streets here?" the officer snapped angrily.
"Bro, I'm not drunk." At least I don't think I am. I staggered for a moment under the man's hold. "I think I just passed out."
The man twisted my arm roughly, forcing me to the ground again. "Is that so, you damn brat? You callin' me a liar?"
"Could you speak English? I don't speak your language very well." Suddenly I found myself slammed against a wall, groaning at the sudden impact that rippled across my body.
"You understand well enough it seems," replied the man sharply as a click echoed in the surrounding area. I felt something cold, something metallic on my wrists...
I blinked in alarm. "I'm being arrested?" I moaned as my arm was being twisted harder.
"You can talk about it at the station!"
I didn't think about what I did, all I knew was that I had to get away from him. I can't go to jail. No way in hell. I heard the officer gasp as I twisted suddenly, pushing off of the older man's knee with the back of my foot -A technique I learned while I practiced Muay Thai- as the man fell onto his butt. I dizzily gazed at the officer as he narrowed his eyes, or I think that's what he did, at me.
"You'll regret that."
I did the only thing I could do at this situation.
"FUCK THE POLICE!"
...and then I ran.
The officer chased me, moving through the alleyways and passages as he ran after me. Garbage cans were thrown into his path asI desperately tried to find some bearing on where I was. It didn't make sense. I had no idea where I was, yet here I was diving through the cracks in fences and walls and trying to escape desperately through the dirty back alleyway as if I knew the place.
The officer was just behind me though, and luckily he was obese and having a hard time catching up with me. Although I had the advantage, I was still in a state of confusion and getting a bit exhausted.
Finally, I saw my opportunity. A particularly tall chain link fence. I dove between the opening, shoving the chain up a little to accommodate my size and rolled across the dirty wet ground before jumping to my feet again. I sprinted around a corner and into an open door, closing it behind me. Slowly, I slid down to the ground and I simply sat in the darkness and waited, gasping for breath.
I didn't hear any footsteps coming to my side, but I couldn't be sure...
Five minutes later, I let out a sigh.
I got away.
Now to get this cuff off of my wrists...
Pushing the door open, I walked out into the street while shielding my eyes from the glare once again. "Where am I?" I muttered as I looked around in confusion.
It was completely ambiguous. Nothing more than a pile of trash bags and brick walls. A common alleyway that was a bit smaller than those I was familiar with whenever I go to LA and hang out with some of the people there. It seemed to be almost unnaturally narrow.
I looked down at myself for a moment and frowned. The coat that I looted from the room was dragging behind me. I found myself staggering for balance. Running the way I had shouldn't have been as difficult as it had been. "What is this?" I mumbled as I fell to my knees in a nearby puddle. The water was dirty, but it reflected back well enough. A disheveled reflection of myself stared back.
"Oh. Man..." I was bewildered. "Where the hell am I?"
I shook my head, trying to clear the lightheadedness in my head only to make it worse. I stood up, staggering once again as my head swam with emotion and pain.
Getting the nerve to move around after a moment of rest, I started walking towards the sounds of people, and cars. Finally, I emerged and squinted as the sunlight glared in my face. I gaped as I joined around the thousands of Asian people wandering the street in front of me. All the signs were in Japanese, and I stared at the giant neon sign in front of me. Looking at some of the streets, I stared at the traffic signs and read what city I was in...
"Sh-Shibuya?"
I continued to wander into the crowd and glanced around. It was too much. There was no way. Television screens showed a Japanese newscast, and everything was in the language. The children, the people, everything.
Oh God, I'm not in America anymore.
Clutching my arm, I tried to look normal as I continued to walk through the streets of Tokyo, not sure of where I was going. "This has to be a dream!" I muttered to myself as the events of the night before played through my mind like a flashback from a video game or movie. "It can't be real."
Finally, I found a quiet corner next to the stairs of some building complex and huddled down to simply sit in silence and watch the world pass by around me. "Oh God..."
The night came quickly. Cold and harsh, the weather of the country showed its ugly head as it rained lightly all around me, freezing my skin despite the coat I wore. I wandered through the streets and slums of Shibuya, not sure of what to do, or where to go...
Joshua...
…Jesus?
Joshua...
…is that you Jesus?
Joshua...you must go to the Dagobah System...
...what?
...you will find Yoda...you must learn to harness THE FORCE!
...Jesus be smoking crack, cause he be sounding like Obi-Wan.
Nah, I'm just messing with you. The force isn't real. I'm real though, and so are other gods that people believe in.
...even the cult that believes that Michael Jackson is actually Od, the Norse god that made Freya his bitch?
Even him.
Anyways Jesus, I'm going to die here, can you help me?
That depends, have you been a good Joshua or a bad Joshua?
Seriously? Are you really going to ask me that question while the chances of me getting Hypothermia increases with each second passing by?
No. I just wanted to see how you'd react. In any case...
Jesus's tone changed from joking around with me to his every omnipotent wisdom shit that everyone wants to believe in.
...if you wish for sanctuary, my son, just look up.
Finally, I looked up and saw a building. It was a catholic church in the middle of the city. Go figure. I quickly rushed to the church only to find the gates closed and shut.
Jesus! I'm locked outside! Can you open up?
Nope.
Why the fuck not!?
Joshua, I can't do anything. I'm just a fragment of your bat-shit imagination.
...well fuck me. My mind be playing tricks on me.
Luckily, there was some shelter to be found under the small overhang over the gate. I huddled against the large metallic gate in the corner and simply stared out into space. Here I wouldn't be shooed away by angry shopkeepers, at least. I could probably remain here until the rain stopped.
Slowly, I drifted off to sleep once more.
Was it all a dream? Was I back in America? I don't recall sleeping on a warm bed last night. I don't recall my clothes being rather comfortable and warm. Maybe it was all a dream. I'm not wet so that whole bullshit with the cop probably never happened. That and the Jesus thing. Good, I'm not in some sort fucked up dream-
"Oh good, you're awake."
And there goes that idea. My eyes fluttered as I stared at the white ceiling above. From there, I noticed that there was an IV injection in my arm, as well as a tube in between my nose. Fuck, I'm not in my room. With a crank, I turned my head to the left, and saw a man. Dressed in a pastor's robe, he stared at me with a comfortable smile on his lips.
"You've been out for quite sometime."
"Days?"
"Two weeks." The pastor took the IV out of my arm and poured water into a tin cup and handed it to me. Eagerly, I shot the whole water down my throat. "We found you sleeping in front of our gates."
That's right, I fell asleep back there. I was trying not to freeze myself from the rain. I guess I was really exhausted back then. "What happened to you?" I blinked. "You were bleeding profusely, so we had to take you to the ER. We waited for a week for your parents to come, but..."
...so Dad didn't come back for me, huh?
"...well apart from that, it's good to see you're up again." The pastor helped me up as I winced, and looking down I realized that there were bandage wrappings around my body. "Be careful please. the doctor said that your breasts are still tender from the bruising-"
...wait what?
"I-I'm sorry...can you repeat what you just said, Father? I don't think I heard that right."
The said man blinked before responding to my question. "I said that your breasts are still-"
That did it. Ignoring the priest's call for me to stop, and his worried cries of me opening up my wounds and stuff, I hurried out of the room and to a bathroom, or somewhere that had a mirror. Busting through each room, I pushed out the smaller boy out of the restroom and shut the door.
"No...No. No. No! NO!"
My once square face has been shrunken down into a more oval and heart shaped face. Although my hair was short, there was a lot more shine to it than my usual hair. What shocked me the most was when I was looking at the mirror. Backing up to see the full body, I saw my hips becoming larger than my rather small waist and...
...I had boobs...and no penis...
"Excuse me," I heard the boy that I pushed out call innocently, "Are you alright Missus?"
I screamed.
