Story Title: None of Worth
Author: Heleentje
Rating: K+
Word Count: 1313
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX.
Notes: Written for Higuchimon, who asked for Yubel and Johan. I hope you enjoy Yubel being Yubel!
None of Worth
She didn't understand.
A king shouldn't surround himself with commoners. He shouldn't waste time on the petty people, the ones who had no idea who he was and would never give him the respect and praise he deserved. Her Juudai was so much better than anyone in this worthless place. He should be ruling the world, not dealing with people who would never be deserving of his company. At least as a child, he hadn't known any better, and she had been there to judge for him. But now he still talked to those others, befriended them, liked them. It was inconceivable. What was so good about them that her Juudai would willingly spend his time with them?
It was a question she needed to answer, and so when she wasn't watching Juudai, she watched the others. They were unremarkable in every way. There was the girl whom they called queen, and Yubel dismissed her right away. She would never have what it took to be a ruler. She would never be able to control a kingdom as large as her Juudai had. Yubel might have given her credit for disliking the title if she hadn't thought herself worthy of being in Juudai's presence.
There was the one boy who could see spirits. Not like Juudai could - of course not, because no one would ever be as powerful as him - but enough to talk to the three weird ones in his deck. She watched his antics for little more than an hour before dismissing him as well. He was inconsequential. Good enough a duelist, she guessed, but nowhere near her Juudai's level. It was the two other ones who drew her ire for the first time. How dare they call Juudai their brother? How dare they claim him as their family when they didn't even deserve being in the same world as him? She watched them, and planned to do away with them as soon as possible. How much better wouldn't Juudai's life be when he was finally rid of them? When it was just the two of them, forever, bound together by love and pain and love-
But not yet. She still needed more power, and so she waited, and watched. There was one more, the boy who had come to Duel Academia when she had. He too could see spirits, like the other boy, but he was probably better at it. She ignored him at first. Surely he was no threat to her, not when Juudai had only just met him and was clearly only humoring him by talking to him and making the strange foreign kid feel welcome. He would never hold her Juudai's interest for long, she decided, and went back to watching Juudai.
Only every time she watched Juudai, the foreign boy would be there too. He would sit with her Juudai in class, and they would duel together, and far too often, she would look for Juudai and find that the other boy was spending the night in his room. It was aggravating, because she didn't understand. There was nothing remarkable about the boy, nothing that even made him stand out from the masses, let alone put him on Juudai's level. Why would Juudai not only tolerate his company, but willingly seek it out?
Johan Andersen.
She immediately hated the name, and hated that she even had to go to the trouble of learning it. She hated all the people who dared to compare him to Juudai. They were nothing alike, and though she couldn't say who he did remind her of, it most certainly wasn't Juudai. Juudai was everything Johan Andersen was not, and he was so much better for it.
Being alone and waiting until she regained her full form was frustrating and boring, but at least it gave her more than enough time to devise a few little tests. If the boy's monsters were considered precious, it would be easy to find someone interested in them. A few words here and a couple of dropped hints there, and suddenly Cobra had found exactly the person she needed. If Johan Andersen wanted to spend time with her Juudai, he was going to have to prove himself worthy. She wasn't concerned; he would most certainly fail any test she created for him, and she was going to enjoy watching him do so.
Johan Andersen's duel against Giese met every single one of her expectations and then some. It didn't matter that Juudai saved him in the end, or that Giese died in the process. The boy had confirmed all her suspicions in one fell swoop. He was weak, far weaker than even she had initially believed. If he couldn't even decide between the life of a monster he claimed as his family and one he barely knew, he would never be able to protect Juudai the way she did. If he'd truly cared for the horse, he would've given up the other monster without a second thought. If he couldn't even let himself get hurt, he'd never know what love was. Everything he said and did were the words of someone who'd never known true pain. He was naive and stupid, and nothing made him deserving of Juudai's attention. In time, Juudai would come to realize the same thing, and he wouldn't bother saving that boy anymore.
She banished the boy from her mind once they arrived in the new world that was all sand and heat and danger. Sure he was still there, and sure he was still claiming her Juudai's company, but he was only human. He wouldn't last any longer than the rest of the students of this awful school, and maybe his energy would even serve her well. She'd enjoy seeing the life sucked out of him. Juudai would watch him fail, and he'd realize the truth she'd known all along, and then it would be just the two of them, together, forever.
Maybe if she'd paid more attention, she'd have seen it coming.
She should have done away with Johan Andersen right away, like she had done away with Cobra and everyone else who'd stood in her path. Because now she was so close to having Juudai all to herself, and he dared, dared to interfere in a duel that was never his to participate in. How dare he stand with Juudai? How dare he try to protect him? She was the only one who was to protect Juudai. Only she could properly guide him and show him the road to greatness and glory. This boy, Johan Andersen, dared to claim that position for himself? He dared to claim Juudai as his best friend and Juudai didn't even deny it?
And then, the final insult, he dared not only to save that entire damned school, but even dared to sacrifice himself in the process. Sacrifice himself for Juudai like she had, so many eons ago. He was taking Juudai away from her, and he was tearing her away from this world and into another along with him, but she was used to the pain. She was used to being separated from Juudai, and she knew she would get him back soon enough.
Everyone who had ever compared Johan Andersen to her Juudai was wrong. He was nothing like Juudai. There was only one other person Johan Andersen resembled, and for that, she would make him pay.
For if Johan Andersen wanted to protect Juudai like she had, and love Juudai like she had, and act like the person she had been so many centuries ago, then she would turn all the pain she had ever suffered back onto him. He was weak. He could never love Juudai like she did. If he thought he could withstand the pain of loving the Supreme King-
Yubel would greatly enjoy teaching him otherwise.