Crash Landing
The mirror was an odd shape: oval, and large, but with a frame that swirled metal beyond edge of the glass, making it so that more space was needed to nail the object to the wall. The swirls clashed like waves, ebbing into smooth points where the metallic silver paint had been scratched and worn away. This left the impression that the mirror was cheap and clunky, rather than a bold piece for artistic and practical use against the wall.
The first time the spirit of the Puzzle had seen the mirror, he hadn't been thinking much beyond his latest victory. Duke Devlin, the creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters, had just been defeated at his own game and had insisted on Yuugi and his friends staying long enough for him to issue an apology and to explain his actions. As he'd led them to a sitting area, the spirit had noticed the mirror on the wall, a curious thing, so attention grabbing as it was —much like its owner. He'd shifted his gaze for only a second, settling Yuugi's eyes on the object only to add it to his field of vision, as it were, and had taken in the sight of two sets of eyes staring back at him. Two layers of purple, subtle, like a painter's brushstrokes. And he'd been curious, because he'd rarely seen himself through his partner's body, as if he were a separate entity altogether. He hadn't expected to see anything more than Yuugi, staring back at him.
So the mirror was odd, he'd decided.
But in the end it was just a mirror, and the spirit had more important things to think about. He soon forgot about it.
Duke was added to the spirit's list of friendly acquaintances, which was pleasant mental pen work. Good gaming opponents were hard to come by, and Duke was certainly an entertaining person to be around. He spent a lot of time and effort in the social department, the spirit had noted, seemingly only because he enjoyed the praise and attention that came from long hours of making himself look good to his fellow students' eyes. The spirit found himself often wondering whether it was worth it to flirt and entertain and joke, all to obtain a satisfactory reaction that made a person feel good about themself. Surely Duke was not lacking in self-confidence and self-esteem. Watching Duke had made the spirit conclude that he wasn't the best judge of social situations, with the small amount of human interaction that he had. Perhaps Duke's extroverted, attention seeking nature was more natural than his own way of dealing with people.
People watching was something of a habit of the spirit's, admittedly. It was hard not to develop such a habit, though, considering his situation as a resident in someone else's body. So while Yuugi was in class, or engaged in conversation, or otherwise involved in an action that required all of his mental facilities, the spirit was left to himself and his own thoughts while his partner was preoccupied. This happened too often for him not to pick up one or two habits to occupy himself while Yuugi was busy with something else. People watching was his primary interest when he had nothing else in the way of entertainment, and so he went about it the way he approached all of his interests. With focus.
Letting his observant side take control, the spirit took in details about the people around him, committing them to memory. Speech patterns, nervous quirks, personality; all taken in by the bored ghost for consideration. The spirit had not needed a lot of time to understand Duke. Within his first few days at school, the spirit of the Puzzle was quickly made aware of his work habits, his interests, and whether or not he was another bully in the Domino school system. And after his defeat at the spirit's hands, he'd been considered more fully for the simple fact that he was interesting.
Duke was a magician, the spirit had exclaimed to Yuugi, upon seeing his dice tricks firsthand. Yuugi had listened on in amusement at the spirit's wandering thoughts of how Duke performed his tricks, and had suggested to go ask Duke himself, but the spirit had declined. He was certain Duke would reply as he himself would have done: "A magician never reveals his secrets." So Yuugi had dropped the topic, and had sat back as the spirit had looked on at another act from Duke to impress the female students.
The spirit liked how Duke talked. Duke was someone who was very careful with his words. He had a thing for adjectives: beautiful and brilliant were among his favourites, frequently directed at either the girls around him or at himself. He made sure to always leave the person he was ending a conversation with on an unfinished topic, so as to make sure that he could strike up the same conversation at a later date. Duke also smirked and smiled a lot while he talked, no matter the seriousness of the subject. It gave off the impression that he knew what he was talking about, and it gave him a confident air, like he was in control of the direction the conversation was going. The spirit of the Puzzle never grew bored while listening to Duke speak.
Yuugi and his friends did not spend much time with Duke, because regardless of how things had been cleared up between them all, Duke hadn't quite made it into their circle of friends. The potential may have been there, but the teenager had more important things on his mind than friends, with a new game launch and a business to take care of. As well as women. His adoring fans needed his attention, apparently.
So it was that the spirit of the Puzzle became the only one of their group to pay Duke any mind, other than the occasional passing remark from Joey, who was jealous of the attention he got.
This was perhaps the reason —this knowing that he was one of the few who observed Duke at great length among the group of them— that made the spirit insist to Yuugi that something was wrong, when Duke walked in the classroom door one morning.
Normally, Duke fiddled with his hair, grinned at the closest girl in the room, and walked in casually, with great comfort as though it were his own home. But the spirit couldn't help but notice the absence of Duke's smile, or the stiff way he walked as though he'd been carrying something heavy the night before and hadn't quite worked out the kinks in his muscles.
His slight concern filtered through to Yuugi's mind, prompting Yuugi to get up from his seat to ask Duke how he was doing. "Hey," Yuugi said cheerfully, and Duke's head snapped up. His expression was weary. "You okay? You seem really tired today."
"I'm fine," Duke said with a nod, "I just was moving things in my house last night into storage and feel a little sore."
"Oh." From the corner of Yuugi's vision, the spirit of the Puzzle edged down from his seat on Yuugi's desk and took interest in whatever German novel Kaiba seemed to be reading. Which was certainly odd, knowing how little German he knew. "If you need it, I could help you after school? If there are still things you have to move, that is."
Surprised at his generosity, Duke responded with raised eyebrows, "Sure. That'd be great. Thanks."
"No problem." Yuugi moved back to his desk.
"We're going to see Duke after school?" The spirit asked, immediately at his side. The sounds made by his spirit form filtered through their connection into his ears. Yuugi nodded. "I wonder if we'll play more rounds of Dungeon Dice Monsters." His tone was slightly excited, making a smile twitch onto Yuugi's face.
Strategies began to worm their way into the spirit's mind, and he let himself focus his attention on those thoughts, leaving Yuugi to his lesson, as the teacher walked into the room.
Hours drained away with the spirit suitably amused, watching the back of Duke's head as he scribbled notes, wondering at the way his fingers were flat on the desk rather than tangled in his hair. He had smoother hair when he wasn't curling it with his fingers all day, the spirit noticed. And the smoothness seemed to amplify the sheen of it, somehow. The spirit found his mind wandering from Dungeon Dice Monsters to hair products.
When school ended, Yuugi found he had no need to explain where he was going to his friends. Tristan was off to his garage to work on his bike, and Joey was tagging along. Téa had her part-time job. He might have said something to Bakura, but he was more often than not doing his own thing, gone before the rest of them had even packed their bags. So Yuugi waited for Duke after a few words of good-bye to his friends, and followed him out of the school to his home.
The spirit of the Puzzle still seemed content to watch the back of Duke's head, floating along behind Yuugi with a distracted look on his face. Yuugi stole a glance at him out of the corner of his eye, and watched the spirit compose himself as though sensing that he was acting oddly.
Eventually they reached their destination. Bags were set aside and shoes were removed. Yuugi took in the state of Duke's home. Several closets stood ajar and their contents seemed to be in the midst of rearrangement. "When my family cleans our house like this," Yuugi mentioned, "usually we end up getting rid of a lot of old junk. Old games, mostly, or antiques that my grandfather has collected."
"Yeah, I've been doing that too." Duke gestured to an adjacent wall, and Yuugi followed his gaze. He vaguely remembered seeing the odd shaped mirror during his previous visit. "That definitely needs to go to the dump," Duke complained.
"I'll take it off the wall for you?" Yuugi suggested.
"Sure. I'll just be down the hall. I've got to find something to get those screws out of the wall."
As Yuugi approached the mirror, it occurred to him that it might be too heavy for him to lift it from its hooks. Fitting his hands around the swirls of the frame, he realized this to be true, or at least, it was attached too firmly to the wall to be pried loose without a screwdriver or some other tool. "Hmm," Yuugi caught his gaze in the mirror and frowned at the inky reflection. It looked like a thin film of grey glue or plastic was stuck on the glass.
"Here," said Duke, startling Yuugi from behind. He twisted his head and saw the taller teen was offering him a screwdriver. His bangs were covering his gaze. To the side, the spirit vaguely wondered how he could live with that. Surely it must be a nuisance, to continually push aside hair to see the person you were conversing with. But Duke did not lift his hand to his face. He just said, "You remove it from the hooks and I'll lift it off."
Yuugi nodded, raising himself on his toes, and fitted the screwdriver into a screw, giving the handle one firm turn as Duke took hold of the mirror.
"On second thought...let's leave this where it is." Came Duke's voice, sounding strangely hollow and toneless.
"Huh?"
"Yuugi," said the cool voice of the spirit, sounding oddly uncertain.
Yuugi stopped and turned his head. Duke stood beside him with an expressionless face, hands falling away from the mirror. His eyes were glassed over. "Is something wrong?" Yuugi questioned uncertainly. He was aware that the spirit of the Puzzle was suddenly tense, and his uneasiness was sliding through their bond to poke away at his mind.
Duke merely blinked. "No, nothing. I just changed my mind."
Before Yuugi could converse with him further, the spirit requested he step aside, which he did, though not without some confusion. "Maybe you should go sit down," the spirit suggested, "you don't seem yourself today."
"I'm perfectly myself," Duke said shortly, "I haven't changed at all."
The spirit was careful not to frown. "I meant that perhaps you were tired."
"I am," said Duke flatly, "the same as I was before. And I was not tired before."
Beside them, the mirror flaked silver paint. The spirit let the hand holding the screwdriver fall to his side, and he glanced in the direction of the screw casually as he did so. On the glass, the reflection of Yuugi was graced with a thin outline of a gold Eye on his forehead. The hint of it added a glimmer to his skin. "Where did you get this mirror? Have you had it long?"
Duke shrugged, looking incredibly stiff as he did so. It might have been that he was more sore than he had been letting on before, but the way he rotated his shoulders gave the spirit of the Puzzle the sense that it was something different. He remembered all the times he'd looked at his reflection with Yuugi's eyes, flexing muscles he was unused to moving and trying to get a feel for the body he'd be using. "Why the questions? Does it matter? Here, just give me back the screwdriver." The words might have held an irritation behind them, but the spirit couldn't tell with his flat voice. With robotic limbs, Duke made a grab for the object. The spirit let him take it from his hand —and froze as he felt smooth, sharp fingers brush his own.
On his fingertips, a residue had been left behind: like the crust of dried glue, sticky and inky in colour.
The spirit of the Puzzle turned to the mirror fully, and watched as a distracted, tired Duke stuffed a screwdriver into his pocket, his mouth crinkling into an easy smile as his voice said: "I never offered you a drink, did I? I apologize. Let me amend that. Want anything?"
"Juice would be fine," he found himself saying, gears turning in his mind.
"I'll get that for you." Said the bland voice of Duke, as his legs were shuffled around to be walked down the hallway.
Duke's reflection walked with lax posture, fingers reaching up absently to curl in his hair.
Listening to the sound of his feet disappearing, the spirit reached into Yuugi's jacket pocket and withdrew a pen, popping off the cap to use it to slowly prod the screw into loosening further. With a clack, the small object landed on the floor. The spirit of the Puzzle started to go at the other screws, before realizing they were too tight to remove via the pen cap. So he returned it to his pocket, and worked his fingers under the frame of the mirror, and planted his feet. Then he gave a sharp tug, and heard the drywall groan as the screws were pulled loose with the mirror. "It's too heavy," Yuugi was saying to him, but he paid no heed to the words. The drywall groaned again, and the silver paint coated his palms. "Why are you trying to get it down, anyway?" Yuugi asked.
"What are you doing?" Said a voice, loudly, but with no emotion to it. The spirit eyed the annoyed Duke in the mirror, just turning the corner. Two glasses were set down abruptly on the floor.
"I really agreed with you about the mirror," he said pointedly.
Duke took several long strides forward, so the spirit changed tactics and moved to face him. Not a second later, Duke's hand made to push the spirit aside. Without even pausing to think about it, the spirit rocked Yuugi's body backward, avoiding the hand, and jammed his fist forward to slam Duke's head against the mirror. Wide, glassy eyes blinked at him, but Duke did not even cry out. Instead he snapped out his other hand and clamped it down on the spirit's shoulder.
The spirit moved to shake it off, and tried to throw Duke against the wall again —only to have the teen fall down to the floor instead.
His first thought was: where did the wall go?
Then, Yuugi's thought entered his mind: why is everything backwards?
The spirit did a double take. Where the wall with the mirror should have been, instead it was on his opposite side; for a dizzying moment the spirit had to turn himself fully around to be sure the whole house hadn't warped or mutated on him, or some other such nonsense. Duke was getting up off of the floor. "You shouldn't have done that," he said, "now you're stuck."
Duke let his neck twist to eye the mirror as the realizations sunk in the head of Yuugi and the spirit of the Puzzle. "We're in the mirror world," Yuugi whispered in awe, "...does that mean...is the real Duke in here, too?"
"No," said not-Duke, shocking both of them, "he was but now he isn't. You sent him back when you pushed me in."
"You can hear me?" Yuugi stumbled out.
"Mirrors reflect true things," said not-Duke with his eternally flat voice, "facts."
Yuugi and the spirit looked at each other then, truly, and realized with further shock that they both appeared fully visible and solid. Yuugi pressed his hands together and marvelled at being in a separate —body? could it even be called that?— before swallowing heavily. Things had just gotten incredibly complicated. The spirit felt himself start to become angry. "You dragged my partner and I in here," he said very coldly, "who are you and what is your objective?"
He still wasn't facing either of them, staring off into the mirror with what might have been thoughtfulness on anybody else's face. "I am the mirror, in a sense. The spirit of reflections."
"Other Me," Yuugi tugged sharply on the spirit's sleeve, alarm on his face. Following his gaze, and the gaze of not-Duke, the spirit stared into the mirror.
On the glass, Duke was offering a drink to the spirit of the Puzzle, who accepted with robotic movements.
"My...reflection?" He said in horror.
"And Yuugi's, of course." Returned their captor.
For every thought of how to take down the reflection of Duke, the so-called mirror itself, that spun in the spirit of the Puzzle's mind, an equal thought cropped up in Yuugi's. But Yuugi was not thinking of destruction. He quickly made notes in his mind of the situation, as he understood it, and the spirit followed the train of thoughts and felt himself become more calm. The mirror of Duke's was a pathway to another world, a mirror world, it seemed. Duke had entered when he'd touched the mirror, and Yuugi and the spirit had entered when the spirit had made not-Duke touch the mirror and it'd dragged them in with it.
Yuugi managed a determined voice. "You said we're stuck but we're really not," he pointed out to the image of Duke, who turned to stare at them. Yuugi drew in a breath. "Our reflection just has to touch the mirror again and we'll be out."
"Or Duke will touch the mirror first," not-Duke said. It almost sounded like a challenge. "Or neither will happen and we will not be leaving at all."
Three steps, and Yuugi had reached the mirror, the ugly thing that was causing them so much trouble. He pounded on the glass and shouted out. "Duke! And...um...Other...Other Me! Hey!"
The spirit advanced on not-Duke, intending on a different tactic. "It's no use to shout," the mirror-in-Duke's-form was saying offhandedly, "reflections are just pictures."
"Let me out!" Yuugi shouted louder, not to be deterred.
"But we are the real thing," murmured the spirit of the Puzzle dangerously, and his gold Eye glowed. Not-Duke braced himself for a brawl. "Shadow Game!"
"You can't call such things in an unreal world," said the reflection.
"Just watch me."
The walls around them were vibrating with the force of the Shadow Realm, attempting to reach the one who had called upon it. The floor bucked under them, floorboards snapping and creaking. "No," said the reflection flatly. Yuugi wrenched his head around angrily, and silently egged on his other self, who smirked out of habit.
"Shadow Game!" The spirit shouted, with more intention. With more deliverance of his desire. His forehead looked like it was wreathed in gold. "Take this spirit into darkness, should I overcome it! Destroy everything around us!" He stalked forward, and the reflection jerked sideways, but Yuugi jumped up to cut him off from bolting down the hall. The spirit's hands slammed into the reflection's abdomen, and it crumpled, unused to fighting. Unused to the touch of something so real.
Vibrations started cracking the drywall and the ceiling coating, causing white paint to float down on top of their heads. The glassy-eyed reflection kicked out stiffly, and sharp, smooth skin ripped through its clothing, like it was made of glass. Yuugi was torn between watching them fight and getting glimpses of the real world through the mirror, but stood with his arms spread out, as he was not about to allow the reflection to escape. "No," said the reflection again, like it did not understand what was happening to it.
Black was leaking through the mirror on the wall. Black was flowing down the broken floorboards, over the shuddering walls. Black soaked up into the cracks in the ceiling and showered down on the spirit of the Puzzle, and he wrapped his hands in it and made himself a cloak out of the substance; Yuugi watched, stunned, as the spirit lashed out again, hands knocking into the reflection's jaw. The reflection fumbled like a toddler, not sure where to put its limbs and not thinking clearly enough to know to try and stand and bolt or fight back. But the spirit of the Puzzle, with his hands black and hard against the reflection's sharp skin, had already made the deciding move.
A snapping sound, somehow overheard over the crumbling hall around them, alerted them to the ever-widening crack on the reflection's face. Black seeped into the wound —black slowly unthreading from the spirit's hands— and made the crack split like a spider web on the reflection's face.
The two of them watched as the reflection's head shattered.
Immediately, the crumbling started to occur at a more rapid pace. Pieces of wood split into hundreds of tiny woodchips before their eyes. Yuugi nearly fell to the unsteady floor, but the spirit grabbed him and quickly pulled him back to the mirror. "Our time is up," he said, and Yuugi nodded numbly, watching the spirit's cloak unthread faster. He found his throat was dry, and couldn't say the words he wished, but the spirit noticed his concern and offered a brief reassuring look. Then he pressed his hand to the blackened mirror, still leaking Shadows, and gave a forceful shove, muscles in his neck taunt from the effort.
On the glass, the blurred form of the spirit's reflection turned from Duke's, and suddenly the spirit's hand breached the glass, and grasped through to his reflection's shoulder.
There was a crash.
The first thing he noticed, rather oddly, was the smell of fruit juice and the stickiness of his hand and chest. There was something warm and breathing under him, and for a moment the spirit thought it might be his partner, but upon opening his eyes he realized it to be Duke. In the back of his mind, Yuugi was groggily checking that he was in the same body again.
"Whoa! You okay? I didn't expect the mirror to just crash to the floor like that. Did you get hit?"
His voice sounded so full of life, that the spirit nearly sighed in relief. Then he thought that reaction would be appropriate, and did so. "I am fine. Thank-you for your concern, but aside from dropping the juice all over my jacket I am alright."
Duke's face was unnaturally close, and the spirit used that moment to absorb information. He had high cheekbones, the spirit decided. Very angled eyes. Or perhaps it was the eyeliner that made it seem so. And his bangs were still in his eyes. Surely it was irritating?
"Well, normally I'd agree with you, but you still seem to be on top of me so maybe you broke a leg," Duke suggested with heavy amusement.
The spirit started. His mind scrambled for an excuse as he similarly scrambled to his feet. "Ah...sorry." His stomach felt like it was flipping over, for some reason.
Duke stood up, as well, and looked at the destroyed mirror briefly as his fingers started wrapping themselves in his hair. He smirked widely at the spirit of the Puzzle. "It's not you, I completely understand. It's me. I'm too gorgeous for my own good. Don't worry. Many such as yourself are equally afflicted. People fall all over the place when I'm around—"
"I'm sure," the spirit interrupted in growing amusement. He couldn't help but grin back, a little. He doesn't know, the spirit realized, and the thought floated around in his head, startling him. Duke was aware of nothing.
"What do you say I get you a new drink and let you throw your jacket in the laundry?"
"Ah...and the mirror...?"
A shrug. "Certainly saves us the trouble of unscrewing it from the wall. Oh well. Never liked it anyway. Not my taste." He gestured dramatically down the hall, and spun on his feet, avoiding glass as he went. The spirit followed him in the same fashion, eyeing the floor for shards as he went.
He would have let his mind wander as he watched the back of Duke's head, following him into the kitchen, but Yuugi prodded him mentally with an anxious voice.
"I really hope he doesn't have any weird paintings he wants us to take down."
Well...if it landed him on top of Duke, perhaps it was worth the trouble, the spirit thought.
"Other Me..."
"Hmm?"
"I heard that, you know."
He felt himself get a little more flustered, and promptly decided to ignore Yuugi's comment.
He had more important things to think about, after all.
The End.