Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V: Soul Merge - Yuri's Story
Silence lingered in the air as a dirty bed creaked from the weight of a small girl shifting on it. Her purple eyes stared up at the ceiling above her with barely any emotion. One of her fingers mindlessly twisted about her short purple and pink hair, whilst the other tightly clung to a single trading card in her hand. She had no idea where she had come from or if she had any family. Her earliest memory was spending days in the orphanage with only her Starving Venom Fusion Dragon card and her name, that being Yuri.
A sigh, one that she wasn't sure was out of exhaustion or boredom, managed to escape her mouth before she slid her eyes closed. She hated how she felt contained to her single room since the orphanage caretakers wanted her to remain in her room, away from the other children. For reasons unknown to her, the young girl seemed to carry a frightening aura that only worsened if someone were to make her angry. One particular memory that came to mind when an older child tried to steal away her card for his amusement.
To this day she couldn't understand what had come over her. When the child had managed to snatch the card from her, it was like a switch was flipped in her mind. Next thing she knew, the child was pinned to the floor and she had her hands latched tightly around the child's neck. Yuri shuddered as she could recall the strange voices that filled her mind in that moment. One was urging her to squeeze tighter and watch the life leave the child's eyes; the other was pleading her to release the child before it was too late. She wasn't able to act on any of the choices presented to her due to caretakers quickly prying her off her victim. Regardless, she managed to reclaim her the card she considered too precious to lose.
Suddenly, Yuri found herself stirred from her thoughts by the sound of the door to her room being opened. She sat up just in time to see a man and a boy around her age enter the room. She didn't pay much attention to the man clothed in a long purple coat, instead her attention was drawn to the boy with purple hair. When her purple eyes had made contact with his green ones, her brow furrowed in both confusion and discomfort. Her chest felt like it was being squeezed from staring at the young boy; at the same time she felt a strange tug on her soul. The feeling strangely both comforted and angered her.
Fortunately for the young girl, her attention was drawn away from the strange boy by the feeling of fingers being wrapped around her chin. She didn't give any resistance as she allowed her head to be tilted where she was now giving eye contact to the older man. She was able to see the man was completely bald and wore a strange headset with a single red lens. She remained silent as the man examined her. For a split second, Yuri noticed the man narrowed his blue eyes at her with the hint of disgust on his face. She couldn't help but clench her teeth, both out of anger and guilt toward the man before her.
Finally, the silence filling the air was shattered when the man asked "Tell me, what is your name and how did you end up in this place?"
The purple-headed girl blinked her eyes in surprise before answering "My name is Yuri and I've been here for as long as I remember. The caretakers claimed they had found me abandoned as an infant with no note except for my Starving Venom Fusion Dragon card. So they named me and have been raising me."
"Huh, weird." the purple-headed boy commented, prompting the young girl to direct her attention toward him once more, "You're kind of like me. I have no memories of a family and was found as an infant by staff at the academy. It's weird, but I'm kind of happy to hear that."
Yuri frowned slightly as the strange tugging on her soul returned. She didn't understand why this strange boy was creating a feeling within her she had never experienced before.
Though, she never got the chance to voice her thoughts when she heard the older man state "So, you really are the other part to this pair. My name is Leo Akaba, but you will address me as Professor whilst you're living at the Academy."
Many days passed since Yuri found herself living at Academia. She couldn't help but love her life at the Duel Academy. Ever since Leo Akaba had taken her from the orphanage, she found herself living the life of luxury. All her needs were accommodated for, her room was much nicer than the standard students, and she received special privileges such as rare decks and personal lessons on dueling tactics. She didn't even have to follow the ranked uniform code, instead she was allowed to wear her button-up purple shirt and black skirt. All the special treatment made her feel like royalty, a queen among the rest. Though, it slightly annoyed her that Stephen, the purple headed boy with Leo Akaba, also received the same special treatment.
A frustrated huff escaped her mouth as she sat alone on a bench, not bothering to interact with the other children. While she was not contained to her room like at the orphanage, she didn't feel like trying to befriend her fellow students. She chalked it up as growing into the habit of being alone due to being locked away for so long, but she couldn't help but feel there was another reason why she preferred solidarity. With nothing else to do, she took her card deck out of her dueling disk and began shuffling it.
She was lost in this action until she heard a chuckle. Her purple eyes glanced up to see Stephen sit down next to her with a smirk painted on his face. Her teeth clenched when she felt the tug on her soul she had grown familiar with. Every single time she was in the boy's presence, she found herself loving and hating his company. It was almost as if she was drawn to his existence yet despising it at the same time.
"Yuri, I have been watching you for days and all I ever see is you sitting on the bench as you shuffle your deck." he taunted with his hands resting behind his head, "You're going to make both your deck and those special classes of yours go to waste if you don't duel someone soon."
Yuri simply rolled her eyes as she replied, "I don't see why I should be intimidated by a boy that constantly carries around such a girlish piece of jewelry on his wrist.", pointing her index finger toward the slim silver bracelet with a single purple gem resting around the boy's wrist.
Stephen simply grinned as he held his wrist with the bracelet on it in front of his face.
"It may seem girly, but it's precious to me. It's just like with your Starving Venom Fusion Dragon card, it was the only thing with me when I was found as a baby. I've considered tossing it out a few times in the past, but I couldn't separate from it. Maybe one day I can find out who exactly gave me this bracelet and maybe find out about who I really am." he replied with a soft smile.
The purple-headed girl nearly felt like she had stopped breathing from hearing the boy's words. She thought about quickly shuffling her cards to take her mind off it, unfortunately, as soon as she glanced downward, she noticed her Starving Venom Fusion Dragon card was on top of her deck. Wordlessly, almost as if in a trance, she lifted up the card and held it up next to Stephen's bracelet. Without warning, she felt her head throb in pain. With a pained hiss, she immediately squeezed her eyes shut. But instead of being greeted with darkness, she was greeted a strange vision. The image of a woman holding four cards above her with a monstrous looking man glaring down at her filled her mind. The feeling of familiarity rushed over her as she gazed at the two individuals.
The vision disappeared as quickly as it appeared as the young girl took note of her shoulder being shook. She slowly blinked open her eyes to see Stephen giving her a worried frown.
"Yuri, are you alright? You looked like you were in pain for a moment there." he asked out of concern.
Yuri huffed in reply as she jerked her shoulder out of the boy's grip.
"I'm perfectly fine." she insisted with the hint of bitterness carried in her voice, "It was merely a small headache, I do not need your concern."
"And she's back." Stephen muttered.
His green eyes glanced down at the cards in the girl's hand, allowing a sly smirk to form on his face. Without a word, he got off of the bench and activated his duel disk.
"Yuri, let's have a duel right now. I'm curious to see if those classes of yours have been actually been paying off." he urged with his smirk never leaving his face.
The purple-headed girl was surprised, but that surprise was quickly replaced with an excited and confident grin. The thought of herself participating in her very first duel filled with so much an excitement, she couldn't recall a time she ever experienced such excitement. Refusing to back down from the challenge issued to her, she got off the bench and activated her own duel disk.
The duel was filled with many close calls and saves. Yuri narrowed her eyes as she watched Stephen chuckle upon ending his turn. Her Life Points were dangerously low, leaving her to wonder if she was capable of winning the duel. She had two Predator Plants on the field, that being Fly Hell and Moray Nepenthes. Among the few cards she clung onto tightly in her hand was none other than Starving Venom Fusion Dragon. She announced her draw as she proceeded to bite her lip hard. If she wasn't able to draw a good card, she wouldn't be able to defeat Stephen's Lunalight Panther Dancer that had been the source of her misery for the past few turns.
Momentarily holding her breath, she drew the card from her duel disk. But upon doing this, her heart raced in excitement and relief. A large grin was plastered on her face as she immediately flipped around her card to reveal it as the spell card known as Polymerization.
"I activate my spell card, Polymerzation! With it I can fuse together my Fly Hell and Moray Nephenthes in order to bring out my ultimate weapon! Come forth my beautiful deadly flora, Starving Venom Fusion Dragon!" she cried out as the two monsters merged together to create a black dragon with giant purple petals lined with hundreds of teeth.
Unknown to either, both Yuri's and Stephen's heart fluttered in excitement and joy when the dragon appeared. They both felt a strong connection to the dragon; the image of a young man standing on top of the dragon briefly flashing through their minds.
"With Starving Venom Fusion Dragon's special ability, when I fusion summon him with monsters already on the field, he can gain the attack of all special summon monsters you have on the field until the end of this turn. Since fusion summoning counts as special summoning, that mean the 2800 attack of your Lunalight Panther Dancer combines with Starving Venom Fusion Dragon's attack of 2800 in order to raise it to 5600! Since your card has already battled, your monster's effect is no longer in place, meaning I can attack your monster and end this duel!" she proclaimed.
The black dragon let out a roar as it destroyed its opponent. The impact of the attack was so strong, it caused Stephen to fall backwards with a loud yelp. Yuri's heart refused to calm down with her grin never leaving her face. She had never imagined that duels could be so thrilling for her. Suddenly her attention was directed toward an angry voice shouting both hers and Stephen's name. Turning toward the direction of the voice, she saw Leo Akaba approaching with a strange angry glare on his face.
"Oh, professor!" she started happily, "You just missed my first duel! It was amazing, I-"
Unfortunately, she found herself cut off by the older man snarling "Wipe that smile off your face this instant."
All the happiness she was feeling immediately vanished as she stared in confusion. She had thought the professor would have been proud of her skills, especially since it showed all the special classes she received was paying off. Silently, she watch as the purple-coated man walked over to Stephen and asked if he was alright. Her lips pursed when she saw the young boy dusting the dirt off his red shirt, insisting that he was only startled by the final attack. She couldn't understand, to her it almost seemed like the professor was treating her as if she had purposely harmed her opponent. The confusion lingered in mind as Leo Akaba picked up the purple-headed boy by his arm and guided him away, leaving her to wonder what she had done wrong.
Years passed since Yuri's duel with Stephen, the young girl now eleven years-old. She had never been allowed to duel him again, but she had grown into the frequent habit of dueling her fellow students in order to constantly feel the excitement she gets only from dueling. In every single match, she would unleash the full potential of her deck to heart's content, causing a smile of happiness to form on her face. Yet after each duel, Leo Akaba would show up and scold her for smiling. She couldn't wrap her mind around why the man that had taken her in seemed both caring and cruel to her.
At times, she could catch glimpses of Stephen's duel with the other students of Academia. During those times, she would witness him smiling brightly, yet not once did the eleven year-old boy get scolded for such an act like she was. A hateful snarl escaped her mouth as she finished watching one such duel, growing to despise the teen's bright smile.
"We both are treated special by the academy, given privileges such as I getting to wear a special uniform and you get access to special decks. We're both of the same status, yet I hate how I seem to be the one constantly mistreated. You're allowed to express yourself during duels, yet I'm shunned for it. Why, if I didn't know any better, I would think the professor views me as nothing more than a monster." she bitterly thought to herself.
Her hatred flared at the word monster. Her nails dug tightly into the palms of her hand, to the point it almost broke skin. She was awakened from her thoughts when one of the Academia soldiers approached her, announcing she was required to attend training sessions. An annoyed huff escaped her mouth as she made her way for the training building. Leo Akaba had been training her so she may join in on the planned invasion of the XYZ Dimension. It at first had surprised her to learn the other dimensions most could only dream of were now within reach; but that surprise eventually turned to yearning.
She inhaled deeply as her hand clutched her purple jacket. She was more than happy to attend training if it meant traveling to the other dimensions. Thoughts of the other three dimensions filled her with the need to travel to them; the need to find something that dwell within those three dimension. Pushing her thoughts away of dimensional travel, she finally reached the training building. A bored yawn escaped her mouth as she activated her duel disk. She could only hope she would be provided a challenging opponent for once.
As turns passed by in the duel, Yuri felt her heart flip in excitement as she summoned her Starving Venom Fusion Dragon. The Obelisk Blue student had been dueling had been quite the challenge for her, but she was easily able to overcome the odds. Without any hesitation, she had her dragon attack, dropping her opponent's life points to zero. She was ready to put away her duel disk until a pained cry rang through her ears. Her purple eyes widened as she gazed upon the injured Obelisk Blue student, holding his hand over his bleeding shoulder. With the help Solid Vision, holograms could have density of a living thing, but this meant duelists had to be careful as to not injure each other.
Yuri was speechless as she gazed at her injured opponent. The scene seemed strangely familiar to her. Suddenly, just like those many years in the orphanage, she felt as if a switch was flipped within her mind.
"Hurt him more." a dark voice whispered throughout her mind, "Hurt him to your heart's content. Show them the true meaning of brutality. Give the audience what they want. Be the monster everyone sees you for."
The purple-headed girl found herself muttering the same words, barely able to notice the second faint voice in her head urging her to stop. Despite it being against the rules, she commanded the dragon to attack her opponent once again. As the student's cries filled the room, a demented and psychotic grin slowly formed on her face. What should have sounded horrifying sounded like music to her ears. Her grin grew only larger as she continued to attack.
"Yuri, stop this madness this instant!" she heard a voice yell.
She turned to see Leo Akaba giving her his usual glare of disgust. The teenage girl simply chuckled as she ignored the professor's order and injured the Obelisk Blue student once again.
"I told you to stop, you're going to kill him if you keep this up!" the blue eyed man roared.
"But why should I?" Yuri asked in a taunting tone, "I'm having so much fun right now, yet you seem to always take that away from me. I can't help but wonder if you hate me, professor."
Her eyes flashed, taking on a more reptilian appearance as she continued "I just want what you've deprived me of so long, enjoyment in my duels. You treat me as if I'm some monster that isn't allowed any kind of happiness. Well, if a monster is what you see me as, maybe I should act like one as well. Why not? I'll embrace the vision you created of me and you'll know, Leo Akaba, that you were the one to create this monster!"
A maniacal laugh escaped her mouth and filled the room. Insanity shined in her reptilian-like eyes as she turned her attention toward her victim. Her sadistic grin cracked a bit wider as she prepared her final attack. But much to her disappointment, she never got the chance to call out the attack. Instead she felt something slap across her face, causing her to stumble to the ground. She groaned as she felt her arms being seized by a strong pair of hands and her duel disk stripped off of her arm. Her purple eyes, which had changed back to normal, blinked open to see Leo Akaba standing before her as he slipped back on his purple glove. With the stinging and dull throb covering her entire cheek, it had dawned on her that the older man had slapped her.
"Restrain her and have her locked away in her room. She wishes to be treated as a monster, then such treatment is what she'll get. She is forbidden from dueling unless it's for training to prepare for the invasion, that way I can ensure this incident is to never happen again." Leo Akaba snarled, sending one last hateful glance to the teenage girl before him.
"Excuse me sir, if she's so dangerous, why do you keep her around? If it were up to me, I would have her disposed of for the safety of the other students." one of the soldiers spoke up.
The older man let out a tired sighed as he rubbed his fingers against his forehead.
"Believe me, I want to do nothing more than dispose of this abomination. But I cannot do that, for she has something I require. So until I am able to require that thing, she has to be taken care of. I do not wish to discuss this anymore, take her away!" he grunted in reply, waving his arm whilst doing so.
Yuri's eyes widened in disbelief. She had suspected the professor had hated her, but she never imagined that he had viewed her as an abomination. Her shocked thoughts raced through her mind as she found herself dragged out of the training building.
Just like Leo Akaba had promised, the eleven girl had found herself treated as nothing more than a monster. A tired sigh escaped her mouth as her weight shifted atop her bed with her hand clinging tightly onto her Starving Venom Fusion Dragon card. She felt like she was back at the orphanage, locked away from the world by people who feared her. But this time, instead of remaining numb to this fact, she find herself gleeful. A smile she wasn't afraid of showing slid across her face as she slid her eyes closed, the sound of the voice from the duel filling her mind.
"Embrace the image the audience expects of me." she muttered as her grip tightened around her card, "Become the monster they see me as. Hmm, who am I to disappoint the audience?"
Three years passed since the near fatal incident in training building. Yuri smiled slyly when she noticed the frightened glances she received from her fellow students. Her presence alone managed to strike fear into their hearts. But she didn't mind this, in fact she craved their fear. Seeing their frightened faces gave her a sense of power; it made her feel queenly. This feeling had only encouraged her to adorn the attire of a short purple button up dress with a long tail in the back, a purple jacket, white pants, long black boots, and a red cape. She had felt the look gave off a sense of power and regal, two words she felt described herself perfectly. Brushing back her long purple and pink hair, she entered the office of Leo Akaba.
"I have come here like you've asked, professor." Yuri stated with a slight bow, "Is there any orders you wish to for me to carry out?"
The professor did his best to hide away any disgust as he answered "Yes, I think it's time I set things in motion. I am sending you to the XYZ, Synchro, and Standard Dimensions. I want you to seek out and capture three individuals in those dimensions. I have no idea if they will be male or female, but you should recognize them by the special bracelets they wear around their wrists, much similar to the one Stephen wears."
The fourteen year-old raised her brow in interest. It intrigued her to learn that Stephen's bracelet signified him as being an important piece to the professor's plan. Clearly the bracelet held importance, answering her question as to why the purple-headed boy constantly wore it.
Choosing not to voice her interest, she gave another slight bow as she responded "As you wish, professor."
Though as she got ready to leave, she allowed a small smile to appear on her face for a few brief seconds. It pleased her to see the hated reaction she had anticipated, watching as Leo Akaba narrowed his blue eyes in disgust at her. But she felt happy to infuriate the older man, because she knew that when he saw her smile, he only saw the monster he hated smiling back.