R.O.D. Read or Die/Yu-Gi-Oh! Crossover
Duel or Die
By: Gema J. Gall
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from either series, though I wish more than anything I did, since they are my all two favorite series of all time, ever. huggles ROD and YGO boxed sets Saphira Twyla is mine, as well as this plot and truckloads of idea demons that cause me to start new fics when I have a thesis to type. And to those of you who might think otherwise, Seto Kaiba is mine and mine alone!
Gema's Personal Disclaimer: I'm putting this in front of every chapter I write, so no one can miss it.
First, the obvious, I don't own anything trademarked or copyrighted.
Second; These are my fics, so y'all will have to deal with my writing quirks. Do not bother telling me about my spelling choices, like Yu-Gi, Joe, Millennial, or whatever else they may be. These are not mistakes, they are intentional. Therefore, I don't want to hear about how they are other wise spelled. If spelling bothers you that much, then leave.
I, and everyone else, do not appreciate personal attacks. My fics are what are open to being critized, not my character. Attacking me is libel, and I will report it as harassment.
I will not include profanity in my writings. Deal with it. Also, I do not appreciate profanity in reviews, so please don't include it. There's over 600,000 words in the English language. I am sure y'all can use something besides profanity.
Some review etiquette should be observed. As says at the bottom of each review page "It is extremely helpful to use this opportunity to comment on an aspect of the story that can be improved. A well rounded critique is often the most rewarding tool for the writer." I would appreciate constructive reviews. "Please continue" is not very helpful. Reviews that are solely demands for updates or explanations about a lack of updates are not helpful. And please, use recognizable grammar when reviewing. A review isn't very helpful if I can't read it.
Please check my bio from time to time. If I am on vacation or something and cannot update, that will be in the first few lines of my bio. I'll try to let y'all know if there's an update delay, so please check.
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Now, most of you aren't the problem, but this is for the few that are. This might come across as crabby, and I'm not really like this, but I've been pushed to my limit because of certain reviews.
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AN/ Spoiler Warning! This takes place after the ROD TV series and will contain major spoilers to those who haven't seen it. This takes place during the Orichalcos saga of Yu-Gi-Oh! and will contain spoilers from that saga and everything prior, as well as potentially spoiling the sagas afterward.
A young girl, about age sixteen stepped onto the bus with four other passengers. She carefully walked down the aisle, keeping her bulging navy backpack in front of her so she wouldn't accidentally hit someone in the head as she passed. She looked down both rows of seats, looking for an open one.
The bus was more crowded than usual for an afternoon day. It wasn't too hard to figure out why. Most seats down the right hand row were occupied by squirming elementary students, who were talking and snickering amongst themselves, looking out the windows, and shouting loudly to friends several rows behind them. An exasperated looking teacher sat toward the front and occasional shouted back for her charges to calm down and quiet down.
The girl sat down on the left hand side, selecting by sheer chance the seat above the wheel. After much forcing and wiggling, she managed to push her backpack on the floor next to her old running shoes. The bus started moving shortly after she was situated, and the breeze from the many open windows started whipping her long black hair across her face and seat. After pulling it back with her fingers behind her ears, she bent over and started rummaging through her backpack. She pulled out a thick novel and started reading, holding the pages tightly so they wouldn't be blown around by the wind.
She didn't move from this position past several stops, a fistfight from the students that resulted in a nosebleed, and a paper airplane hitting her head. She merely continued to read, her flame-blue eyes devouring pages quicker than most people could. Even when a black haired lady several years older than her who was so tall she had to tilt her head sideways to fit under the narrow roof asked if the seat next to her was open, all the first girl did was nod briefly. She didn't even bother to look at who had sat down next to her.
The bus traveled along nicely, without stopping for much traffic as rush hour was still two hours away. Soon, it was away from the thickest part of the city and was traveling towards the more scenic outskirts. The weather was beautiful, with the sun shining warmly but not hotly and just the right number of wispy clouds in the sky. Even with the yelling from the young kids, the rest of the passengers couldn't help but feel more relaxed as they drove under the shadow of a thin row of trees.
Two people, however, did not notice. Not only was the black haired girl wrapped up in her book, imagining what a paper doll house full of nightmares in the land of ice and shadow would be like, but her travel companion had also pulled a book out from under her arm and started reading. The book was old with yellow pages. The cover was so faded it was nearly impossible to read the title. Nonetheless, she was completely captivated by the story within its pages.
The bus stopped at the second to last station on its route and two men entered. Despite the balmy weather, both were wearing long tan trench coats and short black stocking hats. Each man was burdened with a large hockey bag. They started down the aisle slowly, making their way to the back of the bus. After glancing at their progress in the rearview mirror, the bus driver pulled away from the curb for the longest stretch of his route.
At this moment, both men turned so they were leaning back to back with each other. They both pulled out an identical gun and pointed it forward.
"Everyone stay in your seats!" barked one, instantly drawing attention to himself and his partner. Cries of alarm rose from the adult passengers, while the kids looked mildly confused, like this was all a joke.
"We're taking over this bus!" ordered the second. "No one move if you know what's good for you! Now kick all your cell phones this way!"
"Teacher…?" started one young boy.
"Hush!" exclaimed the teacher, fearful, with wide eyes.
"Keep driving," growled the first at the bus driver. He had taken his foot off of the gas in shock.
"Do you all have cotton in your ears!" demanded the second when he got no reaction but surprise from the passengers. "All cell phones this way! Stay in your seats and don't say a word unless you want a hole in your head!"
His tone was so vicious and dark that the passengers slowly complied and tossed their cell phones down the aisle. A couple of little girls started crying softly and hugged each other in their seats, and the first hijacker gave them a nasty glare. The second gathered up the cell phones and threw them in an empty pocket of his hockey bag.
"We don't want any trouble!" continued the second. "Just stay and your seats and shut-up and no one will get hurt!"
"You two!" shouted the first, noticing the two women who were still reading. They were both so wrapped up in their books that they didn't even notice that the bus had been hijacked. They merely continued to sit, flipping through pages at an alarming rate. Even being addressed by the first hijacker didn't snap them out of their written world.
"I'm talking to you!" he demanded, sticking his gun over the top of the book of the taller lady.
"Hmm?" she looked up for a moment before her golden brown eyes went wide as she stared down the barrel of the gun.
"Oh…my…" murmured the reader closest to the window, finally pulling away from her book. Her blue eyes were wide, but more wary than fearful.
"Cell phones!" he ordered. Both women slowly shook their heads. He glared at them, before leaving.
"W-what do you want from us?" asked a shaky voice from near the back.
The first hijacker turned and glowered for a long moment before responding. "We want our boss busted out. And you all are going to be our bartering chip!"
"Have you no decency!" exclaimed a man in the middle. He gestured across the aisle. "This bus is full of kids! Just let them go or…"
SLAP! The second hijacker had walked over to him and struck him across the face, once more thoroughly silencing the vehicle.
The first reader didn't notice this; for the first time she noticed who was sitting next to her. She seemed quite surprised and kept checking over the figure, reconfirming the identity for herself. The woman seated next to her noticed this observation and turned, giving her travel companion a questioning look. The first quickly turned to the window, slightly embarrassed. Meanwhile, both hijackers walked to the front of the bus and were making threats and giving directions to the driver.
One little boy, who didn't full realize the dangers, pulled out a small Matchbox car and was racing it along the back of the seat, doing flips and wheelies to get a giggle out of the friend sitting beside him. The bus turned a corner sharply and the car jumped out of his small hands and hit the floor, rolling away from him. He instantly got out of his seat on his hands and knees to retrieve the toy.
"Hey!" shouted the second hijacker, turning around a second later and grabbing the kid off of the floor. "Stay seated!" He roughly shoved the boy back into his seat.
"You bully!" shot the friend. The hijacker looked like he was going to hit one of them for a moment.
"How did he know the boy had moved?" the reader by the window briefly wondered. Her blue eyes slid over to the tall lady and she spoke lowly through gritted teeth. "You're Maggie Mui, aren't you?"
Maggie turned her head sharply, surprised. She looked at the teen with long black hair, but she was staring forward, trying not to attract attention to the hijackers. But Maggie could tell she was being watched from the corner of the girl's eyes. Maggie nodded slowly, once, even though she was puzzled by how this stranger knew her name.
"How did you…?" Maggie started to ask in a low, nearly expressionless tone, but the other lady cut her off.
"I have a plan to save us," she continued. "Trust me. I can take out both of those guys by ambushing them from directly over the seats. I just need you to back me up. Can you?"
Maggie looked at her, thinking for a moment. "Does she know I'm a paper master? If she does, how, and how does she know my name? What is she planning?" She looked forward to the hijackers again, her eyes lingering on the guns for a moment, before she replied again with a nod.
"Watch for my movement."
"Do you want to be the first to die!" Both girls jumped as the first hijacker threatened a man by the front of the bus. He had bent over to examine the hockey bags, which had been abandoned in the aisle. The man paled as the gun was shoved in his face. He sunk back into his seat with a dry gulp. The hijacker then pulled out his own cell phone and called the police, making their demands in a voice so low it was hard to hear over the buzz of the wind through all the windows.
"Turn here," the second ordered the bus driver, selecting a narrow road. The sign by the corner of the road said that it ran past a game preserve.
"We're here!" sang a little girl as she eagerly peered out the window.
"A field trip?" wondered Maggie, noticing how the kids were getting excited despite the situation. She glanced to the lady next to her, but she did not acknowledge anything.
The bus continued down the road with the only noise coming from the wind and the elementary kids. They did not pass another car even once. One time, the cell phone of one of the hijackers rang, and he answered it, making more demands from the police. The first lady watched them closely while trying to look like she wasn't. She kept looking for an opening, when they were close to each other and when she could get to them over the seats without clobbering a bystander, but that opportunity simply wasn't presenting itself.
Maggie was lost in her own thoughts. "Who is she and how does she know me? What are the hijackers' true objectives? And how do they keep knowing what we're doing even though they have their backs to the passengers?"
The road had gotten even narrower and a lush wetland was pushing in on either side. Water dependant trees only barely blocked the view of nearly half a mile of marshy land. The smell of semi-stagnant water and thick plants in full pollen now wafted in. The passengers could see small turtles sunning themselves on fallen, barkless logs and muskrats sticking their noses out of the darkened waters.
"Look! A crane!" exclaimed a girl, pressing her face against the window.
"No! It's a stork!" said a boy in the seat behind her.
"Look! There's a lot of them!"
"It's a flock!"
"They're cranes!"
"No, they're storks!"
"Cranes!"
"Storks!"
In a matter of a few seconds, all of the children were clustered around the windows, peering out with enthusiastic expressions. The wetland had opened up, a dozens of white cranes were standing in the water, some fishing, some preening, some resting, some simply standing. Small dark ducks paddling between them, occasionally diving so only their tail feathers showed.
"Back in your seats! Back in your seats!" shouted the second hijacker futilely.
"Aw, let them," grumbled the first, sounding frustrated from having to deal with so many little kids.
"Excuse me," the blue-eyed teen said, slipping past Maggie and standing in the aisle.
A small boy was trying to push his way to the window to see what all of his peers were so excited about, but he simply could not get through. She picked him up and placed him on her left knee, after setting it along the edge of a spare seat.
"Can you see now?" she asked.
"A little higher, please," he asked, smiling brightly as he craned his head around to see the birds. She complied.
WHAM! She accidentally hit his head on the low ceiling.
"I'm so sorry!" she gasped. She looked genuinely remorseful and aghast.
The boy shook his head, shaking of the pain and showing he wasn't hit that hard. His attention was already on the wetlands outside. He leaned forward a bit, bringing the storks into view. The teen held him tightly across the chest to keep him balanced, but her mind had already wandered elsewhere.
"The ceiling is too low. I could never slip over the seats fast enough to take out those two men. But what else can I do, I can't stand by and do nothing," she thought. She scanned the bus in her peripheral vision, examining all her options. She could feel Maggie watching her without looking at her, waiting for the promised cue.
The bus ambled on and the kids slowly returned to their seats (or at least sat down) when the flock of cranes disappeared in the distance. She set the boy she was supporting down and returned to her seat, taking the aisle side now as Maggie scooted toward the window. The second hijacker walked down the middle, scanning both sides of passengers, checking to see if they were going to attempt anything. The passengers as a whole tried not to make eye contact. Many were looking paler, some were sweating, some were leaking tears. Others glared the moment his back was turned. The only ones who seemed relaxed were the students.
"Turn ahead," the first ordered the driver, placing the gun above the nape of his neck.
By looking through the front windshield, both women could see that the road they were about to be forced down was an overgrown gravel road that disappeared into thickening woods. The hair on their necks bristled.
"If we end up down there, we're not going to come out," thought the younger. Her eyes flickered to Maggie, who was leaning forward slightly out of tension. "We have to do something and it has to be now."
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