Chapter One – Inheritance
The blood from the fresh corpses stained the white marble. The red fluid leaked through the skulls, filling the gaps in between tiles. The young lady walked in to talk to her parents, only to find them newly dead bodies, slain and left on the ground like bad cattle. The girl stared at the bodies lain out in front of her, falling on her knees. Tears began to form in her blue eyes and trickled down her cheeks like small streams from a pond. A ear-piercing scream filled the entire estate, attracting footsteps that echoed from the halls.
A young man, no more than a year older than the woman, walked into the room and saw the horrific scene that laid out before him. He heard the rather loud sobbing of the young lady that was in front of him. It dawned onto him that she was now an orphan for reasons currently unknown. He set one of his hands on her shoulder, and she looked up and saw the young man. Her eyes were now reddened from the death of her parents. She couldn't help but feel hopelessness dawn on her, as she was – to a certain extent – alone.
THE FUNERAL WAS very active. The two coffins were side by side, both shiny black coffins with golden edges. Drones of people gathered at the cathedral in which the service was being held. At the front of the church, people hobbled out of cards and limped towards the table that had the guest book in it. Others were ushered to their seats by various people that were hired to assist the young lady with the funeral. A soft hum of an organ weaved in and out of ears as the service barely started. The young lady and the man that had tried to console her at the scene of the death was sitting in the front row. A black veil covered her watery eyes.
Within moments, the funeral started. The organ that was initially nothing but a soft whisper in peoples' ears flooded the room with a torrent of notes and chords that only set the mood darkly. The air was stale and the people sat down as the priest entered the room. Soon, everyone stood up again, muttering a prayer under their breaths in unison with the priest. The man was dressed in white, silk robes. It extended down and covered the feet, which were comfortably sitting in sandals. He read from a golden bible that shined in the natural light that was let through the stained glass windows. After the scriptures, cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters and friends to the deceased couple stepped up to the altar to give their words of kindness. And finally, rows of people saw the bodies for the last time. As the young woman saw her mother, she let down a stream of tears.
Within seconds, she saw the black-and-white memories of her childhood with her mother. She slowly walked to her father's casket, slowly kneeling on the ground as she could barely look at his visage. The memories taunted her like bullies making fun of her within a mental playground. Her purple hair covered her face well, as the people attending the service did not recognize the anguish that flowed from her eyes until the young man that had consoled her at the horrific scene that led to this moment arrived at her side. The organ played again as she wept back to her seat. More people said more words, and soon, everyone except the young lady and her overseer were gone.
A WEEK AFTER the funeral, the family attended the reading of the will. The young lady took her seat next to the man that had been with her through the entire incident. They both sat next to her aunt, whom seemed eager for the will. One of the lawyer's for the young lady's parents walked into the room. The expressionless face glanced at the faces of the family as he began to speak.
"I'm glad that you were all able to make it for the reading of the will. Mr. Takeda left some of his valuables to you, and we're here to find out who gets what. Also, to introduce myself formally to all of you, my name is Mr. Nihiro."
The family all stared at the man, wondering what exactly they were left by their deceased relative. It angered the daughter, having known her family to be rather materialistic and saw this as an opportunity to get her parents' hard-earned treasures.
"Here we go," began Mr. Nihiro, reading from a piece of battered paper whose words were vaguely due to the ink that had small, scribbled words on it. " 'To my lovely family, I hope that by the time this is read, you've all would have your children and they in turn would have their own children. However, it is time that my wife and I rode the chariot that will carry us to our nirvana. Consequently, my we hope to actually pass on these gifts to you, our loving family. To my sister Sophia, I leave $100,000 to start that small business you've always told me about. I really hope that the cookies you bake for the family will make it within the houses of millions of families. To my sister Amelia, I leave you any one of my cars, except my motorcycle, that you would like. I understand that you lack the current funds to get a car of your own, and I hope that you'll start your own collection by driving in style."
Both sisters smiled with joy, sickening the daughter. Mr. Nihiro cleared his throat and continued reading.
" 'To my one-and-only brother-in-law Armando, a television set of your choice from my house. I know how much you enjoy watching television, especially sports games. I hope that one of my high-end televisions will be yours to share and appreciate. I'm also planning on giving $10,000,000 to several charities that I will leave up to you, my family, to decide where they go. And if you do not find places for the money to go within a month of my death, I will have the money go to my daughter. Speaking of which, my beautiful Daughter, Lily, who I hope to at least see graduate and go off to college, I leave you some important gifts that I would like to have you discuss with Mr. Nihiro privately. Nonetheless, I really hope that your lives will be a blessed one, and if I haven't seen you get sent off from this world, I can't wait to see you in the next.'"
All of the family members that did not receive anything left miserably. However, Lily – the daughter – was nervous and tear stricken. She didn't know what her father wanted to give her, and didn't appreciate how the only reason people came was to see what they received. Mr. Nihiro walked over to Lily with a smile.
"Are you ready, Ms. Takeda?" asked Mr. Nihiro with a soft and assuring tone. She looked up at him and nodded. Before they left, the laywer looked at the young man that had been with Lily through the entire ordeal and said, "I need you to come too. You're also going to be happy."
THEY ALL SAT in Mr. Nihiro's office, which was nothing spectacular. It was a rather small office, with only three seats including his. The cherry-wood desk that was in the middle of the room had only three boxes, two of them small and different colors and the last one a shoebox. Lily and the young man took a seat opposite of the lawyer. Mr. Nihiro cleared his throat, the sound echoing off of the various portraits that were on the walls, and read the letter.
" 'To my darling Lily and her caretaker Kokuen, I hope you both are doing well. If this makes it to you before I get to see both of you walk the stage and go off to college, then I'd like to apologize as you'll find that it's probably my carelessness that has caused you grief. Nonetheless, there is still some business to take care of before you two move on. I'd like to let you know, Lily and Kokuen, that you both have $200,000 college funds. So wherever you get accepted to, you will be alright. Furthermore, you will be staying in the house for your senior year of high school as you'll be attending a local private school. All of the housing servants have been paid for around a year, and after that, it's up to you. Secondly, Lily, you have a $2,000,000 account to start you off on your life when you turn the age of 21. My hope is that you'll take over the family company, but you don't have to. And finally, you both deserve a bit of fun in your lives. I'm leaving you two my decks. For you, Kokuen, your strength and determination will allow you to wield the purple box properly. And for you, Lily, your decisiveness and ingenuity will allow you to succeed with the white box. Don't lose these, as I've had my soul in these cards. Furthermore, special duel disks will open these boxes. You'll see them in the garage when you make it to the house. I hope you two blossom into wonderful people, and I hope to duel both of you one day where we don't have to worry about death. My best wishes with you, your father.'"
LILY AND KOKUEN both went home that evening. Before looking in the garage Lily wanted to talk to Kokuen now that the funeral and reading of the will was over. Both of them sat on the stools that were in the kitchen island. Kokuen's amber eyes looked into Lily's blue eyes. He sat at attention, listening to the girl he had been taking care of for the past eight years of his life.
"I just wanted to know that you're like a brother to me, Kokuen. But there is something very important that I need you to do for me," said Lily, looking down towards the floor, her voice becoming close to inaudible.
"Yeah, you know I'll do anything for you, Lily," responded Kokuen reassuringly. He tried to get Lily to look at him once again, but she continued looking at the ground.
"I want to consider having your own life. I'm seventeen, Kokuen, and we're both about to go to college. I know you've been living with us since I was nine, but I still want you to have your own life. I don't want ot hold you back, Kokuen," she said, her voice trembling. He lifted her head and their eyes met again. Although she expected her sentinel to be frowning in disapproval, he was smiling.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think you understand, Lily. My life's purpose is to serve you. You're like a sister to me, and I want to protect you. I honestly don't know what would happen if you and I… were separated. Your father treated me as his own son and gave me another chance at life. I'm grateful for that, and I can't let him down. Your mother was like my mother, giving me the emotional support that I needed. I don't know what happened to them, but your life is precious to me. I feel that it's my obligation to protect it, Lily. So don't even bother trying to get me away," responded Kokuen mildly. Lily began to cry again, however, instead of a frown on her face, she was smiling.
After their conversation, both of them made it to the garage and began searching for the items that would open the boxes they inherited from Lily's father. They began looking for tools to open the boxes, but none would cut or saw open the box. Then, they began banging and setting the boxes next to any random device. Lily tried fingerprinting systems, lights and other random things but none of the objects within the garage would respond nonetheless open the boxes.
After around twenty minutes of searching, the duo had sat down on random items within the garage. They began to look around the room for any signs of anything that would open the boxes they received.
"There has to be some clue as to what would open these things," said Kokuen, tossing his box in the air.
"Yeah, I guess we should probably think about what to look for. Then we can maybe find it," suggested Lily, twirling strands of her hair around her finger. Silence filled the garage again as they both thought of what would trigger the opening of the boxes.
"I GOT IT!" yelled Kokuen. Lily looked up, her face expressing the blatant confusion as she saw Kokuen climb a ladder and pull down a metal briefcase. As soon as he was on the ground, he opened the briefcase and took out two duel disks. They both corresponded with the colors of the boxes that Lily and Kokuen received – white and purple. Kokuen took out the purple box and inserted it into the deck slot of the duel disk. The metal box began to glow a bright purple. Lily and Kokuen stood there, baffled at the sight they got a chance to behold. The top of the box folded back and revealed a full deck and extra deck.
"Wow… the duel disks must recognize the boxes. He must have locked them so that no one could gain access to the cards inside. He did express that these decks were precious," explained Kokuen. He passed Lily the white duel disk, and she repeated the same thing. Soon, the say a white beacon of light emerge from the duel disk and seconds later, she had access to the cards within the box. She scanned through the deck and smiled. She thought to herself, Why would he hide access to the cards? I mean, what's so special about them, they're just cards…
"Hey, I have an idea!" exclaimed Lily, standing up and placing the appropriate cards within their duel disk slots. She walked over to a rather empty spot of the garage. Kokuen watched her move slowly towards the garage door, wondering what she was planning.
"What are you thinking, Lily?" he asked, confused as to what she was planning.
"Since we have these new decks, maybe we should take them out for a spin and duel with them," suggested Lily, activating the duel disk. Kokuen smiled and took a space that was an appropriate distance away from Lily. He activated his duel disk after placing the main deck and extra deck in their respective slots. The machines began to hum softly and randomize the cards within the main deck. Afterwards, both Lily and Kokuen drew five cards.
"DUEL!" they both yelled, starting the first of what would be many duels.