Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Holiday Surprises: Chapter 1: Unexpected
Characters: Misawa Daichi, Taniya, Misawa Saki
Romance: Taniya x Misawa
Word Count: chapter: 1,616||story: 1,616
Genre: Drama, Family, Romance||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Yu-Gi-Oh GX Non-Flash Bingo; Diversity Challenge, section H, #9, a multichapter with exactly five chapters.
Notes: This takes place a few years after the end of Yu-Gi-Oh GX.
Summary: [1/5 chapters, Taniya x Misawa/Misawa x Taniya, OC (Misawa's mother), GX Non-Flash Bingo & Diversity Challenge] Misawa Saki expected visiting her son and his beloved would be a different way to spend the holidays. She had absolutely no idea of how different it would be.
Amazoness Village rang with noise, which wasn't unusual in the slightest. Instead of the usual sounds of weapons being forged or warriors at arms practice or even the chants of the village mages as they worked their magic, songs of praise filled the air, hymns that glorified the cycle of life and the natural world, and the fact that tonight, the winter solstice, that cycle turned from winter toward spring.
Misawa Saki watched all of this from underneath the shelter of a broad-leafed tree that she couldn't identify. She wasn't much of a horticulturist, but she thought even one of those wouldn't be able to put a name to most of the trees that grew in and around this village. Everything here remained too strange for her to really feel comfortable around.
"Mother!" Well, perhaps not everything. Her son moved over toward her, a warm light in his eyes. She had never seen Daichi look like this in all of her life. While this place remained off to her in many ways, he looked even more at home than he did in his own bedroom.
What made it stranger was that he wore an outfit that he never would have been seen in a handful of years earlier. And he still wore it as naturally as he usually did his Duel Academia uniform. Well-made leather sandals, a sarong-type wrapping that left his broad shoulders bare, and a single pendant carved from a tooth, though not from any animal she recognized personally, all combined to give him a wild demeanor that did not in any way detract from the thoughtful gray-eyed gaze he always turned upon the world.
"Hello, dear," she smiled at him. No matter how strangely he dressed, he was still her son, and always would be. "Are you having a good time?"
Daichi chuckled. "I came to ask you the same thing. I know this isn't your usual kind of celebration."
Saki glanced around one more time. That was putting it somewhat mildly, she thought. "It's different," she allowed. She'd never considered celebrating something like this herself. It really didn't resonate with anything she'd experienced. No signs proclaiming sales, no restaurants with specials for families or couples. Only people moving this way and that with a certain spring in their step and a smile on their lips.
And the majority of them were female. That in itself struck Saki as more than a little unusual, though she supposed in an 'Amazoness Village', it was only natural. There were a few men there, aside from Daichi, but the women took charge of all of the decorating and cooking, in a fashion that spelled out how important these actions were, and not as background noise.
"Have you seen Taniya?" Daichi looked around again. "She's going to be very busy later and I wanted to talk to her before everything gets started."
Saki shook her head. She refused to admit, at least to her son, that Taniya made her a trifle nervous. It wasn't anything about the tall woman in particular, for she'd always been polite, but a sense of wildness that reminded Saki of wild beasts, a dangerous air that murmured that if the circumstances warranted it, Taniya could and would kill without the slightes hesitation.
What disturbed her perhaps a bit more was that Daichi seemed to like that about her.
Many other factors about Taniya made her nervous as well, ones that she did not wish to speak of to her son. He'd told her how they'd met; he'd told her back in his first year at Duel Academia when it had happened. Though his e-mails at the time entailed far more "I've met the most wonderful duelist in the world" than indicating he planned to spend the rest of his life with her then.
She didn't completely understand everything about the Phantom Demons that he'd mentioned on those infrequent occasions when they'd had time to speak to one another then, only that it was a great honor to be chosen to guard their keys, and she'd been very proud of him for that. The fact he'd lost disappointed her, though she'd never told him that.
There was so much that she hadn't told him, and she wondered if she would ever be in a position to do so.
"Oh! There she is!" Daichi's eyes brightened as he caught sight of a particular ponytail. Bidding farewell to her with a quick wave, he hurried over, calling Taniya's name.
One day, Saki told herself, she would be used to all of this. Today wasn't that day. She'd been offered garments to help her blend in with the locals, but had turned them down, since that wasn't at all what she wanted. She didn't deny that the outfits looked very cool and comfortable in the jungle heat, but those clothes weren't her at all. This was a celebration, of course, and she wore one of her better outfits to honor it.
While the feasting and merrymaking would continue for another day or so after this, allowing everyone time to wind down from the peak of the event tonight, she planned to go home at least the next day. She would make arrangements with Daichi for his next visit, of course. Just because he'd moved out - and into another world altogether - didn't mean that he wasn't going to visit her regularly. She would make certain of that.
As the sun drew closer to the horizon, people began to circulate with trays of food. This wasn't yet the formal feast, she recalled, but just something to allow participants and observers to take the edge off of their hunger so it wouldn't disturb them when the great moment came.
That was another point she didn't entirely understand here. In all honest curiousty, she'd asked Daichi if the Amazons expected any sort of special supernatural guests to arrive during the ceremony. Given that they themselves, as Duel Spirits, were supernatural to her, it didn't seem such an outlandish idea.
"We asked, but Juudai and Johan are very busy tonight, and couldn't make it," had been his answer. She wasn't certain how much sense that made, since the only 'Juudai' she remembered was one of his classmates and she wasn't at all certain about any 'Johans'. But if it made sense to him, that was good enough for her. Perhaps she'd get an introduction later that would clarify the matter for her.
One of the younger Amazons passed by her, tray held against a smooth, well-muscled shoulder, and stopped, turning a bright smile toward her. "Would you like something to eat?"
Saki wasn't certain at first, but her hunger decided for her. She'd been too nervous throughout most of the day to eat anything. With her stomach audibly rumbling and her cheeks flushing a sudden red, there was little else she could do but accept a few of the small cuts of meats arranged on the tray.
If she'd been able to, she would've cleared off the entire tray in a few more moments. The meat wasn't one she recognized - there were so many things she didn't recognize in this world - but it sank into her tastebuds and burst over them with a rich savor that made her want a roast or a steak made in the same style. Each small piece she tried had been soaked in a delicious sauce that only enhanced the underlying flavor.
She needed to find out who made these and what the recipe was. And if there was any chance she could learn to make it for herself.
Without a clock, she had no idea of how much more time remained until the ceremony itself began. She had a watch, but since they weren't running with her time, it didn't do her that much good. They would begin when they began, she supposed.
Saki also supposed that it would be soon, given that she couldn't see Daichi or Taniya anywhere. He'd explained that Taniya ruled this tribe, which meant she would conduct the ceremony, and he would assist her. He hadn't yet explained what assisting would entail, and Saki at least admitted to herself that she was curious to see how the ceremony itself would play out.
Unexpected noise rose from the far side of the encampment, shouts of rage, language that Saki couldn't recall having heard before, and pounding feet. Curious, she moved that way, wondering what could be going on. The ceremony couldn't have already started; Daichi had promised to get her for it before then.
She got a much better idea of what was going on when several warriors rushed by her, each one more furious than the one before her, weapons clutched in their hands.
Maybe I should stay out of this? She'd never considered herself a fighter, being more content to work at her ordinary job and raise her son, and this looked to be far more trouble than she could handle anyway. The Amazons were warriors. Whatever was going on was surely within their ability to handle, wasn't it?
Saki started to take a step back, when something large, green, and in desperate need of a bath surged out of the bushes in front of her. She stumbled backwards, eyes going round as a creature she'd never seen before save as an image on a card, or at best a holograph, stalked toward her. While the Amazons were the same, there was a large difference between a friendly tribe bent on making one welcome into their home and a creature that seemed intent on welcoming one into the stewpot.
This was not the holiday vacation she'd hoped for.
To Be Continued
