#2. Eye of Truth

Batman stalked into his cave in a mood fouler than usual, only to see his two teenage sons occupying his usual seat in front of the monitors. They looked as if they just returned from patrol. Though unmasked, Damian was still wearing his Robin uniform, and Billy in his brand new suit of black and grey. The two brothers were talking and laughing; obviously their night went exceptionally well.

Feeling the tension occupying his whole form loosen just a little, Batman nonetheless barked out a curt order, "Robin, report."

"The gangs are quiet," Damian answered, "The Penguin's shipment tonight was actually legitimate goods—luxury items from watches to south sea pearls, but no drug and no arms, not even suspicious looking machinery or car parts."

"Well, smuggled goods are hardly legitimate," Billy pointed out with a small laugh.

"Indeed they are not legal goods, but we are Bats, not the IRS."

Batman eyed Billy for a few seconds, before asking in a softer voice, "How are you holding up, Eaglet?"

It has only been three months since Billy started patrolling the streets as a fifteen-year old teenager wearing kevlar, alongside the rest of the Bat family. Operations in Gotham required a certain subtlety and disappearing act, something Captain Marvel simply did not possess. Billy had been wanting to patrol with his father and brother for a long time, but only in recent months did he finally earn the right to take to the streets of Gotham in mask and cape.

Billy blushed a little and murmured, "I think I am holding out okay?"

Damian snorted at that answer and said, "A regular-sized person might feel his punch now, though he will never learn how to handle a jump rope properly. But the kid can fly, so it hardly matters."

"Captain Marvel can fly," Billy corrected his brother, "I can walk up walls and other structures containing ferrous metal by creating a strong magnetic field. Flight magic is rarer than you think."

"Mere technical difference, and that is precisely why you will never swing properly. You have too many ways to cheat. That, and you spend all your time practicing magic instead of acrobatics and proper knockdowns."

To which Billy replied with an abashed look, "All that swinging and fighting stuff is really hard for me; sorry, I will try harder. But practicing magic takes a lot of time and effort too. It's been four years since Ms. Glaukos made me a guardian of Zeus's lightning, and still I can't do everything she used to be able to do. She used to be able to hack every electronic security imaginable, manipulate even clouds, and make the ocean burst into flame—she had an answer for every situation. I need to be like that too, so I can be a proper guardian and put this power to good use. " Towards the end Billy was sounding grave and determined.

"Tt," Damian clicked his tongue, "You and your power-responsibility complex. Wait a second, how do you set the ocean on fire?"

Before Billy could answer, Batman gave him a pointed look, "Electrolysis of salt water and then igniting the hydrogen gas? What on Earth required such a drastic measure? And what could you possibly use for electrodes?"

Billy laughed, "You actually sounded pretty impressed there, father. Ms. Glaukos just used two swords, made a small fire; it wasn't as Hollywood blockbuster as you think. She told me it was for the purpose of proving to a group of centaurs she was who she claimed to be."

"Centaurs," Damian sighed, forehead meeting his palm, "Give me a break. I hate magic."

"Electromagnetic power is almost lovable, now if only every strain of magical power showed such respect to the laws of physics," Batman muttered drily, turning towards Billy, "I had a most unpleasant run-in with a little girl tonight, she made iron chains appear from nothing, and then made the chains disappear by setting a bear trap to it. Does that sound familiar to you? Or to Captain Marvel?"

"Chains? Bear trap?" Billy blinked and his brow furrowed. After a moment of thought he asked, "Did the chains and the bear trap look normal? I mean, did the little girl just teleport these objects from somewhere else, or did those things look unnatural themselves?"

"If a bear trap can make iron chains disappear, I highly doubt that's a regular bear trap you get to decorate your cabin," Damian quipped.

"Of course," Billy nodded and continued with questions, "So what did she do? Any strange gestures or was she handling any objects? Did she say anything?"

"She barely moved a finger, only spoke," Batman answered slowly, remembering every detail the moment, "And I think her exact words were 'trap set, activate, fiendish chain, restrain him', before the chains appeared. Would Captain Marvel know anything about this?"

But Billy did not say the familiar word, instead he exclaimed with widened eyes, "Wait, what? Okay, Captain Marvel doesn't know about this, but I do."

The teenager reached out his right hand, palm towards the floor, and made a motion as if smoothing something. "Trap set," He murmured, then paused in that motion for a moment, wearing an expression of concentration, before suddenly reaching out and touching Batman's arm, "Activate. Fiendish Chain, spring forth and bind!"

It seemed the cave darkened instantly, the glow of the computer monitors now a bare whisper of light. Thick chains sprang from nothingness, pulling Batman away and holding him midair, like a spider web with its prey. Everything was suspended in nothingness, the chains' ends disappearing into thin air yet still holding taut by some unimaginable force, frighteningly eerie.

"Wow," Billy breathed, as if shocked by this sight he himself just conjured up, "Uh, sorry, I will get rid…"

He never did finish his sentence, for Damian's sword was at his throat.

"If you are not my brother, release him now or I will slit your throat," Damian snarled, "If you are my brother, then you have a lot of explaining to do."

The Fudos did not even board a plane. At first Yusei considered buying rush airfares as any normal person would, but Chiharu reminded him the situation at hand warranted the use of Evacuation Escape Device. They arrived home only a blink of an eye later, and rushed to the secret lab at Fudo Energy Corp without even stopping for a drink of water. The lab wasn't quite a cave, but it was five levels underground, hidden behind the most secure door and best encryption Yusei Fudo could construct himself.

But once behind secure doors, Yusei was in no hurry to begin intensive analytical work. He simply opened his laptop and began running a sophisticated but nonetheless commonplace facial identification software, the two pictures in question showed Earth's greatest hero Superman and a freelance Internet journalist by the name of Clark Kent.

As points and lines began to form on screen and numbers rolled away, Chiharu said with faint annoyance, "Those two are the same person, papa, we did not need to rush home to confirm this."

Yusei put a hand on the little girl's head and said quietly, "I know you have a good sixth sense, Chiharu, but this kind of thing requires scientific analysis and evidence. We have to be very sure; intuition is just not enough."

"It wasn't just sixth sense," Chiharu protested, "I thought he looked strangely familiar but couldn't figure out why, so I used the Eye of Truth to look at him, and then it became clear as day. He was wearing that Superman suit underneath his dress shirt. You could have just asked me."

Yusei shook his head, near exasperation. "Chiharu, you cannot abuse your power so!" He admonished, "Someone looking strangely familiar is no reason for spying with your power; you must respect people's privacy."

Chiharu did not speak, but her expression seemed to say, "But my suspicion proved important enough to warrant it."

Yusei sighed, feeling at a loss. His daughter was a precocious child, serious and intelligent way beyond her tender years, and she possessed an incredible power, even more complicated than Aki's destructive outbursts as a child. Yusei Fudo may be one of the most influential scientists alive and one of the greatest strategists, but he was still just a man, with neither superhuman intelligence nor magical powers. When he had to break through Aki's shell long ago at least he could claim to share her destiny as a signer, and even then it took many scars he still carried to establish empathy. And with Chiharu? For all his love as a father, Yusei could not always get through to his little girl.

If only you were here, Aki! That thought suddenly surfaced in Yusei's mind, and a tearing pain seared through his chest, as if someone just jammed a blade right between his ribs. It has been more than four years, but the heartache only seemed to intensify with time.

Just then the program completed its analysis and beeped. A mechanical voice chimed, "Subjects one-hundred percent matched, identity confirmed."

A moment of silence, then Yusei said, "The Eye of Truth grants targeted player life points, no? That would not have harmed him."—it wasn't really a question.

"The Eye of Truth would only make him stronger. It has to be the crystals on my armband causing the problem," Chiharu said in a matter-of-fact voice, fingering her armband, "So this accidental byproduct of your fusion reactor not only enhances psychic duelists' power but apparently is also deadly to Kryptonians. Except I thought the so-called kryptonite is harmful to humans, causes cancer like many other radioactive substances."

"That's kryptonite. The reactor 13 crystal is completely harmless to humans and to most life forms we know of. If I did not prove that satisfactorily to myself I would have scraped that reactor design long ago, even if it is only an occasional byproduct. "

Yusei switched over to the main computer terminal in his lab and began opening old research files. As he pored over screen after screen of charts and graphs he murmured, "I considered one hypothesis before, that the paired gluon-quark emission from unstable tetraneutrons in this substance can cause certain biochemical compounds to degrade. But experiments show only the strangest lab-created compounds of impossible length and formation being affected, so I let it go. And now this alien superhero comes along…" He dragged a hand across his face.

Chiharu asked with interest, "So why does this crystal help psychic duelists enhance and control their power?"

Yusei gave her a wry look before shaking his head, "I don't know, Chiharu; I am a scientist, not an occult expert."

"So speaks the once-vassal of Quetzalcoatl who defeated ancient evil gods."

"I had no power and kept my distance from all the mysticism. To me it was just dueling with high stakes," Yusei put a hand on his right arm, where the mark of the Crimson Dragon used to be. He leaned down and looked at his daughter with an intense and faintly sad expression, "I am sorry, Chiharu, perhaps I can never understand what it is like to be given such power the way you are. But please, let me help you however I may. Tell me everything, don't keep any of it bottled up. Even if all I can do is listen, then I shall listen without even blinking. Will you do that for your papa?"

So the little girl hugged her father, "Please don't worry about me, papa."

How can I not worry? Yusei sighed soundlessly. But he only gave his daughter small smile and said, "Why don't you go add some spells and traps on the bottom floor? We have enough crystals down there to warrant extra caution. I will be here doing some more encryption for old research files. When it is all finished let's head back to America."

Chiharu nodded, "I will go set up something."

"But no Bottomless Traphole, no Torrential Tribute, and no Mirror Force," Yusei said sternly, "Certainly no Chain Destruction nor Chain Disappearance. Nothing that will wrack up a body count. I want you to embrace your power, but you cannot abuse it."

"Yes, I promise, papa. Since I am going to the bottom floor anyway, can I go see mother?"

Yusei's hands froze above the keyboard for a few moments, and then he said in a very low voice, "Of course, Chiharu."

Chiharu stepped into the elevator. As the machinery inside the elevator took her every biometric reading imaginable, she called out, "This is Chiharu Fudo, take me to floor BTW."—Indeed there was no button inside the elevator for the bottom floor; only the voice command of the choice few could open up the hidden depth.

The elevator recognized her command and moved towards the deep. On the way down Chiharu carefully planted two Wire Tap inside the elevator, adding to the Imperial Order already locking out all spells, just in case anyone wished to interfere with the electronics inside the elevator. When the elevator stopped and the door slid open one could see the hidden floor was like a bank vault. Chiharu planted Skill Drain just outside of the elevator door with a flick of her wrist, but she seemed to find such unsatisfactory, so a pause later she murmured, "Activate, Stumbling!"

And then she opened the vault door and entered. The steel wrought safes behind the door stored Fudo Energy Corp's most important research files, material samples, and some experimental designs. Most of the objects here contained alarming weaponization potential, hence their secretive burial. There was already a Swords of Burning Light spell activated in the vault, so Chiharu simply moved towards the back. At the back a small passage leads to a second vault, with no less than three vault doors in between. As Chiharu passed the three doors she set a Waboku to each. The second vault was significantly larger; there were no safes, only various prototypes or canceled projects sitting on the floor or hanging from the ceiling. Chiharu quickened her steps, hastily throwing down two Compulsory Evacuation Device as she raced across this vault, before she stopped at yet another vault door.

The third and final vault was large yet all but empty. The floor was completely covered with thousands of pieces of synthetic crystal, every shard glowing faintly green. An open mahogany coffin sat at the center of the vault, as if awaiting that final parting look from loved ones before sinking deep into the earth. It would have been a lonely and melancholic sight, but green vines and bright flowers danced around the coffin, growing, blooming, and then winking out of existence, their unnatural presence eerily beautiful. As Chiharu approached the coffin a tiny sprite with two pairs of wings and rose petals for hair flew up to her and greeted her with a laugh.

"Good to see you again, Rose Fairy," Chiharu reached a hand towards the winged spirit.

Another bell-like laugh, and the sprite vanished into thin air. That hardly surprised Chiharu, she simply walked up to the coffin, leaned against the side, and looked down at her mother.

The woman in the coffin was in the full bloom of her most glorious years, shrouded in pale blue silk and beautiful as the moon. Her skin was smooth and snow white like the finest porcelain, her long wine-colored hair seemed to glow with an innate light. She looked as if simply asleep.

Chiharu reached for a cold, dead hand and held it tightly. "Mama, I am here to see you again," The little girl said, "I can't stay long; papa and I are heading back to America soon. Papa's business is going well, though we did run into some interesting issues. Justice League, you have heard of them, right? But you don't have worry about us. You know papa can handle anything, and I have been getting better with my power. We will work it out, and then I can come and tell you the story. I might take some pictures when I have the chance, so when you come back you can see everything for yourself. I know you will come back, mama."

Then the little girl released her mother's hand and left the hidden grave behind her.

It has been more than four years since Aki Fudo, nee Izayoi, was declared dead.