Hai hai!
Next chapter up!
Before any further words, first of all I'd like to thank my first reviewer (who happens to be anonymous):
Guest (you know who you are...I honestly don't lol)
(NOTE: Anonymous review replies at the end of the chapter!)
and to my first faver/follower for this fic:
Crystal-Wolf-Guardian-967
Anyway...
Well, since the prologue was so short and I am sorta writing in advance, I might as well release this early to make up for that short prologue, and give the story some justice. :p
For those who haven't read my previous works...well, that's not my usual length, and to make up for it I made the release of the first chapter earlier!
Nexus
~Chapter 1: Dream To Reality?!~
A girl with long raven hair and pale skin found herself lying in the cold, dirty streets.
As the sun made its high point into the horizon, its rays pierced through her eyelids as it waked her from her daze.
She sat up, breathing the air around her and found herself scrunching her nose a bit then covering it with her hand filled with disgust. 'What is this smell? Where the hell am I?' she asked finding herself finally up and about after realizing that she just woke up in a place God-knows-where.
'How the heck did I end up here?! Shocks...what to do... What the heck would my parents say?! Damn... I have to get my ass off to work and I don't even know where I am...I even have a scheduled interview tomorrow!' she thought sighing with great irritation as she examined herself, only to find herself wearing her old casual wear during her elementary days, which consists of a pink shirt with a monkey print on it as a sleeveless, brown checkered jumper reaching around two to three inches up her knees worn over it, these heavy white rubber shoes on her feet covered by socks reaching an inch below her knees and her black leather bag slinging on to her body.
'What's the meaning of this? Why am I wearing my casuals? Rather my "old casual clothes". Not to mention that I'm actually still wearing my contact lenses. Odd. Wait! I do remember that yesterday WAS a workday. I shouldn't even be wearing this, rather I couldn't wear all these in the first place! Hmf, the only thing I'm actually currently using is this black bag and contact lenses.'
She opened her bag due to curiosity only to find the usual stuff she'd bring when she's going out with her family: Wallet, Cell phone, IPod Touch, 3ds, Psp, her keys, earphones and lip gloss along with the corresponding chargers for each gadget.
Yes, just lip gloss the only thing considered 'girly' in her bag, which she actually barely uses. Unless you count the hanging scented alcogel on the strap of her bag, then yes definitely just lip gloss.
'This is the stuff I bring with me to travel. Rather the stuff I'd "presently" carry on with me. Hmmmm, if we were going away on a trip, I wonder where are my meds and my transformer?'
Then somehow as if she suddenly realized, 'Perhaps maybe, I was dreaming? Yeah, it must be...after all it's impossible for me to actually fit in this jumper. Actually, I could it's just I'm too tall for it now.' she thought as she found herself wandering around aimlessly. Her eyes scanned through the surroundings. 'One thing is for sure, even if this place seems to be the slums, it's definitely not like the slums in Manila.'
'...but somehow smells like it. Even the ocean breeze couldn't even cover up the smell.' If you guessed it right, yes she actually woke up in a street that's just beside the port where you can see the bright blue ocean.
'Yes, maybe I am just dreaming. Knowing how I usually have lucid dreams, I'll just wake up anytime whenever a zombie appears!' She exclaimed in her mind with some sheer determination. 'Yes, which I hope I'd never see.'
She continued to wander around in her 'dream land', still not finding a change in setting as the place was filled with nothing but dilapidated buildings, the ground broken as if an earthquake just struck it, and not to mention the heaps of trash and junk lying all over the place. It was like a ghost town.
It was certainly not a dream, and the more she wandered she came into a conclusion that this was going to be a nightmare.
'...I don't have a good feeling about this...' she thought as she finally stopped in her tracks and closed her eyes. 'Wake up...wake up...wake up...' She repeated almost endlessly to herself like a mantra.
But much to her dismay, she was still there as she opened her eyes. 'Crap, I'm still here!' she suddenly felt nervous as she could feel her heart racing beneath her chest. '...please don't let there be any zombies or ghost, especially Sadako! Please let this be a peaceful dream!'
"I DEFINITELY WON'T LET YOU GET AWAY WITH THIS!" suddenly a shout came from nowhere catching her off-guard causing her to jump in place.
After getting a grip, without an idea on where to go anyway, instinctively she decided to go where the voice came from.
It wasn't far at all as she found a few groups of people crowding over two people facing each other with these gadget-like thing attached into their arms. Her eyes widened, amazed after realizing what it was.
'OH MY GOSH... Isn't that a Duel Disk?! It's a real live Duel Disk?! Wow, it's the first time I saw one in real life!' she thought as she tried to get closer.
'...wow, I can't believe I'm dreaming of Yu-Gi-Oh! Cool!' Feeling highly elated and excited of her discovery, she enthusiastically made her way somewhere a little bit above ground by making her way in one of the abandoned-like buildings' second floor. It was high alright but near enough to hear and see everything from her claimed 'first' live duel.
Not that she wasn't able to watch before, actually, she did and she was able to watch those duels and dueled herself during elementary, and that was the time of Yugi Mouto's reign along with their generation of cards. But, now, it's not just a bunch of normal monsters with trap cards and spell cards seen in the anime like Magical Hats, Mirror Force and the like. She also dueled live with the current generation of cards and even tried to get used with the XYZ's herself. But, it was just but a net card battle in Dueling Network. Now, she will be able to witness a duel filled with live emotions, excitement, cards coming to life and mostly surprises perhaps using certain archetypes, spell or trap card that she herself have yet to discover and many more. It will be a duel far beyond virtual reality and text.
The crowd was rowdy for sure, and judging by their clothes all of them seemed to be like hoodlums or perhaps gang members with all the leather, tattoos and that 'dangerous' aura coming out from them. But, she didn't care. It didn't matter as to what would happen to her, after all it's all but just a dream.
If it was real life though, even if they're just dueling she wouldn't even have bothered staying there to watch it and would rather make a run for it.
The other side, cheered:
"We, the Blue Brigade, will definitely conquer you!"
But the other side roared back with the same sheer amount of confidence: "We'll definitely not lose to you losers, for we of the Junk Soldiers, would conquer you Blue whatevers! Right here right now!"
'Wow, they're really serious. Oddly enough it sounds familiar...now what series of Yu-Gi-Oh had these things in it? It's been what? One to one to two years since I last watched it? But then again my memory isn't that bad... I should know this! After all I played their games just recently.' she thought hardly, whilst she watched.
As the 'team' names suggested, they dueled with monsters in relation to their name. The Blue Brigade's representative dueled with water monsters, specifically the Gishikis. The Junk Soldiers on the other hand dueled with the Junk Series. Both something she found rare to be used. After all, in her current day and year even if it was just through the internet, she knows for a fact that nobody used them that much. Aside from the Gishikis, who's slightly popular, but the Junk series, it's only the Synchros along with their Tuners that were used. After all, as much as she knew, the current Meta is all about a deck either consisting of Lightsworns, Twilight, Gravekeepers, Gladiators, and etc. Perhaps, if not Meta then the usual Anti-Meta deck of D.D.'s and Chaos mashups.
So far, with how the cards were played, she noticed how badly constructed it was due to some unrelated cards used in the duel before her. However, then again this was but a dream, does it matter if they got the proper cards for their decks? Then again even in real life, especially in live duels like tournaments some really do have to make use of unrelated cards yet somehow good enough to play due to the lack of access to them.
In fairness, so far it works! The duel was a close fight and both pressured the other. It was an exciting match, and the corresponding crowds of each team cheered wildly on the sides! Simply, everyone was riled up in the moment.
But as Blue Brigade's representative was ready to give the final blow...
"Who dares try to step on our turf?!" the girl along with the crowd had their turned their gazes to the owner's voice only to see four individuals wearing black coats with a necklace sporting pentagrams on their necks.
Then someone screamed, "Oh no! It's the Magician's Four!"
"When did this zone became their turf?!"
"Who cares let's all make a run for it!" The duel ended immediately without even a proper conclusion as both teams ran in various ways. The four individuals sent out a roar of laughters as they all see the people ran like insects.
"Seriously, another one of those fake duel gangs... Like they could mess with the likes of us!" says the one who had his face covered by the hood of his cloak. The girl on the other hand just sat there hiding herself below the window hoping not to be seen. She could feel her heart pounding beneath her chest.
'...oh fudge, now it's really turning into a nightmare! Now... C'mon mind! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!' she thought to herself as she closed her eyes shut. But nothing happened as, she still found herself there in her so-called 'dream land'.
*crunch*
She just heard a foot stomping onto something solid as a rock.
'...oh shit. Don't tell me they're even sweeping the area off until here! Oh gosh... What to do?!' she thought as she just hugged her knees and laid her face on them. '...this is just a dream... I'll be okay. Just don't let there be zombies or Sadako!'
'...this is all a dream...this is all a dream...I will wake up...I will wake up' she repeated again in her mind like a mantra. But the footsteps didn't stop as it grew louder by the second.
Then the door opened slowly with a creaking sound.
"Huh? What's a girl doing here?" a voice asked, which seemed to belong to a teen. The girl immediately perked up only to see an adolescent lad before her with spiked up wild orange hair. Like the people from before he was also sporting a Duel Disk on his left arm with his cards already placed there showing that he was ready to duel. He's definitely not part of the Magician's Four that's for sure due to his get up and somehow the thought of it brought relief to her mind.
'Why does he seem oddly familiar?' she thought to herself.
"Hmf..." then suddenly he scowled at her like she was some enemy. "You're part of Magician's Four, aren't you?!" the girl finally stood up, letting out a surprised look on her face.
"Wait what?! Do I look like one of them?! If I was then I could have done something to you already... I think..." her voice fainted with tons of doubt. After all, things like those never happened to her in her reality. She was just too sheltered to even experience similar scenarios in relation to any sort of gang wars. Not to mention, suddenly finding herself in the middle of God-knows-where in the Yu-Gi-Oh universe. Unless, you'll count her childhood days when she was young and lead a pack of children, calling themselves the red tigers, to assault another pack of children, who calls themselves the yellow cheetahs that soon became the yellow ninjas.
"You think?!" He stated in a surprise tone, but sighed a bit in comfort. "I guess, you're kind of right about that you don't look the part. After all judging with the type of clothes you're wearing, it doesn't seem to me like you're one of them or that you're from Satelite either..."
"Satelite? Is this Satelite?" she asked a little bit shocked from the revelation. 'Satelite...Satelite...where have I heard you before? Oh yeah right! I remember now, 'Yu-Gi-Oh! 5ds'! I'm dreaming about 5ds!' and in a snap, she finally now knows where she is and who this person before her. 'If this is 5ds then this guy...yes, he must be!'
"Wait... No way! You're Crow! You're Crow Hogan, aren't you?!" she exclaimed happily as she walked over towards the lad, who's how surprised himself.
"How the heck do you know my name?!"
"...Oh my gosh, this is turning into a nice dream!" she squealed in joy, whilst jumping around a bit. "...now if only I have real cards here...it would definitely be fun to have a live duel with you, win or lose! Although, I'd have more fun with Yusei though or perhaps Jack!"
"Wait...what?! And how the heck you know Yusei and Jack?! You think you're dreaming?!" he exclaimed back at her, who just nodded with a small playful grin.
"Are you sure? Want me to slap you to check?" he asked, and for some reason caused her smile to turn into a grim line on her lips.
"What do you mean, are you sure? And of course not even if it is a dream!"
"Cause, I can tell you for sure that I'm not dreaming right now and actually wide awake."
'That's preposterous!' she immediately exclaimed mentally. Then she moves around as if trying to find something, only to find her eyes drawn into a stray shard of glass lying on the floor. '...the only way to confirm if it's a dream or not...'
She took the shard of glass from the ground.
"He-Hey! What are you doing?!" Crow said with great worry, who just saw the girl raise her hand clasping the glass and now aimed it towards her wrist. "No!" he screamed and tried to stop her grasping her wrist just in time. "Stop that!" but she didn't listened as instead gripped the shard on her palms causing the shard to dig deep into her skin. She winced in pain, and let go of the shard like a hot pan that's now filled with her blood.
"Crap!"
Then it finally hit her.
"... It felt so real..." she stared at her hand in horror. "I'm not even waking up...I-I'm bleeding and i-it's painful... No. It can't be! I'm dreaming! I must be!" she shook Crow's hand away and made her way towards the window not caring about who will see her anymore and stood on the window sill. Her hand is now stained with blood and is still bleeding, the cut was just so deep as it hit a lot of nerves from her fingers to her palms.
"Oh my gosh...gah! Don't jump!" Crow was flabbergasted with her impulsiveness almost not knowing what to say. Although, she was the type to remain her cool at this moment she couldn't even find the sanity to do so.
'...Yes, this is the only way. If I jump it will definitely force my body to wake up.' she thought preparing herself a bit and in a matter of seconds as she closed her eyes she jumped.
"No!" Crow shouted. Although he was highly perplexed, his reflexes we're fast enough to grab hold of her hand. "What the heck is wrong with you, woman?!"
"Dammit!" he cursed as he tried to pull her up. The girl on the other hand just stated at the ground before her wide-eyed, feeling the burn from her bloodstained palm, the beating of her heart beneath her chest and the sweat trickling down her forehead. Everything was just so real to be a dream.
'...no...'she thought.
As she hanged in the air, due to the amount of blood loss from her palm, she could feel her senses darkening until slowly she entered a state of reverie.
And that's it.
It wasn't that long like I usually used to do, but I hope that it gave the story some justice.
Anyway, more longer ones in the future I promise that!
Please do review and look forward for the next chapter. :)
Anonymous Review Reply Section:
Guest: No offense taken, I really meant to be that short to be a teaser. But, as I've said that is not my normal length as to how I write x) So, expect longer chapters in the future. (Yes, even longer than this one) Anyway, I appreciate the review! :)