Thousand Strings
An LLS Production
The colourless skein of life may contain many colours at once, though we only see the scarlet thread.
From where Apollymi Hunter first loomed over my beaten and wasted self in some alley in Los Angeles, grinning to offer me, an abandoned orphan with no other skill than a little Psychic talent and the talents of life on the streets, my string of fate had been tangled in that of the new Arcadia Movement. Yet, I must say that the most exciting period of my life came in middle age, where I had grown comfortably into the power I wielded as a Psychic Duelist but certain that I would no longer again gather strength.
I speak, of course, of the time that Madam had brought the first daughter of the newly renamed Shimotsuki family to the old house. The old house was a small bungalow on the outskirts of Neo Domino, if by small I meant by the exaggerated standards of Baroque architecture. Aside from myself, a housekeeper and one or two hired help, there was barely anyone else that the Master and Madam trusted.
Missy was presented to me by a cheerfully smiling Madam sometime in the middle of November, barely a week past the day of her birth. I remembered receiving the tiny babe from Madam's deceptively strong arms, and registering faint surprise that Missy had yet to move. Of course, newborns kept their eyes shut most of the time, but had I a care to look down earlier I would have been deceived. I had glanced down, and then and there I swore that Missy's eyelashes were coated in frost. Yet that could not have been true.
Missy was a perfectly behaved baby, hard to believe but true. In fact, the very nature of her quiet was a nagging constant worry to myself and the Master, and yet the Madam had sensed nothing wrong. She began speaking properly at three, proficient enough that at five she could have been above ordinary students.
My Missy came back on her first day of school with a bruised knee.
I remembered silently patching it up. "Missy... how was school?"
"We played sandcastle." Missy's words had nearly always been canted to specifics. "Mine was built tall, yet some of the boys were... disagreeable. The castle returned to sand when they made it known, that I could not have done it without help."
"I will enquire if we must report this," I demurely said.
Missy did not mention anything else, though the Master and I kept an update with the teacher. The situation was quiet, and we presumed that, aside from the occasional assassin, that Missy was safe at school. Madam did not take an interest in Missy; then again, I had never known Ms Diana to take an interest outside of her own in Hunter Securities, so it might have been too far gone to hope for Madam Seiran Shimotsuki to act differently. Missy's Psychic power was strong, and talented; many a time had I made my concern known to the Master, who took appropriate measures.
Our first indication that something was wrong, was that two years later, Missy was accusing of drowning her entire class by use of her powers. Weather reports and forensics helped us establish that Missy was merely the lucky survivor of a flash flood, yet the insistences of the teacher led to us parting ways with that kindergarten and Madam actually beginning to take an active interest in Professor Kannazuki's daughter. I have met the Kannazuki girl, and later seen the Madam conduct what could be termed a 'play-date' between the Fudo boy and her, but I was always left uncertain what was the Madam doing with her own precocious, headstrong and beautiful daughter.
The White Witch Massacre happened. Missy was thrown into the limelight more often than not. More assassins came. Madam challenged the Elysium Circle. Madam was a storm, but so often can storms be forcefully stopped. On that day...
In my capacity as street-rat, hired thug, bouncer, loyal muscle, and later professional servant and then head butler of the Hunter, later Shimotsuki, family, I have seen many events, many things and many worlds. I must have wielded more administrative powers than any head of the Arcadia Movement ever done in history, and I speak as a history inclusive of the devious Divine who gives all Psychics a bad name. None of them ever quite prepare for the realisation that one's employers are dead.
On their command, I had brought Missy and Seika-ojou, the Kannazuki's remaining daughter, to the apartment in the Castle. Where the girls were asleep, I grieved.
When the sun had risen, Missy awoke. Her eyes had always been cold, but today they were particularly frozen, an inheritance of the Master. Whether or not the Missy held love in her heart for the mother who constantly threw her over for children not of her own was debatable, but I knew that Missy had loved Master without a doubt, and his death had pained her.
"Missy..." I nodded. This morn had seen me slumped by the side of the only couch there, too tired to put together any semblance of propriety but still awake.
"Yes, Nakamura-san?"
"With..." I hesitated, uncertain as to what my young lady intended. "With this... what do we do about Seika-ojou?"
She looked down at Seika-ojou's sleeping form, and then down to her deck, and then made a decision. "We make her disappear, Nakamura-san. We take over the Movement... and then, we hunt them down, like the Hunter I am. We hunt them down... without mercy."
Her resolution was certain, that much the history books will record. What they never say was what I had protested.
"What of Orion-sama?" I had asked. If Orion-sama where here...
"Inform him, then," she replied, her voice icy. "Tell him that his guardians are dead and that he has two charges to care for. Orion-niisan... he can remain at Central, he is hardly ever about anyway."
"But... were Orion-sama here, matters would go smoother," I insisted. "You would worry less. Orion-sama has a stake in this as well."
"Why leave it to him where I can achieve this on my own?" She questioned as the temperature dropped. "There is the funeral, I leave the details to you. Following this, I will emancipate myself and appoint you as my guardian. Seika will go to another family, a proper one."
"I cannot in good conscience allow you to do this," I insisted. "I shall indeed contact Orion-sama, and arrange the funeral and the press fallout and the Movement itself is needed. However, to chase revenge now is a far too rash move! Children should trust adults to do this! You should trust Orion-sama and I to choose the correct path!"
"Like Mama- Mother," Missy quickly corrected, "was legally obliged to do, and did nothing about it? Should I then trust you to continue Seika's slow convincing to be brainwashed into her perfect heiress?"
"No," I replied, having no other recourse. "Like your father tried, and did, do anything to protect his family, Seika-ojou, and you. On this course of action, you would waste his sacrifice."
"No, I protect what is mine," Missy defended.
"What can a child like you do?" I demanded, turning my back and thus making the greatest mistake on my life. "We will go nowhere trading words as we are. I will conduct the actual duties while I await your senses to return, Missy."
I shouldn't have left her. I shouldn't have let the precocious, headstrong and powerful Missy out of my sight. I shouldn't have forgotten that amongst Missy's great talents were the ability to call upon the spirits of the Duel.
I left her to call Orion-sama and break the terrible news, as well as contact the undertaker. The entire thing took an hour, an hour in which the worst thing that had ever happened in my life had happened.
I had entered the room, and found it covered in frost. Seika-ojou had been taken in by the Fudo family, doubtless due to Missy's artful words with Fudo Ryuusei. Missy herself was there, waiting for me as she hung up.
"You are right, of course," she began once I presented myself to her.
Immediately, I was on full alert. "Pardon me?"
"You are right," she repeated. "There is nothing a child can do. But I am not a child any longer."
Cold tingled on my scalp and skin, and I felt my own eyes widen at the realisation of what she had done.
"I am not a child, not any longer," she repeated as she held up her hand, which glowed with the snowflake sigil of her favourite Ice Barrier. "I am one who has the full power of the Ice Barrier to bear."
"What have you done, Missy?" It could have been chastising, but somehow it was pitying. Tears unshed come to my eyes each and every time I remembered the cursed words she uttered next:
"You may follow me, Nakamura-san, or you may stand by and watch the last of your dead mistress walk into Hell alone. I will do this one way or another."
So she did. She did it far better than I could have conceived. She had done far more, and with me as her sword and shield. Yet... and yet, what cost had the prosperity of many, but for the sorrow of one?
I should have left. I should have controlled her. But for that she had the blood of the Hunters in her veins, and she was far too intelligent to be controlled. I sought to stop what had already passed. I had no other choice but to tell Orion-sama what had happened.
In the end...
It was a day with clear skies, the day that Orion-sama was the first of many to face her, my Missy, in ritual combat for the throne of the Arcadia Movement. Every single Psychic was there, their gazes piercing, searching the interloper who had dared to challenge the Queen in her Court.
The implication was fairly clear; whoever won this combat would gain the throne of the Arcadia Movement.
"Why?" my Missy's eyes were wide as she evenly stared back at Orion-sama. "Why?"
"You are a child," Orion-sama protested.
"Age has nothing to do with leadership."
"It has everything to do with experience," Orion-sama returned. "Revenge solves nothing. Setsuka, wake up. You can still turn back. Turn back to normal."
"What is normal?" Missy whispered. "I was never that. I was never meant to have a normal childhood. I know what I'm doing."
"No, no you don't," Orion-sama rebutted. "That's why we're here."
"Duel!"
Setsuka: LP 8000
Orion: LP 8000
"As the challenged, I shall begin," Missy pronounced with an awfully small voice. "Draw. I summon Snow Dragon [1400/900] in attack mode. I'll then set two cards and end my turn."
"Draw!" Orion-sama declared. "I summon Mad Reloader [0/0]! Mad Reloader, attack Snow Dragon!"
Orion: LP 8000 → LP 6600
Setsuka: LP 8000
"When Mad Reloader is destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, I can send two cards from my hand to the graveyard, and then draw two cards," Orion-sama called. "I set two cards, turn end."
"Draw," Missy declared. "Exodia... the monster by which Orion-niisan gained your codename, Exodia..."
"Precisely," Orion-sama nodded. "I am determined to stop you."
"All the more I must fight," Missy's eyes flashed. "I am doing this for the Movement. I summon Cold Enchanter [1600/1200]. Cold Enchanter, attack Orion-niisan directly!"
"Trap card, Defence Draw!" Orion-sama had defended. "Battle damage is negated to zero, and I draw a card."
"Snow Dragon, attack directly!" she retaliated.
Orion: LP 6600 → LP 5200
Setsuka: LP 8000
"Ow!" Orion-sama flinched as one of the ice splinters cut his skin. "Setsuka? What- stop, you're going out of control."
"I am in control," Missy coldly answered. "Turn end."
"No, you're not," Orion-sama shot back. "You're losing it. You're not rational. You're going to take over the Arcadia Movement and then use it to fight the Elysium Circle at your age? There's crazy, and there's this."
"I will do it!" Missy shouted back.
"Where does it say that you must?!" Orion-sama yelled. "Who and where says that you must make that sacrifice for the Movement! I promise you... during this Duel, I will wake you up! I draw!"
Orion-sama only gave his hand a brief glance. "I summon The Bistro Butcher [1800/1000]. Bistro Butcher, attack Snow Dragon!"
Setsuka: LP 8000 → LP 7600
Orion: LP 5200
"When Snow Dragon is destroyed by battle or card effect, and sent to the graveyard, each face-up monster on the field gains one Ice Counter," Missy defended. "Cold Enchanter gains three hundred attack power for every Ice Counter on the field, so that's six hundred attack power [1600/1200 → 2200/1200]."
"But, The Bistro Butcher allows you to draw two cards whenever it inflicts damage," Orion-sama declared. "Chain Continuous Trap, Appropriate. When my opponent draws cards outside of the draw phase, I can draw two cards. I set a card, turn end."
"Thank you," Missy replied in a chilly voice as she drew. "I will take this sacrifice of yours in consideration. However, the fact is, Orion-niisan, that you underestimate me."
"Revenge, for Aunt and Uncle... this isn't the best way to go about it," Orion-sama shook his head. "I can't let you."
"Perhaps you misunderstand," Missy drew herself up. "There is no letting on your behalf. There is only the question of you standing in the way of the Movement's journey towards greatness. You are either with me, or you're against me."
Orion-sama closed his eyes, and when he opened them, they were sorrowful but resolved. "You'll understand one day... I guess I'm against you."
"Then I shall remove you," she stared evenly back at him. "Draw. Activate Call of the Haunted to revive Snow Dragon again to the field. Main phase one, I activate the set Spell, Big Wave Small Wave. By destroying all Water Attribute monsters I control, I can special summon from my hand Water Attribute monsters up to the number of those destroyed. Cold Enchanter and Snow Dragon are destroyed, so in their place I special summon from my hand Blue Ice White Night Dragon [3000/2500] and Strategist of the Ice Barrier [1600/1600]. Activate the effect of Strategist, discard an Ice Barrier monster such as Samurai of the Ice Barrier to draw a card. I summon the tuner monster, Geomancer of the Ice Barrier [800/1200]. Tuning, level four Strategist to level three Geomancer."
"Tuning? You have a Synchro monster?" Orion-sama yelled.
"Winter sweeps the land as the epilogue begins," she murmured, and "Its icy clutches upon the earth make themselves apparent. Synchro summon! Ice spear of the one-eyed, Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier!"
The dragon this time looked icy, but glowed orange and blue as the sunlight glistened, pale like wan sunlight on a patch of ice. Its forepaws and hind legs weighed down and its entire body was thick and plated with glistening crystal-like scales. Its jaw was beak-like, wide, and it let loose a hiss as it descended [2500/1700].
"The effect of Gungnir, is that once per turn I can discard up to two cards from my hand to destroy that many cards on the field," Missy pronounced with an unimpeachable finality. "I discard the last two cards in my hand to destroy your set card and The Bistro Butcher."
Orion-sama had no choice, and I was reminded of my first master, the horror-struck features of Master Apollymi as his own beloved Ruin killed him. So too, did Orion-sama face Missy with that same face.
"White Night Dragon, direct attack with Aurora Borealis!" Missy declared. "Gungnir, direct attack with Sway Spear! My spear, my sword and shield, my dragons!"
Orion: LP 5200 → LP 0
Setsuka: LP 7600
As the pieces of Exodia flew into the air, I counted the Right Arm, the Right Leg, the Left Leg and the Head. There had only been one piece left to making everything right.
"I win," Missy stood there, and she faced the entirety of the Movement. "I am the third head of the Arcadia Movement. I am Shimotsuki Setsuka, the Cold Queen. My reign begins... now."
Ten years ago, that was the beginning of her reign. That was the evolution of the Arcadia Movement. If I had not followed, if I had followed Orion-sama... I do not know what she would have done. I do not know if I could face my master and mistress in the other world.
It is not in me to debate that which could have been, I suppose. Yet I cannot help but regret, as the retainer of the Hunter, the Shimotsuki, and now the Kannazuki family.
Nakamura Iemitsu
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