[One day after the defeat of Darkness]

Judai couldn't breathe.

Spots flared in his eyes as something seemed to crush in on his lungs, pushing him inwards, squeezing the breath out of him. He couldn't hear, couldn't see, couldn't breathe—

"Judai!"

Judai gasped and air finally rushed into his lungs. He collapsed to his knees, hands shaking on the cold metal ground. He coughed a few moments and then tried to suck down large gulps of air again. Had—had that been another panic attack?

Wait, why was the floor metal? Hadn't he just been outside Duel Academy?

Judai's eyes finally cleared. The projection of Yubel appeared beside him, bichromatic eyes wide and wild with fear.

"Oh thank the gods," she hissed. "Are you all right?"

Judai coughed one more time.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "I think I'm okay."

He blinked the crud out of his eyes and tried to focus. Surroundings—mark the surroundings.

He was in a small metal room. There was a door in front of him that looked pretty heavy—probably locked from the outside. When he stood up and looked around, he saw that there was another half wall behind him, cutting off part of the room as though for privacy. But that seemed odd in a room that looked like a prison...was he in a prison? How had he gotten there? The last thing he remembered was getting into bed and passing out, still tired after defeating Darkness just a day ago...

He groaned as a wave of dizziness washed over him, pressing the heel of his palm to his forehead.

Something scuffed on the floor. Yubel hissed and Judai whipped around to face the other wall. His heart screamed in his stomach—god, no, not another thing to fight, he was so tired—

A small, round face peered out from behind the partition. She was dark skinned, a soft, velvety sort of brown, with thick, dark eyelashes and wispy black hair that curled around her face. It was pulled back in a tiny ponytail that flipped up at the end. Dark brown eyes stared at him with what appeared to be terror.

Judai held up his hands.

"Hey," he said. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."

She spoke something, a tremulous sound with a lilt, an accent that he had never heard before, but it was in English and he didn't understand.

"I don't know English," he stumbled with a passable accent.

She stared at him, eyes wide. She started to wave at him, as though pushing him away, still speaking.

"I don't—I don't understand, I'm sorry, I'm not going to hurt you," he said, backing up with his hands up in a soothing kind of gesture.

She waved harder, a tear was rolling down her eyes, she looked terrified and he had no idea why; if only he could speak English—

"Judai, goddammit listen to me—you can use my power, Duel Spirits speak all languages, have you forgotten that I'm here?"

Judai snapped to alertness at Yubel's voice. He had forgotten in the commotion.

He let Yubel slip more firmly into his soul, his eyes flickering to her orange and green. Immediately, the woman's words came into stark focus, as though she were speaking Japanese to him.

"You have to go, please, I can't keep the hunger in, I—it's been over twelve hours and it's coming, you need to go, you should have been here hours ago—I don't want to hurt you—"

And then he felt it. A burning sensation climbing through him, a buzzing that started in his veins and spread outwards and inwards, a heat that pulsed in his heart. He was starting to pant for breathe and he could smell something like burning hair.

"She's doing something," Yubel said.

"I don't think she can control it," he said, groaning as the heat waved through him again. "Listen to me—you have to calm down. Breathe."

She was sobbing now, her hands pressed over her eyes.

"Please, please, please, I don't want to hurt people anymore, please you have to go—"

"Judai," Yubel said warningly.

The heat was increasing, pulsing in his head like the worst headache in the world. He was sweating and he knew, suddenly, that he was going to be burned alive in that instant if he didn't do something—

Duel Disk—he didn't have his Duel Disk.

For a moment, he almost panicked. But he wrenched his emotions back into control.

"Listen to me," he hissed at the woman. "Calm down. Breathe."

She gasped, peeking out between her fingers. Judai was having trouble breathing again, but no way was this going to be enough to stop him. He breathed in deeply and drew the shadows into him.

They pulled off of the walls, creeping along like snakes and winding up his legs to reach his mouth. He sucked them in like water, breathing the darkness inside of him—cool darkness, protective darkness, nurturing darkness, darkness that pushed the heat gently away and out of him. He had a moment to think, now, but he wasn't sure if he could hold off whatever heat and fire was trying to grip at him for long.

She stared at him with her mouth hanging open, jaw trembling.

"You're—you're okay...?"

"For now," he said. "But I need to know what you're doing."

She shook her head, shaking so badly that he thought she might fall over.

"I—I don't even know, I have this...this hunger. It needs to feed, it needs to burn, and I can't choose what it burns—they usually bring meat for me, but they haven't come, something's wrong—I don't want to hurt people anymore."

"Shhhh, shhh..." Judai said. "It's going to be okay. I know a thing or two about powers that you can't control...I need you to breathe, okay? You're not going to hurt anyone."

She gasped and choked on a sob, pressing a hand to her mouth for a moment.

"What's your name?" Judai asked gently.

She licked her chapped lips.

"Kirtida," she whispered. "I'm...Kirtida Kaur."

"Nice to meet you," he said. "I'm Yuki Judai."

She swallowed. Still shaking terribly.

"Can I move closer?" he asked.

"You shouldn't," she said. "You—you shouldn't. I'll burn you."

"You won't hurt me, promise," he said, although he wasn't sure how true that was.

"Yubel, what do you think?" he asked his spirit partner.

"She's using some kind of power, that's for sure. We need it to calm down before we lose control over these shadows, or we're going to die."

"Great."

Judai stepped a bit closer. She stiffened, but didn't retreat.

"So what is this place? How did you get here?"

"Is it not proper to ask only one question at a time?" she mumbled, although it seemed more of a gut reflex than anything. She answered in a moment. "This is the...SCP Foundation, I believe...I was brought here because I hurt people, and I need to be kept away from them."

Judai tensed up at that. She was a prisoner? Because of her powers? Well, he'd have to have a talk with this SCP Foundation later.

"Where were you before that?"

She hesitated, lips parting.

"I...I don't know..." she said. "I don't...remember..."

Tears bubbled in her eyes again and she chewed hard on her lip.

"I did something wrong—I must have done something wrong. It made me a demon that hurts people."

"Sh, sh," Judai said. "No, you're not a demon. This isn't your fault."

"I'm a monster," she said.

It felt like a slap to the face. Judai had to pause and breathe for a moment, eyes closing.

"You are not a monster," he said.

But was he talking to her, or was he talking to himself?

"Judai, the heat is growing again. I don't know how much longer we can hold it off."

Kirtida shudder and hugged her thin arms around herself.

"You need to go," she said. "You need to go right now. I can't keep the hunger in, it needs to feed."

Judai shook his head.

"You don't need to be ruled by this 'hunger'," he said. "I'm going to figure this out. Kirtida-san, will you please take my hand?"

He held his hand out towards her. She just stared at it for a moment. Then she shook her head, drawing back.

"You need to go," she repeated.

"Kirtida-san," he said again. "You don't have to be afraid."

Tears rolled down her dark cheeks.

"Please. I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't."

She stared at his outstretched hand. Judai could feel the heat clawing at his shadows, the shadows retreated as though a flame were lit to illuminate the dark. Sweat was beading on his forehead.

"Kirtida," he said. "Please."

Kirtida reached out. Her hand hovered tentatively over his fingers for a brief, brief moment. And then her fingers brushed onto his, and he gripped her hand and—

He gasped, head snapped back and sight going out for a moment. He heard Kirtida scream, but he couldn't let go—he couldn't let go of her hand. He was seeing something, something hot and crackling and burning and clawing and—

"I see you," he hissed. "I see you."

He could see her now, all of her—not just the small woman before him but the creatures that clung to her soul. The golden metal of the metallic bird that nestled in a wreath of flames, sleeping, providing a warm, life-giving heat throughout Kirtida's body. And the other one, a mass of flames and lava and horns that curled around Kirtida's soul, a snake like dragon that rose up out of a lake of flames and hissed—a low, keening sound that sounded more sad and frantic than dangerous.

"Power," the dragon cried. "Need power."

"Power for what?" Judai hissed between his teeth.

"Protect. Must protect."

"This is not how to do it."

"Must protect," it said more insistently.

Judai swallowed as he figured out exactly what had happened to this girl, but was uncertain of how.

She was like him. Like him and Yubel, two souls merged into one body—although she was a fusion of three souls.

"Double ka," he said suddenly, eyes widening. "You're a double ka bearer. And you went through ka to ba fusion."

"W-what?" Kirtida said.

This girl had had two shadow souls spreading from her, two Duel Spirits that had been born from her soul, and both of them had fused together with her. When he had talked to Aqua Dolphin and the others, he had heard of such a thing happening, but it was rare, very rare. The last time it had happened was with the white dragon, the dragon who had wanted to protect her love and fused to his soul to be with him forever. This fiery dragon, and the sleeping phoenix, were a part of her. Linked, entwined completely.

"You are hurting her more than you're helping," Judai said. "You need to stop. You need to stop."

"Need power. Need protect," the dragon said.

Judai's eyes snapped open again, glowing with golden power.

"I'm going to protect her," he said. "You know what I am. Don't you?"

The dragon flinched, lowering its head at his soul piercing gaze. He felt its acknowledgment.

"Well then," he said. "Stop it."

The dragon complied. It receded back into Kirtida's fire soul.

And the heat released Judai.

He breathed out with a sigh of relief, letting his eyes change back to a normal color. Kirtida let out a soft gasp.

"It stopped," she whispered. "The hunger...stopped."

She stared at him, eyes wide.

"How?" she said.

Judai breathed out, feeling like he had just run a marathon.

"How about I sit down," he said, "and then we can talk about it."


"Goodness," she laughed to herself. "Does every King make friends so easily? How very adorable."

She chuckled softly. Then she typed in the command for phase three and leaned back in her chair.

"This is working far better than I expected," she mused. "This machine does work."

She smiled.

"Let's see what our third King will try..."