Chapter 4: Just Another Day

"Good morning, Loki-kun!" cooed Satomi as Loki emerged from his room.

"I don't think I'm ready for such cheerfulness before I'm fully wakened," he muttered.

"Of course, of course," she said, gently guiding him across the hall. "This is your first time being here, isn't it? Here's the bathroom. Do you need any assistance?"

"Why the hell would I need assistance? Unless this is the bathroom of the future, I should be able to bathe myself with relative ease."

"Ok, just checking," she replied as he walked inside, locking the door.

"A little eager, are you?" asked Hinata as she walked over.

"Indeed," admitted Satomi. "For the first time, I have some semblance of seniority in our family."

"We may have been made from ancient Duel Spirits, but he was born before we were recreated as Sin Angels. We may have been created fully grown, but he's technically older than we are."

"Don't spoil this for me," growled Satomi.

"Oh, yes; heaven forbid I allow logic to get into our conversation."

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At that moment, Haga and Ryuzaki bumped into each other on the streets of Domino. "Ow! That hurt!" whined Haga.

"Be more careful!" snapped Ryuzaki. "Watch where you're going!"

"I was careful!" protested Haga.

"Wait, aren't you…" The two of them stared for a moment. "…You're Insector Haga!"

"You're Dinosaur Ryuzaki!"

"But…Battle City's over, as is your match with Kawai Shizuka. What are you doing here?"

"That's none of your business. But enough about me: what are you doing here?"

"…I got something to do." Haga simply scoffed and walked away.

Ryuzaki quickly increased his stride to walk side by side with him. "Come on, stop following me!" ordered Haga.

"You're the one following me!"

I have to steal the God Cards; one way or another, I have to get them.

Ryuzaki started walking faster. I can't let you get them! Even if it costs all my cards and everything I own, I have to get the God Cards! Haga began walking faster, and Ryuzaki increased his own speed with an annoyed groan. Then they ended all pretenses and broke into a run down a slope, glaring furiously at each other as they ran. Then they glanced forward to see a robed man at the bottom of the slope.

"Get out of the way!" shrieked the boys, both of them unable to slow down. The man didn't move, and the boys crashed into him, getting knocked to the ground.

"What were you doing here?" demanded Ryuzaki.

"That was dangerous!" agreed Haga.

"You are Dinosaur Ryuzaki-dono," said the man, "and Insector Haga-dono."

Surprised by his unusual manner of speech, Ryuzaki murmured, "How can I help you?"

The man's eyes glowed. "I'm here to take your souls."

"What do you mean?" cried Haga.

"Shut up!" snapped the man, priming his serpentine Duel Disk. "Duel!"

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Loki stopped eating and suddenly looked up. "You sensed it too, didn't you?" asked Shijo. "I guess I can't be surprised; you've been holding those cards for so long, after all."

"Nii-san…what was that?" murmured Loki.

"That was pure dark energy."

"But I never got such an intense feeling from the Millennium Items, and I can tell by looking that they have lots of dark energy."

"The dark energy is stored in the items, which in turn makes the energy feel less outstanding. Magically-enchanted items will never feel as powerful as the magic stored inside, so when someone releases magical energy from an item, you immediately feel a difference."

"That's as maybe, but this definitely didn't feel like a Millennium Item."

"Indeed, but that's hardly our concern," said Shijo as he refilled Loki's orange juice. "We have a chore list, and investigating unidentified magic bursts is Hikaru's job today."

"You actually have that listed as a chore?"

"Yes, and that reminds me: I must remember to pick up dry-cleaning, and you have a little shopping to do."

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At that moment, in Domino, Other Yugi was walking towards the Domino museum alone. With his three God Cards, he wanted to finally realize his destiny, but he was afraid that he'd be sad if the others were there. He only wanted Yugi to see him off.

As he climbed the steps, Jonouchi, Honda and Anzu caught up to him. "Yugi! Hey, Yugi!" He turned in surprise.

They walked up to him and Honda said, "You left so suddenly, we thought something was wrong."

"Were you going to leave us this way?" challenged Jonouchi.

Anzu nodded. "We'd be sad if we couldn't say goodbye."

Honda, Jonouchi, and Anzu put their hands in a circle. "No matter how far apart we are…"

"…our hearts will always be together."

Other Yugi smiled and added his hand to the group. "Thank you, everyone."

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Caraway, Loki thought to himself, pulling spices off the shelf. Cumin…and it was nice of Shiro to write in English, alphabetized.

"Ah, Loki-kun!" greeted Megumi.

"Megumi-san," he returned.

"How are things with your new family?"

"Unusual, but not unwelcome. I'm stuck with the shopping today."

"A very small price to pay," she replied. "Shizuka called and said she went to challenge Yugi."

"I guess I'd better finish up before…" Loki suddenly turned pale and clutched his stomach.

'Are you ok?" she asked, quickly walking over.

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Other Yugi pulled out the three God Cards. Once I put the three God Cards on the stone, the door to my memory will be opened. What will happen? The answer is here.

"My Other Self…" murmured Yugi. Other Yugi took a deep breath and raised his God Cards before the stone. The God Cards began to glow, as did the carving of the Millennium Puzzle on the tablet.

To their shock, the tablet iced over. The glow ended, and the God Cards started to crackle with black energy. "What's wrong?" exclaimed Honda.

"I…I feel a strong force," strained Other Yugi.

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At the supermarket, Loki keeled over and starting hacking into his sleeve. "Are you ok?" exclaimed Megumi.

After a moment, Loki returned to normal. "…It's nothing," he lied as he stood up. "I…I should finish my chore and go lie down."

"What the hell is that?" they heard someone yell, and suddenly everyone started rushing to the front.

"What's all this?" wondered Loki as he and Megumi went to investigate. "…Oh dear," he murmured. All over the streets and sidewalks, and flying through the air was an army of Duel Monsters.

"Is this one of those duels?" asked Megumi.

"Not like one I've seen."

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"Answer me, damn it!" snapped Hikaru. "What happened here?"

"Hey, is that Haga and Ryuzaki?" Hikaru turned to the source of the voice, and saw Other Yugi and his friends running over to him; Haga and Ryuzaki stood there, looking to the sky completely dazed.

"Yugi-sama," greeted Hikaru. "I can't make any sense of what they're saying."

"Who are you?" asked Other Yugi. "Another member of the Nakamura Clan?"

"Yes, I'm the second oldest sibling, Hikaru."

"And which sin would you be?"

"Wrath." Stepping back she said, "See if you can get anything out of them, if you wish."

Honda turned to the two. "What are you two doing here?"

Haga cackled. "The first sign is here."

"Soon this world will end," said Ryuzaki.

"Sign?" asked Other Yugi.

"What do you mean?" asked Anzu. Haga and Ryuzaki merely cackled in response.

"That's all I've been getting," said Hikaru.

"We don't have time for this," said Jonouchi. "Let's go."

"May I inquire?"

"We figured that with all these Duel Monsters appearing over the place that Kaiba knows what's going on, since he invented the Solid Vision system."

"By all means, go nuts." Now that I think about it, she thought once the gang left, though the original magic is gone, there's clearly an abnormal level of energy surrounding the city itself, as well as those monsters. I wonder if there's a connection…

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"Looks like you got everything," acknowledged Shijo as he unpacked the last of the food.

"But of course," replied Loki. "I'll help you put these away."

"Thanks." As they started putting the groceries away he said, "So, did anything interesting happen to you today, apart from monsters cropping us all over the place?"

"Yes, I ran into Shizuka's mom at the store."

"Cool."

"I'm sure it's absolutely none of my business, but in regards to the monsters…"

"Yeah, I don't have an answer for you. I'm sure Hikaru will get to the bottom of this."

"She can take care of himself, can't she?"

"Of course! We're Duel Spirits; who really knows more about dueling than us?"

"Me, perhaps?"

"…You have your moments," admitted Shijo.

"Now that I think about it, I've never actually seen any of you duel, except Satomi-chan. What are your styles, exactly?"

"We like to base it off our namesake sins, though some of us like to be ironic about it. Hinata, with her sloth, has no actual monsters in her deck; she just likes to wear down the opponent with Spells like Chain Energy and Toll until they can't make any moves."

"Nasty."

"I, with gluttony, use 'Ojama' cards to clutter the opponent's field."

"I see; gluttony means you're basically expanding, and once you get too big you can't really do a lot."

"Yoichi, with greed, likes to make his opponent draw with various effects, whilst using the continuous effect of Greed to damage them for doing so."

"And that's where the irony comes from."

"Kazuki, with his envy, uses a 'Venom' deck to slowly poison the opponent's monsters. Hikaru, with her wrath, uses a Skill Drain deck in conjunction with powerful monsters to pulverize the opponent."

"That currently makes her the person who'd lose to me fastest."

"But…aren't most of your monsters Effect Monsters?"

"Yes, but a bunch of them activate in the Graveyard anyway, so they don't get inhibited by Skill Drain."

"Fair enough. Lastly is our dear mentor, Saburo, pride, who uses a 'Six Samurai' deck."

"Of course; who knows more about pride than samurai?"

"Hey, if you were allowed to cut down people just because they forgot to bow to you, you'd be proud too."

"But…what about Satomi? She's lust, and the only thing in her deck that reflects that is Darklord Asmodeus, and that's the guy that supposedly punishes lust."

"She's different," replied Shijo with a shrug. "Unlike most Duel Spirits, she doesn't really play off her own theme."

"You mean she uses a logical deck that she thought up herself?" exclaimed Loki in mock surprise. "That's just nonsense!"

"Don't mock me; my strategy works very well for me. Then again, I am the weakest duelist of the Nakamura Clan. Now, help me make dinner."

"Pushy."

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That night, the Nakamura clan sat around the dinner table. A lovely meal had been prepared by Loki and Shijo, and they just couldn't wait to eat it; except, of course, that one of their number was missing.

"Are you sure Hikaru doesn't need any help?" muttered Loki. "That was a pretty incredible energy spike a few minutes ago."

"If she was in any trouble," replied Hinata, "we would've sensed it. Stop worrying."

At that moment, Hikaru stormed in. "Excuse me for intruding," she muttered.

"You look pissed," stated Saburo. "Care to talk it out?"

"Sure, why not?" She sat down. "I found out a lot by tailing Yugi. Apparently the monsters are real, the energy spikes we keep feeling are the result of a Spell card that takes people's souls, three guys stole Yugi's God Cards, and the only link is a little green rock. Will somebody please pass me the wine?" Satomi immediately passed it over. "Thank you."

"Not to beat a dead horse," said Loki, "but what was that about the God Cards?"

"…Some bikers, who apparently call themselves Doma's Three Swordsmen, broke into Yugi's house and stole his God Cards while he was in another room."

"That's pretty careless of him."

"Shortly after, I witnessed a duel between the Other Yugi and a man known as Grerimo, who successfully used God of Obelisk in that duel."

"Another duelist who can call upon Gods?" asked Kazuki.

"You recall that Spell I mentioned; it's called Orichalcos Barrier, and it infuses the user with enough dark energy to control Gods."

"Artificial God users," muttered Shijo. "What blasphemy."

"It gets better. The Spell itself cannot be destroyed, negated, or removed. The user's monsters become treated as Dark as well as their normal attribute, and gain 500 ATK. The user can also play monsters in the Spell/Trap zone, which can't be attacked without clearing the regular monster zone."

"Talk about hideously overbalanced," murmured Satomi. "Someone could actually have ten monsters at a time, five of which can't be attacked?"

"The worst part being that it not only corrupts the soul of the user, but it seals away the soul of the loser."

"Would Pegasus Crawford really create such a horrible card?"

"He couldn't," said Loki. "He has no magic anymore. Besides which, he doesn't have the need for people's souls. Someone else created this card."

"A new danger to this world?" asked Hinata. "That's rather depressing."

"I'll try to catch up with Yugi tomorrow. But this can wait; I'm hungry."

"Yes, we'll hold off until later," agreed Saburo. "I'm sure the world will last until we've at least eaten."

End Chapter