Jake listened closely as his teacher told them another exciting tale of one of the heroic duel warriors. The two-week duel class was on its third day and so far each of the classes had ended with at least one story about famous duelists who had fought epic battles using trading cards.
Today's story involved a duel to the death (well almost) between Joey Wheeler and a guy named Valon. Apparently they were dueling over a girl which Jake thought was pretty pathetic but he figured the pure awesomeness of a card that could capture people's souls and a dragon named Hermos offset the patheticness factor. Besides that, assuming the teacher's version was accurate, the duel itself had been spectacular.
When the story ended Jake shouted excitedly, "I want to be a great duel warrior one day and fight shadow games and save the world!"
The teacher turned to look at Jake. Earlier the teacher's eyes had been pure brown and full of joy but now, possibly due to a trick of the setting sun, his brown eyes seemed flecked with bits of gold and burdened with the weight of the world. "Are you sure?"
The eyes and the question sent a shiver up Jake's spine and suddenly he wasn't sure.
It had been three days but Judai still hadn't located the duel warrior. He had asked around but no one knew of any young duelist not already in the class.
He watched as the young duelists and the others who had come to listen to the end of class story drifted off each heading off towards home. Only one child lingered, the one Judai had asked to stay behind.
Judai smiled as he watched the spirit standing at the boy's shoulder.
"What does Sir Loyalheart think about my asking you to stay?"
"He's not sure what you want but he believes you are a worthy teacher and that I should trust you." Alan answered automatically, then he seemed to realize what it was he had said and looked horrified. A blush crept up into his cheeks.
"How did you know that I sometimes imag…that I preten.." Alan left off looking completely embarrassed.
"You're not pretending or imagining things. You can see duel spirits. I can too and I've known a couple of other duelists who could as well. It's a useful ability." Judai's tone was completely matter of fact.
He watched as the boy's face twisted reflecting the turmoil within as new ideas overtook old assumptions. Then suddenly the muscles in Alan's face relaxed as everything fell into place, memories made more sense, buried truths rose to the surface and Alan accepted Judai's words as truth.
Judai was thankful Alan had accepted his abilities so quickly; right now the boy's ability was his best hope of finding the duel warrior before it was too late to be of any help.
"Alan what can you see to my left?"
"Winged Kuriboh, he's floating by your shoulder."
"Good, you can see the spirits of the cards of others as well as your own. Most duelists have a card that they are especially attached to and if you look carefully you'll sometimes see the spirit of that card hanging around their duelist watching over them." Judai started walking back towards the Martinany household and Alan followed listening carefully to everything his teacher told him. "I have reason to believe that there was a duelist among my welcoming party that hasn't been coming to the duel lessons, I need to find this duelist and I think you can help me."
"How? You said you see spirits too, what do you need me for?"
"Duel Spirits aren't always visible. I've been watching but I haven't spotted one near anyone not already in the class but I've only been here for a couple of days, you've spent your whole life here. Can you recall noticing something that could have been a spirit around anyone who was with you the day I arrived but is not in the class?"
Alan was silent as he shifted through his memories looking at them through the veil of this new knowledge. Images he had previously thought to be illusions or dreams gained new significance. He remembered the night that he had seen Winged Kuriboh, Neos and a creature he did not recognize huddled around Judai's bed. He remembered the times he had seen Robin's shadow suddenly turn into a dragon. He remembered seeing many spirits but most of them had been around the boys in his class and the rest had been connected to older kids or adults who had been too busy to spend a day at the edge of town waiting for a stranger. He couldn't think of anyone who fit that description…except...
"I…I'm not sure but…sometimes I've imagined…or I guess I might of seen a black cat hanging around my sister but she doesn't duel. She doesn't even have a deck."
"Thank you Alan, please tell me if you remember any other possibilities. Now we had better get inside before your parents start to worry."
Alan looked up. He hadn't even realized they'd reached his house he'd be so absorbed with his thoughts.
His sister. A girl. That would make sense. It would explain why the duelist hadn't showed up to his class and why none of the boys in the class were aware of the duelist. If it turned out Alan's sister wasn't the one he was looking for it would probably still make sense to shift the focus of his search to the young girls.
Judai waited until after the family had finished dinner. He stood in a shadowy corner and watched Isabel help her mother with the dishes. His brown eyes flickered to become the mismatched pair of blue and orange then they just as quickly flicked back to brown but this time the brown eyes were brimming with tears. The light had been so bright it hurt his eyes.
He sensed a little jealousy from Yubel's direction that someone else had caused him pain. She had mostly gotten over her sadistic ideas about pain equaling love that had come out of the trauma of her space flight but every once in while she still had strange reactions that hearkened back to those dark days. Judai didn't fight it, he figured the jealousy might actually be better than the anger which would probably be Yubel's next alternative.
Judai walked towards his room, eyes still stinging. He had found the duel warrior, now he just had to figure out what to do with the information.
A/N: Review! Please!