Author's Note: I'd like to give a big thanks to K.I.T.T. Rider and Warrior of Spectra for reviewing this story. I hope I can live up to your expectations for this story. Also, I just want to give everyone a heads-up about the steamy scene at the start of this chapter, for those who don't like that sort of thing. There's a reason why this thing has an M rating.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL (if I did, the main protagonist wouldn't have been such a doofus).
Chapter 3: Dates and Disappearances
Kaito found himself walking alone through an old neglected cemetery under a moonlight sky. The cracked gravestones all around him were covered in vines and years of moss. A cold wind blew past him, carrying away a few dead leaves from the ground. Kaito kept walking until he came upon a hill in the old graveyard covered in strange blue flowers. For reasons that were beyond him, Kaito walked up the hill to find something he didn't expect at the top. It was a bed covered in dark-blue sheets and a black headboard in the shape of a butterfly.
Before Kaito could figure out what was going on, swarms of purple butterflies suddenly flew up from the ground and almost covered the sky. Suddenly the sky boomed with the sound of thunder and the pale moon above turned as red as blood. The swarm of butterflies dispersed, and a single very large purple butterfly descended from above to land before Kaito. As it landed, the butterfly turned into Droite wearing a very long purple robe. Kaito found himself mesmerized by Droite's appearance. He had always found the butterfly duelist to be quite beautiful, but there was something about her current appearance that made her even more so.
Droite locked her eyes on Kaito as she sauntered over to him and pushed him backward onto the bed. As soon as he hit the bed, Kaito suddenly found that he was completely naked. Droite got on top of Kaito and shed her robe to reveal her own nude form. She leaned down and gave Kaito a very passionate kiss on the lips. It was best kiss that Kaito had ever had, not that he had kissed anyone else before this. Their tongues began to mingle in a sensual dance.
When they finally broke for air, Droite repositioned herself onto Kaito's hardened erection, moaning as it slid inside her. Kaito's eyes were transfixed on the expression of sheer pleasure on Droite's face. It was one of the most beautiful and amazing things he had ever seen. Slowly, Droite began to move her hips up and down. Kaito's back arced a bit and his hands clamped onto the sheets beneath him. Gradually, Droite picked up the pace of her movements, her breasts bouncing as she went faster and faster. Kaito could feel himself teetering on the edge.
The at last after what almost seemed like an eternity of pleasure, Katio and Droite hit their climax at the same time. As Kaito came down from his mind-blowing orgasm, Droite looked down at him and smiled. As Droite looked at him Kaito couldn't help but notice something predatory about her gaze. Droite then opened her mouth to reveal a pair of sharp fangs. Before Kaito could fully react, Droite swiftly leaned in and bit Kaito on the neck.
Kaito's eyes snapped open and he found himself staring up at the ceiling of his own bedroom. He sighed heavily as he realized what he had just experienced was a dream. It felt like a very real dream, however. And as unsettling as it was, Kaito found that he wouldn't mind having it again. Suddenly his D-Gazer tattoo began to flash on and off, indicating that he was getting a call. From the Caller ID, Kaito saw that it was Gauche. Grudgingly, Kaito activated his tattoo to accept the call. A small image of Gauche appeared before his eye.
"What the hell do you want at this early in the morning?" Kaito grumpily asked.
"Is Droite with you?" Gauche asked.
"No. Why would she be?" Kaito replied.
"Well she's been missing from our hotel since last night." Gauche revealed. "The woman at the front desk said she just walked out and never came back."
Slightly alarmed, Kaito sat up. "Do you think something might've happened to her?"
"If I didn't I wouldn't be calling you right now." Gauche pointed out. "I could use your help tracking her down."
"I'll be right there." Kaito told him before shutting off his tattoo.
Kaito quickly got out of bed to go get dressed. With the news that Gauche had just given him and the dream he had just experienced, Kaito couldn't help but fear that something terrible had happened to Droite. He also couldn't help but feel responsible, for he was sure that whatever had happened had to do with the accident in the lab. If that was indeed the case, then Kaito would never forgive himself.
The sun had only just risen a few minutes ago as Akari Tsukumo drove through the city on the back of her motorcycle. She was on her way to have a face-to-face meeting with her editor when she noticed that something was amiss. The park she was coming up on was crawling with police officers. Being the reporter that she was, Akari assumed that something was up and pulled over so she could check things out. Making her way onto the park, Akari spotted a woman with long sky-blue hair in a black leather jacket talking to one of the officers. She recognized the young woman as a police detective who was also an old friend of hers, Kyoko Yoshimori.
"Hey, Kyoko!" Akari called as she walked over.
Kyoko quickly spotted Akari and scowled. "Oh god. Kari, what the hell are you doing here?"
"I was just driving by when I saw all the cops." Akari explained. "So was there a murder or something?"
"We're not really sure what the hell we're dealing with." Kyoko answered. "Right now, it's best that you just get the hell out of here."
"No way! Not until I find out what's going on." Akari declared. "Otherwise, I may just have to do a story saying that the police are covering up a suspicious death."
"You're not gonna let this go, are you?" Kyoko realized. Akari shook her head, causing Kyoko to sigh. "Okay, c'mon. I'll show you what we found. But you better not do a story on this, otherwise my superiors will have my badge and most likely my head."
"I promise I'll keep this under wraps." Akari assured her.
With that, Kyoko led Akari over to a section of the park that had been blocked off by police tape. Once there, Akari saw the shriveled corpse of a man wearing a lime-green ski cap with a black hooded sweatshirt and a pair of jeans with holes in the knees.
"What the hell am I looking at?" a shocked and rather disgusted Akari asked.
"According to his ID, his name was Koji Takenouchi." Kyoko explained. "Turns out we have a record on him. He dropped out of high school to enroll in Stoner University. Uniforms have picked him up a few times for petty possession. As for what the hell happened to him, you got me."
"Do you think this is some kind of viral outbreak or something?" Akari asked.
"Like I said before, we don't know what the hell this is." Kyoko told her. "The thing is, four other bodies like this poor sucker are on their way to the morgue right now. Whatever this is isn't isolated. But I assume you understand why I don't want you reporting on this, Kari. Word of something like this gets out, it could start a panic."
"I understand completely." Akari assured her. "If you like though, maybe I could give you some help with this case. I am pretty good at digging things up."
"Sure, why not?" Kyoko agreed before taking a sip from the coffee cup in her hand. "I have the feeling that for this case, I'm gonna need all the help I can get."
It was the middle of the day, and Shark had been standing in front of the door to Heartland Tower for about fifteen minutes, arguing with himself about whether or not to go in and see Hikari. Earlier that morning, Shark had come up with more than a few excuses not to go, but Durbe and Mizael had insisted that he take a little time during that day to go meet with Hikari and maybe ask her out. Apparently, Rio had contacted the two ex-Barians after she had called Shark and had told them about her brother's feelings for Hikari. Durbe and Mizael wouldn't let the matter drop and had been bugging Shark all morning about how he should at least go visit Hikari at the lab. In the end, Shark went to the tower for no other reason than to shut Mizael and Durbe up.
After debating with himself for a few more moments, Shark finally relented and went into the tower. He managed to make his way to the lab and found Hikari sitting at a computer and tapping away. There was no sign of Christopher or Kaito. Taking a deep breath, Shark entered the room and walked up to Hikari.
"Hey." Shark greeted. Hikari only continued to work at the computer, apparently not even realizing he was there. "Uh, Hikari? Hello!"
At last the stardust heiress heard Shark and turned her chair to face him. "Oh, hi Ryoga. Sorry if I ignored you just now. I tend to tune out the rest of the world when I'm hard at work on something."
"It's okay." Shark assured her, his face turning a little red. "So… is everything going okay here?"
"More or less." Hikari answered. "It's a pretty ambitious project your friends here have going on. Anyway, I was hoping you'd stop by. So what brings you here?"
"Well… I wanted to ask if you'd like to go with me somewhere later." Shark explained. "There's this little sidewalk café you might like. I've never been there, but Rio says it's great."
"Sounds good." Hikari agreed. "I'm free later this evening at about 6:00. If you like, we can meet up back here."
"Sure." Shark agreed, surprised that Hikari had accepted his invitation. "Well, I better get going. I kind of left school to come here and see you."
"Yeah, I kind of gathered that from the way you were dressed." Hikari replied, noting Shark's school uniform. "It's time like these when I'm glad I graduated high school when I was twelve."
Shark almost fell over when he heard that Hikari had graduated when high school when she was just twelve. He wasn't entirely surprised, considering that her father was a genius. Even so, it made her seem more out of his league than before.
"Yeah, well… I'll see you later tonight then." Shark replied. "Later." And with that, headed out of the lab.
Kaito flew over the city using Orbital's flight mode, heading for the hotel that Gauche and Droite had been staying out. He had been searching the city for hours trying to find Droite and hitting nothing but dead ends. In moments, Kaito landed in front of the hotel and Orbital changed back to his normal robot mode. By the time he got there, Gauche approached him from just down the sidewalk.
"Any luck?" Kaito asked.
"I've checked every place I could think of, and nothing!" Gauche answered. "What about you?"
"I haven't had any luck finding her either." Kaito answered. "I've been having Orbital checking hospital records, and so far no one matching Droite's description has been checked in anywhere since last night."
"Well, I guess that's something." Gauche assumed.
"M-Master Kaito. What about the other thing I mentioned earlier?" Orbital cut in.
"What other thing?" Gauche asked.
At this, Kaito sighed. "It seems that in the past few hours, the police have found six bodies that are in an indescribable condition."
"You think there's a chance that Droite might be one of them?" Gauche asked.
"I really hope that's not the case." Kaito answered. "But we can't afford to jump to any conclusions. Let's just keep looking for now. One way or another, we're bound to find Droite eventually."
It was a little before 6:00 as Shark waited in front of Heartland Tower by his motorcycle, wearing his usual casual outfit. As he waited, Shark pulled out his deck to look at some of his cards. The card he immediately went for was an Xyz Monster called Number 101: Silent Honors ARK. Since the destruction of Don Thousand and Shark's defeat at the hands of Yuma and Astral, that card and all the other 10X Numbers had been purified of the wicked Barian's curse. Those seven cards truly belonged to Shark and the rest of the former Emperors. Even so, Number 101 was a reminder to Shark of what he once was and the terrible things he had done. Shark was snapped from his thoughts when he heard the tower door slide open and saw Hikari walk out.
"Hello again." Hikari greeted before noticing Shark's motorcycle. "Wow! That's a pretty nice ride you've got there."
"Thanks." Shark replied. "I hooked up the sidecar for you."
"That's thoughtful of you, but I actually have my own ride." Hikari revealed.
With that, Hikari pulled out her D-Gazer and pressed a small button on it. Suddenly driving up on its own from around the corner to pull up behind Shark's vehicle was a white motorcycle with short blue stripes on the front. Shark recognized the vehicle as the D-Wheel belonging to Hikari's father, only instead of the curved spike that came up in back it had an actual backrest and a jet booster with a pair of wing-like fins.
"Is that your dad's D-Wheel?" Shark asked.
"The design's based on his. I just made a few of my own modifications." Hikari answered as she walked over and mounted the vehicle. "Well, lead the way."
Shark mounted his own vehicle and drove off down the street. Hikari followed close behind. They drove through the city until they came to a little café on a street corner called the Cloud 9 Café. After they pulled up, the two went over and seated themselves at one of the little tables outside. A waitress quickly came over and gave them their menus. After they ordered what they wanted, the waitress left and the two were once again alone.
"This certainly does seem like a nice little café." Hikari remarked as she took the place in. "You'll have thank Rio for me later."
"Uh, Hikari… there's something I think I should go ahead and tell you about." Shark began somewhat hesitantly.
"What is it?" Hikari asked, noticing the serious expression on Shark's face.
"Well… to understand, I think I need to show you something first." Shark answered before pulling out his deck and handing it to her. "Go ahead and look through it."
Hikari shrugged and began looking over Shark's deck. "Wow, no wonder Kaito keeps calling you Shark. Look at all these fish monsters." She paused when she came upon a certain Spell card. "Rank-Up Magic Barian's Force? I've never heard of this card before."
"Keep looking. There are a few other cards like that in there." Shark revealed.
Hikari continued to look and saw another copy of Barian's Force and a couple of similar Spell cards. She then came upon the card for Number 101 and took a good long look at it. Hikari noticed that the Xyz Monster card was indeed very unique.
"Well, these are certainly some interesting cards." Hikari admitted as she handed the deck back to Shark. "But what's the big deal about them?"
"Some of those cards aren't from Earth." Shark explained. "Hikari, you probably aren't going to even believe what I'm about to tell you… but I think you have a right to know. I wasn't always just a normal human."
With that, Shark began to tell Hikari about his time as Nasch, the leader of the Seven Barian Emperors. He revealed how in his past life he was the ruler of a lost oceanic kingdom, and how at the end of that life he willingly accepted the curse of Don Thousand to be reborn as a Barian. Shark also revealed how he was reborn a second time as the "real" Ryoga Kamishio after he and his sister were betrayed by Vector, and of how he almost destroyed Earth and Astral World for the sake of his own people, only to be defeated and revived again as a normal human using the Numeron Code. Hikiari listened intently to the whole story.
"…So now you know." Shark spoke after finishing his tale. "Guess I'm no longer the Ryoga Kamishiro you knew when we were younger, huh?"
"That is quite the story." Hikari admitted. "Well, as long as we're catching up, I might as well tell you about my little secret."
With that, Hikari removed the glove on her right arm and raised it to show Shark. On her right forearm was a red mark that resembled the head of a dragon.
"You got a tattoo?" Shark asked.
"It's not a tattoo. It's more like a birthmark." Hikari explained. "There's this cosmic entity called the Crimson Dragon that's sort of an ancient protector of Earth. Every now and then, it chooses a group of humans to help it do that job. Those humans are known as Signers, and I'm the leader of the group of Signers that exist today."
"How did you end up with that job?" Shark asked.
"I sort of inherited it from my dad." Hikari explained as she put her glove back on. "That mark on my arm used to belong to him. My younger sister, Hana has the Signer mark that belonged to my mom."
"When did this happen?" Shark asked.
"About two years ago, which I guess is around the same time all that Barian stuff was going on with you and your sister." Hikari answered. "We were chosen by the Crimson Dragon to protect Neo Domino and the rest of the world from a great evil."
"What kind of evil?" an even more curious Shark asked.
"Well… it's a long story, and one that's hard for me to talk about." Hikari answered. "There's one more thing I should probably show you though."
Hikari looked around and spotted an old soda can that happened to be on the ground near her chair. She picked the can up and held it in the palm of her hand before Shark. To Shark's surprise, an invisible force suddenly crushed the can flat.
"Did… did you just crush that can?" a surprised Shark asked.
"Yep. Just a little talent that I inherited from my mom." Hikari revealed. "My sister has the same power too. I could actually do the same thing to a car if I wanted. But as you can see Ryoga, you're not the only one with a weird supernatural past."
"I guess." Shark replied. "But at least you're a protector of Earth. I was a destroyer. And knowing what you know about me now, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want anything to do with me anymore."
"Ryoga, don't be silly." Hikari told him as she reached across the table and placed her hand on his. "You did those things because you were trying to help your friends and your people. And maybe those things were wrong, but you were also being used by some evil alien entity. Besides, everything obviously turned out okay. Your dark past as Nasch doesn't mean a thing to me."
"Yeah, well… there's some other bad stuff you should know about me too." Shark revealed. "After an accident that put Rio in the hospital, I ended up as sort of a delinquent for awhile."
"Oh please, my dad was in a gang when he was sixteen." Hikari revealed. "Plus both my parents were in jail for a while."
"Wait, back up!" Shark told her, his eyes widening in disbelief. "Yusei and Aki Fudo, two of the finest people in Neo Domino, are ex-cons?"
"Well, it was long before I was born, and it's complicated." Hikari explained. "Part of it had to do with the corrupt government that was running Neo Domino at the time. But what I'm telling you Ryoga is that I don't care about any dark thing from your past. No matter what, you're still the same Ryoga to me."
Shark was stunned by what Hikari had just told him. She now knew everything about his wicked past and didn't care. It made her seem even more perfect in Shark's eyes before. At last the waitress came back with the food they had ordered. The two of them ate and told each other about more of the things that had happened in their lives since that summer when they first met. Eventually, their meal came to an end and the two of them went back to the Kamishiro mansion.
After they pulled up by the house, Shark dismounted his cycle and walked over to Hikari. "Well, I hope you had a good time. I sure did."
"I had a good time too." Hikari told him.
"You know… we could do this again sometime." Shark suggested as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "Unless of course this was just a onetime thing, which I'd totally be okay with. But if you like…"
Hikari shut Shark up by planting a kiss firmly on his lips. After a moment, Hikari pulled away and Shark felt like the world was spinning.
"See you around, Ryoga." Hikari told him with a wink before driving off.
It took Shark a few moments to fully comprehend what had just happened. Hikari Fudo, the smartest and most beautiful girl he knew, was actually interested. As Shark finally walked back to the house, he pinched himself a couple of times to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
The night had grown late as a team of medical examiners entered the morgue to examine the shriveled corpses that the police had been bringing in. There had been seven bodies found in all, with a chance of even more popping up later on. So far, the examiners had been able to determine that whatever had happened to those seven people wasn't the result for some sort of mutant virus. Which meant that there was no need for any sort of quarantine procedures. Yet the cause of what killed those seven people and turned them into mummies was a complete mystery that needed to be solved.
The leader of the examination team took Genta's body to examine, while the rest took the remaining bodies. As the team leader was about to begin the autopsy, Genta's eyes opened and he grabbed the examiner by his shirt with his withered hand. The same thing was happening with the other bodies that were about to be autopsied. The members of the examination team all opened their mouths to scream, but as soon as they did, streams of purple energy began to flow out from their mouths into the open mouths of the shriveled corpses. As the energy flowed, the bodies of the examiners began to shrivel up. Inversely, the bodies they were about to examine were gaining new life. All the assistants in the room could do was watch in horror.
After a few moments, the flow of energy stopped and the once dead bodies had gained new life. The examiners on the other hand had taken their place as desiccated mummies, though it seemed that the condition was temporary. The assistants in the room tried to flee, but a few of the newly resurrected bodies quickly stopped them and drained them of energy just as they had done to their superiors. Genta and his fellow walking dead all knew what they had become. It was instinct more than anything else that told them. But they all knew that they had a mistress to serve, and there was much work that needed to be done.
Author's Note: Sorry that Droite wasn't in this chapter very much. This chapter ended up being more about developing Shark and Hikari's relationship, which is kind of unavoidable. As I mentioned earlier, I plan to do another story that'll end up being a prequel to this one that tells of how Hikari became the leader of a new generation of Signers.
Please review and let me know what you think.