Astral: {agitated} Soul Rider, are we FINALLY at the part where it shows where the extraction begins?
Soul Rider: Yes, Astral. Calm down.
Raymona: Hope it's not as freaky as the last chapter.
Soul Rider: Don't be such a scaredy-fox-cat, Ray-Ray.
Raymona: {angry} HEY!
Soul Rider: Don't get like that. Do you want me to publish your story or not?
Raymona: *stare*, *groan*… Yes. I want you to publish it.
Soul Rider: Then, get your act together, girl.
Raymona: Sorry.
Soul Rider: Anyway, disclaimers are on the first chapter. This happens at the same time as Chapter 6, just to let you know.
Numbershot 99: The Final Number Is…
Chapter 7
*the hotel*
III hurried to follow his brothers after calling Kotori. He tried to catch up, but he couldn't run with his sore legs. Instead of using the cane for support, he used the wall.
'I have to stop them,' he thought. 'If the extraction succeeds, Yuma might…! No! I don't want to think about it!' He kept going, though his legs were in a little pain. Finally, he made it to a certain room. The door was left open a bit. When III entered, he saw Tron sitting in a throne facing the doorway. On the tile floor two feet away from the throne laid the unconscious Yuma, but no longer in his nightwear. He was wearing a white and red curl shirt with elbow-length sleeves. His gray pants were replaced with yellow ones that had an orange sun on the left side and a sky blue moon on his right side. And for some reason, his black hair was no longer spiky, but was flat and laying a little spread out. His red hair was now two bangs that hung on the sides of his face and laying on his shoulders. III was a little confused when he saw Yuma.
"Like his outfit, III?" Tron asked him. "I thought he should be wearing something that represents the ZEXAL. Does it not?" III looked at him with an angry glare.
"I just think you've lost your mind, Tron!" the 15 year-old shouted. "You better not even lay a tentacle on him or else!" Tron frowned.
"What has he done to you, III?"
"Only opened my heart to him and saved me from being like Number chow!"
"V. IV. Make sure he doesn't get too close." V and IV, who were watching on the right side of the room, looked at each other with a little shock, but nodded and went over to their little brother. They closed the door and grabbed III by his arms. Tron's visible yellow eye glowed completely yellow. His face gained a dark smirk. A strange, pink symbol circled widely around him and Yuma. III looked in horror.
"No! Don't!" he shouted. The pink-haired teen tried to tug himself out of his brothers' grip, but they wouldn't let go. A yellow feather pattern for some reason started appearing on Yuma's arms and his face. The feather pattern circled his left eye. He was lifted a foot off the ground. Pink DNA structure-looking tentacles started wrapping around his body. The teenager groaned a little from the pain, even in unconsciousness. Tron looked like he's staring, but he's actually looking into the boy's subconscious.
There he saw the Astral World town, but he was floating above it. Below him, he saw Yuma in his casual outfit, Astral, Kibou Ou Hope, and a boy with golden-blonde hair that was tipped black and a red mask over his eyes. He saw everything, though could not hear them: the Astral Queen, the fusion between the Yuma toddler and the memory Astral, the toddler leaving in tears, and the revealance of the boy. He was Number 99, the Number that was created from Astral's essence and Yuma's soul, which Tron could tell from the red and yellow glowing '99' on his chest and his face when he took off the mask, which was Yuma's face. Tron did a sinister giggle and his visible eye glowed again and the white background became pink.
"So this is Tsukumo's hidden power: a Number!" Tron exclaimed loudly. The four below him heard the shout and Tron used his Crest to send Astral away.
*from where Yuma is*
"ASTRAL!" Yuma shouted until his partner completely disappeared into the pink. DNA structure tentacles appeared from beneath him and Kyuujuukyuu. They started wrapping around them and tightened until neither of the two could move. Hope managed to get away. "Hope, get out of here!" Yuma shouted to his ace with a little worry. Hope hesitated, but nodded and disappeared in a flash of yellow light. Next thing he knew, there was a surge of pain going through his body. His spiky hair came down and now looked like Kyuujuukyuu's, but the back was black only.
"This is… his doing!" the Number struggled to yell.
"Who's doing?" Yuma asked him. Then, the pain got stronger and soon he and his Number counterpart shrieked in pain.
"AAUUGH!"
*the hotel*
The unconscious Yuma shrieked from the pain Tron put upon him. Tron was glowing yellow from the power of the ZEXAL and the final Number's energy that was slowly flowing into him. IV and V looked away and III just stared in horror. Tears started flowing down his face.
"NO! Yuma!" III screamed, letting the tears fly off of him. There was nothing he could do to help his friend, especially with his brothers subduing him.
*within the Emperor's Key*
Astral uncovered his eyes and saw that he was back in the Emperor's Key. He looked around for Yuma and the other two with shock and worry.
"Yuma! Hope! Nanbaazu Kyuujuukyuu!" he shouted and his voice echoed throughout the strange mechanism. A yellow light sphere appeared in front of him. The spirit hoped it was them, but all he saw was Hope. Yuma and Kyuujuukyuu were not with him.
"Hope! Where are Yuma and Number 99?" he asked the huge Number.
"Yuma-Sama told me to leave. He didn't want me to get caught," the warrior answered.
"Caught by what?"
"Astral!" Yuma's voice rang throughout the Emperor's Key. Astral and Hope looked up and saw something like a crystal forming on the ceiling of the mechanism. It was red and glowing dimly.
"Yuma! Is that you?"
"Astral! Please help us!" The crystal glowed brighter and then dimmed until there was almost no light radiating from it at all. It kept going in the same pattern at a steady pace, like the beating of a heart. In Yuma's mind, his memories of Astral, the Numbers, and the ZEXAL were starting to be covered by the same DNA tentacles. "Astral! ASTRAL!" The memory of a smiling Astral was then completely covered. The rate of the crystal's glowing and dimming sped up.
"Yuma, I'm coming!" Astral flew up to the crystal and gently touched it. The crystal then glowed a crimson red and a flame in the shape of a bird engulfed Astral. The spirit wasn't being burnt, but he shielded his eyes from the light.
*the dome*
When the light finally dimmed, Astral looked at his new surroundings. It was the dome Yuma visited, but it looked like an earthquake hit it. The floor and ceiling were cracked, Numbers that were on the windows' edges have fallen off and were shattered on the floor, and the red and gold flowers' petals were dark like they were wilted, some even broken.
"Interesting. I didn't think Haruto's power was capable of even opening a way to here," said a bone-chilling voice. Astral turned around and saw Tron standing on the other side of the yellow circle from him, which was also badly cracked.
"Where are we, Tron? What have you done to Yuma?" the spirit demanded with fierceness.
"He and his Number won't be coming here anytime soon. Soon, I will have not only the powers of the Valian World, but also the powers of the Astral World and the Numbers. Once I'm done with the extraction, I'll destroy this place."
"Why would do that?"
"This is a person's inner world. It's commonly known as the 'Chamber of the Soul'. If one were to have a strong sense of will, they can visit their own souls, which to them are in the form of a sealed dome, like a hidden chamber."
"So this place is… Yuma's soul?"
"Correct, emissary of the Astral World. Plus, the more the Chamber is damaged, the more your friend's life will slip away. You see, the Chamber of the Soul can be damaged through old age, sudden death, deadly disease, or an attack on the inside. With the power I will soon have, I will tear his soul apart!" The masked child did an evil laugh. Astral gritted his teeth. The spirit was furious. He won't let Tron get away with destroying Yuma's soul!
"NO! I won't let you hurt my friend's soul any longer! Duel me, Tron! If I win, you leave this place and let Yuma and Number 99 free! If you win, do whatever you want with the Numbers but leave Yuma and Kyuujuukyuu alone!" The blonde child smirked evilly.
"Very well. I will not let this opportunity to get so many Numbers slide by. I accept your challenge. Let's see what you can do against me." Tron held out his left arm and his Duel Disk appeared on it. Astral's Duel Disk from his Duel with Kaito appeared on his left arm.
'Hold on, Yuma. I WILL save you,' Astral thought with courage and confidence.
"DUEL!/DUEL!"
*the hotel*
Tron's eye closed as the mental Duel between him and Astral began. Yuma regained consciousness. His eyes shot open from the pain, but his left eye was emerald green instead of red. He closed them tightly and let out a groan.
"ASTRAL!" the teen shouted at the top of his lungs.
Soul Rider: O-kay! Next chapter, we will begin the Duel for Yuma's life! *notices no one around*. Hm? *looks around the room*
Raymona: *pops up from behind the couch*. That was REALLY bone-chilling! Are you sure this shouldn't be in the horror genre?
Astral (who disappeared to Who-Knows-Where): *appears out of thin air*. I have to agree with Raymona on this. Plus, I think you made Tron freakier than he already is!
Soul Rider: Oh, come on, you two. It wasn't THAT horrifying.
Raymona: *grabs Soul Rider's ear*. Um, HEL-LOO? You added a lot of screams and shouts in this chapter! And it was scary! That makes it qualify for a horror genre, right? *let go of Soul Rider's ear*
Soul Rider: Just because there were multiple screams and shouts, it doesn't make it in the horror genre. *gently grabs a swollen ear*. Ouch. I just got my ears repierced yesterday, and you yanked on my right ear, which was in worse condition, Ray-Ray.
Raymona: Oh Kami (God)! Gomen-nasai, gomen-nasai!
Astral: If screaming and shouting don't make a story a horror story, then what does?
Soul Rider: *sigh*. Can someone explain to Astral what makes a story a horror story, please? I'm bad at explanations like this.
Astral: One other thing, Soul Rider. When you were looking at a page on that Kingdom Hearts wiki, I saw something that seems similar to the Chamber of the Soul. Did you base it off of that?
Soul Rider: You mean the Dive to the Heart? Well, the idea was sort of based off of that, but they're two different places. The Dive to the Heart focuses on the heart. The Chamber of the Soul is all about the soul. The Dive to the Heart is a pillar with a glass floor. The Chamber of the Soul is a dome with glass windows and a stone floor, which has a glass circle in the middle and is different sizes depending on how much light the soul contains. For example, Yuma's circle almost takes up the whole floor. That symbolizes that he has lots of light in him. Someone like Cathy would have a circle that was a sixth smaller than Yuma's because she's somewhat shy around her crush, but also brave to be by him.
Raymona: That makes sense.
Astral: One request. Don't make the Duel very creepy, Soul Rider.
Raymona: Yes! Definitely NO MORE creepiness!
Soul Rider: Okay, okay, you two scaredy-cats! *turns to audience*. I'm sorry about them. I'll have to try not to add any more screaming and shouting moments next chapter. Plus, I've been working on one of my other stories…
Astral: which one? Is it less creepy than this story?
Soul Rider: I'm not telling. You'll have to find out soon.