In Tales of Academy, Milla was leading Jude through the corridors as today she was going to show her fellow partner her clubroom as Jude had officially become a member of their club. Jude hadn't heard about the club of people that knew of Otherworld which the name, supernatural investigation, made it obvious. Milla had just explained a small piece about the club, she had told him that the people that had joined not only knew about Otherworld but they were a few of the balances that the medical student completely forgot about. Milla stopped by a door in the end of the hallway to one of the tower rooms before turning back to Jude.
"This is our clubroom." Milla explained and opened the door to the room.
Inside was a two story circular room with a big screen tv and a couple couches and a dining table with chairs around it. Up a metal spiral staircase was a computer station, everywhere was plants and sunlight came in through the windows. Around the place was Velvet in one of the couches, a blonde haired boy with green eyes was at the dining table studying together with a boy with white short hair that turned light blue at the tips. Another boy was by the computer on the upper floor, he had brown slightly spiked hair with feather earrings and green eyes.
"Jude! Welcome!" The white/blue haired boy greeted as the others but the brown haired boy noticed the newcomers.
"Mikleo, Emil? What are you doing here?" Jude asked as Milla closed the door.
"Thanks for joining the club!" Velvet responded while waving a bit.
"Me and Mikleo are in this club as well, most of the Zestiria members are actually." The blonde boy explained. "Sorey is by the computer to search for something strange somewhere in the city."
"Emil is two balances in one physically body, kindness and anger." Milla explained and Jude raised an eyebrow in question.
"Anger? How can he be anger?" Jude questioned and everyone became nervous except Velvet.
"Well, my supernatural ability is my personality issue, I have a second personality of a Lord from Otherworld." Emil explained a bit nervous. "His name is Ratatosk, the Lord of Monsters." Just then, a big black dog with a long tail that had a hand on the end appeared by Emil's side.
"Lord Emil, there's no need to be embarrassed of your past nor the reality." The dog said and nobody was surprised of this as it was 'normal' for the group of people.
"Sorry, Tenebrae. I'm still getting the hang of that I can't switch to Ratatosk randomly thanks to the spirit council." Emil said, showing a strange bracelet on his wrist that was pulsing a bit.
"Sorey is the balance of hope." Mikleo explained about them. "The opposite side of Velvet's balance." The therion just smirked while looking amused at Mikleo.
"Says the water seraph sub-lord." She replied and Mikleo flinched upon the mention while Milla and Emil laughed at it. Velvet looked up at the last person in the room. "Hey, Shepherd! Don't you want to welcome our new member?!"
"I can't right now, Velvet." The boy told her. "I found something interesting on a website." Everyone got serious and the ones sitting down stood up.
"Sorey, show it on the screen." Milla ordered and the website was shown on the tv screen.
"It's the museum website, they're going to have an exhibit about the dark ages under the week." Jude said while looking at the site.
"That's not what got my attention, it was an artifact that is in the exhibit." Sorey explained while scrolling down to a picture of a big black flask with red glass was standing on a pedestal which the girls took an interest on.
"I understand what you're saying, somebody else recognizing that vial?" Milla asked, looking at Velvet specifically.
"Yeah, 'The vial of Shadows'. That vial keeps shadow monsters imprisoned in it which belonged to a witch in the dark ages." Velvet explained. "Bloody Mary."
"The Bloody Mary who used virgin girls' blood to make herself youthful?" Mikleo asked and Velvet nodded.
"The very same." The Lord of Calamity replied. "That witch made very big crimes in both Otherworld and in the human realm under the dark ages, one of her crimes was actually creating monsters of shadows to control people to do her biting. The shadow monsters weaknesses are light and extremely high sounds."
"You really know a lot about her, Velvet." Emil pointed out.
"I like this kind of stuff, it shows what kind of crimes there is in the world." Velvet said. "Everything about injustice and how people do to make things right, I find it fascinating."
"Well, someone needs to go there to check if it is the real deal and bring it to the spirit council." Sorey said as he comes down to the others. "We have to make sure that it's on a safe place before somebody frees the monsters."
"Me and Velvet can check it out since Velvet's powers works under a dark domain, I'll check if Yuya want to come along." Milla suggested and Mikleo raised an eyebrow in question.
"Didn't you say he was coming here today?" He asked the Lord of Spirits.
"We had to change plans, Yuya is at the hospital for a check up on his eye." Milla explained. "It might be time to take off the eye patch for real now."
"So he did take it off a few times to adjust his eyes to the environment." Jude guessed and Milla nodded.
"Let's go change, we don't want to get attention onto us because we go in the academy." Velvet suggested as they all were still wearing their uniforms and the two girls walked out of the clubroom, leaving all the boys alone.
"Do you think it will go well?" Jude asked his friends.
"With Velvet, sure. But a lot of things would go wrong if they meet someone they know." Sorey replied simply. Jude began to worry a bit but not much as the girls are really experienced warriors, he knows that they can take care of themselves. He couldn't really shake off the feeling that something would happen.
Yuya was walking out of the hospital with his left eye uncovered and a smile, he was happy that the side-effects have finally worn off. He had just gotten out of school early to go check his eye for probably the last time, but not the last time he goes to the hospital as there's going to be injuries that Jude or Milla can't heal with their powers. Yuto comes out of his vessel in order to talk to him telepathically in the hospital rather than in front of the Secrecy eyes just in case one of the nurses or doctors knows about Otherworld and Yuya's secret without having to meet each other.
"Glad the side-effects finally wore off, I thought you wouldn't be able to use it anymore." Yuto confessed as they walked away together.
"Me too, to think it has that kind of an effect on my body. I hope I don't have to make a vessel bond again." Yuya replied. "I don't want to experience that again."
"Don't worry, I remember in one of the books in the library that said only one spirit can have a vessel bond in a human's body." Yuto recalled from their search for answers of their special vessel bond. "There's a very few that hold up to four spirits or 'seraphim'. What are seraphim anyway?"
"Seraphim are like heavenly beings, they can appear in different forms but mostly human." Yuya explained, seeming that the topic was hard to explain. "People can be reincarnated into them but the process is still unknown. They usually have control of one of the four greek elements of nature. Fire, wind, water and earth. There are instances that they control something else or all the elements, it is hard to explain everything as I'm not in that area of expertise."
"I can hear that. Even if there are books about them, it's going to be limited information on them if you don't ask an expert." Yuto agreed. "I read that in a book that seraphim sometimes can be normal people in human form."
"Oh yeah! I forgot that detail. There are instances that the seraphim likes the human culture or just want to watch over something, they live like humans except age and have powers."
"Are the Four like that?" Yuya shakes his head as an answer.
"Nope. They're just normal spirits like you." The two boys chuckled together at the reply. They've really gotten close under the time and they never felt alone when they were together, also they've been practising their powers at each other and found out that they could use their powers in different ways than expected.
"Sakaki!" A voice called out.
"Oh no, not again." Yuya moaned annoyed.
"Do I even have to guess who it is?" Yuto asked sarcastically.
The duo turned around to see a boy with short light brown and blonde hair, styled in layers, and grayish blue eyes. He was wearing a grayish/teal shirt under the school jacket from Enright, dark red pants and brown loafers on his feet. Around his neck was a necklace with a light blue crystal. Yuya put on a fake smile even though he was really annoyed as this boy had been quite an annoyance for the boys as he had always appeared whenever Yuya and Yuto were having a conversation about Otherworld, thankfully he never found out about their secret.
"Hi, Sawatari." Yuya greeted the boy. "What are you doing here?"
"Except following you to find out how you're good at dueling and always winning against you." Yuto pointed out and Yuya had to stop himself before he could burst into laughter.
"I wanted to hang out with you now that you don't have your eye patch anymore." The boy, Sawatari, answered with a big grin. "I still want to know of your little family as well."
"What do you want to know about my family so suddenly?" Yuya asked with a raised eyebrow. "Everyone at school knows who my dad and sister are, so how do you not?"
"Never paid attention to you at all." Sawatari replied and the two other people with him sweat dropped. Just then, the familiar song of 'Pendulum Beat' was played as a ringtone and Yuya took out his cellphone to answer the call.
"Hi, Yuya here." The crimson eyed boy greeted the ringer. "Oh, hi sis! What is it?... Yeah, I wanted to go to that exhibit under the week… hehe, I want to see the things that made up all those legends and see the artifacts as well… Yeah, meet you there at the entrance. Bye!" Yuya ended the call and began to walk away with Yuto in toe as he knew what they were talking about and was excited as well.
"Wait! Where are you going?" Sawatari asked as he hurried over to the two.
"The historical museum, they have a new exhibit about the Dark ages and the Salem witch trials under the week. So I'm going to meet up with my sister and her friend to take a look at it." Yuya explained. "One of the artifacts that are displayed is said to be an item of Bloody Mary herself."
"Who's Bloody Mary?" Sawatari asked and Yuto face palmed himself at the question.
"He doesn't even know a really well known urban legend!" Yuto exclaimed in utter disbelief. "How the hell does he want to go to the museum when he doesn't even know the history of the Salem witch trials?!"
"Bloody Mary is a well known urban legend that says that if you would say her name three times in a mirror, you would be able to ask a question that is related to your love life. But if you have anything that has to do with someone's death, you get horrible consequences. Many different legends has been mixed into this one but the one I believe in is about an old witch that used the blood of young virgin women to make herself youthful."
"Oh, sounds dangerous." Yuya shaked his head.
"Before she could, the village nearby heard about her crimes and hanged the witch. But she managed to place her soul in a mirror and cursed the villagers that she would continue living inside the mirror world for eternity. Which is why doing the ritual is really risky as it can kill you or trap you in the mirror world with her, so she appears as a beautiful woman in the mirrors before she kills you."
"Ouch, you know a lot of that witch."
"It's just a hobby, I like researching legends and myths the same goes to my sister and my best friend."
"Which is really useful in Otherworld whenever something happens." Yuto pointed out and Yuya smiled at him as they got closer to the museum just as a motorbike drove past them, the boys saw blonde/golden hair flowing with the wind as the motorbike goes to the parking lot.
"Milla!" Yuya called out and ran in the same direction.
At the parking lot, the motorbike came to a stop and Milla got off while taking off her helmet as the driver was revealed to be Velvet under the helmet. The two heard someone running forwards them and smiled when they saw Yuya and Yuto getting to a stop in front of them.
"Looks like we arrived about the same time." Velvet pointed out which drew the two boys attention onto her bike. It have black and red theme with a red wolf head symbol on both sides which matched her very outfit.
"That's your bike! It looks incredible!" Yuto exclaimed fascinated.
"I got my license before I joined the academy so this was a birthday gift from the headmaster." Velvet explained with a smirk. "But I did make a few tweeks on it."
"Cool, it reminds me of a duel runner a bit." Yuya pointed out, looking at the design.
"She's really good as well, if you were speed dueling then I think you could be the champion already." Milla said before they heard a whistle that meant someone like how Velvet looked like, they turned around to see Sawatari eying Velvet's appearance.
"I never thought you knew hot girls like this." Sawatari pointed out.
"Do you know that boy?" Milla asked, being a bit annoyed now herself.
"Remember that boy that always challenge me to a duel, he's Sawatari Shingo." Yuya explained as the boy was trying to flirt with the Lord of Calamity.
"I get it, he's the only one that have the courage to flirt with one of the most dangerous beings in the world." The Lord of Spirits said as they watch when Velvet punched Sawatari in the stomach, making fall to the ground in pain.
"Never try flirting with a beautiful girl with fiery eyes." Yuto pointed out which made the siblings laugh at the comment.
"To correct you, never mess with a girl at all." Velvet corrected with the spirit.
The supernatural group left Sawatari to recover to go inside the museum, it had been a while for the group as all of the artifacts and items displayed was either created by mankind or Otherworld beings but they had been too busy to look at the world's history. Before checking on the vial, the group decided to check on a few of the exhibits before going to the Dark Ages and the Salem witch trials which excited Yuya quite a bit as it was one of his favorite topics to research about. Many evil witches were killed by normal humans but it started to get out of hand when they started to kill innocent people while accusing them for being witches which was another reason to keep Otherworld a secret.
As they go around the exhibit, Yuya takes out his journal together with a penn and began to draw a copy of a mirror that was shown by the wall on a new page as Yuto comes at his side.
"New entry for the journal?" The gray eyed spirit asked.
"It's more like field guide, I read a series of books called 'Spiderwick Chronicles' and a man made a field guide of the things around his house in those books." Yuya explained, not looking up until he was finished sketching. "I thought I should make one for people that are new to Otherworld that deserves help."
"Nice idea, but you don't write about us, do you?" Velvet asked as she goes to the couple.
"Of course not, I'm just writing about your titles and signs while leaving out their abilities and predecessors." The Secrecy eyes continued, "They're secrets that need to stay hidden."
"You really try to think of ways to make sure so the people reading the field guide to search for answers themselves instead of relying on the field guide." Yuto complimented and Yuya smiled. "Let's go find that vial before something happens to it."
The two nodded before going after Milla without knowing Sawatari was following them. It took longer than expected so they send a text to the Lord of Spirits to know where she was, Milla texted back that she was going to tell the council about the vial and they should prepare something to seal the vial from opening. Milla told the trio to find the vial and tell her where it is. Velvet sensed the dark mana flowing around the big exhibit and followed it with the boys in toe and they saw the vial standing on a pedestal without the glass covering it from being touched.
"Looks like no one has opened it yet." Velvet confirmed as they looked at it.
"I'll go find Milla, I can move around more without people seeing that." Yuto said before floating away to find the Xillia leader.
"So this is the vial of shadows that Bloody Mary created with the very shadows of criminals?" Yuya asked and the Berseria leader nodded.
"Yeah, the creation of these monsters are still unknown. Mary must have had a lot of time to make her creations and plans." Velvet pointed out. "I may be the Lord of Calamity but what she did got out of line and she's still alive."
"Do you like that antique glass vase, milady?" The familiar voice of Sawatari asked the black haired girl as he arrived at the two.
"It's not a vase, it's a vial that keeps dangerous monsters of darkness at bay." Velvet retarded, not liking the boy with them.
"No one should open it or else many people will be in danger." Yuya defended Velvet but Sawatari just didn't care.
"From the legend that Sakaki told me, I realized that these things aren't really relics or artifacts but just replicas of things in the books and sites." Sawatari said while taking the vial in his hands and is about to open it.
"Sawatari, don't!" Yuya exclaimed.
"You're going to make some really terrible mistake." Velvet said angry.
"I'm just telling you that there isn't anything in this bottle." Sawatari replied, opening the vial and it was quiet in a few seconds before dark smoke came out. "See there's nothing in it." Velvet then notices something coming out of his shadow.
"Look out!" Velvet shouted while jumping onto him so they go to the side as monsters came flying out of his shadow.
Yuya watches the shadow monsters flying in shadows, shutting of lamps in the ceilings while darkening the windows with their abilities and they flew through the doors as they closed shut with magic barriers in the woodwork. Velvet gets up on her feet angrily while she stares furious at the human for what just happened.
"Do you have any idea what you just did?!" Velvet yelled as she lets out her anger. "You just released thousand years old monsters created by the most powerful and dangerous witch of the dark ages!"
"Velvet…" Yuya gasped as he never seen the therion so angry before.
"You're crazy! Wait till my father hear about this then you and your family will be getting charges for this stunt." Sawatari replied which brought Velvet out of the line. She kicked him in the stomach which sends him across the room and crashed in a wall, going unconscious.
"No one ever talk about my family like that, you spoiled creep." Velvet growled with venom as she tried to calm herself, Yuya looked at her expression to see her eyes full of regret and fear as he realized what kind of thing that made her look like that.
"Velvet, do you have PTSD?" Yuya asked and the Lord of Calamity looked at him as she pant to calm herself.
Yuto was flying around to find Milla, he somehow knew that the monsters were set free because everyone that was in the museum had disappeared and the lights were out. Yuto know he has to find the Lord of Spirits to try finding a way to help everyone before everything gets worse. Just then, Yuto heard strange sounds and he hides behind a suit of armor while taking out his guns into its bow form and was ready to draw an arrow. Running footsteps was coming to where Yuto was hiding and growling right after. Just as the person ran by him, Yuto raided the bow and lets go so the arrow goes across the room like a rope with electricity around it. The purple electricity sparked at the shadow monsters which destroyed them in the process.
"Thanks *pant* Yuto…" The familiar voice of Milla panted grateful and Yuto realized he just saved Milla from being attacked by the monsters.
"Looks like someone opened the vial, I don't think it's Yuya or Velvet that did." Yuto defended their friends and the two sighed at the same time, knowing exactly who did it.
"Sawatari is a really going for a lecture if Velvet haven't already done that." Milla pointed out. "Still we need to find a way to imprison the shadow monsters back to the vial."
"So you know what these creatures are and their weakness?" The gray eyed spirit asked, seeing the answer on her face.
"You have to thank Velvet for that, she is the Lord of Calamity after all." Milla said smiling. "These monsters are weak against light and high sounds also our weapons as they are made from materials that makes us able to fight creatures of any type."
"Which is why my powers destroyed the ones chasing you." The gray eyed archer said, looking at the place where they were destroyed. "If the electricity is out of function then I know how to get it back on."
"You mean by using your lightning to bring the power back on?" The blonde asked, not knowing the boys training. "It'll exhaust you quite a bit."
"Don't worry, Milla. Me and Yuya have done a lot of training on our free time so we can use our powers in different ways than the enemy expect." Milla smiled at Yuto's response before turning into her Otherworld clothing before the two ran deeper inside the museum to turn the lights back on.
They ran around while destroying any shadow monster around them but they also find some of the people stuck in the museum and Milla told them to find a place to hide as she and Yuto find the control room and the surveillance room so they can find Yuya and Velvet as well other people that might be stuck. Milla was actually surprised over Yuto's abilities as he was able to use telekinesis which was something she didn't expect to happen so soon, people using electricity or lightning powers later on is able to use telekinesis once their powers involved. Looks like the secret training they did and their vessel pact did some great progress to their powers, Milla is certainly want to see Yuya's progress once they see each other again.
When they got to the control room, Milla summoned Efreet to make some light in the dark cellar and opens the circuit locker which seemed to not have any power. Yuto placed a hand forwards it and lightning was directed to the cables, the power in some of the exhibits were restored and the cameras in the surveillance room was back on. Especially in the Dark ages exhibit where Yuya, Velvet and Sawatari was in.
"Now the power is on but the lights in every room isn't on, so there's a few places that the shadow monsters can hide." Yuto announced while looking at Milla.
"Good work, let's hope the cameras are on so we can find other people that are stuck as well." Milla suggested and Yuto nodded as he wanted to see if Yuya was okay since when he had tried to call out to him through their vessel bond but it somehow didn't work.
The two left the cellar to find the surveillance room while keeping their guard up as they search for the room.
Meanwhile, Yuya was still looking at Velvet trying to calm herself down from her anger at Sawatari, who was still unconscious by the way. The sound of Velvet panting filled the room until Yuya opened his mouth to speak.
"Velvet, do you have PTSD?" He repeated and Velvet looked away.
"Yeah, sort of." The therion replied, finally confessing something about herself.
"I could tell from your eyes, they were filled with guilt and fear." Yuya explained worried over her safety. "How long has it gone since the event?"
"Three years, time surely goes by. Right after I arrived at the academy, I started to have terrible nightmares and some of them were about what happened to my brother." Velvet explained. "Everytime someone say stupid things about my family or the sacrifice, I act out of control or the malevolence, another word for dark mana, start to come out of my body."
"That's why you got angry at Sawatari because he mentioned your family." Yuya mumbled and Velvet glared at him.
"How did you know about PTSD and those symptoms?" The Lord of Calamity asked serious.
"I'm a victim of child abuse." Yuya answered and Velvet's eyes widen in realization. "To make it worse, it was my dad that did that to me." Velvet closed her eyes in sympathy before slowly taking off her leather jacket as well making the Secrecy eyes look at her. "Velvet, what are you-" Yuya cut himself off when he saw the black haired woman taking off her bandages which landed on the ground gently.
"This is what my arm looked like after that ritual." Velvet's arm was anything but human, it was demonic. It was black with lines of red which made it look like a smaller and human form of her claw, as well there were cracks when it got to the middle of her upper arm. "It looked like this since it happened. That's not all, even those that doesn't have the Sight can see it."
"How's that even possible? I know there's objects and domains that can be seen but not physical Otherworldly parts that changed the human body." Velvet started to put the bandages back on after taking them from the floor.
"I was surprised as well when the spirit council told me and Milla, guess my powers are a special case. That's why I have my arm covered all the time."
"All right."
"How about we make a deal? I showed you the side effects of my experience, now show me the evidence of the abuse and I'll keep it a secret as my end of the deal." Yuya sighed in defeat as he started to take off his bag, coat and shirt while turning his back to Velvet to allow her to see scars on his back that looked quite old.
"Everyone thinks that all my injuries are healed but the scars from other times before Jude came were hidden behind a spell that made it seem like the scars were healed when they can't because they're too old." Unknown to them, Milla and Yuto was listening at Yuya's part of the conversation through the surveillance cameras and Yuto was shocked over Yuya's confession of the spell.
"Yuya, why didn't…" Yuto gasped as he watched the conversation.
"He didn't want to tell you because he thought you would go after father because of that." Milla answered. "He felt that secret needed to be far from revealed as possible to protect you from doing something that you would regret." Yuto looked at the screen of Yuya and Velvet, seeing the tomato haired boy putting his clothes back on.
"I see. We both have things we don't want people to know, either a spell or a guilt, we both live our lives like those secrets doesn't exist." Velvet pointed out with smile. "Just a tip, don't give into despair, no matter what happens, alright?" Yuya nodded as an answer but Velvet felt strange, she wasn't so gentle to show her secret to a boy she met just a few times and yet did it.
"Thanks for telling me, I'm glad that I'm not the only one that feel that way." Yuya thanked her with a smile.
"You're a strange kid." Velvet mumbled.
"Yuya, can you hear me?" Yuto's voice said over the speakers.
"Yuto!" Yuya exclaimed happy over hearing his voice. "You found Milla?"
"I'm right here, Yuya." Milla replied. "Yuto helped me to get away from some of the shadow monsters."
"Where's Sawatari?" Yuto asked a little worried, but inside he wasn't as he didn't like him.
"Quit the act, spirit!" Velvet retarded at the spirit. "He's okay. I just hit him too hard for opening that vial."
"Did he mention charging your family?" Milla asked and Velvet flinched at the mention. "That boy's father is in for becoming the mayor and is almost there. Once this is done, we can erase his memory like everyone else in the building."
"So everyone that was in the museum are here?" The Lord of Calamity asked.
"Yes, this domain is fused with reality when the monsters was released." Milla explained as she was looking through the many screens to find people that are stuck. "Hopefully, they can't take control as many of the people are grown ups and teenagers that are almost grown ups as well."
"The shadow monsters need young souls to possess in order to do their services to Mary." Velvet pointed out.
"But wouldn't it mean that they can possess us?" Yuto asked.
"No, you and Yuya have unlocked your powers but Sawatari could be a little problem since he isn't protected from dark forces." Milla responded. "We'll just have to keep an eye on him even if we don't like it."
"Great, another kid to babysit." Velvet moaned in irritation.
"But right now, we need to find a way to open the doors. They are sealed with dark mana and we can't really break them with brute force." Yuya explained as he looked at the doors.
"Yuya, maybe the dragons combined with something of dark mana can probably open them." Yuto suggested and the two 'humans' looked at each other at the suggestion.
"If I summon one of the dragons that might have enough strength to break the doors opened." Yuya agreed but there was the other part that was difficult. "But that dark mana part is going to get complicated as the objects in here are far too dangerous to use."
"What about using my arm?" Velvet asked which shocked everyone.
"Velvet, you can't seriously break a seal of dark mana?" Milla asked serious as she knows the therion is very reckless of herself.
"I'm a therion, remember. My abilities allow me to absorb strength and creatures to give myself strength." Velvet pointed out. "I've devoured seals before, I just need to focus."
"Alright, do what you must." The Lord of Spirits responded, sounding happy of knowing they would be fine.
"Me and Milla will meet up with you once we find the rest of the people and bring them to safety." Yuto announced to let them know.
"Alright but be careful, you two." Yuya begged before they stopped hearing their voices and start to hear Sawatari groan in pain to finally wake up.
"Let's get this over with. Materialize." Velvet chanted as she changed into her Otherworld form and Sawatari saw the whole thing, becoming really shocked.
"What the hell?!" Sawatari exclaimed while pointing at the black haired woman once the transformation was done. "Who are you people?! Is this some kind of joke?!"
"Not really but we can't explain, let's just say we have magical abilities and there's another world inside ours and only we can see it." Yuya explained hastily before putting on his duel disk and a magic circle but in a light purple color appeared under his feet while a big one appeared behind him. "Two beautiful flowers with an insect-alluring fragrance. Now become one, and from the hell beneath your petals, give birth to a new terror. Appear! Starving Venom Fusion Dragon!" The purple dragon appeared in its original form which startled Sawatari even more.
"You think that dragon will listen to your command just like that?" Velvet asked and Yuya just smiled.
"Starving Venom might be mischievous and mean but every monster in my deck are my friends, more importantly the dragons." The Secrecy eyes explained to the Lord of Calamity before looking at Starving Venom behind them. "We're ready when you're done, once the seal is gone. It will generate once you stop so me and Starving Venom have to be fast to destroy the door."
"So the doors are the source then." Velvet concluded as she walked to the doors they were facing, taking out her therion arm and struck the door, starting to absorb the seal. "You start to prepare to bust these open once I get away!"
"Right!" Yuya agreed and looked at Sawatari. "Sawatari, you need to get back for the time being."
"Sounds like a good plan to me." The boy agreed before running away to hide and Yuya shaked his head for this action.
Velvet continued to devour the seal until she felt no energy left, she sidestepped away and Yuya told Starving Venom to attack the doors with strong beams of violet energy. When they collided, the doors were demolished into splints and Velvet looked out to secure the area as Yuya brought Starving Venom back into his familiar form. Sawatari comes out of his hiding place with a strange thick book in his hands and was impressed by the team work.
"Wow, I never thought duel monsters could be used that way." He pointed out which got Yuya's attention.
"Well, most cards have a spirit living inside it but they're asleep. Milla can awaken them with her powers while the dragons I have are different in many ways you don't understand." Yuya explained shortly, not wanting to tell him everything of his secret.
"So you guys have super powers or something?" Sawatari asked excited as Velvet came up to them.
"Looks like the coast is clear for the moment but not for long, the shadow monsters are bound to notice." The Lord of Calamity told them and Sawatari just stared at her with love but it stopped even she took out her demon arm, which startled the normal boy. "One more stare like that, I'll take your eyes out and it won't be pretty!" Sawatari got really frightened of the warning and Yuya chuckled at the reaction.
"Velvet is one of the most dangerous but nicest people you can meet once you get to know her, she is a student of Tales of Academy." Yuya pointed out.
"M-my apologies for my behavior earlier." Sawatari apologized as he now knows her identity as a student.
"Just to point out, I have a young nephew back home and I don't want people like you to be a role model for him." Velvet pointed out and walked away ahead of the boys.
"You're telling the truth about her being dangerous." Sawatari told Yuya, who chuckled again.
"Wait till you see her with my sister, then there's a dangerous duo." The Secrecy eyes explained since he has seen them fight together before under a mission he and Yuto joined in.
Yuya followed Velvet with Sawatari right behind them but Yuya had a feeling they were followed as they walked around to find Milla and Yuto in the museum but it was bigger than before in reality, the tomato haired boy could sense something lurking in the shadows and prepared his sword in his hand just in case but didn't take the sword out of the bag. Even Velvet was on guard as she was a more skilled warrior like Milla while Sawatari didn't notice at all, probably because he doesn't understand the situation at all. The shadow monster that have been tracking them came out of hiding and Yuya unlocked his sword before Velvet could truly react, Yuya slashed the shadow a few times before the shadow disappeared and Yuya sheathed the blade.
Two more shadows appeared but was destroyed by something in lightning speed, two arrows was stuck in the ground before dissolving into mana and Yuya could recognize those arrows everywhere. He turned around to see Yuto, with his bow in hand, and Milla beside him in the doorway to another exhibit.
"Yuto!" Yuya exclaimed in happiness and ran to the spirit before they hugged each other. "I'm so glad you're okay."
"The same goes to you, looks like the training we did really paid off." Yuto pointed out, happy that his vessel was safe. Milla walked over to Sawatari and Velvet.
"Looks like you've managed to break that seal, how are you feeling?" Milla asked and Velvet placed a hand on her hip.
"Like I said, I'm fine. Besides, I needed that power anyway if we're going to find a way to seal those creatures back into the vial." Velvet explained in a matter fact before Milla turned to Sawatari with a stern look in her eyes.
"Sawatari, you must understand that what you did cost us a lot of trouble and if the spirit council get a hold of you being responsible, they won't be exactly happy." The Lord of Spirits told him with some anger in her voice and her arms on her hips. "Thankfully, I will overlook this, just this once."
"I really am sorry for my behavior." Sawatari apologized again while bowing.
"One of the main rules in a museum is that you aren't supposed to touch anything that are on display." Velvet pointed out and Sawatari was about to say something back before he realized that he was the one that broke that rule. "Exactly." The other people with them chuckled at his reaction and the dragons took the chance to snatch the strange book Sawatari had been holding.
"Hey! Give that back!" The only normal person exclaimed as the flying dragons gave the book to Yuto and Yuya got down on one knee so Odd-Eyes could climb upon his shoulder before standing up.
"Sorry, Sawatari but these dragons do what they want whenever they're out." Yuto said with grin. "They aren't servants after all."
"Who are you and how do you know my name?!" Sawatari asked, getting more angry at the spirit.
"My name is Yuto and I'm a spirit, that's all you're getting from me." Yuto retorted before looking at the thick book in his hands, noticing a pentagram on the front cover. "Yuya, look." Yuto gives the book to his vessel for him to look at.
"It's a grimoire!" Yuya concluded as he opened the book to look inside.
"What's a grimoire doing here?" Milla asked confused over the book. "Such a tomb should be hidden from people under any circumstances to keep people from using dark arts and magic."
"Yuya, is there anything about what's going on in it?" Yuto asked as he looked over Yuya's shoulder to see the pages as well.
"There is but its a chinese ritual which need specific things that is almost around this whole museum, I don't know if we can find all of it in time." Yuya explained unsure which worried the female lords a bit while Sawatari was confused. "The ingredients we need are essence of a Nightshade butterfly, a crystal of purity and the essence of a belladonna flower. That's not all, we have to make a big pentagram on the ground made by sand and ash of a corpse as well make the essence ourselves in a special bag from an ancient chinese healer and the vial itself."
"That really is complicated and it'll take time to make the essence. We don't have enough time until the shadows finds out about us to try possessing Yuya or Sawatari." Milla concluded.
"Then we just have to split up." Velvet suggested. "I can go get the crystal from the mineral exhibit as well the ashes from a mummy."
"Then me and Milla go to the garden to gather the ingredients." Yuto said but earned a look from the Lord of Spirits.
"I'm afraid I don't agree with that, Yuto." Milla told him. "You've been away from Yuya for far too long which can damage the vessel bond between you, the same goes for me and the Four. As well we need to make sure Sawatari is safe until this is over."
"All right, if you say so." Yuto said, he was actually quite happy to be with Yuya and he kind of forgot about the vessel bond a bit. "Then we're getting the vial and the healer's kit from their respective rooms."
"Oh yeah, the vial is still in the exhibit." Yuya remembered.
"I guess we forgot to bring it with us when we got out." Sawatari pointed out with a smirk and everyone looked at him disbelief as they understood why he wanted to be with them, to become a hero for the public.
"We meet up here once we get everything we need and make everything before this building gets transported into Otherworld. You need to have everything in an hour or else everything will be lost in the human realm." Milla said and everyone nodded in understanding before they go their separate ways to find the ingredients that were needed.
Sawatari was with Yuya and Yuto under that time as he watched the two have a conversation about what happened as they got back to the Dark ages exhibit to get vial and then the healer's kit, he was really fascinated of their close bond as well on the dragons. When Sawatari duelled against Yuya those times, those dragons had been his aces and the tomato haired boy was known around Enright as the only duelist to be able to use all summoning methods as well summoning them all at once on the same turn. Those that faced him would really be in trouble with one of those dragons was summoned as their monster effects all worked on monsters with Levels 5 or above which many strong monsters were on.
Sawatari couldn't deny that Yuya was a great duelist in the whole school and probably even Chenskyra, he would train gymnastics under his free time and even watch the matches of other students as well to study their methods. The two humans had been dueling many times and Yuya always win, no matter what sort of corner you get on him and it makes the ultimate entertainment. Each year, Yuya would perform in front of new students in the arena. That boy was just full of happiness but this side of him was rare, he knew exactly everything about a certain thing or subject and was even serious about what is going on.
The trio of duelists just arrived in the chinese history, where many artifacts were displayed while they searched for the chinese healer's special bag. They walked around but Sawatari separated from the two to look for the bag himself and investigate the area. He walked slowly to see the artifacts by himself before he saw the old leather bag on a pedestal and hurried over to it and carefully takes it in his arms.
"Yuya! I found it!" Sawatari exclaimed to get the tomato haired boy's attention before he felt something behind him.
Across the room, Yuya and Yuto heard Sawatari scream in fear and then saw Sawatari being chased by Starving Venom. The two burst out laughing at him since he probably thought the dragon was a monster before they calmed him down. They then ran forwards where they were going to meet Milla and Velvet to see that they have already prepared the pentagram on the floor and the crystal was already in place at the middle.
"You got the healer's bag." Milla pointed out.
"We also witnessed a good prank by Starving Venom." Yuto chuckled a bit at the display earlier which made Sawatari pout out of irritation.
"Hey! I thought that dragon was one of those monsters!" He retorted at the spirit.
"Do you know how to make the essence?" Yuya asked Velvet as she started to work with the objects to make the essences.
"It is almost like cooking, you just have to know how to do it." Velvet explained as she grinded the flower to put into a bottle as Yuto placed the other bottle in the circle. "An essence is a mix of a specific ingredient with a different way of mixing it, that is how I make my herbal teas and potions. Done."
Velvet poured the essence in a bottle before putting it in the circle and the pentagram started to glow as everyone watched the three items combine with each other. Yuya, who was holding the vial, was stuck in a trance as they watched the ritual. He saw a vision but not a vision of someone dying, instead it was a vision of someone holding the katana in their hands against a demon of some kind and something glows brightly between them.
In the meantime, Sawatari had the vial in his hands as the shadows were returning into their rightful place to not create any more trouble for people. But right after everything went back to normal, Sawatari celebrated before Milla used her powers to erase every bit of his memories of the two girls and Otherworld. Milla joined Velvet on her bike to go back to the academy so they could give the spirit council the vial for safekeeping.
Yuto was really worried about Yuya as he just thought that his vessel was in deep thought but didn't bother asking as he guessed Yuya was a little tired from what happened. The Secrecy eyes didn't want to tell the spirit the vision as he was confused himself over it, he just hoped he would find answers sooner or later of what is going on with him.
I know this chapter is shorter than the others but I had writers block for the most time.
I've noticed many of you were confused over the vessel bond. Yuya and Milla are vessels for spirits and they are not combining souls in order to become a vessel, spirits just share the body of their host or item in order to heal or recover in the time of need like what happened with Yuto at the end of the last chapter. Many of you thought Milla had combined Yuya and Yuto's souls like in ARC V anime but they aren't, Yuto is sharing Yuya's body as a way of recovery from dangerous wounds whenever a healer isn't nearby.
See you guys later!