KD: Welcome back. Also I wish to note that depending on my upcoming work schedule, my updates might be a little more spaced out. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Tri: When will there be another full duel? There wasn't one since mine.
KD: After this chapter I believe. Hope you guys can wait. Anyway, disclaim.
Chapter 6 Prepping and Escape
"Mommy! Lily!"
"The burden is yours now my son…"
"Daddy!"
"Poor pathetic child. I shall take that burden from you."
"AAAAHHHH!"
Tri shot up with a scream of fright, sweat dripping from his forehead. The teen teacher rubbed his eyes, trying to clear the images from his mind.
"Tri-kun, are you alright?" Tri looked behind him and saw a concerned Makie looking at him. He pinched the bridge of his nose before giving her a smile.
"Yeah…just a nightmare. I'm fine." Tri began pushing himself up when pain jolted through him. With a grunt of pain he sat back down. "Or not." Makie rushed over to him and kneeled next to him.
"What happened?" She said. Tri attempted to move his left leg before grunting again.
"My leg," he said through gritted teeth. "I think it's broken." Makie gasped, before a look of determination crossed her face. She stood up and started looking around. Tri would've asked what she was looking for when he suddenly caught sight of his surroundings. They were obviously still in the library considering the fact that there were multiple book cases, but it looked like they were in a cross between a library and a jungle. He saw huge trees and even a waterfall (he himself sitting part way in a pull of water) and he couldn't help but wonder how the heck this could happen.
When Makie returned he saw she was carrying two pieces of wood that must've broken off one of the bookcases. She placed them on his leg and wrapped them tightly with her ribbon. When she was done, she took Tri's arm and placed it around her shoulders, ignoring the blush that covered both of their faces. She helped Tri stand up with a grunt before he steadied himself on one leg.
"Nice job Makie-chan," he said with a smile, causing the gymnast to blush even more.
"Well, on some of the gymnastic trips some people got hurt and so I picked up a few tricks from seeing the nurses set up splints. Anyway, the rest fell over here." Seeing Tri's look of worry, she chuckled. "Don't worry. No one else got hurt in the fall."
Tri sighed in relief before hobbling off with Makie supporting him. They found the group in a few minutes of walking, much to Tri's relief as he would be able to sit down soon. Everyone rushed him when they noticed his condition, bombarding him with questions on if he was okay, of which he assured him he would be fine if they would just let him sit down.
As Negi and the others tried to find some books in a good enough condition to make a foot prop that Tri could use, Makie helped him over to a nearby bookcase so he could lean against it. Asuna looked over and saw the two talking to eachother, a blush evident on Makie's face. Asuna glared at the gymnast, gripping the book she was holding tightly.
"Asuna," Konoka said behind her. "Are you okay?"
The orange haired girl blushed slightly before she turned away from the blushing duo in a huff.
"I'm fine," she lied. Konoka looked in the direction she saw Asuna looking and smirked.
"Jealous huh?" she said quizzically. When Asuna was about to protest, Konoka stopped her. "Want me to take over Tri's care?" Asuna blushed slightly again, when she just sighed.
"Please?" Konoka chuckled at her response and went off, telling a reluctant Makie that she could go help the others. Makie pouted a little as she left, making Konoka and Tri chuckle.
"So," Tri said turning toward Konoka. "Why did you come to take over?" Konoka chuckled and just waved it off.
"No real reason," she said. "Now, is this where it hurts?" She asked lightly feeling his leg, earning a gasp from the teen teacher. He blinked from the pain and when he opened his eyes he saw Konoka collar shifted slightly, a small bit of a tattoo poking out from underneath. Tri smirked as he remembered the day he found out about what Konoka's family was keeping from her.
One Year Ago
"Why did principal-san want me to come to this room?" a fourteen year old Tri wondered. He was walking down a hall in the school. He would have understood if the principal wanted him to teach a class, but it was already after hours. "Oh well. It must be something important."
Tri opened the door to the one room and stepped inside. It was then he noticed he wasn't alone. Gasping, he saw Konoka standing in front of him in a beautiful kimono.
"Tri-sensei?" she said questioningly. "What are you doing here?" When Tri finally gathered himself again, he was able to speak.
"Your grandfather sent me here," he said, having trouble keeping himself from staring at Konoka. "Why are you here?" Konoka face palmed as she realized what happened.
"Because my grandfather told me he scheduled another meeting of another possible fiancé." Tri instantly was beet red from blush as he realized what she meant. He turned to try the door, only to find he couldn't open it. A note had been slipped under the door.
Dear Tri and Konoka
In order to ensure you at least give the meeting a chance, I decided to seal the door. It will be unsealed in an hour.
"Great," Tri said. "We're stuck here for an hour." He heard Konoka chuckle. Turning he blush as she was leaning toward him, their faces inches apart.
"Tri-kun," she said, Tri now beet red from the suffix. "Am I really that bad of company?" She pouted slightly which made Tri practically generate steam from how red he was considering how cute he thought that was.
"I….It isn't like that," he stammered. "I just mean…since this was set up as a marriage meeting…" Konoka started laughing.
"I know silly!" she said, pushing him playfully. "I was just kidding." Tri sighed, before Konoka continued smirking. "Though, considering how embarrassed you got, does that mean that you actually like me?" Tri recognized her joking tone this time and smirked back.
"Maybe I do. What about you? You brought it up." Konoka blushed slightly herself but kept smiling.
"Sorry, but I'm not one of the girls in class who likes you that way." Tri tilted his head slightly, a confused look on his face.
"There are some girls in class that like me?" Konoka looked at him, stunned.
"You really never saw it? Wow, for a teacher, you're absolutely dense."
"Hey!" he said, pushing her playfully. Not expecting it however, she lost her balance and fell. "Geez Konoka! Are you okay!?" She giggled as she propped herself up.
"I'm find Tri-kun," she said. Tri reached out to help her, when he stopped. When she fell, Konoka's kimono had slipped a little off her shoulder. What he saw made his eyes widen. It was a tattoo of a bottle of red medicine (and yes, I couldn't think of another way of describing it).
'The mark of a healer…' he thought. Konoka looked up at him curiously and tried following his line of sight, seeing he was looking at the tattoo.
"Oh that," she said. "I don't know how I got it. I just had it as long as I can remember. My dad never would tell me what it meant." She the last part a little sadly. Tri thought for a moment before smiling.
"I might be able to explain it," he said. Konoka looked up at him, jumping to her feet excitedly.
"Really Tri-kun?!"
"Of course Kono-chan," he said, smirking as he made her blush. They both sat on opposite ends of one of the desks. Tri cleared his throat before continuing. "It is said that there are many special people in the world. Ones with magical powers. They only ever reveal their powers in times of need however. Unless that happens, there is only one way to tell whether someone is one of these special people." He pointed to her shoulder. "And it is by one of those markings, just like yours." Konoka giggled.
"And how would you know this?" she said smirking. Tri chuckled and looked around like he thought someone would see. Then, he reached for his jacket and slid it down his one arm, revealing his tattoo and shocking Konoka.
"This is how." Konoka stared in amazement before reaching out to touch the tattoo. It was then they heard something on the other side of the door before the door slid open, revealing Haruna, Yue, and Nodoka, staring in shock.
"Tri-sensei?!" Nodoka gasped blushing. Yue remained neutral, but Haruna grinned evilly.
"Soooo," she said. "You two are spending some alone time are you. And it seemed we stumbled upon you as things were getting interesting…" Nodoka was about to explode from blushing so hard and Tri was not too far behind as he quickly pulled his jacket back up. Konoka on the other hand was perfectly fine.
"Tri-kun was just telling me an interesting story," she said. Haruna raised an eyebrow.
"Tri-kun huh? You two were getting close.
Present
Tri smirked at the memory. It was also the day the class started calling him Tri-kun rather than sensei as Haruna spread the word about what happened, but Konoka assuring every one of the truth. Tri chuckled at the memory catching Konoka's attention.
"What is it Tri-kun?" Tri would have continued, but the rest of the class brought the books over to him. Once Tri's leg was propped up, Yue finally brought up what they were all thinking.
"What are we going to do now?" The entire class was starting to look depressed. They all knew that if they didn't get out of this mess in two more days, they would be the bottom class again, though only Tri, Negi, and after a talk earlier Asuna (who was more than a little angry that she joined this expedition when she wouldn't be the one affected by the failure) knew the truth behind what would happen if they failed. Negi looked around before taking a deep breath and speaking up.
"D…don't worry!" he said. "We can still pass the exams!"
"How Negi-sensei?" Makie cried. "Even if we do escape, without the deck we can't pass!"
"We don't need the deck," Tri said from his position on the floor (and he had to say it was a little hard to feel he was making a point like that). "You can't rely on something like that to solve your problems."
"Tri-kun is right," Negi said. "And it isn't like we can't study!" He ran over to one of the shelves that he was searching before and pulled out a book. "A lot of these books seem to be on duel strategy. You can learn from these until we get out of here."
The class began brightening up as Tri looked at the kid with a new respect. That was how the next day was spent. The class studied and occasionally they would test new strategies against Tri and Negi's decks. Tri cursed himself for not being able to go out and look for an exit and was forced to resort to sending his spirits out to investigate. The next day came around as the class continued studying. Some of them were even enjoying it as they now had nothing else to do. Tri just finished talking to Konoka (who was once again in charge of taking care of him on Asuna's request) about duel strats, when they heard a shriek. Tri started pulling himself up, ignoring the pain when they heard what came after that.
"NEGI-SENSEI IS A PERVERT!" Makie's voice. Tri and Konoka looked at each other before they busted out laughing.
"What do you think happened this time?" Konoka asked.
"Well, since we have been here for a day and are surrounded by water, I would say that some of the girls decided to wash up and Negi accidently stumbled upon them." The two kept laughing.
"I wonder if it really is accidently sometimes."
"I think it is. He is too innocent for it to be otherwise." They kept laughing when they heard another scream. They at first dismissed it when they heard.
"MAKIE!" Konoka shot Tri a look before helping him up. They manage to hobble to the source of the scream when they saw Makie in the grip of the golem from before (just ignore the fact that they are in towels in the manga, I won't mention it…wait…dang it!).
"Let her go!" Negi cried. Tri face palmed as Negi tried activating his magic, and failing since he still had one jammer left. The result was just a few confused looks before more action was taken. Ku Fei jumped through the air before kicking the golem's hand, forcing him to drop Makie who was caught by Kaede. Then the gymnast saw something on the golem. She pulled a backup ribbon (she carries one with her all the time, how would carrying another change the weirdness of it) and whipped it out toward the golem, pulling something off of it.
"I got the deck!" she cried. The golem raised its hammer.
"GIVE THAT BACK!" Tri looked around, his eyes landing on a line of book cases.
"Konoka! Support me!"
"What!?" Tri didn't bother finishing the explanation. He jumped up and kicked the nearest bookcase, landing on one leg, Konoka thankfully getting the hint and gave him the support he needed to land on one leg. The bookcase fell into another and another, finally knocking into the golem, sending him sprawling. It was just then that one of his spirits appeared in front of him, pointing behind them. Tri got the hint and called out.
"RUN!" He practically turned Konoka in the direction the spirit pointed, and the class following them. After a short bit of running, they found a staircase leading up toward the surface.
"A way out!" Makie cried. They all started up the stairs, before a door blocked their path.
"What the hell is this!?" Asuna said. Ku than looked closer.
"Wait. There are card designs here… Gaia and Curse of Dragon make what…they're fusion material right?"
"Yeah," Kaede said. "They make Gaia the Dragon Champion right?" At that answer, the door opened up, surprising everyone.
"What!?" Makie cried.
"It must open with a correct answer," Tri said with a grunt of pain as he had to shift his leg. They heard a crash below. "Let's hurry." So the class made their way up the stairs, answering questions when they needed to, the baka rangers surprising everyone. Finally they made their way to the top of the stairs and found…
"An elevator?!" Asuna cried. "How is this here!?"
"Does it matter!?" Makie said. "Get on!" The whole group got on, sighing as they thought they were getting away. Then they heard it.
"Elevator: overloaded." Silence.
"WHAT!?"
"What do we do now?" Konoka cried. Suddenly, the golem crashed through the stairs.
"You won't get away!" It called.
Tri looked at Negi and saw the boys look. Before he could stop him, the child teacher leaped out of the elevator, standing his ground in front of the golem.
"Tri! Take the class to the surface! I'll handle this!"
"Negi-sensei!" the girls cried. Negi was gulped nervously as the elevator doors started to close. Suddenly, Asuna's arm flew out, causing the elevator to open again. She grabbed the child, pulling him back in.
"You're not going anywhere," she said before turning toward the golem. "You want your deck!?" She grabbed the deck box from Makie and flung it at the statue. "TAKE IT!" As the deck left, the elevator doors closed and the class rose to safety, hearing the golem crash to the ground below them.
The class stumbled out of the elevator and quickly made their way out of the library, revealing it was night..
"Well…" Tri said gasping. "That was an experience." He let go of Konoka and leaned against a wall. "Anyway, you should go get some rest. You have the written part of the exams tomorrow."
"But Tri-kun," Makie started. "What about your leg?" Tri waved them off.
"I can handle it myself. I have my phone on me…And no, I had no signal down there. Just go, I'll call someone." The class was hesitant but left when they saw Tri was adamant. When Tri saw they were gone he lowered his leg and sighed. "If only she knew her power…" he mumbled before activating his magic, teleporting to Eva's cabin. When he entered, he saw the dark evangel laying on the couch watching TV. She looked up in surprise.
"Where have you been?" Tri held up a hand.
"Don't ask," he said tiredly. "I just want to relax right now. And please have Chachamaru make a cast please." Eva would've asked but chose not to. She just went back to her show.
KD: Just want to say one thing. Anyone who complains that the spirit appearing then was too convenient. I think that them running in the correct direction just randomly is more convenient. And finally, next chapter we get back to the Yugioh aspect of this. Anyway enjoy and thanks for sticking with me.
