A/N: New chapter! Enjoy! We don't own Yugioh GX.
Warning: slight OOC (if only because I'm not totally sure, so I'm being safe :P)
Idiot, idiot idiot... Why the heck did I answer the door in the first place!?
Judai was in the Andersens' apartment alone—Johan was at school, his father worked in an office building from 9 to 5, and his mother ran a nursery. Yet he still found it wise to answer the door when somebody knocked, and now he was kicking himself for that decision. The girl from yesterday, with the purple hair and green eyes, was the one doing the knocking.
"Well, guess what? I still can't find my boyfriend. You sure you don't wanna help me look?" she asked sweetly.
"Sorry," he coughed. "I really do think I might be coming down with something."
"Oh, come on. You can't fool me. You're just afraid, that's all. Afraid of something happening to you while you look. Sure, my boyfriend loves danger, but you look tough enough! Come on! I can't do this alone! I'm just a helpless, innocent, little girl. Please?"
"Ask someone else! Why do you need me to help?"
"'Cause," she said simply. "You looked tough when I saw you two yesterday. And I'm so weak. I was hoping you could protect me while I search for him. Now, is that really that bad?"
This girl either wasn't a modern girl, or she really thought she was your stereotypical female—Judai was going with not modern. He thought she was, say, 1000 years older than him. After all, that was about the time Yubel was human.
"Yes," he answered. "You're asking total strangers. For all you know, we'd hurt you. Find someone you know to help you."
"Well, that's the thing," the girl said. "The people I know are either dead or in jail. My parents are dead, and his dad killed a man, so..."
Judai sweat. Now, if that's not suspicious, I don't know what is. Especially considering that she was saying yesterday he should have told his family he was leaving!
"Sorry," he said. "I can't help you."
"But—"
"I'm sorry."
"Say, are your folks home?" she asked, trying a different approach. "Maybe they can help. Can I come in and ask?"
"Sorry, they're busy right now."
"So, they aren't here, then?" she guessed.
"They're too busy for company. That's all."
"Hmm. Well, I'm sure they can spare a minute for little ol' me." She pushed past him, letting herself in as she asked, "So, where are they?"
"Who said you could come in!?" Judai demanded. "Get out!"
"Why so defensive? I'm not going to hurt you."
"I'm not an idiot like you who goes around asking total strangers for favors and hoping for the best," he told her. "And it's rude to barge into someone else's house uninvited."
"So, you were lying about your parents being home, then? 'Cause that's what you're acting like, and, from the looks of this place... Well, you know." She laughed a bit. "Oh, Judai, you have got to work on your little white lies. They're way too easy to read."
Judai tensed as she laughed again. Great. I was right, she's in the apartment, and I'm here alone.
"Get. Out," he demanded.
"But, Judai, why should I do that? After all, we've got the whole place to ourselves. Why not have some fun?" Yubel asked, giving him a grin that managed to be both playful and evil at the same time.
Judai doubted he wanted to know what she meant by that. "Because you're insane, that's why," he said.
Yubel humphed. "That again? Honestly, when are you going to grow up? There's nothing wrong with me. You're the one with a problem."
"No, I'm pretty sure that's you," he said. I mean, you kidnapped me, after all. Friend or not, you're nuts!
"Well, why don't we go someplace else, and I can show you what I mean?" she said, walking toward him menacingly. "Come on."
Judai backed up, activating his duel disk. "Not on your life!"
"What? Do you honestly think that's going to work?" Yubel asked. "Oh, my dear Judai. You've still got a lot to learn."
He placed three cards on his duel disk—Neo Bubbleman, Burstinatrix, and Winged Kuriboh. He knew that he wouldn't get anywhere if he just rushed into this. She's got her deck, too, I'm sure. And I can't afford to have her countering my moves!
"Really? Put those useless things away. We don't need to fight, especially since we know who'll win."
Knowing she would probably summon a monster to defend herself, Judai went with the most obvious—and stupid, in his opinion—first.
"Neo Bubbleman, attack!"
The blue-clad hero with white fins and a water gun on his arm fired it at Yubel, still in her human form.
"Ugh," she said. "As scared as ever, I see. Fine." She pulled out a duel disk. "I summon Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior! Attack that Neo Bubbleman!"
A burly man with spiky purple hair appeared in the entrance hall. He was clad in white and gold armor that left his midriff exposed, showing off his abs. In his hands, he carried a white and gold two-handed ax.
Garoth charged Neo Bubbleman, slicing through the hero with his ax. The effect of Neo Bubbleman, which destroys any monster it battles, wiped Garoth out as well.
Once the action was over, Yubel noticed the wannabe dragon in front of Judai. Apparently, he had taken advantage of her distraction to activate Transcendent Wings and evolve Winged Kuriboh to LV 10. Basically all that meant was it put on a gold dragon costume with white wings and tail feathers. It did, however, have one significant difference...
"I activate Winged Kuriboh LV 10's special ability!" Judai declared.
"What!?"
"It destroys all your attack mode monsters and deals you damage equal to their attack!"
In this instance, since this wasn't a duel, it would destroy any enemy monster in the area. After all, real life didn't have attack or defense mode. Winged Kuriboh sacrificed itself in a burst of light, causing the purple-haired girl to turn into her true form—Yubel—before destroying her.
Judai turned for the door. He may have taken Yubel out, but he wasn't sticking around.
He hadn't even made it out the door before Yubel's voice said, "Oh, now you've done it..."
He turned. A large, black and purple dragon with two heads had appeared in the living room. There was a sideways eye between its—her—two necks.
"Nice work," Yubel the dragon said. "Thanks to that, you just made me even stronger!"
Judai backed up nervously. "W-what the—?"
Clearly, there were still some things about Yubel that even he didn't know. The fiend/dragon charged at him, surprisingly managing not to destroy anything in the process.
"Now come here! We're going home!"
"Burst Impact!" Judai cried out, inserting a spell card into his duel disk.
"Again!?"
The pale green, red-clad female hero let flames burst out all around her. As the flames engulfed Yubel, destroying her again, Judai made a break for it. I don't know if that's gonna get rid of her or just make her stronger, but I'd better put some space between us, just in case.
He had gotten only a few yards away from the building when the earth rumbled under his feet.
"Judaiii!"
He turned slightly, strangely relieved that she had revived outside this time. She was huge! She still had two heads, but now she had an extra face between her necks to go with the eye. She'd sprouted two extra wings, and there were eyes on her knees, just like in her first form.
"GET BACK HERE!" she yelled, clearly furious. "You can't get away from me THAT easily!"
If she thought Judai was actually going to do that, she was nuts, especially considering what she did next. She attacked him—not his monster, him. Judai screamed as a vine wrapped around him, but he didn't stop. Instead, he activated another spell card—Monster Reborn. Neo Bubbleman reappeared.
"Just try it!" Yubel challenged. "See if I care! Even if that works, do you honestly think you can escape!?"
"Attack!" Judai commanded Neo Bubbleman desperately. Please let this be her last form, please let this be her last form...
The hero attacked again.
"You think you're so smart, huh!? Well, I'm not going down alone this time!" Yubel yelled. "I activate my monster effect! I can't be destroyed in battle, and all battle damage I receive goes back to you as Nightmare Pain! Your monster bites the dust, too!"
Judai screamed as he was hit by Nightmare Pain for the second time. However, it worked. Both Neo Bubbleman and Yubel were destroyed.
As Yubel disappeared, she yelled, "I'll be back! Mark my words, Judai, you WILL be mine!"
Judai stood there for a moment, catching his breath.
"Yeah, I know you'll be back..." he said to himself. "I've gotta find Johan."
He thought about running off to find him—after all, his school had to be nearby, right? But he changed his mind when he realized that he'd probably just get lost and wind up wandering around town all day. That, and he wasn't really in any condition to go on an adventure right then. So, instead, he headed back up to the apartment and tried to make sense of the emergency contact information Johan's mother had left.
"Ugh... What am I looking at?" he muttered. "Okay, one sec... Johan left some of his homework behind. At least, I think that's what it was..."
He headed to Johan's room and found the forgotten homework. Then he went back and tried to match any of the symbols on that with the ones on the contact info. It took awhile, but he finally found a match.
"Guess that's how I get hold of him..." Judai muttered, looking at the numbers next to the symbols he couldn't read. "Man, how do people make sense of these things?" he wondered.
The numbers were a lot easier—just match them with what was on the phone. As he dialed the number, he wondered briefly why exactly Mrs. Andersen had left a number for him to contact Johan at school.
"Excuse me, but that's my seat," Akiko said, glaring at the red-head who had taken her usual seat in the cafeteria. There was a hint of venom in the blond's voice.
"Really? I don't see your name on it," Kathleen said, returning the bad attitude.
"On the back."
Kathleen looked. Sure enough, Akiko's name was carved into the back of the chair.
"Hey! You can't deface school property like that!"
"Blame Jim. He did it."
Jim sweat and laughed a bit, nervously.
"Really, Jimmy?" Kathleen asked, turning to the boy beside her. She was being much nicer to him. "Why would you do that? Don't you know better?"
"Just get out of my seat!" Akiko demanded impatiently.
"Johan Andersen, class 2-A," a voice over the PA said. "Johan Andersen, class 2-A. Report to the office. Johan Andersen, class 2-A, report to the office."
Sho—who was causing quite a scene by sitting with Johan and his friends—asked, "Huh? What did you do, Johan?"
"Nothing," Johan answered, just as confused as everyone else. Regardless, he got up and headed to the office.
Johan entered the office and was greeted by the principal, looking rather sober.
"Mr. Andersen, you have an urgent phone call about your father. Apparently, there's been an accident."
"What!?" Johan grabbed the phone and demanded, "Who is this!? What happened!?"
The principal headed back into his office, leaving Johan to his phone call.
"Johan," Judai said. Johan could hear him breathing heavily, as if he were trying to catch his breath.
"Judai! What is it!? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay," Judai assured him. "Sorry. I lied. Your dad's fine. But they wouldn't let me talk to you unless it was an emergency."
"So, what's up?" Johan asked, relieved to hear that his dad was okay but realizing that it had to be important if Judai was calling him at school.
"Yubel came back. And I just learned the hard way that she's a major pain to get rid of. She's got two other forms!" Judai said, sounding a bit freaked out.
"What!?"
"Yeah. And, if you destroy one, another shows up, so that makes her more powerful."
"Well, did you get rid of her? Or..." He wasn't sure what.
"For now. But I don't know when she'll be back."
"So, what's the problem?" Johan asked. "As long as you can get rid of her, you shouldn't have to worry, right?"
"Johan, I barely got rid of her, and I don't know if I could do it again if she came back!"
"Why's that?"
"Are you kidding me!?" Judai said, clearly frustrated. "Yubel can't be destroyed in battle. I've got three cards that can destroy a monster like that. She's got three forms, and all of these cards I've got depend on a monster to deal with them! Besides that, her final form destroys any monster she battles, and I take any damage she would take! And one of my cards that could get rid of her is a monster that has to battle her!"
That was a lot of information all at once, and Johan didn't catch all of it.
"Okay," he said after a moment, "can you please stop speaking Shonese and say that again?"
Shonese was what everyone called it when Sho was panicking over something. Experts had determined that it was a separate language that few people could speak, thus they named it for the only fluent speaker.
"Yubel can't be destroyed in battle," Judai repeated slowly. "She doesn't have any attack points, but any damage she would take from battle gets redirected at the controller of the other monster. You following?"
"Okay...?" Johan asked, signaling him to go on.
"I've got three cards in my whole deck that can get rid of a monster like that. I'm pretty sure that's just how Yubel likes it, too. A couple of monsters, and a spell card that can't be activated without a specific monster on the field."
"Uh-huh? Go on."
"One of those monsters destroys itself to take out every attacking monster on my opponent's field, the other has to do battle with the enemy, then any monster it battles is destroyed after damage calculation. That spell card destroys everything but the monster I need to activate it, leaving me with a 1200-attack point normal monster that isn't any good against Yubel."
"Well, it sounds like you should be okay, then," Johan said. "I mean, unless she can counter those three somehow, I don't see what your problem is."
"SHE HAD HER OWN DECK, IN CASE YOU FORGOT!" Judai yelled, unable to believe anyone could be so dense.
"Yeah, so?" Johan asked, tentatively moving the receiver back to his ear. "If she's attacking with herself, then—"
Judai interrupted, "She's not attacking with herself. I'm attacking her."
Johan thought about this for a moment. Okay, wild duel monsters can't activate or summon any cards other than themselves if they're attacking something. So, if Yubel's engaged in battle, she can't summon allies or activate spells or traps... I don't get it. Doesn't him attacking her still count?
"So, are you attacking her or using those effects directly on her?" Johan asked. "'Cause the last time I checked..."
"Ugh, geez..." Judai muttered. "Besides, one run-in with her's already taken a lot out of me."
"Hey, are you okay? What do you mean?" Johan asked.
"Remember how I said one of my card's has to battle her? And that all damage she would take gets redirected?"
"So, what you're saying is..." Johan trailed off, worried. How much damage is that?
"Then combine that with the fact that she attacked me directly, and I'm not feeling all that great right now," Judai added.
"What!? She did attack you!?"
"Yes. In her final form. The one that destroys any monster it battles."
"...Whoa..." Johan couldn't believe that. If Yubel loved Judai, like she said, why would she attack him? "So, what do you want from me?" he asked as he recovered from the shock.
"Ugh, forget it, I don't even know why I called," Judai said, thinking maybe Yubel was right about humans. "I'll deal with it myself."
"Wait! Why!? What's wrong now!?"
"Just forget it, okay? It's not your problem."
Johan's next words single-handedly restored Judai's faith in humanity. "So!? That shouldn't matter! You clearly need help, and I'm not one for abandoning someone in need! Now, let's see..."
He thought for a moment before, "Ah, I know! Judai! We're going card shopping after school! That way, you can get some better cards for getting rid of Yubel! Sound good?"
"...And what if she comes back before then?" Judai asked.
"Just do your best and try to get rid of her without hurting yourself! Use your monsters in an order that prevents her from hurting you too much. And, whatever you did to anger her so much, don't do it again, okay?"
"Okay, sure, I'll just go quietly with her next time," Judai said sarcastically. "It's trying to get rid of her that made her mad!"
"Just hang tough, pal," Johan said. "School's only got two hours to go. I promise I'll rush home after that, okay?"
"...Whatever."
"I've gotta go, pal. Keep your chin up, though. It's gonna be okay!"
"Yeah. Sure."
Johan hung up and headed out of the office to run into some spies—his friends, plus Sho.
"What's going on now?" Amon asked, seemingly annoyed.
"Is Aniki okay!?
"Because, if he's not, there are times when ditching school is acceptable, you know," Akiko pointed out.
"He's okay, just paranoid, is all," Johan assured them. "Yubel showed up and attacked him, but he was able to get rid of her easy enough. He's just scared she'll come back, that's all.
Being totally out of the loop, Sho asked, "Attacked!? WHAT!?"
"You sure about that?" Jim asked. "You said something about hurting himself."
Apparently they'd heard more than Johan had thought.
"HURTING HIMSELF!?" Okay, so Sho hadn't, at least. "What's going ON!?"
"Okay, so, to get rid of her, he had to take a little damage, but I'm sure it's nothing major."
That was the last straw. Sho fainted.
"But didn't you say she attacked him?" Haruko asked. Clearly, his friends weren't dropping it.
"If we're talking about monster effects, he used Neo Bubbleman, 800 attack," Kathleen said calmly. "No biggie. Honestly, aside from his new monster, Tempest, his deck's pretty weak. Yubel made sure of that one. Why, I'd bet my life he only had Tempest to fight me."
Silently, she added, Although, if I used that monster, that still wouldn't have been enough!
She continued aloud," So, even with Yubel's effect damage, he still couldn't be hurt too badly!"
Weak deck and an enemy who's tough to beat... Akiko mused.
"Then I'd say this qualifies as an emergency. Later, guys," she said, turning to leave. "Mind if I stop by your house, Johan?" she asked, her tone daring him to try to stop her—she'd be going whether he minded or not.
"What's this!? You actually care!?" Kathleen laughed sarcastically, grinning and teasing the blond.
"I'm not heartless, like certain judgmental red-heads think. Like I said to some creeps this morning, don't judge someone if you don't know anything about them."
Akiko ran off, leaving Kathleen to piece through what she'd said.
"Judg—Hey! Get back here, ya creep!" Kathleen called, running after her and waving a fist in the air.
"I'm going with her, if you don't mind," Jim said, running off.
"I guess they're right," Johan said.
"No," Amon protested. "You're right, Johan. They're overreacting. You and I both know duel spirits that are destroyed in battle can't return to life for at least 24 hours. He'll be just fine. Now, let's get this guy to the infirmary and head back to class."
Amon picked up the unconscious Sho as Johan thought about his words.
Right... Why didn't I tell Judai that? He probably doesn't know. Hmm...wonder what else he doesn't know about wild duel spirits? Well, at least I know why he was so upset now.
"Oh, Amon!" Haruko gushed. "You're soo strong!"
Johan hesitated, debating going home. Deciding somebody should stay and look after Sho, he followed Amon, intending to tell the blunette that it was all a nightmare. Hopefully that would prevent him from having a panic attack.
