Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Red To Black: Chapter 8: Armor Makes The Warlord
Characters: Juudai
Word Count: chapter: 1,143||story: 8,678
Genre: Drama, Angst||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Yu-Gi-Oh GX Non-Flash Bingo; Diversity Challenge, section I, #19, chapters between 1000-2000 words
Notes: This begins in episode 136, just after Jim and O'Brien leave to follow Shou. Juudai's mind did not fracture into Juudai & Haou and this will be a retelling of how he came to power.
Summary: Juudai's always won before and it always fixed everything. But now that he's won and it's fixed nothing, what can he do?


He couldn't go out among these Duel Spirits dressed like he was from Duel Academia. None of them would take him seriously and above all else, Juudai knew that he needed them all to take him seriously for this. He needed something that would terrify them so they would obey him.

People listened when they were scared. People didn't hurt other people when they were scared. Juudai was more than ready to use that to his advantage.

Kozaky wasn't going to be any help on this, though. All he knew was information about facts and figures, not how to scare the living hell out of large groups of people. So Juudai knew he'd have to figure this one out all on his own.

He glanced at his deck; maybe not entirely on his own.

"What do you guys think?" he asked, curling himself up in a window seat in the library. Kozaky was off somewhere getting things arranged for his first visit to that village. It was up to Juudai to be ready by the time he got back. "Any good ideas?"

Hane Kuriboh appeared above him, trilling softly. He had no answers, only worry about what Juudai had in mind. Juudai reached up to run his fingers through soft fur.

"Hey, I know what I'm doing. I can't be a kid forever, right?" He'd wanted to be. He really had. But he just couldn't. He had to start thinking about other people. It was kind of like what Satou-sensei had told him. Other people listened to him. So he better start telling them the right things.

Despite having a mostly featureless face, Neos still managed to convey being worried when he showed up. "Juudai, do you truly believe that this is the right thing for you to do?"

"What else can I do?" Juudai countered with another question. He didn't want to go into the details of how he'd screwed up. They'd all been there. They knew. They might not agree that he had, but this time he wasn't going to back down. He needed their support and if he didn't get it…

Well, he honestly didn't know what he'd do, but he needed it anyway, and it had to start here.

He stared at his deck some more, somewhat aware that Neos hadn't vanished, but remained near him, as deep in thought as he'd ever seen the warrior.

Warrior... The word tugged at his mind and he frowned. They'd called him a dueling warrior here. They called everyone who could duel warriors. So, he was a warrior himself. He couldn't argue with the description, though it wasn't how he would've thought to call himself. But now something about it appeared as the answer to his worry.

Warriors. Warriors wore armor. Some of them wore very scary armor, the kind that nothing could penetrate. Not swords or spears or any other kind of weapon.

Armor. That could be what he needed. It made sense; he needed a different look, and ordinary clothes wouldn't do it at all. So, armor really did seem to be the next best step.

And after that, what kind of armor? Dark and scary seemed the best, but he needed details. He needed to have this done right.

Something else tickled in the very back of his thoughts. An image that he couldn't remember having ever seen before, but it felt familiar all the same. He leaned back and closed his eyes, hoping that he could get a better view of it if he wasn't actually thinking about it.

Slowly the image formed in his mind, becoming clearer and clearer. Black. He was certain of that right away. Black and with lots of spikes. Not everywhere, but where they were necessary, and if he thought about this armor without the spikes – well, it didn't look worse, but it wasn't the image he wanted, either.

He kind of wished Fubuki-san were there to give his advice. Though if Fubuki-san had been there, Juudai wondered if he'd even be able to do this at all.

Juudai set his jaw harder. No. He wasn't going to let himself go wandering down that path. He had to do this. There was literally nothing else in this world or any other that he could do. Just like with Brron, only easier, because he'd already lost everything that mattered to him and he knew he'd never get any of it back.

So. Black armor. Spikes. He poked at the image in his head a little and wondered how he could make it. Did they have armorers here who might be able to do it? Or...maybe…

He imagined. He imagined the armor all around himself, light enough so he could move without it weighing him down, but protective enough so that if anyone tried to attack him, the armor would turn it aside. It would protect him from everything and everyone.

It would conceal him from everyone. With the faceplate down, no one could look at him and know who he was. Most of the people who would recognize him here would already be scared of him because of what happened in Brron's arena, but this was a chance he knew that he didn't want to take.

A few people feared Yuuki Juudai for what he had done. He made up his mind in that moment that this entire world would fear Haou, for what he would do.

The more he imagined, the more he could feel it wrapping around him. When he moved, he could feel the heavy weight of the metal moving with him. He flexed his hands and he could feel the gauntlets around them.

Slowly, carefully, Juudai opened his eyes. Nothing in the library seemed to have changed at all. He frowned, wondering what he'd done wrong. He needed this armor, and he'd thought it was real. He'd always gone on his instincts and he'd been so convinced that if he just wanted it badly enough, then…

"Haou-sama?" Kozaky's voice rang out and the blue demon himself appeared a heartbeat later, coming from around a corner. "I've made all of the arrangements. We can go when - " He stopped in his tracks and stared. "Who - "

Juudai didn't know what his problem was. He started to ask, when he looked down at himself and saw cool black armor wrapped all around him. He ran the armored fingers of his right hand over his left and smiled. He didn't think it would have been a smile that other people would have liked to see.

"Kozaky." He lifted his faceplate as he spoke, and the scientist stared. "You said everything is ready?"

Kozaky dropped down to one knee. "Yes, Haou-sama," he murmured, voice full of awe. "We're ready."

This world isn't ready for me, Juudai thought. But it's getting me anyway.

To Be Continued