Chapter 21: Possession

That particular day, although it started out well, was having a draining effect on Toby. Since leaving for school that morning, he could feel something… a feeling of dread… stalking him. The dream he had involving Haisui Kiri no Hime sent shivers down his spine, especially when he was alone. Every time he was in a corridor, he thought he saw something violet out of the corner of his eye. Every time he went to the toilet, it felt as if he could have been trapped in there; how easy it would be for his new stalker to corner him right there and then. Every time he walked out into the grounds, he felt the need to scan every possible hiding place for signs of occupation.

He felt that she was out there… waiting… watching… pondering the right moment to strike. After a threat like what she made during that dream, it wasn't likely that the hunt would be given up so soon. He felt that he could only breathe a sigh of relief when he returned home, but even there, he would have to keep his guard up.

It felt like it had taken forever, but finally, the day started to draw to a close. As Toby began walking home, he felt that he would need to be more cautious than ever. The streets… they were getting more desolate by the minute. At this stage, people are walking home, but there were usually more on the streets than this number of almost next to nothing.

Just before he reached his home apartment, he only saw on the street an old woman with a mug. She took notice of him too, hobbling towards him and holding out her mug.

"Spare some change, please?" she rasped.

"I'm afraid I don't have any, ma'am," Toby stated. Something about this woman felt wrong.

"Please, the Egyptian Gods bless you. If you want, I can even tell you your fortune."

"You're a fortune teller?" Toby took a step back away from her.

"Yes. Don't run!" Her hand clamped onto his arm with strength that shouldn't be possible for someone that old and malnourished, and her voice had lost any signs that it belonged to someone aged.

"Who are you?"

"I think you know me quite well…" her form started changing, her skin becoming smoother and lighter, her hair lengthening, neatening and dyeing itself purple, her brown rags neatening and turning red… forming into a robe. The whole process took under a minute, and right in front of Toby was the spirit of Haisui Kiri no Hime. Now that they were on opposing sides, she seemed a lot taller than what he remembered, and a lot more threatening. "Now do you recognize me?"

"So that dream I had? It wasn't just a dream?"

"Of course not. I don't appreciate you throwing away the powers I gifted you!"

"I don't think it is just me; I think the other Psychic Duelists also lost their powers. I think Sayer found a way to steal them!"

"That doesn't excuse what you said to me in that dream, and your spurning me like that." A bladed Duel Disk of a similar make to Toby's when he was possessed by her in the Void, but purple, formed on her arm, and activated with the blade extending from the main Disk. "But don't worry, soon we will be together forever."

"What do you mean?" Toby asked, equipping and activating his Duel Disk as well.

"…whether you want it or not, of course. I thought I told you; I will make you mine. This Duel will allow me to accomplish that. I will take the first move."

"Haisui Kiri no-"

"Call me Lorna. I draw, and use Graceful Charity. I am sure you know this card, but I can draw three cards as long as I discard two. Both cards are Draw Slimes, so as soon as they enter the Graveyard, I can draw one card for each, netting me two."

Lorna continued her turn by activating the Spell Card Foolish Burial, sending one monster in her Deck to her Graveyard, and then reviving it with a Monster Reborn card. This in turn summoned her Bowganian (1300/1100).

After that came an Advanced Machine Duplication, allowing her to summon two more of any Machine monster on the field as long as it didn't exceed 1500 ATK, bringing out two more from her Deck.

There were five cards left in her hand, all of which she used right then. The first was a Double Summon, granting her a second Normal Summon for the turn, and allowing her to summon two Swallowtail Spike Lizards (1900/700) in Defense mode. Finally, she placed a card face-down, and played a Card of Sanctity, bringing both players' hands up to 6 cards. Her turn ended with another face-down card.

Toby drew, his hand holding seven cards, and it felt that all he could do was hold on. He placed two cards face-down and ended his turn, whereupon the Bowganian's effects activated: during his End Phase, he took 300 damage from each of them.

Lorna's face-down revealed itself: the Trap Card Aura of Life Transfer, which moved to the Field Spell Card Zone and shrouded the area in a dark purple/pink mist. The Life Points Toby lost, coming to 3100, were added to Lorna's own, making them 4900. As this happened, he felt the mist creeping up parts of his leg until he couldn't feel them anymore. As his turn ended, she revealed Solemn Wishes, allowing her to gain 500 Life Points whenever she drew cards

Lorna drew, now holding six cards, and the ability of the Swallowtail Spike Lizards activated, granting her 1000 Life Points each since they were in Defense mode. This, combined with the 500 point boost from Solemn Wishes, got her 2500 Life Points, bringing her to 7400, Toby to 600, while the mists consumes all of his legs and very nearly all of his torso, leaving only his shoulders, arms and everything above.

One of her Bowganian attacked, but Toby revealed Back-Attack Ambush, ending the Battle Phase and Special Summoning five Ambush Tokens. All five Tokens were Tributed to deal Lorna 500 damage for each, coming to 2500 total which brought her down to 4900, brought him up to 3100 and caused some of the mists to withdraw, freeing his torso and some portions of his legs. He found he could feel those areas that had been released, so that was something positive.

She ended her turn with her own face-down card.

Toby's draw had him concerned: he was only barely able to survive the last turn, and he hadn't gotten anything that could help him. He played Pot of Greed, and drew something he could use to-

"Reveal Trap: Lightforce Sword!" Lorna declared. "I can declare the name of a card in your hand, and if it is there, I can remove it from play until your third Standby Phase. I declare Uria, Lord of Searing Flames!"

"How did you?" Toby shouted, revealing that he did have Uria in hand, having just added it.

"I saw your smirk. You can't hide anything from me; I know you thought that you could make a comeback with that card, so I thought I'd take that out of the equation."

"No..."

"You've become complacent. Now that Uria cannot interfere, you cannot win!"

"I... I place two cards face-down and end my turn."

"You know what that means. My Bowganian monsters have their way with you and rid you of 900 Life Points, which are now mine. Now feel the pain you gave to me!"

The Bowganian shot their arrows into Toby, reducing his Life Points to 2200 and increasing Lorna's to 5800 as mist consumed the former's body again. He now had three cards in his hand.

When Lorna drew, now holding six cards again, Toby revealed a Trap: Bad Reaction to Simochii, which instead of granting her Life Points, used the 500 point gain from Solemn Wishes and 2000 from the Lizards to decrease her Life Points by 2500, lowering her to 3300, increasing Toby's to 4700 and causing the mist to free him, which instead started devouring her.

She immediately used her own Pot of Greed to get two cards of her own, reducing her Life Points to 2800 (with Toby's reaching 5200) due to Solemn Wishes and Toby's Trap, and activated one of them: Mystical Space Typhoon, destroying Toby's Bad Reaction to Simochii, and then setting three cards face-down. Her next move alarmed him: she Tributed a Swallowtail Spike Lizard to summon Byser Shock (800/600), activating its special effect to return all Set cards to their owner's hands. Toby lost the last face-down he had that way, holding four cards now, and Lorna lost her three face-downs, which were Apples of Enlightenment. When they were removed from the field, they allowed her to draw one card each, coming to three cards which made her have a hand of then eight cards.

She played her Escape Spell Card to return Byser Shock to her hand, set three cards and Tributed the other Swallowtail Spike Lizard to re-summon Byser Shock, which returned the three cards, which were those three Apples of Enlightenment, to her hand and net her three more cards to come to eleven. Her six draws had also got her 3000 total Life Points from Solemn Wishes, bringing her to 5800 Life Points and Toby to 2200.

"I drew it," Lorna declared, laughing. "Now I can make you feel the pain I felt when you spurned me. First, I play another Escape, returning my Byser Shock to my hand, and then I activate my Soul Draining Ritual. Now I Tribute monsters from my field or hand whose combined level equals 12… I think my three Bowganian will do… and manifest myself on the field of battle!"

She stepped forward, to where her one Bowganian monster was until recently in the center of the field, and let out a sigh of happiness. Although her stats as a monster were (0/0), Toby knew how she worked, and she knew how he worked. This could only mean trouble, especially as Lightforce Sword was still in effect for three more Standby Phases

Lorna proceeded to Special Summon two Grinder Golems (3000/3000) to Toby's field, by Special Summoning two Grinder Tokens (0/0) for each Golem on her field, amounting to four that time. That was when she played the Spell Card Healing Wind, gaining 200 Life Points for each Monster on the field. With there being seven, that amounted to 1400 Life Points to bring her to 7200. The effect of the Aura of Life Transfer made Toby lose 1400 Life Points to come to 800, which caused his whole body below the shoulders to fade into the encroaching dark purple/pink mists. Finally, Lorna and set two cards face-down to come to four cards in her hand, all of which were known to her opponent to be Apples of Enlightenment and Byser Shock.

Toby drew to hold seven cards, wondering why she didn't attack, but that was when she revealed Gift of the Mystical Elf, gaining 300 Life Points for each monster on the field. There were seven, making it a net gain of 2100 Life Points to her, but Toby activated the Quick-Play Spell Card Mystical Space Typhoon, chaining it to the Trap and destroying it before it could activate, leaving her at 7200 and him at 800. Uria would only return in two Standby Phases from now, and he would need a miracle to survive until then.

Maybe… maybe he could hold out for a bit more time. He placed a card face-down and activated the Spell Card Goblin's Secret Remedy, increasing his Life Points by 600 to come to 1400, bringing Lorna to 6600 and causing a little bit of mist to withdraw. He next activated Graceful Charity, drawing three cards but discarding two from his hand. The cards he drew… maybe they could give him hope, so he kept all three of them, discarding two other cards with his hand now having four cards. He Set two more face-down and played his second to last card: Dian Keito the Cure Master, giving himself 1000 Life Points to come to 2400, and reduce Lorna to 5600. After that, he played his own Card of Sanctity to refresh everyone's hands to six cards and played Card Destruction, causing everyone to discard their hand and draw that many cards. Both he and his opponent discarded six and drew six. At least now, the Byser Shock couldn't remove cards, but now it was all he could do to hope that this desperate gambit would work. The downside was that, by allowing her to draw on two occasions, he triggered Lorna's Solemn Wishes to reduce him by a total of 1000 points back to 1400, as Lorna regained 1000 Life Points to come to 6600

Lorna drew, with Toby seeing she only had one card left in her Deck, and gained another 500 Life Points from Solemn Wishes, bringing her to 7100, and Toby to 900. Sheplayed the Equip Spell Card Infernal Gauntlet, equipping it to herself and causing her hand to swell up in molten flames, after which she announced she was attacking one of his Grinder Golems.

She raised her immolating right hand, thrust her palm at the Grinder Golem and watched as mists streamed from it into her waiting mouth. Toby knew, from previous experience, that she couldn't be destroyed as long as her Aura was in play, and whenever she fought a monster, she instead drained half of its ATK and DEF to add it to her own. Here, she had reached an ATK of 1500 and DEF of 150, but the ability of Infernal Gauntlet activated: she could Tribute a monster and attack again, tributing one of her four Grinder Tokens. With that, she drained the one Grinder Golem of its ATK completely, destroying it, and ending up with 3000 ATK and 300 DEF. Two more Grinder Tokens were tributed to drain the second Grinder Golem and bring her to 6000 ATK, the same value as her Life Points. Her fourth and final Grinder Token was also sacrificed to give another attack

"Now I make you suffer for hurting me. I activate my Quick-Play Spell Card Emergency Priovisions, destroying my Solemn Wishes and Infernal Gauntlet to give me 2000 Life Points from you!" Lorna declared, as her Trap and gauntlet began turning into a black hole that started to suck in vapors from Toby's area

"Trap activate! Chaos Life!" Toby declared, as his Life Points instead rose to 2900. "When I would take effect damage from a card, in this case your Field Trap, that would reduce me to 0, I gain the damage as Life Points instead!"

"It won't amount to anything! I still have a spare attack in reserve, and now with the Gauntlet gone, I can attack you directly."

"Why are you doing this?" Toby gasped, struggling to even speak.

"I told you, I will make you mine, but I want you to know my pain. I want you to know, in your last moments as your own being, exactly how painful it felt to be rejected by someone who you have protected on numerous occasions! Now prepare yourself... Draining Fury!"

Her hands were raised above her head, and she had created a black hole that began sucking the remainder Toby's Life Points and causing more of his body to be shrouded in mist. Just as they finished devouring his shoulders, Toby activated Rainbow Life, discarding a card to instead gain the damage as Life Points, which allowed him to add her 6000 ATK to his 2900 Life Points. The vortex suddenly moved towards him, and as it took position behind him, she was pulled from her place and found herself flying straight towards her opponent.

She collided into him, but as the light shone, she felt her own powers draining away, and she found her opponent's arms around her. "You don't have to be so angry, you know?" he whispered.

"You rejected me! Those spirits turned you into just another one who-"

"I was scared at the time. You had almost made me possibly murder someone who I looked up to, how else am I supposed to react after that and hearing how you operated in the past? It's only now I see that you just wanted someone to get close to. When I took your strikes, your desperation for company, it felt familiar… now I recognize it as the pain of being alone. I remember, having no one to talk to and being left to suffer in silence was too painful for me. It was that pain that drew you to befriend me in the first place, was it not?"

"Yes, and the pain that you made me feel when I reconstituted. It's over now, though. Your Trap Card has transformed my attack into your Life Points. It's your win. I swear, though, I will never let you leave me again."

"I figured. That mist, it was consuming my body, but now I feel your spirit inside me. Your plan did partially work."

"I guess, although, I originally intended for you to become a part of me, not the other way around."

"You still wanted us to never again separate, and with this, that dream can be realized. Lorna, you don't have to be alone anymore."

"I can feel… myself merging… with your mind…"

"Welcome home," Toby spoke, Lorna completely fusing into his body.

"You know, it is a good thing you have me in here now," Lorna's voice echoed inside his mind, "…because I can sense that you only have marginal knowledge about what the Sacred Sigil Bearers are. It just so happens I was there around the previous time it happened."