After hours of walking in silence, Kan'u began to see the capital of Gi in the distance, as she quickened her pace, with the others doing the same. Soon, they came to stop just outside the entrance, with Kan'u holding her hand in the air, signaling to the others to stop. As they did, Chohi scratched her head in confusion.
"Big sis, why are we stopping? Soso is in there, Rinrin thought," said Chohi, pointing into the town, as Kan'u turned around, cleared her throat, and began to speak.
"Everyone, I am going to be completely honest with you right now. The upcoming battle, it will not be easy. Lord Soso has proven herself to be one of our most dangerous adversaries, on account of her powerful cards, her incredible mind, and her great ambition. Already, she and her underlings have caused great strife to many towns as a result of her lust for power, and unless we stop her now, that number shall continue to grow. I will not lie about the danger, nor will I ask you to come with me. If you do not wish to come with me into the viper's pit, then remain here, and I will not hold it against you. But if you do wish to join me, then follow me."
As Kan'u finished speaking, Chohi smiled as she skipped forward. "Rinrin will always help you, big sis!"
"Hawawa…I won't lie, I'm t-terrified of having to face Lord Soso," stuttered Shokatsuryo. "But I won't abandon my friends. I'm in."
"You can count me in!" shouted Bacho, with Ryofu simply nodding.
"If you expect me to flee when there is such injustice going on, then you don't know me very well," said Choun.
"I'm honored to duel by your side, Aisha," said Kochu. Kan'u smiled, happy that they were so supportive. But now for the hard part. She then turned her gaze to Jun'iku and Kyocho.
"Keifa, Ki, I know that it must be hard to go up against your own lord, so if you stay here, then I have no problem with that."
"Are you kidding? After that cool speech? I'll totally help you!" gushed Kyocho.
"Even I must admit I'm impressed, although I have no intention of actually dueling my Karin," said Jun'iku while looking to the side, as Kan'u smirked.
"Alright, let's go!"
~KD~
"So Shuran, when we eventually reach Soso, how exactly are we going to break her out of the brainwashing?" asked Anthony as the quartet made tracks through the woods.
"To be honest, we were hoping that you had a solution," said Kakoen.
"Okay, well, maybe if we beat her in a Shadow Game…"
"Absolutely not," said Kakoton.
"Look, hear me out, Shunran, okay! We need to beat her in a Shadow Game, seeing as it's the only way to bring back everyone that she sent to the Shadow Realm, including my friend's dad!"
"And in doing so, she'll be sent to the Shadow Realm!"
"We can save her. I'm proof that it can be done. Maybe you two can try to snap her out of the trance while we duel. I just hope that Aisha and the others are alright when we get there." He then saw that Gi was visible in the distance, as he went from a stroll to a sprint, with the others accelerating in accordance.
~KD~
"Who goes there?" asked one of the two guards who stood by the door, both decked out in gray armor with skull shoulder pads and helmets, as Ryofu and Chohi cracked their knuckles, eager for a fight.
"We're members of Kikai," said Kan'u, "and we intend to defeat your wicked lord, Soso."
The guards laughed, but stopped laughing as Kan'u glared at them, and they stepped aside. Kan'u pushed the doors, surprised to find out that they were unlocked.
'Soso is expecting us, it seems. I'll have to take extra precaution. I only hope that Anthony and the others have succeeded in keeping Kikai safe.' She then walked through the main hall and made her way to the door to the throne room, which was left unguarded. She opened it to see Soso leaning on her elbow with a bored expression, and Kan'u felt a chill go down her spine when she saw the Chaos Duel Disk on her wrist. Ukitsu was standing by her side in silence, but as her eyes locked with his, she felt her entire nervous system turn cold as ice.
"Ah, Kan'u Uncho. I've been expecting you, or at least your poor excuse of a lord."
"Don't you dare speak that way about Lord Anthony!" shouted Kan'u. "He's an amazing man, far better than you! To be his general, and his girlfriend, is truly an honor!"
"Oh please. If he's too scared to face me, then it's clear who is the superior leader."
"Oh, Lord Karin, it must be you!" said Jun'iku, which made Soso glare at her, making Jun'iku shake.
"Know your place, you waste of space. And the same goes for you, gluttonous idiot. You two failed, and yet you drag your worthless hides back here? Pathetic."
Kyocho gasped, and whispered to Jun'iku, "Keifa, what's wrong with her? Lord Karin is way meaner than she usually is!"
"I see," said Jun'iku. "And I kind of like it."
"No, this is a bad thing!"
"Lord Soso Motoku, I, General Kan'u Uncho, challenge you to a duel! Do you accept?"
Soso looked at Ukitsu, who responded with, "There's no reason to refuse. After all, you have no chance of loss, so this is an easy way to capture the best general of Lord Anthony!"
"You have a splendid point," said Soso as she stood up and leapt off of her throne, landing before Kan'u with her Chaos Duel Disk unfolding, a purple smog covering their cards.
'If I can beat Soso in a Shadow Game, then Gi will have lost,' thought the black-haired general as she shuffled her cards. 'This is one duel that I can't afford to lose.'
(Soso: 4000 LP)(Kan'u: 4000 LP)
"I'll go first!" shouted Soso. "I draw, and I summon Newdoria to the field!"
Kan'u couldn't help but cringe as she saw the monster that Soso summoned. It was a shriveled man with no skin, his pink muscle exposed, with tufts of green hair on his head and long, bony fingers. He wore a leather strap with spikes on it over his eyes and across the top of his head, with similar garments on his lanky torso, green pants, black shoes, and large cuffs on his wrists, knees, and ankles (LV 4: ATK 1200).
"Then I'll set two cards, and I think that will do," said Soso.
"Okay, I draw! And I summon my Armed Samurai - Ben Kei to the field!"
Her hooded samurai was quick to come before her (LV 4: ATK 500).
"And next I'll equip him with my Fusion Sword Murasame Blade!"
A card appeared that depicted a samurai being equipped with some sort of weapon appeared on the field, and the same weapon appeared in the right hand of Ben Kei, being a katana with a purple hilt. Suddenly, the hilt proceeded to grow purple tentacles and grew on the hand like lichen, fusing to its user (ATK 500-1300).
"Now my monster gains eight hundred attack points, and every Equip Card equipped to Ben Kei gives him an extra attack! Now take down that Newdoria!"
"Well, by attacking, you've activated my Malevolent Catastrophe, which will destroy all spells and traps on the field!" shouted Soso, as her other card shattered, revealing it to be some odd statue on a stone coffin, when the statue suddenly slithered out of the card. It was golden, with its head having two horns that curved downward, four red eyes, a gap where its nose should have gone like a skull, and a mouth filled with pointed teeth. A golden headdress went down its body, held by two hands, and just below its head was a gem that looked like a red eye with a cyan slit for a pupil, with the headdress ending in four spikes. The rest of its body was the body of a snake, with a scorpion's stinger on the tip (LV 4: ATK 1000).
"And when my Statue of the Wicked is destroyed while face-down, I can Special Summon a Wicked Token to my field!"
"Then I'll just have to change targets!" said Kan'u. "Ben Kei, attack that token!"
"Please, without that Equip Spell, your monster is much too weak!"
"Is it?"
Soso then gasped as she saw that the Warrior-type still had the Fusion Sword on his hand, as he sliced through her Wicked Token like a hot knife through butter (Soso: 4000-3700 LP).
"Hold on!" shouted Bacho, completely confused. "How the heck did that card stay on the field?"
"When equipped to a monster, Fusion Sword Murasame Blade cannot be destroyed by card effects! Now take down that Newdoria!"
Her monster slashed through the Fiend-type, reducing it to pixels (Soso: 3700-3600 LP). But as this happened, the Warrior-type wore the same headgear as Newdoria, and screamed in pain as it began to tighten, until the Warrior-type shattered.
"S-S-So c-cruel…hawawa…" muttered Shokatsuryo.
"That was the effect of my Newdoria. Whenever it's destroyed in battle, I can select one monster and destroy it!"
"Okay, I set one card and end my turn."
"Then I draw! And I play my Card Destruction, which forces us both to discard every card in our hands and draw new hands, equal to the number of cards that we got rid of!"
Soso smirked as she sent Souls of the Forgotten, Summoned Skull, and The Puppet Magic of Dark Ruler to the Graveyard, while Kan'u parted with Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, Gilford the Lightning, and Polymerization. Both drew three new cards, and Soso was quick to play one of her new cards.
"I summon my Malice Doll of Demise to the field!"
Her axe-wielding puppet soon made its appearance, heaving its axe above its head (LV 4: ATK 1600).
"Now attack directly with your mighty Cleaver Heaver, Malice Doll!"
Her monster obeyed, throwing its axe at Kan'u as the general dodged the attack, only to have a small chunk of hair from the end of her ponytail get sliced off, before the axe returned to the Fiend-type (Kan'u: 4000-2400 LP).
"And that should do."
"Very well, I draw! And I summon my Axe Raider to the field!"
Her own axe-wielding monster appeared on the field (LV 4: ATK 1700), when a card that had an image of a group of knights charging appeared, as the monster's power jumped up (ATK 1700-2200).
"And I play my Reinforcements, to increase his attack points by five hundred. Now take down that monster with Wind Blades!"
Her monster swung his axe, sending a razor wind that cut through the Fiend-type (Soso: 3600-3000 LP).
"And I end my turn by setting one card!" (ATK 2200-1700)
"Then I draw! And I play my Bait Doll, forcing the activation of one of your face-down cards, and if the timing is wrong, it's destroyed! Let's see what your face-down card is!"
The card flipped up to reveal Ready for Intercepting, as Axe Raider set itself.
"That card has a Warrior-type or Spellcaster-type change to face-down defense mode, if I remember correctly," said Kochu. "And now, her Axe Raider is weaker."
"I summon my Twin-Headed Wolf!"
Her two-headed wolf appeared, heads snarling and foaming, with Chohi and Ryofu peeking up at the sight of it (LV 4: ATK 1500).
"Now attack that Axe Raider!"
The monster lunged for the face-down, with Axe Raider flipping up (LV 4: DEF 1150), and being ripped into pixels.
"That should end my turn."
"Okay, I draw! And I think I'll play my Rocket Warrior!"
Her rocket-themed warrior arrived on the field in style, twirling his sword (LV 4: ATK 1500).
"And now, to attack!"
"A double knockout? How bold."
"Not at all! You see, my monster's effect makes it unable to be destroyed by battle when it attacks! Go, Invincible Attack!"
The LIGHT monster folded up and blasted off, breaking right through the Fiend-type before it came to a stop.
"And I end my turn with a face-down!"
"Very well, I draw! And I summon a monster that you should be rather familiar with, my Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams!"
The dream-dwelling ghost soon appeared before Kan'u, and the black-haired general violently flinched when it released its bone-chilling screech (LV 4: ATK 1300).
'Come on, Aisha, you can handle this. Sure, it's scary, and it might be real right now, but you've faced worse. And you can't let everyone down.' "I'm n-n-n-not sc-sc-scared of that g-g-ghost. You'll n-need to do b-b-better."
"You're stuttering betrays you, General Kan'u. And while it may be weaker than your Rocket Warrior right now, I have a way to fix that! I equip my Gross Ghost with my Sword of Dark Rites!"
The Fiend-type put away its sword, and gained a new one, one that curved twice with a green gem near the tip that resembled an eye, and on the duller backside there were three spikes and a small hook-like appendage, as well as a hand guard on the hilt (ATK 1300-1700).
"Now my monster gains four hundred attack points. So now it can slice and dice your pathetic monster to pieces! Attack, my lovely monster!"
The Fiend-type did so, and Kan'u began shaking as the ghost flew towards her Rocket Warrior, but she managed to play her Trap Card just in time, as the sword shattered on stone armor, and so did the rest of the Normal Monster.
"I activate my Sakuretsu Armor, which will destroy your attacking monster!"
Soso grumbled as her monster was destroyed, leaving her with an empty field and an empty hand. "You may have the upper hand right now, but it won't last. I will end this duel as the victor, and soon, the rest of your friends will follow, and your poor excuse of a lord will be powerless to stop me from razing his territory to the ground and building my own empire. I end my turn."
"Well said, Lord Soso," said Ukitsu, speaking for the first time since the Kikai cavalry arrived.
"You're wrong! Big sis will beat you, you spinny-haired meanie!" shouted Chohi, which made Soso glare at the young general, who simply retaliated with her own glare, puffing up her cheeks.
"Rinrin, let me take care of her. I draw! And I summon Little-Winguard to the field!"
A small knight appeared next to Rocket Warrior. It had a conical blue helmet with a cyan stripe on the base, and a small wing as a decoration. It had similar white wings on its shoulders, and cyan armor with a decoration shaped like a pair of white wings around a blue gem on the stomach, with its face hidden in shadows, the only part that was visible being a pair of yellow eyes. It had a blue cape, and a small sword with a golden handle that had a red gem and a cross guard shaped like a pair of wings. It also had a light blue shield with wings and a red gem, and blue boots with wings on it completed the Warrior-type's outfit (LV 4: ATK 1400).
"Now my Rocket Warrior and my Little-Winguard will attack you directly!"
The tiny guardian and the rocket-themed warrior both jumped towards Soso with their swords and slashed at the lord, who was grateful that she was wearing armor (Soso: 3000-100 LP).
"And that will end my turn, and during the End Phase, I can switch the battle position of my Little-Winguard!" said Kan'u as her monster kneeled down and held out its shield (DEF 1800).
"I draw," said Soso, and when she saw what she had drawn, an evil smile crept onto her face. "And I banish Souls of the Forgotten, Malice Doll of Demise, and The Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams to Special Summon my ultimate monster! A monster that dwells in the most horrific night terrors and feeds on the fear of its victims! Dark Necrofear, show yourself!"
Out of the darkness rose the vicious fiend, cradling her doll as she slowly stared at Kan'u, who once again flinched at the sight of it (LV 8: DEF 2800).
"Hawawawawawawawawa!" shouted Shokatsuryo, pulling her beret over her eyes to keep herself from looking at the hideous monster, with Jun'iku cringing, Kyocho looking away, Chohi screaming, and both Ryofu and Kochu stepped back.
"That thing is absolutely hideous, right Sui?" asked Choun, only to see that the brunette was in shock. Her eyes had shrunk to the point that they were practically white, and her jaw hung loose, with the color draining from her skin as her entire body began to tremble.
"Well, General Kan'u, what do you think of my ultimate monster? No doubt you're impressed!"
"It is rather powerful, I suppose," said Kan'u, still feeling uneasy.
"And I'm sure that her true power will leave you begging for mercy! I end my turn!"
"Then I draw! And I activate my Black Luster Ritual, tributing both of my monsters to perform the Ritual Summon!"
Both Rocket Warrior and Little-Winguard soon went into the urns, as the spires of light shot out and became intertwined, as the headliner of the general's deck was called forth (4+4=8).
"The forces of light and darkness intertwine! I open the gates of chaos! Bring forth Black Luster Soldier!"
The favorite monster of Kan'u fell from the pillar of light and landed on the ground, forming small cracks as it crashed down (LV 8: ATK 3000).
"And now, Black Luster Soldier will destroy your Dark Necrofear with his Chaos Blade attack! Slay that wicked creature, Black Luster Soldier!"
As soon as the Ritual Monster rose his blade, Bacho snapped out of her shock. "AISHA, DON'T ATTACK THAT MONSTER!" But it was too late as the Fiend-type was cleaved in two, and Bacho felt her arms fall to her sides. "No, no no no. Not again."
"I end my turn!"
"Good."
Suddenly, a black portal in the shape of an oval appeared, undulating like smoke, and Black Luster Soldier narrowed his eyes as he began to approach it, sword and shield at the ready, when he began to hear a beckoning call, as he held his shield in front of him, ready to face whatever came out. He was unprepared, however, for the ghost that shot out, making Kan'u scream involuntarily as the ghost phased through the shield of Black Luster Soldier and went into the chest of the Warrior-type, who hunched over and began to shuffle over to the black void. Kan'u began to have flashbacks to when her monster was taken over by Change of Heart when she dueled Yokubo, and just like last time, she began to fruitlessly call out to her monster as he ambled over to Soso.
"Black Luster Soldier, what are you doing!? Please, stop this! Whatever hold this demon has on you, you need to fight it!"
"He can't hear you! When Dark Necrofear is destroyed, I can equip it to a monster that you control during the End Phase and take control of it! Your Black Luster Soldier is legendary, but now it will be your demise!" shouted Soso as Dark Necrofear began to cradle the Ritual Monster. "I draw, and then I'll have Black Luster Soldier attack you directly!"
Kan'u could do nothing but stare as the Chaos Blade sliced through the floor and sent her flying, with the general landing on her back in defeat (Kan'u: 2400-0 LP)(Winner: Soso). Kan'u crawled back onto her feet, but soon found herself entangled in strings, as the consequences of losing had begun to come into play.
~KD~
"It looks like Aisha and the others are already here!" shouted Anthony as he raced past the guards, who had simply let them through, as the group burst through the doors to the throne room, only to freeze in horror as he saw Kan'u being covered in strings, her body becoming wooden as the peanut gallery watched in terror, as Chohi snapped to attention.
"Big bro, you came!"
"Well, well, well. The pathetic lord of Kikai and a trio of traitors. Too little, too late, however. General Kan'u is about to learn why facing me is a suicide mission."
Anthony ran past Kan'u and turned to see her face, as she looked up weakly and managed to smile.
"I'm sorry, Anthony. I lost. I tried my best, but she caught me by surprise, and I didn't heed Sui's warning."
"D-Don't worry, Aisha, we can get you out of this," said Anthony, trying to grab Kan'u so he could attempt to pull her out, but he jumped back when she shouted.
"No! Don't do it, it's too dangerous! You could get pulled in as well, and then we'll have done all of this for naught!"
"I don't care, Aisha! I would do the same for any of my friends! I won't lose you!"
"You won't, Anthony. You can beat her, and bring me back. I know that you will." As she began to shrink, she kept on speaking. "I'll have you know, I always knew that you would get here eventually. No matter how far down you fell, I never gave up on you. No matter what you or anybody else believes, you really are the Messenger from Heaven."
"Aisha, Aisha!"
"I love you…"
As she said this, she slumped over as she was completely transformed into a doll, her soul being carted off to the Shadow Realm, as the doll was pulled by an invisible string, and Anthony turned to see Soso holding out her hand as the doll came to her.
"Aisha…no…"
