The Sky Sage:
Warning: For the next few weeks, there won't be any updates. No, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not even going to find myself without internet access for a while. The reason for the sudden hiatus is because I need to sit myself down and do some research for this story. There is an element of the development I'm not particularly familiar with, so I need to have as much information as possible before I continue.
As such, this story is now on hiatus for a couple weeks, not too long, hopefully, until I'm done gathering all the information I need to provide a good, solid foundation for the next chapters.
Last thing: The cards will be wearing their translated Japanese names out of preference for myself. I will be leaving A/N at the end of the chapters were Duel Monsters cards are involved so that you guys can track the cards and know which cards I'm using for a chapter. As for the duels, there will be no stat tracking. She will be pointing out the monsters and their attacks, but consider that this is from her angle, so no fancy stat tracking or anything. Still, I have a deck for her, ideas and I will still be stat tracking to make sure that everything goes smoothly. You guys should also be able to do the same and, if said stat track is off, let me know, I can rework chapters.
For now, though, it's just regular old chapters. Hopefully, I do this justice when I get to it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.
The Butterfly Effect
Chapter L: Dreams Mix With Reality
Have you ever had a dream?
... Now I know a lot of you are probably going to be raising their hands, saying that they do. Who doesn't? Dreams of the future, actual dreams, even dreams that we bring into our reality albeit inadvertently. We all have dreams. But have you ever had a dream? A dream so out there, so unbelievable, it's impossible for it to come true even if you find yourself in a reality that might just welcome it? A dream and visions that felt real, were so vivid that you knew them to be true to a certain extent but wished it would simply stay a dream? And it didn't? If you have brought your hand back, I am glad to report that you are normal and your reality isn't twisted beyond repair. And to those who still have their hands raised... I can only hope that said reality was kinder to you than it was to me.
I had dreams. Dreams of angels, of a temple in the sky. I had visions of glowing eyes that seemed to be watching me from far within, somewhere where I couldn't reach. That I would never reach. I had noted all of it down hoping to know more, but casting it aside as Yuugi was flung into danger yet again only to find that my research, at least on my past, was useful and would, hopefully, guide us forward.
But I had never imagined, not in a goddamn million years, that my dreams, that my visions, would have a seed into the reality I was in.
No, they didn't outright exist. That was something I was more than happy for because anything else would have meant that I had definitely gone insane, and Kaiba was, honestly, doing more than a good job at that. But they did. The Angels of dreams, the temple in the sky they took refuge in did exist and took a form I both didn't know how to take and couldn't pull away from.
Cards. Monsters. Spells. The angels of my dreams, the temple of my dreams existed in my reality as Duel Monsters cards.
It was a truth I was not comfortable with. It was a truth I could not run from but feared with all of my being.
The warning that Shadi had handed me and that I had taken in stride returned with a vengeance. The questions that I had not dared to ask myself while awake now haunted me, swirling in my head and incapacitating my sleep cycle, leaving me to lie awake in my bed, eyes trained on the cards. And the possibility of me being a coward because I had wanted to leave my research alone would not stop hitting me in the face as I wondered, questioned something that I knew was going to lead me down the deep end.
What did it all mean?
What did it mean for the angels of my dreams, for the monsters of a game, to seek me out so thoroughly, they'd invade part of my reality so that I wouldn't dismiss them? What did it mean for me that they were actual monsters? And if they were real, if they were real and I was right, what did it mean for the pair of glowing eyes that stared at me from beyond their place of rest? Why were they looking at me and me alone and so strong, so powerful that they would catch the attention of a Millennium Item?
I didn't know. I didn't know and that was just the thing. I hadn't dug as far as I could, I hadn't looked for more options. Out of courtesy for Yuugi and his struggles, I had set mine aside. And now I was neck deep into something I did not understand because of it.
I shuffled into my bed, casting the thought of putting on the light aside as I went to stare at the ceiling. Staring at the cards, trying to see the differences between reality and dream did not help. I'd done it enough already and it had worried big brother to the point of question so that was not the answer. Neither was forcing myself to accept it. I'd tried already only for my brain to go into overload with questions, making Mokuba concerned. And talking with the others was currently out of the question because Yuugi was in a hell of a situation already – the fact that Battle City was on its way was already a big enough problem – and I did not want to cause more problems, certainly when it concerned something as dumb as dreams coming to life.
... There was an irony as long as my arm and as bitter as coffee in that, and I wasn't missing it.
Still, it meant that because of the situation and my own cowardice – whether I liked it or not, I was being a goddamn coward by not telling the group that I was having personal issues – there was only one person I could talk to. One person that I didn't particularly get along with, but had been doing his best to give me a few minutes of freedom when it came down to it. Someone whom I hoped wouldn't gloat or wouldn't walk away because so far, that was what he had done despite the precious minutes he managed to hand to me through meditation.
"Odd for you to seek me out."
Shadi.
Shadi and I might not get along, and he was often there when I didn't want him, but I would outright admit that he was the only one who could help.
Was I surprised when he answered just as I reluctantly said his name in my mind, probably having already reached out for him through magic without knowing? No. Was I upset at the fact that his demeanor still seemed closed off and unwilling to give any answers as I slowly turned to him only to see him already sitting in my desk chair that was now turned towards the bed? No. Did I expect a number of ill reactions coming from him which would ultimately lead to his refusal? Yes.
But I was hoping that the fact that I had sought him out would play in my favor.
"I need your help."
"Why?"
And the fact that I now had evidence to prove that something was going on as I pointed to my deck – Was it really? I didn't know. It felt like it was – making him look at it before he got up silently and went through it as I said, "Remember when I told you that I had dreams?"
But he steeled. Froze and simply set down the deck before sitting down again. Not good. Not good at all.
"Sorry, I –"
"They manifested?"
... Or was it?
"Y – Yeah, they did. As cards. Duel Monsters. Shadi, I think-"
"Do not finish. Your thoughts are truth."
I felt my breath catch. I felt it stop and refuse to resume until I forced it. Truth? Truth?
"You mean it's -"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you -"
"Your life had barely been brought back."
Truth. Very much truth. Shadi had used the Key to save me. He'd seen my soul, had been inside it. And he'd seen something that had stood out. The glowing eyes that I had seen, he'd seen their owner.
"Who-"
"I do not know."
"Why-"
"The questions towards your angels are ones I cannot answer, Honda Megumi. I did not have the luxury of staying long and whatever question I had, I doubt they would answer."
"Why?"
"Because they obviously want you."
And I had not been the only one extrapolating.
Shadi had probably been wondering what the hell it all meant long before I'd even awoken. Why a soul, a monster, would take to my soul like a person takes to a home, what it meant for my apparent powers – were they mine or was something influencing them? – and why, why the hell they had chosen me out of millions of people that existed in my dimension.
And while he'd not been able to get his answers at the time of my near death, he'd been looking into ways of getting them.
Meditation, not giving me answers for the sake of concentration. He knew, knew long before I did, and he'd been scared of it. Why? No clue and it probably didn't matter in the end, but if he'd been unwilling to hand me to death when it had come all teeth bared, I doubted he'd let this go that easily.
"You've been trying to help me haven't you?"
"No one of this age should carry a monster, and the one who does is unaware of it. Like I said, Honda Megumi, the reasons for your presence here might affect you more than the Key ever will, and while I may have ways to help you, most of it relies on you. You and whatever the Key can offer you."
"You mean..." I trailed off, looking at the Key as Shadi nodded.
"One must know oneself before exploring others."
... Well.
"What can you teach me?"
"You are willing to pursue?"
I took a breath, "Yes."
And watched him blink in silence before answering, "Then tell me, Honda Megumi, what do you know of lucid dreaming?"
