Series: World of Fusion||Title: War of the Undead
Characters: Ryou, Assassin, Asuka||Ship: N/A
Chapters: 17-50||Chapter Words: 3,048||Total Words: 52,165
Genre: Drama, Supernatural||Rated: PG
Challenges: Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multiply; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chapters; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space
Notes: Same universe as Raised To His Word but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.
Summary: The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.
Samejima hadn't ever had a lot of help. He taught students at his Dojo and he spread tales of the old world so that it would never be forgotten but there were few enough who listened, since those who'd survived the unsettled years after the Great Fusion preferred to focus on what was rather than to relive the fanciful tales of days gone by. Training duelists truly felt as if he made more of a difference.
But now out of nowhere, he had help. Sienna and Izumi, O'Brien and Jim, Nero and Fairy Dragon, all of them gave their help to get this situation sorted, without asking for anything, simply because he needed it, and because no one wanted a world totally run by zombies or vampires. Those had a place in the world but it wasn't as the rulers of the world.
He would return to the Cyber Dojo soon and select the person who would carry on his work from here. He'd considered more than once that Ryou would be the one, but now that he knew of the other's nature as a vampire – no, it wouldn't be him. Ryou had other duties in his life now.
But who? He considered all of his students. For the most part, whoever won the Cyber End Dragon had been considered the heir. Not every time, but those who showed the proper principles of respectful dueling. Dueling hadn't always been the focus of the dojo, or the guarding of the Sangenma, but that was the form most necessary now, so that was what he took into account. He would need an heir who could work in this new world.
Did he need to not look at humans? So far there had only been human users of the Cyber style. But he wasn't dead yet. He was still the head of the Dojo. He had time to train a successor once he chose them and it was not out of the picture for whoever he chose to be a spirit of some sort.
A person who exemplified the essence of being a respectful duelist someone who would be able to train others in that style – who would be able to protect the Sangenma – and who would not fall prey to the call of the dark side of the style. That, too, he worried about – the under side of the Cyber style that whispered from their hiding place. They seldom spoke, though their voices grew louder in the five decades since the Great Fusion.
He would return to the Dojo and inspect the students he already had, he decided, and choose whoever he saw was best from there. He'd been one of three potential successors when his time came as a boy and he could do the same now, picking a handful of potential people and once the time came, then choose from that.
It was the best that he could do for a choice at the moment. With that taken care of, he turned his full attention back to the meal before him. Everyone else sat around the table, Jim and O'Brien catching up in detail what happened since the last time they'd seen one another, while Nero and Fairy Dragon chatted quietly together. They would spend who knew how long out there together, so it was best that they get to know one another in a quiet setting.
Sienna and Izumi watched the table; he gathered that they hadn't had very many people here at the same time in far longer than they remembered. Izumi's grin lit up her face, while Sienna stroked her jar and fed bits of food to her great dragon friend. He, apparently, had eaten while he was out recruiting Jim, and needed little more than a few bites to fill little bits and pieces.
His eyes flicked over the great dragon that he would be riding in the near future. Both of them decided that the trip would be taken in the morning – while it was the best time for Nero and Fairy Dragon to search for Ryou, the dragon and Samejima himself needed proper rest. His wounds had more or less healed with the help of Izumi, but he wasn't as young as he'd once been. If he waited for morning, it would be easier to detect zombies anyway.
He nibbled at his dinner, turning more of his attention to Nero as the boy explained what had happened to him and his family to Fairy Dragon. The zombies could not be allowed to do this to more people. At least vampires could be reasoned with and they were civilized. Zombies, not so much.
"The vampires rule this area," Samejima said at last, piecing together a thought that occurred to him. Everyone's attention turned to him as he spoke. "We need to send a message to their headquarters, perhaps even to Lord Ruthven and Lady Camula." They, at least, should know that Ryou was in danger. He hadn't heard all of Ryou's story, but these two were some of the few allowed by vampire law to turn humans. They would need to know.
O'Brien tapped a finger on the table. "I can take a message to both of those places, if I have a way to get to them."
Jim raised his hand. "You've got a way. Just tell me how to get there and we'll be there before dawn."
"Is it safe to go driving at night?" Samejima wondered. He'd seen the little buggy that Jim drove and while it wasn't the sort of thing that he recalled from the world before the fusion, it was a very sturdy device indeed. But with zombies to deal with, what one needed was speed far more than sturdiness.
That only got a soft laugh from Jim. "Shouldn't be a problem at all! What do you want to tell them when we get there?"
"And who will we find at the headquarters here?" O'Brien waned to know. Samejima considered that, then blinked as a stray comment dropped by Ryou returned to his awareness.
"That I can't be sure of now – Ryou told me that this was his territory. If he meant that he's the local vampire ruler, then we may not find anyone there at all."
That worried him. He realized now how little he knew about what Ryou's life was like now. What had ever happened to Ryou's family? He'd heard stories about his student's younger brother – Shou, wasn't that his name? He also played a Machine deck, but not the Cyber style. Though if Samejima knew anything at all about Ryou, he'd done his best to impress the styles of respect into his brother.
Perhaps this Shou might be worth entertaining as a potential successor. Samejima wasn't going to turn the thought down, not until he knew if the young man was available or not. A point to bring up to Ryou when they rescued him. Which he refused to think would not happen.
Jim nodded. "We can check and see. Maybe someone else there can give some help. They might have a way to contact the big vampire leaders a lot faster than we can. Or something to get rid of all the zombies in a second." The flicker of a smile on his lips said that he didn't quite believe that but a little humor never hurt.
O'Brien worked on the rest of his meal before he spoke again. "How are Nero and Fairy Dragon going to recognize this vampire when they see him?"
"He's quite tall," Samejima said, considering. "He wears a black leather jacket, very long, and black clothes underneath it. His hair is a deep blue and his eyes are a bit lighter blue. He's pale, of course, and he looks about seventeen. Though I believe he's actually a little older than you two." He nodded towards the two young men. "If he has his deck with him, he plays a Cyber deck. His most favored spirit is Cyber End Dragon, but there are many other Cyber types that he uses."
Nero practically drank in every word that he spoke. "I can find him! I won't come back until we do!"
Fairy Dragon bobbed her head eagerly. "Yeah! Neither will I!"
Sienna reached out to touch Fairy Dragon's head with her fingers. "Don't push yourself too hard. It will be dangerous to seek a vampire that is being held captive like this. Vampires can't be restrained by just anything. Only their weakness to the sun can truly keep them ensnared."
"There are some magics that can do it as well," Samejima mused. "Anything that can negate powers can do it and there are unfortunately plenty of those." Too many mages, too many spells, too many items that could seal away someone's power. If someone wished to wage war against the vampires, then having such items and people on their side would be a wise move.
He considered other points about this whole situation. "Most zombies don't care anything about war or territory," he said at last. "Zombies are weapons, not warriors. Even those who are spirits prefer to remain in their own territory and feeding on the unwary." There were more than enough of those to keep the mindless undead satisfied without a war or whatever else was going on. "Someone else is using them for this."
O'Brien considered that before he nodded slowly. "I wouldn't even be certain if anyone I saw in Sunsdown would be the person in charge. Likely what I saw was only servants, or servants of servants."
"Zombies are usually brought around by other zombies or by necromancers," Jim said, his eye thoughtful. Samejima remained curious about what had happened to his other eye but he let his curiosity remain dormant for the moment. There would be time later to ask. "Who do we know who could have created thee hordes?"
"Most of them seem made by the zombie spirits," Samejima offered. "But I believe the closest zombie spirit is Decayed Commander. Whether he knows what's going on, I don't know."
"It's not wise to go into enemy territory without proper information," O'Brien declared. "Let's stick to the vampires until we can learn more from Marufuji Ryou."
No one wanted to argue the point right now. Samejima cleaned up the last of his plate and stared at it for a few moments. What he wanted to do most of all was think of the days of his youth, when this hadn't been a problem. When vampires and zombies were works of fiction and nothing more.
'Teacher Samejima, sir?" Nero spoke, his voice quivering a bit. "My grandpa – he would tell me stories about how the world was like before. Do you – do you know any stories from then?"
Samejima blinked a few times. He hadn't ever imagined a question like that. Few people asked after the tales of the old world, though some would listen.
"Yes. Yes, I do." He glanced at the others. He knew quite well that not everyone would appreciate these stories.
But Jim looked fascinated and O'Brien merely nodded. Sienna shrugged her shoulders, while Izumi leaned forward. "It's probably not a good idea to go rushing off right after dinner," she offered. "Tell a story to let our minds rest before we have to begin this war."
O'Brien rose before Samejima could utter a word. "First let's clean this off," he said, gesturing to the table. "Tales are told better over a fire regardless."
With all of them to help it didn't take long to get everything put away and the table wiped down, then chairs pulled up before the flickering fire set to one side of the fountain. The weather here remained clear and flawless, perfect for being seated before the fire and the telling of old tales. Samejima considered many before he decided.
"This is the tale of the Great Fusion itself, or what I heard of it. I wasn't there when it happened. Few who are alive today are, because what caused the Great Fusion was powered by the deaths of many. Brron, the Mad King, slaughtered untold numbers to gain that power and then out of lust for more power he fused all twelve dimensions that existed in that era into one.
"In those days, the civilization of humans lived in a world that had either no spirits or few indeed. If there were any there, almost no one could see or hear them. Tales were told of ghosts and the like, but even fewer believed in them. There was so little true magic that whatever existed fell into myths and legends of their own. We had an entire world to ourselves and thought we were the ultimate masters of it and that nothing would ever change that."
He sipped at a cup of flavored water he'd saved, fingers curved around the carved wood. He'd been so young then. Everyone had been young. No one knew.
"In those days, I lived at the Cyber Dojo. Dueling wasn't an art then – it hadn't even been invented. We don't know if it ever would have been. But life was good in many ways." He vividly recalled ways in which it hadn't been so good – ways that seemed so far away now, old hates and prejudices that had fallen by the wayside in the far more immediate necessities of survival.
"It was October 31. A day once celebrated as having the barriers between lie and death at their thinnest. We thought nothing much of it before that time, but at dawn on that day, the world changed forever – it ceased to exist. There was light and noise – the sounds of screams that went on forever." His fingers tightened more around his cup. "All over the world shook. We didn't know for years afterward exactly what happened, only that there were earthquakes and tidal waves – great cities fell into holes that hadn't existed before then or were swallowed by the waves."
He swallowed. He didn't know if this was the story that Nero wanted to hear, but there were always tales whose time had come to tell. The boy seemed as fascinated as if this were what he'd asked for specifically. So Samejima kept on going.
"No one knows how many people lost their lives – only too many. But not just humans, we found out later. There were many people from many other worlds who perished. And in the wake of those deaths there came winter, starvation and war. Those who survived fought to take and keep resources for themselves, to learn the ways of the world as it was now."
Samejima wasn't certain of how lucky he'd been in those days. He'd survived Fusion Day itself – that was what it was called now, not Halloween, even by those who maintained the old calendars – and there had been hungry years afterward, until people caught the trick of how matters worked now. New crops that needed to be sown and tended and harvested, hunters learning the difference between spirit animals that could be as intelligent as humans and animals that could be killed and eaten, and the slow growth of magic throughout the world.
"Spirits came as well," he remembered, "they told us what happened, speaking of Brron and what he intended. Some sought to bring the remaining people under his rule, and humans everywhere resisted."
Truthfully, Samejima knew that wasn't completely true. Brron's recruiters took back many people who hadn't been making a very good show of surviving on their own. Some of them had been the wealthy and elite of the world past, who were profoundly unsuited to life without servants to wait on them. Some of those did manage to adapt – he'd heard tales of a group of brothers who'd managed to manage nicely enough – but there were other tales of wealth gone forever and those who'd had it reduced to servitude themselves.
"Other spirits offered help or required help themselves, and new communities began to form, of spirits and humans alike. The world belonged to both now." Samejima's lips curved for a few seconds. "Though there were many of both types who did not like this fact. If there had been more of each there may have been far more wars than there were – or are. But perhaps all that happened was for the best in some fashion, because those communities that worked together became better for it. They were able to protect what was theirs from those who would steal it and they could provide for others, which gave them far more resources to work with, and the wisdom of their elders as the years went on."
He stopped there; Nero's eyes slid closed and he rested against Fairy Dragon, whose own eyes were also shut. That he wasn't surprised about. He intended to rest himself, after all. Nero had been through a night nearly as rough as those he'd known.
"He can rest for a couple of hours," Sienna said, scooping Nero up. "But if you want him to hunt for that vampire, he'll need all of his strength."
"We have time. Though not much of it," O'Brien said. He rose to his feet. "My parents told me a few stories that their parents mentioned about what happened back then."
"So did mine," Jim agreed. He said nothing else about it, but Samejima saw a quiet, shadowed look pass over his features. The expression was only there for a few moments before it vanished and he couldn't be certain he'd really seen it at all. "But we should get going, my friend. The vampires won't appreciate it if we start knocking on their doors after sunrise."
O'Brien nodded, turning toward Izumi and Sienna. "Thank you for your hospitality. May we ask it of you again in the future? This place's wards make it a very good place to muster against zombies."
"Of course," Izumi agreed. Sienna didn't look quite so thrilled, but she said nothing to deny her sister's words. "Please return as soon as you can."
The great dragon nudged his head against Samejima. "Are you ready, Guardian?"
Samejima pulled in a long, deep breath as he stood up as well. "Yes. Let's go."
To Be Continued
Notes: I've already decided on Samejima's heir. That will be settled closer to the end of the story. I also intend to one day write the full tale of the Great Fusion itself. Or at least as much as I can. Imagine your average disaster movie but including the survival afterwards. There are ruins left over from how the world was before, and we might even visit some in future installments of the series!