Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Aki now stood reevaluating all the choices in her life as she stared down into the cheekiest pair of eyes she had ever faced. "Rua, what did I ever do to deserve this?"
"Oh come on big sister! Its not so bad! Just do this one thing for me and I won't tell big brother what the duel is about!"
'The duel' was the Valentines, and White Day, double duel event that the school hosted. It could be hosted in several different ways. Either an acknowledge King or Queen could challenge their love interest. The most boldest of duels bar none. Since rejection 'could' happen, and it was more common for the answer to be known in advance before the official announcement. Or it could be a friendly tag duel between a couple and a rival couple.
The keyword was 'couple'.
Asuka having a friendly duel with Aki? Easy.
Asuka wanting to duel Judai but fearing that her inability to communicate with Duel Spirits would get her rejected. Understandable.
Asuka wanting Aki AND YUSEI to be her and Judai's opponents?
One, how was Aki even going to 'explain' this to Yusei?
And two, why was Rua trying to bribe her into 'not' explaining it to Yusei? He had a point though, Yusei never 'did' go to school. He had no idea what this type of match was about so it would be easy to just frame it as a type of demonstration or something. Aki wouldn't have to explain that it was meant for lovers or would be lovers.
'But there's a catch to this...' she thought as she stood there bento lunch box in hand while looking down at Rua. All the while left wondering just what the boy had in mind. "What's the 'thing'?" She finally asked dutifully while their classmates continued moving towards the lunch room. Many whispering in excitement over the coming V-day duel. 'I'm not even 'dating' Yusei, how do I explain this honestly?' she found herself pondering.
"Its real easy, just need to see if there's any duel spirits assigned to a particular deck and if so, can you talk to them!" Rua explained as his own spirits drifted about him.
"And if there isn't one?" She asked, as she knelt down before him so he wouldn't have to speak up for her to hear.
Which he was actually pretty grateful for as it allowed him better access to her ear, "we see about calling their Boss."
"'Their Boss'?" She echoed in confusion, "Ancient Fairy?"
He looked at her for a moment of childlike annoyance only for it to wipe away with some internal revelation. "No, her boss, the Big Boss... Don't worry I'll explain about it when we get back home. You missed some really cool stuff being in China and supposedly dead and …." He paused and he began frowning. "Promise you won't do that again? Dying I mean. We really missed you!"
Aki gave an apologetic smile before slightly dipping down her head, "I'm sorry I was gone, it wasn't my intention you know that. But I'll try harder to not let someone take advantage of me like that anymore. I'll try to be tougher," she replied as he threw his arms around her neck and gave her a sniffly hug.
"We really missed you..."
She smiled understandingly before gently rubbing his cheek with her thumb, "I know this may sound selfish but I'm glad you missed me. Its good to be know I have a place I'm welcome back to," she confessed before standing back up.
"So do we have a deal?" He asked, rubbing his finger over under his nose as he returned to their original conversation. This would be great though! They'd have a new friend!
'Well, its better than explaining to Yusei before hand. I can handle the aftermath, but if I have to duel with him already knowing?' Dragging him out of the hospital towards Crash Town in an effort to save his life, might have been considered bullying. But she had no problem doing that or doing it again. Having Yusei be her tag partner in what amount to a couples romantic duel, even if it was to try and help Asuka get Judai's attention? "Fine, I'll help your friend."
… Red Eyes Black Dragon was in the lunch room...
It was a new presence in the lunch room that Rua was oblivious to. Looming over someone moving about and she couldn't see who. Because of it was a brand new dragon in school! "Ok, I'll let them know and set up a time for you both to meet, I'll let you know after school then! See you later big sister!" with that Rua took off in a happy little trot off further into the lunch room.
Aki was left to go to her own seat, where a large pair of rather beautiful, angel wings rested on either side of a chair. In hindsight, the sight of Honest in school was almost amusing. His wings were large enough to carry him in the air. Meaning that the bottom tips were pressed and laid on the ground. She had to wonder how he avoided people stepping on them, given what everyone was under a mass hypnosis to see was a human.
It was that moment that caught her as well. He was a Duel Spirit interacting directly in the human world, taking the human form of his absent partner. Sitting in Isao's old place or was it, in 'his proper place' before Isao usurped it with his own presence. Everyone in every class had not reacted at all when Honest showed up so... maybe? But it was still him actively taking the place of a person, so how was he strong enough to do that? If he could, why didn't other spirits?
That aside though her seat was still there! 'My seat.' Aki thought to herself and she wasn't wrong about what she told Rua. Having a place to come back to was always a comfort that people often took for granted. "Do you even realize the chaos you have unleashed," Aki noted in amusement as she sat down, her words towards Asuka.
"Well so long as Judai agrees to being Asuka's partner..." Momoe pointed out and Aki blanched.
"Wait... you didn't get his agreement first?" She turned stare in naked shock at Asuka whose own lips were twisted in an embarrassed half smile.
"He will, he's been trying to get you to duel against him the whole time. How can he turn down this?" Asuka pointed out as Aki quietly dropped her head and let it rest on her bento box.
"I guess, I have to wait until after school to figure out what's going on..." Witch muttered as she looked around. 'Or I can do some investigative snooping on my own!'
With that, Witch flitted off, as much a busy witchy bee as Aki was left trying to... just trying...
"Asuka..." Aki sighed as she finally lifted her head up and began opening the folded cloth over her lunch. But as she did so, in the corner of her eye she saw the dragon starting to approach the table tailing Asuka's brother Fubuki. 'So it 'is' that particular Red Eyes.'
Fubuki, for his part, was used to girls staring at him, but seeing Aki staring over his head and 'up'? "Is there someone above me?" He asked politely as he pulled out his seat and sat down between Asuka and Ryo.
"Yes, there is... a red eyed someone," Aki admitted, not even bothering to explain. It was all a game within a game now, everyone in the school knew she could see Duel Spirits and amazingly enough no one was bugging her about it anymore. Save Judai and soon she suspected especially now that it was lunch.
"Ahh... Can you... I mean... I don't, just ignore me..." Fubuki struggled to form something coherent. While he could see Honest sitting across from him, knowing that everyone else couldn't see Duel Spirits save Aki... What 'could' he say? What was acceptable or taboo? This morning alone proved that the girls were readily used to Aki in their conversation circle, so where did he stand?
"No, its fine. If you have questions just ask. I know how to talk to them now and I'd rather there be understanding between us than speculation or silence." Aki replied encouragingly, and for once it wasn't for politeness's sake. Only to promptly regret those words.
"In that case, we have some things we wanted to let Fubuki know!" At least five different duel spirits suddenly sprang up around the table, zeroed in on her and talking all at once. Filling the air with a jumble of words that she could only glean that they wanted to convey messages to Fubuki from Mr. Jounouchi.
"Um everything ok over there Aki?" Junko asked in confused amusement.
The Rose Duelist had gone from gentle encouragement to stunned shock, her gaze going up over Fubuki's head again only to then scan the table. Her lips had thinned out even as her eyes widened and Junko, and everyone else to various degrees sans Honest who saw and heard all of it, figured that new spirits had popped up.
"Umm, Fubuki? Mr. Jounouchi's Duel Spirits would like to tell you a few things..." Aki began with a faintly awkward and tense smile...
In fact, so did Red Eyes Black Dragon, only the moment his beaked mouth fell open to speak everyone else showed up!
Fubuki used getting into his own bento box as an excuse to keep his head down, while feeling Asuka and Ryo's gaze fall on him.
"Big brother?" Asuka called out gently, as she reached out to rest her hand on his wrist.
A wave of emotions rolled across her brothers' face as they sat there leaving Asuka quiet and worried. No one had tried to actively force him to face what happened during the time he was gone or ask 'why' he had left. But seeing him quiet like this...
"I'm sorry, its just... a man died to help me out and... that is the type of weight I never expected to have to carry." Fubuki explained quietly apologetic as he tried to grab a dango only to have it tumble out of his anxious fingers.
"He didn't mind, he understood he was taking a risk," Panther Warrior confessed quietly.
"But Lady Luck doesn't shine down on arrogance, and his intentions, while good, weren't fully honest either." A small devil noted as he sat on a pair of floating dice.
The spirits looked at Aki with various quiet expressions, apologies and sadness all around.
"We've been with Jounouchi before Duel Spirits were a thing. We evolved into our awareness over time. But Jounouchi, he wanted to see his friends again, and started taking risks that pushed his luck. Hoping that one day Yugi would answer and show up. But Yugi isn't Her..." Panther sighed, "and if we're in Fubuki's deck, then we can only assume he's inherited us."
"Tell the kid we know what it means to fight for a friend, we're fine with being with him. He's not a bad kid," Skull Dice's devil noted. "Remind him that we were gathered as a gambling deck to make up for Jounouchi's lack of skill when he started out. Kids' got a good head for dueling, he doesn't have to run the odds but when he does. We'll pull for him, so long as he keeps following his heart."
"In that he has a stronger power than Jounouchi," Giltia admitted with a faint, nostalgic smile.
"You can eat you know... we realize this is your meal time," The Fisherman noted with shark like grin on his face. While everyone else sighed and lowered their heads as one.
"Sorry, its been so long we forgot you eat..."
"Well Fubuki doesn't do anything 'but' eat when his mom is around!" Angel Dice noted with a smile earning a few chuckles from the other spirits.
But now that the attention had been brought back to Aki not eating by over half the people, and by people one would mean Duel Spirits, she quietly began dipping into her box.
"Sooo what do they say?" Momoe asked as the conversation at the table had stopped, and a weight pulled down the atmosphere of their meal. Everyone else turned to look at Aki, even Honest though his gaze was more for show.
"Not to blame yourself, you did the right thing and that they're happy to help you out, Fubuki," Aki answered. "They're a gamblers' deck to a degree that was meant to help his lack of skill, but they believe in your skill. So you can lean more onto the other aspects of it if you want." Aki began watching as several of the spirits faded out now that their message had been sent. Before she dipped into the hinted darker parts of the conversation, but now and the one from back in China.
"They knew, and apparently so did he, that his luck wasn't going to last... I get the feeling that they're trying to tell you that he was using you just as much as you were using him..."
"Why 'did' you go though," Asuka asked quietly, her voice tight with emotion. "You haven't yet explained why you had to leave us in the first place.."
"Don't you remember? He told you," Honest replied, a soft glow in his eyes that mesmerized everyone at the table as he looked at them, one after the other...
"Why are you doing that? They should know the truth, you're not Yusuke," Panther Warrior pointed out, his whiskers twitching in irritation.
"I need their help," Honest replied, his voice racked with guilt and frustration. "I can't, I've tried, he doesn't listen to me, my voice or light can not reach him!"
"Well either you're not a good enough partner or you should find one who isn't such a problem," the warrior huffed out in prideful annoyance.
"No! He's not a bad kid! If he was how could I do this? He's trying to come back, its just the Darkness is too strong for either of us!" Honest protested, while holding onto the edge of the table to keep from jumping up.
Leaving Aki to sit as the spectator to a discussion she didn't feel she had a place to speak in, but somehow...
"That's cruel, to say that someone isn't good enough a partner," she finally said. "We all make our choices, we're not spirits like you. We aren't assigned a title that tells us what we can or can not do, we have to figure it out for ourselves. Lots of the kids here, they have spirits that they want as partners 'now' that are young and small like them. They'll grow up though and want different partners I suspect, but to say that they're not good enough? No." Aki thought of Patty and the kids with their lovingly loyal spirits.
"As for what happened to his partner, if his partner is fighting back it should be encouraged not abandoned. I know what it feels like, I was loyal to a man who killed a child and let me take the blame and didn't care. While its true Mr. Jounouchi died because of what happened, giving up on the reason he died does not honor his memory."
Panther Warrior frowned, his whiskers dipping down a bit before he gave a soft angry growl and disappeared. Meanwhile the other spirits looked among each other. An orange baby Dragon faded into view just tall enough that he could easily see over the table at the others. "You got a point, Jounouchi wouldn't like it if we gave up on the kid. And the only real reason for his luck to run out was because he just wanted to reach Yugi too. Lady Luck isn't a multitasker I guess..."
"And the Darkness 'is' getting out of hand... I mean we still hurt, in our own ways. But if you're going to try again to get Yusuke, please bring more than one person? Fubuki's scarred up because of this now, so kindly stop hurting people," Gilita added after much deliberation. His eyes hidden under his helmet but he could easily see the way everyone now was zoned out under Honests' power.
Honest lowered his head as he recognized the more gentle chastising from the warrior than from the Panther.
"Guys, Judai at ten o'clock scoot!" a young voice that suspiciously sounded like Cyberblader though she hadn't made an appearance yet, sounded out the alarm.
Honest released everyone else from his power, while the rest of Jounouchi's deck disappeared leaving only Red Eyes Black Dragon standing there.
"Finally!"
"Hey welcome back Aki!"
"YUGI DAMN IT!" Red Eyes roared in frustration, earning only two startled stares and one apologetic but also started stare.
But that was only at the table. All the 'other' occupants of the other tables started to turn as they realized Judai was standing there. Paying more attention. Swallowing up all the conversations so utterly that Witch was left hovering lost until she caught Aki's eyes. She flailed her hands in a panicked 'it wasn't me' gesture. Only now Aki 'could' see every gaze locked onto Judai, then whipping over to Asuka... then to Aki herself... and Aki...
'Please no...'