Fun Fact: When Yusho was in town, he took Yuya to see a movie about singing animals; the same movie Yuya mentioned in his diary back in Scale 9. Yuto remained quiet, while Yuya quietly sang along. Yugo wanted to a lot of questions about the movie, but he was quickly shut down my Yuri, who wanted him to stop distracting him. Turns out Yuri loves musicals.
Chapter Summary: Reiji and the Lancers discuss business.
Gathered on the thirteenth floor of the LDS, the Lancers sat in a large conference room. They sat by a long, wooden table with thirteen chairs - six on the left, six on the right, and one at the far end of the table.
One wall was dedicated to an enormous window, showcasing the city of Maiami below them. The soft afternoon sun poured into the room, making the area feel a little too warm for comfort.
Sitting on the left side of the table were Sawatari, Dennis, Gongenzaka, Yuya, and Yuzu. The right side, Shun, Tsukikage, Sora and Crow.
The Lancers were passing the time by catching up with each other. Dennis regailed everyone with his new life in Heartland, and how he had gotten a job as a student teacher at an academy. Sawatri excitedly told Crow about his advances in Synchro Summoning, while Crow proudly encouraged him. Tsukikage, Hikage, Gongenzaka and Shun kept quiet through most of the discussion, but would give the occasional nod or egao when required.
Yuya and Yuzu sat together, their hands bound together under the table.
Yuto and Ruri decided to relinquish control of their bodies back to their owners. Today, they would be taking a back seat and watching the meeting from afar. The plan was to focus on any tells or information Reiji might accidentally leak, while Yuya and Yuzu worried about paying attention. All while keeping their own tells and information hidden from Reiji's view.
Yuya and Yuzu were the proper Lancers, anyway. Yuto and Ruri never directly aided Reiji before. They were the ones Reiji really wanted to invite.
And speak of the Devil. Entering the room was the one who called them. Reiji exited the private elevator that brought him to the room, pushing a baby pram in front of him.
Not the most appropriate time to be babysitting his baby sister. But unfortunately, Reiji's mother couldn't always watch Reira. Luckily for her, Reiji had no problem taking care of the girl who saved the dimensions, and overseeing her as she grew up once more.
The group went silent. They watched as Reiji slowly wheeled over to the window. His eyes fell down to the city below.
"Thank you for joining me today, everyone," Reiji said to them.
"Not that we had much of a choice, Reirei," Dennis chuckled. "Would you have let us skip out?"
Reiji smirked. With his back turned, no one but the baby beside him would be able to see it.
"You're correct, Dennis," Raiji answered.
Shun kept his eyes on Dennis. It was an unblinking stare that warned Dennis that he was being watched.
Dennis gulped nervously, giving Shun a halfhearted egao. Dennis didn't want to be there. And Shun didn't want him there either.
"Mind telling us why we're here, then?" Crow asked.
"I've been making some investigations of my own," Reiji replied. "And now, I have information I wanted to share with you."
The group focused all their attention on Reiji, who simply stared out the window and moved the pram back and forth with one hand.
"You all did very well, helping to bring down Zarc," he continued.
"Except Yuzu," Sawatari said under his breath.
"Hey!" Yuzu snapped. "I was Ray when we beat Zarc."
"Sawatari, kindly stop talking right now," Gongenzaka told him. "Or else."
Sawtari bit his tongue. His eyes fell down to the table.
"Thank you, Gongenzaka," Reiji said. "To get back to my point, I wanted to tell you that I discovered something we never dreamed of."
"What is it?" Yuya asked.
"A new, previously undiscovered dimension."
Many of the Lancers gasped. A sense of worry fell over the group, as they remembered the dimensional war they all fought in. The possibility of another war crossed nearly all of their minds.
Sawatari was actually just thinking about a movie he wanted to see.
"It was an anomaly we detected," Reiji explained. "When the Dimension Highway opened up, if briefly connected to another place, a fifth dimension. But by the time we got it properly up and runnng, the connection stopped, and the highway formed a loop between the other four dimensions. "
"How do we know it's still around?" Shun asked. "Or if it wasn't just some sort of glitch in the technology used to make the Highway?"
"We still have a signal from when we locked onto it. We just can't communicate or engage it yet."
"The Ritual Dimension," Yuya whispered. "Called it."
"Oh, we found a Ritual Dimension?" Yuzu asked. "Finally."
"There's a Ritual Dimension?!" Sawatari gasped. "Why do you all know this?!"
"There isno Ritual Dimension, as far as I'm aware," Reiji answered. "Not the least bit because we've had Rituals in dimensions that were defined by their summon, and Zarc had no connection to Rituals."
"Oh," Yuya sighed. That was a bit of a downer. He was kind of hoping for a Ritual Dimension, ever since he learned that there were three other dimensions parallel to his own.
"And what summon method do they use?" Gongenzaka asked. "It's best if we know how to deal with them "
"We don't know if they have a summon," Reiji told them. "We know almost nothing about the dimension, other than that it exists. This doesn't seem to be connected to Zarc at all."
This might be a dimension that Reiji wants to conquer, Yuya, Yuto told him. Catch them off-guard and invade it before anyone else can discover and help them.
"That's not going to happen," Yuya answered.
"What's not going to happen?" Reiji asked.
"Oh, Yuto was just-"
He's probably going to use the Lancers to invade.
"... Just wondering what the next course of action is."
Shun nodded. "What's the plan going forward now?"
Reiji stopped strolling the pram. He reached down, then lifted baby Reira into his arms and cradled her. Reira let out a soft little coo in return.
"We can't do anything right now," Reiji told them. "We can only wait to see if we can contact them, or if they contact us."
"You're kidding, right?" Sawatari snapped. "So we do nothing?!"
"We just have to wait for any signs of involvement from them. You all need to be alert."
"Then why did you even bother calling us? What's the point if we can't do crap?"
"Because I don't want to keep secrets from my soldiers."
A silence fell over the group. They all glanced at each other in unease, wondering what to do next. Admittedly, they knew this was a good thing, but a few of them had their suspicion about Reiji's sudden candidness. Others were still confused over the concept of a fifth dimension entirely. The air in the room was growing tense.
Yuya, Yuto called out. He wants to prove that he can be trusted.
He wants to make sure we're all on the same page, moving forward, Yuya answered.
And this comes right of the heels of my invesitagion into him and his secrets.
Yuto, I trust Reiji. He's trying to help us.
"Imagine if we were contacted by the other dimension and weren't prepared," Yuya continued.
He looked around the table. He was speaking to everyone, not just Yuto, in order to bring ease to the group.
"Reiji's giving us a head's up, so we can be ready and not panic. And if we're ready, we'll be able to act fast and do what we need to keep everyone safe."
Yuto didn't say anything. He closed his eyes and nodded to Yuya's words. He knew that Yuya was right; information was power, and it gave them the initiative to act.
The others seemed to accept Yuyas words, too. Many of the worried and anxious faces started to soften up. And the air in the room seemed to get that much lighter.
Even Reiji gave Yuya a polite nod of thanks. Yuya met him with an egao.
And with that, Reiji brought Reira and the pram over to the table. He placed his sister on the table gently, then dug a hand into the pram for a diaper.
Sawatari, who had taken a seat closest to Reiji's, was disgusted. "Hey, don't change a diaper near me! That's disgusting and gross!"
"Just remember to be prepared," Reiji told them all."Meeting dismissed."
And with that, the Lancers slowly rose from their seats. Except Crow, who raised a hand and waved over to Reiji.
"Wait, why did we have to meet in person?" Crow asked. "Why couldn't you just talk over a phone, or message us?"
"This way, I can ensure that you, and only you have received the message," Reiji explained. "And that brings up another point."
Everyone immediately sat back down.
"You can't tell anyone," Reiji said austerely. "I don't want to spread panic to the populace, especially when we don't even know if the other dimension is a threat or not."
"Can I tell my father?" Yuya asked.
"Yusho Sakaki is a good man," Reiji answered. "I suppose you can all tell your family members, if they can keep a secret."
"Guess that rules out my father," Sawatari said proudly. "He proudly tells all his colleagues and reporters about how his son works to protect them all."
Shut up and die, Sawatari, Yuri muttered. Yuya, strangle him with his necklace. I'll tell you how.
"We're not strangling anyone," Yuya sighed.
Everyone in the room stopped to look at Yuya, whose face became as red as a tomato.
"I'm not strangling anyone!" Yuya hastily added. "Don't worry, I'm not going to strangle anyone."
"Me, neither!" Dennis chuckled.
Everyone else in the room had varying looks of confusion and discomfort. Except Dennis, who gave Yuya an egao. If Yuya was going to be awkward, at least he had someone being awkward with him.
A/N: Jack wasn't at the Lancers meeting because he ultimately declined a position on the team. He decided that he wanted to put all his focus on protecting his city and help keep it moving in a positive direction, and believed that Yuya and the others were more than capable of worrying about the rest of the world.
Glad to get this chapter out of the way. I've been dying to get to working on Scales 12 and 13, since they deal with one of my favorite YGO ships: Fruitshipping.
Since I can't just make chapters of just author notes or me asking you guys quesstions, I'm going to take some behind-the-scenes stuff to my Twitter. I want to start posting fic progress reports, updates, polls, character decks, and possible ideas I want to cover in the fic. If any of that interests you, you can find my Twitter link on my profile page. But you don't have to follow or anything if, you don't want.
Next time: Fun on the beach has never been so miserable. It's a Beach Blanket Battlefield for You Show Duel School.