Chapter Twelve
"She seemed pretty nice."
"Is it really that way, or is it just her great personality that gets to you?" Keiji replied, gesturing in front of his chest.
The two of them were sitting in the diner that they had first visited with Saburo and Hatsuko a few days earlier. Hatsuko had messaged Yuito after the evening they spent at the abandoned school and told him that they were going to meet there this evening and that she also told Saburo. She also messaged him that he didn't believe her, but that was to be expected.
"I'm not that way into your sister, that'd be weird," Yuito replied, "besides, her personality wasn't that great."
"Watch it, it's my sister you're talking about."
"We didn't really talk about her yet. In fact you're evading any question I've asked after she visited us."
"What's there to talk about?"
"Plenty of things, actually. Do you intend to see her again?"
"No. Well, maybe, if she ever comes up to me again," Keiji answered, "it's not like I knew she existed."
"But now you do, and you also know your dad is alive. You really don't want to seek them out?"
"Not really. I mean, we had a nice evening, but I need neither her nor my dad in my life."
"You were so drunk you thought I am a burglar when I tried to get into bed. I had to sleep on the couch."
"She was already gone then."
"Regardless, isn't that a foundation for an actual brother and sister relationship?"
Taking a moment to consider, Keiji replied: "Why are we still talking about it? We've been going on and about my family throughout the last years, can we cut it please?"
"You do realize you met your sister yesterday, right?"
"That was yesterday, so its done and dusted."
"Not really. I think we should talk about it."
"Well you can talk about it, but I'll handle it like I always do when you talk about things that I'm not interested in, I'm zooming out and focus on the meal you're going to buy me."
"Are you sure?"
"Well I'm certain you're gonna pay, otherwise this entire thing is gonna get awkward at the end."
"No, I mean, about talking about your family."
"The burgers look nice."
"Fine, don't talk about it then. I'm sure this problem will solve itself eventually!"
"83 percent of all problems solve themselves, so I should be good to go."
"Nice statistics. Never applied to us, as it would seem, none of our problems solved themselves."
"Mine solved themselves when you solved yours."
"That's not how this works."
"How do you know, you didn't even know the statistic."
"Maths. Are you sure this is the right table?" Both boys turned their head to see Saburo and Hatsuko arriving at their table, "I'll say good evening when you stop talking about whatever you were talking about."
"I'll say good evening regardless," Hatsuko threw in, before taking a seat next to Yuito.
"I genuine support not talking about maths again. It was Itos idea anyway," Keiji said, as Saburo sat down next to him.
"Now that that's done," he said, "what did you want to talk to us about? Something so secret Hatsuko didn't want to tell me on the way here?"
"You remember that Crosspoint thing Hatsuko was talking about recently? That we were going to see if we could find one?" Yuito started, only to be immediately interrupted by Saburo.
"Oh my god she's pregnant, is she?"
"No!" both Yuito and Hatsuko shouted in unison, with Hatsuko kicking the other boy under the table: "Don't jump to conclusions, jackass. Let him talk."
"So we went there," Yuito continued, ignoring Saburo, "and we met a strange woman there who told us that the Crosspoints really do exist among other strange stuff, so we we're inclined not to believe her. Then, a policeman appeared because apparently we were trespassing in a public abandoned school. The lady then wanted me and the policemen to duel, because we were both champions, then I won and my card absorbed the Crosspoint."
"What the hell are you smoking?" Keiji asked, with Saburo just staring blankly at him.
"Well, thank you Yuito," Hatsuko threw in, "but I'll take the storytelling from here."
"As you please."
"I'll just pick up his story when the policeman arrived. The woman told us, that a Crosspoint can only be claimed in a Contest of Champions, where two conflicting parties face off in a battle with equal weapons. I've actually did some reading on that, its an actual historical thing, although knowledge of it is sparse. Last knowledge about it was about 800 years ago, 200 years after the last convergence. The convergence is a cosmic event during which the crosspoints are at their most powerful, it occurs once every thousand years."
"Can I take it this is why you've been skipping school during your senior year?" Saburo asked.
"Mind your own business," she retorted, before continuing in her story: "In our case the Contest of Champions was a duel, because no one had swords available and its also much less messy. I think I'd do it the same way. Either way, the Crosspoint reacted to the two and started to form a forcefield around us, effectively forcing us to go along with the duel. And, after Yuito won, the field shrunk down to an actual 'point', if you wanna call it that and disappeared into Yuitos Wizard card."
"I have a different theory," Keiji said after a few seconds of silence, "you two encountered a dealer which Yuito knew and started seeing things."
"Would you shut up," Hatsuko snapped at him.
"Sorry sweetie, he's right," Saburo threw in, "this doesn't really sound believable."
"Show them the card," Hatsuko said to Yuito, who took the Runecross End Wizard – his former Runecross Wizard – out of his deck and showed it to the boys.
"So…," Keiji said after a few moments of consideration, "you got a new card. This doesn't prove any magic has happened to it."
"It kinda does," Saburo said, who had been checking his Duel Disk, " it's not in the database, yet my Duel Disk recognizes it as a playable card. This card is an official card that doesn't exist, this doesn't make any sense."
"It didn't make sense. That entire evening didn't make sense yet it happened," Hatsuko said, "but we need your help if you'd let me explain."
"Explain then," Keiji said, with Saburo just nodding.
"Okay. While Yuito and the Officer dueled, me and the woman – Ava was her name – had some time to talk. She told me that there are six Crosspoints scattered across the city. One of which is in our possession already, the purple one. But five are still out there, as far as we know. Ava told me that if all six are assembled during the convergence the one holding them can wish for anything."
"And you want us to help you assemble them so you can wish for something?" Saburo asked.
"No," Hatsuko answered, "she also told me that I shouldn't wish for anything since it will do me no good, which is somehow saying that we should prevent people from wishing. Means we're gonna get as many Crosspoints as possible and just keep them apart from each other."
"Why believe her? This could be a once in a lifetime chance," Yuito said, "you don't always get to wish for something."
"Don't you watch movies? Free wishes never turn out good, they always come out in the worst way possible," Saburo said, "so I agree with her. How do we go about this?"
"Thank you Saburo," she said, "I've managed to pinpoint the location of two more Crosspoints. It'll take some time for me to find the others and we cannot be sure that someone else hasn't already found one. So we're going to go there and see what happens."
"Do you want to split up into teams?"
"Yes, actually," Hatsuko replied, "I'd have thought of me and Saburo and you and Keiji. Both of us have already dealt with a Crosspoint already so we know a little about the drill. No wait, Keiji, do you have a Duel Disk?"
"As a matter of fact, yes I do," Keiji answered.
"Good, that way you can do one Contest of Champions and I'll do the other."
"Wouldn't it make more sense if I did the Contest of Champions instead of Keiji?" Yuito threw in, "After all, I already have a Crosspoint on myself, that should give me an edge."
"He has a point, and would spare me the evening since he could go alone," Keiji replied.
"Apparently he also has a death wish," Hatsuko remarked, "Ava told me one cannot hold more than one Crosspoint at once, or it will tear your body apart. That is unless you have the elder blood, then you can carry more than one, but that's unlikely."
"Then why look for them?" Saburo asked, "You said for the convergence one must hold all six. Since that's not possible, why bother?"
"You can with the elder blood. We don't know if there's someone out there who still have it and the more Crosspoints away from that one, the better," Hatsuko answered, "any more questions?"
"Yes, one," Keiji spoke up, "and I've asked this before: How fucking high were you to come up with all this?"
"Counter question: Do you actually have anything better to do this afternoon rather than come with me?" Yuito asked, "other than beating your hangover?"
"Retracting the question."
"I have an actual one," Saburo said, "you told us just a few minutes ago that for a Contest of Champions you need two conflicted individuals. I get that we're exes but we're not really conflicted. So… how are we gonna pull this off."
"Okay, I have a theory," Hatsuko said, "how likely was it that someone called the police to the exact spot of the Crosspoint at the time we went there? Incredibly low. So I think that the points are actually setting these things up by themselves. Like, they want to be claimed and manipulate peoples subconsciousness to make that happen. And before you ask, I am not high right now."
"Wasn't gonna ask, I wanna get this over with," Keiji snapped at her.
"By the way," Saburo said to Yuito, "aren't you gonna duel Ever White tomorrow?"
"Yes, why?" he answered.
"First," he pointed to himself, "jealous, second, there's a re-run of one of their duels on the TV, right now."
Yuito eagerly turned his head. Alessia had shown him a few games of his soon to be opponent for preparation purposes, but it certainly would be is nice to watch one without her pausing every two minutes and explaining each of their moves and how to counter them.
Ever White: 2800 LP
White Knight Squire: Pendulum Scale 2
White Knight Over-Lord: Pendulum Scale 8
Opponent: 1900 LP
Mecha Phantom Beast Kalgriffin: WIND / Machine / Effect / Level 7 / 1000 ATK / 2500 DEF
Mecha Phantom Beast Token: WIND / Machine / Effect / Level 3 / 0 ATK / 0 DEF (2x)
The stadium was packed and the based on the crowds cheering, it was clear who had their favor. The clear majority of the spectators were dressed in white, some even with white wigs in order to resemble their favorite duelist who was dueling in front of them.
In contrary to their opponent, who just wore jeans and a plain green shirt, Ever White was quite the appearance. they wore elaborate white ropes and a cape, while obscuring their face behind a white mask, a huge white hat and what appeared to be a white wig, with the curly hair almost serving as a second cape.
"It is Ever White's turn now," a man in a white suit said. He stood next to the duelist that never spoke and was tasked with paraphrasing their actions to the public.
After drawing, after doing a few pirouettes, Ever White raised their hands above their hand and pointed at their two Pendulum Monsters.
"Using the Scale 2 and 8 Pendulum Monsters, Ever White sets the Pendulum Scale to Summon White Knight Lord from their hand," the man explained, as an arc of light appeared above their heads and a single new monster took the field, a buff warrior clad in white armor, swinging a flail. Ever White immediately took to their side to strike a pose with it.
White Knight Lord: LIGHT / Warrior / Effect / Level 7 / 2000 ATK / 2000 DEF
"White Knight Lord gains 900 ATK due to the presence of three White Knight Swordsman in Ever Whites Graveyard."
To display this, the dressed-up duelist immediately did some flexing poses.
White Knight Lord: 2000 ATK → 2900 ATK
"As White Knight Lord was the only monster Pendulum Summoned through White Knight Squire, it will be able to attack all monsters you control once during this Battle Phase!"
After throwing a few punches in the air, Ever White gestured at the two Tokens and the Effect Monster in succession, indicating the order of the attacks it was declaring.
The warrior leaped forward and first struck the two plane holograms on the opponent's field, before going for the large plane that resembled a griffin.
"And now, for Ever White's glorious winning strategy!" the man in the suit announced, "for every monster that White Knight Lord destroys, you shall take 300 damage!"
Opponent: 1900 LP → 1000 LP
"Furthermore," he said, while Ever White appeared to be dancing beneath one of their Pendulum Monsters, "the effect of White Knight Over-Lord now activates and grants your last monster a real formidable new effect: It allows it to destroy the monster that just destroyed it."
As he spoke, the graveyard portal opened, with the plane monster coming out of it in order to drag White Knight Lord down with it.
"Unfortunately," Ever White's associate continued, "if White Knight Lord is destroyed by your card's effect, you will immediately take 1000 damage."
As a red aura enveloped the opposing duelist that drained his remaining Life Points, Ever White simply walked over and gave him a light push, causing him to stumble backward.
Opponent: 1000 LP → 0 LP
Due to the program being a re-run, it immediately switched to the commentary, something Yuito had gotten enough of the last days.
"They're certainly… something," Yuito concluded, "a little too theatrical for my tastes but people seem to like it."
"People are stupid when it comes to Ever White," Saburo replied, "or, well, in general."
"Half of their fan base is younger than us. And the rest is less classy than us," Hatsuko said, "but are we really talking about that instead of the Crosspoints?"
"Because Ever White exists?" Keiji joked.
"Depends on who you're asking," Hatsuko answered, "there's a fair share of people who believe Ever White is just a publicity stunt by their management. I'm inclined to believe that. But even if, its one hell of a publicity stunt."
"For the record, I dislike Ever White," Saburo threw in, "but you don't happen to get some last minute cards? Asking for a friend."
"I'll ask my manager if she can do something. Since I honestly don't have the faintest idea."
"You'll ask your manager, aha," Hatsuko said, "sounds like you're already arrived in pro league. You sure you still wanna eat with us low lives?"
"Oh of course not. I'm only here because eating alone looks so sad from afar."
"Nah, you'd not be alone, you can't become too much of a diva for me to drop someone who buys me food," Keiji replied, "that said, shouldn't we order food already? Like, for eating?"
"Okay, let me summarize the plan," Hatsuko said, "we eat, then we split up in two groups to each look for another Crosspoint."
"I'm fine with whatever that includes Ito buying me food," Keiji said.
Saburo just nodded in agreement, with Yuito adding: "Sounds like a plan."