(A/N: This chapter's gonna be fun…for ME! It's simple to get through. Easy to execute. Nothing to really address from last chapter. Let's go!)
For Teá Gardner, traveling through Noah's virtual reality prison had been full of disappointments. First, she got captured by a bunch of Hitotsu-Me-Giants and was almost served up as human soup. However, in the midst of the broth cooking, one of the giants knocked it over and they all started beating each other with clubs, almost forgetting about Teá. When cooking resumed and all seemed lost, Teá wished for a knight in shining armor to rescue her. …She was rewarded with Tristan. Who, while helpful, wasn't exactly the pinnacle of male beauty to her. Duke was there to untie her ropes and Tristan managed to fend off the giants long enough to help get the group away.
The two guys had actually managed to find a pickup truck during their travels and used it to get a safe distance…and the damn thing blew a flat about 7 miles down the road. The trio then traversed a hot wasteland with no sign of water and were only now coming up on foliage.
"Is this a game or a torture chamber?" Teá finally asked, unable to take any more.
"I know right. What are we? The bad luck brigade?" Tristan asked.
"Hey, it's not so bad. Least we're together," Teá said. "And you were really brave taking on those giants Tristan. If dueling doesn't work out for you, maybe you should take up wrestling."
"Ha ha, very funny Teá," Tristan said, sitting down on a rock.
"What? I was serious. You were pretty great out there."
"What about me?" Duke practically whined. "I was in that scrap back there too."
"You have some work to do," Teá said with a disappointed shrug. "Do you even lift, Duke?"
Duke winked and put his hand under his chin, thumb and forefinger extended in the shape of a checkmark. "Hey, I'm a gentleman, not a fighter. I prefer words and dice to punches."
"Yeah?" Tristan asked. "Lemme know if we run into a casino, dice boy."
Duke only frowned without moving any other part of his body.
Teá stretched and rocked her heels back and forth. "Right then. That's enough sitting around. Let's keep moving. We've got to find Yugi."
"I'm worried about Joey too. Yugi can handle himself, but Joey…"
"I think we should be the most worried about ourselves," Duke said, putting his arm down and opening both eyes. "We've been wandering around for hours. We have no information, and the two of you have to be the least experienced duelists in our entire group."
"You're one to talk. How many duels have you actually played?"
"Well, I certainly haven't lost twenty-five times in a row," Duke smirked.
"You wanna throw down with me, dice boy? Because it is on!"
"Both of you stop fighting or else!" Teá shouted.
Duke sighed. "Teá's right. We should focus our energy on the Big Five, not each other. Come on, we're wasting time. Let's go."
The trio walked through the low rising grass and eventually came to a tunnel surrounded by thorn branches.
"That looks inviting," Tristan said sarcastically.
"Well, it's either the spooky dark tunnel or coming out the other side looking like you just swam through a pit of angry cats," Duke said.
"Welp," Tristan said, walking towards the thicket. "I've had all my shots."
Teá grabbed his coat. "Don't be a doofus," she sighed. "Come on, if we stick together, we'll be fine."
The trio went into the tunnel, careful to avoid a conspicuously large hole in the ground as they sidled along the wall past it. After reaching the other side, Tristan curiously peered down it. "Man, how far does that thing go down. I can't even see the bottom."
"Why don't you jump in and find out?" Duke asked.
"Unless it's full of pretty girls in swimsuits, no way," Tristan said.
Teá sighed. Mahiru, why did you have to stay on the blimp?
The group eventually exited the tunnel and what they saw was not what they expected. The area looked like it jumped straight out of Dr. Seuss' interpretation of Willy Wonka's factory room with the chocolate river. There were giant toadstool shaped colored marshmallows on sticks of graham cracker with Key Maces flying everywhere as well as tall rising popsicles.
"It's like something out of a fairy tale picture book," Duke said, marveling at the sight.
"Wonder if the food tastes any good," Tristan said, approaching one of the popsicles and bit down on it, finding it tough to bite into.
Teá and Duke looked at him like he was the dorky half-brain dead cousin you were ashamed to be related to at family reunions. "I'll take brain over brawn any day," Duke said.
"Mmmhmm," Teá mused in agreement. "Although, if you ask me your both hopeless." She then called to Tristan. "Come on, let's go. You know it's not real anyway."
Tristan stopped trying to literally eat the scenery and walked behind his friends as they looked for a way out of this magical candy land of a forest.
As they walked though, none of them noticed that the monster Dunames Dark Witch seemed to be eyeing them from behind a candy tree, less like a nice, gentle, if suspicious guardian of her area, and more like some sort of ravenous stalker.
Oblivious to the misfortune of Teá, Tristan and Duke, Yugi, Chiaki, and their friends had begun investigating the "laboratory level" where Nezbitt had dueled Komaru, Mai and Ibuki. After exiting through the back door to the hangar, the group found a staircase that led to an oversized laboratory with many computers. The group was now busy scouring the notes and machines for clues or hints on how to escape, where their friends were, or even more information on their enemies.
Unfortunately, this seemed to be a very old lab and the lighting was dim and the computers still ran Microsoft DOS so the investigation was going about as piss poor as expected.
"It's unfortunate Chihiro isn't here," Chiaki said. "She might know how to reprogram these computers to help us find our friends."
Suddenly, as though prompted by Chiaki's voice, another, distorted voice echoed through the dimly lit lab. "Chiaki! Chiaki, is that you?"
"Holy crap! The computer is talking to you, Chiaki!"
"Ibuki! You too? Over here!" The screen where this noise was coming from lit up to level 100 brightness.
The whole group gathered around the laptop-sized computer screen embedded into a table sized computer. They saw nothing but static.
"What's going on?" Joey wanted to know. "Why's this hunk a junk talking to you two?"
"Huh?" The distorted voice asked. "Oh. Am I not coming in clearly? Wait one second." There was some adjustment as though the image was a faulty analog image on an old TV. And, as the image became clearer and clearer, one Chisa Yukizome inside a dark office came into view.
"Miss Yukizome?" Chiaki asked, more confused than surprised.
"What are you two doing in cyber space?" Yukizome asked, talking to them through the monitor of a computer she borrowed, headset adorned and everything. She then saw who else was gathered around the monitor. "Holy crap! Is that Yugi Mutoh with you? What's going on? I heard the tournament had been delayed, but no one will say why. I keep trying to call Kaiba, but all I get is his voicemail."
"And just how exactly did you get into Noah's Virtual World, sensei?" Nagito asked.
Yukizome sighed. "Guess we both have interesting stories to share. You guys first though. The more I know about the situation the better I can help."
"I'm confused. Who exactly is this gal?" Joey asked.
"That's my teacher," Chiaki said with a bright smile. "And she's going to be our light at the other end of the tunnel."
While Chiaki and Yukizome swapped stories, Tristan, Teá and Duke continued to get lost in the candied woods. Eventually they, somehow, made it out and came to a normal looking waterfall crashing down in a small pond, surrounded by inch thick grass.
"Finally, some water!" Teá exasperated before taking a deep breath and dunking her head in to wash at least some of the musty smell on her away. "I wish I could take my clothes off and bathe in that lake, but we don't have time."
She turned to face Duke and Tristan, both of whom were red in the face when they heard the words "clothes off" and "bath"
"Eww! You perverts!" Teá shouted, covering her still very well covered chest.
However, as she turned her head, she saw a figure in the shade of the trees not too far away. "Whoever's there, come out and show yourself."
Crunching the grass beneath her feet, Dunames Dark Witch stepped out of the woods, her bright purple hair flowing in the calm breeze. The world seemed silent as Teá could only exclaim, "It's Dunames Dark Witch!" She was very familiar with the monster. It was one she coveted for her own deck. Sure, she was a casual player, but still, that monster fit well with her playstyle.
"Is…that one of the Big Five," Duke asked, blushing.
Dunames spoke with the voice of a teenage girl, and one that seemed…creepily overjoyed to see one member of the trio in particular. She spoke as though shivers were running up her spine as she put her gloved hands on either side of her face. She smiled like she was some sort of romantically inclined serial killer that had just found her next victim. "Miho is not one of the Big 5. Miho is Miho." She cooed and looked at Tristan. "And she is very happy to see you, Tristan."
"You know this girl?" Duke asked, looking at him.
"I...do?" Tristan didn't seem sure. "...Wait." His mind flashed back to his last year of middle school and the year prior. He remembered a kind, gentle girl with purple hair and a tendency to refer to herself in the third person. As he looked at Dunames, he could almost see the happy, peppy bow-in-her hair wearing teenager he knew in years gone past. She was the first girl he ever thought he loved. "Miho?!" Tristan suddenly blurted out, his eyes shrinking in. "Miho Nosaka?!"
"Wait a sec, I think I know that name," Teá said, immediately wracking her brain.
"I do too," Duke said. "She was in the news some time back right before Sweet Orchard got off the ground. She was in a terrible accident."
Tristan held up his index finger, stammering and looking spooked. "But...but you're dead! I was at your funeral!"
Miho shook her head. She explained what had truly happened to her as she stared at the ground. "Miho might as well be, but Miho is still here in this virtual prison. When Miho had her accident, she was told by Sayaka that she paid the Kaiba Corporation a large sum of money to digitize Miho's brain and preserve her body. But that was years ago and eventually Miho was dumped into a completely different virtual realm with Noah and the Big Five. Miho has just been searching for a way out on my own. When Noah told Miho about the Big Five's plan, she thought maybe to snatch someone else's body, but…" she looked at Tristan with goo goo eyes and her hands on her face, lips pursed. "Then Miho saw you, Tristan and she changed my mind."
"What do you mean, you changed your mind?"
"Miho doesn't have to leave," Miho said, curling a lock of her hair, "As long as Tristan stays here with me."
"Sorry, Miho, but I'm in a hurry. We'll catch up later. I need to rescue my friends and get out of here. We got the world to save!" He exclaimed with a determined expression.
Miho stared at the ground, miserable. "Oh. Miho understands. Tristan's forgotten all about Miho." Miho then started to do something Tristan never knew the girl to be capable of. She got angry. She started speaking with a venomous tone, sounding angrier and angrier with every passing sentence. "Everyone's forgotten about Miho. No one likes Miho. Miho's always just in the way. She's not pretty. She's not popular. Even Sayaka's forgotten all about her."
"Uhhhh…" Tristan didn't know what sort of Nuclear Launch Code Switch he'd just pressed to get that kind of reaction as he backed up a few steps.
"Well no more," Miho said, glaring at Tristan and the others, teeth clenched. "If you won't stay here with Miho, Tristan, she'll make you."
"Miho, calm down," Teá pleaded, waving her arms up and down at the elbows.
"Don't tell Miho to CALM DOOOOOOOOOWN!" Miho roared as a bright flash of light emitted and a powerful gale blew Duke and Teá back. A duel disk then appeared on Tristan's arm. She was glaring at him, practically demanding that he duel her.
Dammit! Guess I gotta do this! Tristan thought, activating the duel disk. "Miho, I'm sorry it's come to this, but I won't hold back in a duel, not even against you." This shouldn't be that difficult. Miho's my speed. How hard could she be?
As Tristan started up a duel with his middle school crush, Yukizome had finished hearing Chiaki's story and now it was her turn to explain things.
"That explains several things on my end," Yukizome said with a serious expression. "I want you all to listen to me very carefully. The Steering Committee seems to have some sort of cybernetic connection with that virtual dungeon you're all stuck in. I found a backdoor in and I can observe it, but I can't modify the program or anything. It was just a beneficial coincidence that I managed to get in contact with you all."
"The Steering Committee? What do they want?" Nagito asked. Does she know what the Big Five was talking about regarding Hajime earlier?
"According to the records I'm reading," Yukizome explained. "They've begun something called the Kamukura Project. They selected one student from the Reserve Course and they plan to completely rewrite them, brain, heart and soul into the Ultimate Hope, Izuru Kamukura. Izuru is supposed to have every talent that's ever passed through Hope's Peak's records. Like this, they intend for Izuru to usher in a new era of prosperity and hope for the world. But it also means erasing everything Izuru's host was in exchange for Izuru's existence."
"That's ridiculous. You can't just give someone talent," Nagito scoffed.
"Well, they seem to think KaibaCorp technology will do the job," Yukizome stated. "That's why they acted, knowing their little guinea pig would end up in Cyber Space with you all." And then she dropped a bombshell on the group in only three words. "One Hajime Hinata."
Chiaki's eyes shrunk to the size of peas and fear and chill ran through her whole body. "What…did you say?" she asked, voice trembling.
"Chiaki?" Yukizome asked, concerned.
Chiaki started shaking the monitor. "Where is he? What happened to Hajime?" she asked frantically, tears threatening to fall.
"Ohhhhh, I get it. You liiii—"
"Where is Hajime?!" Chiaki asked, her breathing irregular.
"Chiaki, I need you to take a deep breath."
Chiaki did so, but it did not calm her down as much as Yukizome would've liked, not that she expected Chiaki to get that calm. She split the view of the monitor in two and suddenly showed an entire wireframe overview of the entire virtual world.
"According to virtual map," Yukizome said, showing a big, pulsing red dot, "You guys are here." She zoomed the camera all the way out, showing just how many landscapes away the group was from Hajime's location. The whole map looked like a bunch of fat cylinders connected to elongated cylinders and the shape looked like something out of a tinker toy. "And Hajime is here," Yukizome said, showing a small room at the very far side of the virtual world with a blue dot.
"That looks pretty far," Joey commented.
"I'm going…" Chiaki swallowed. "I'm going to rescue him. Hajime…" she took a deep breath and spoke with gusto. "Hajime doesn't need to be the Ultimate Hope. He's fine the way he is."
"I agree," Yukizome said. "I get what the Kamukura Project stands for, but this is just cruel."
"It's bogus is what it is. Ultimate Hope? That's just a false prophet, especially being born from a talentless individual like Hajime."
Chiaki puffed out her cheeks, glaring at Nagito, "That talentless individual happens to be my friend. And you're going to help him rescue me."
"Huh? Why me?" Nagito asked, surprised. He then smiled. "Oh, I get it. You're punishing me."
"If that's how you want to look at it, fine, but it'll take more than just skill to rescue Hajime. I'll need luck too."
Nagito brightened up even more. "Ohhhh, my talent is useful to Chiaki? That makes me so happy!"
"Hey! Hey! What about Teá, Tristan and Duke?" Ibuki wanted to know. "They're still stuck out there somewhere you know. Not to mention we're one big brother short for Komaru."
"Oh, I guess you guys can go after them," Nagito said dismissively.
"Like hell!" Ibuki exclaimed with her surprised face. She then tilted her head and made pleading eyes at Chiaki and Nagito, sounding annoyed. "Chiaki's friend is in danger. Ibuki's coming too! She's also your classmate."
Chiaki waved her whole hand in dismissal of Ibuki's proposal. "Sorry. No room for a player three," she said bluntly.
Ibuki, again, showed her overly dramatic surprised face, "No room?!" she shouted. "What is this the Super Famicom?! Let me join your party!"
Joey put an arm around Ibuki pat her on the shoulder. "Don't sweat it," he told her. "Those two can go rescue Hajime and we'll look for the rest of our friends."
Ibuki's hair horns wiggled as she leaned her head against the inside of Joey's shoulder. "Well if you say so, Joey, Ibuki has no complaints."
Neither Mai, nor Celeste, looked amused at this exchange.
Suddenly, part of the wall in the lab was pulled backwards and then slid to the side like a hidden door. On the monitor, Chiaki and Nagito noticed that this new entrance was now a direct route to the landscape where Hajime was being kept.
"It'll be a long walk, but I think you two can handle it. Let me also give you these." She transferred her voice into two ear pieces. One was for Chiaki. One was for Nagito. Each one plugged Yukizome into their ear.
"Can you two hear me?" Yukizome asked for a test.
"Loud and clear," Chiaki said, heading for the secret door with Nagito. She then turned towards the rest of the group. "We'll see you on the other side."
"Wait, Chiaki!" Ibuki exclaimed again.
Chiaki had just turned around to go, but turned back around to look at Ibuki. "Hmm?"
Ibuki gave Chiaki one of her signature, big, happy smiles. "If you need to go stealth mode, don't forget how helpful a cardboard box can be!" she cooed.
Chiaki nodded to her. "Right." She and Nagito then headed through the secret entrance, which closed behind them with an audible shimmer of white light, sealing them on the other side.
"A cardboard box?" Joey asked, scratching his head. Ibuki just laughed and laughed.
In the time it took for Chiaki and Nagito to go into the secret entrance, Tristan and Miho had finished contrstructing their decks and were ready for action. It was time now to pick their deck masters. Well, for Tristan to pick his deck master. Miho was already taking the form of hers.
"I pick the Cyber Commander!" Tristan exclaimed as the bulky, shirtless, gun pack wearing monster appeared at his side.
"You still use vanilla monsters with less than 1000 attack points?" Duke asked. "And this is why you're still a scrub."
"Shut up! This is the first monster I ever got. It's my favorite."
"Oh yeah, where'd you get that from? A cereal box."
"Okay, when I'm finished with this, you're next!" Tristan shouted at Duke.
"No, Tristan," Miho said, cooing, "When you're finished, you'll be with Miho…forever."
"There's no way I'm losing. You ready?"
"Miho is," Miho said.
And then they both declared together. "Let's duel!"
"Ladies first," Tristan told Miho.
Miho purred. "Such a gentleman. But that's what Miho likes about you. Miho draws." Miho drew the top card of her deck. "Miho plays Lady of Faith!" she declared as the priestess dressed, light-attribute monster with 1100 attack points appeared on her side of the field. "Miho will equip her with Elf's Light. Raising her attack points by 400," Miho stated. Lady of Faith's attack points jumped to 1500. "Miho ends her turn."
"My turn then," Tristan said and drew the top card of his deck. "And I'm playing Command Angel!"
A winged creature in a brown shirt and commando pants and a beret appeared on Tristan's side of the field. It had 1200 attack points and 1900 defense points. "And thanks to its special ability, it gains 400 attack points." Command Angel's attack power jumped to 1600. "And that's not all, Cyber Commander gives it an extra 200 attack points while it's my turn." Command Angel's attack points went to 1800. "Command Angel, attack! Power Fist!"
Tristan's monster darted towards Miho's monster and punched it across the face, destroying it.
Miho's life points fell to 3700 and she licked her lips.
"That's all I'm gonna do this turn," Tristan said.
"No face-down cards?" Duke asked. "Are you going easy on her?"
"What? No, of course not!" Tristan snapped at Duke, turning to face him a little. "What kind of amateur do you take me for?"
Neither Duke nor Teá wanted to answer that question.
"You guys are real pals," Tristan said, turning back to face Miho.
"Miho's turn," Miho said and drew the top card of her deck. "And Miho plays Neo the Magic Swordsman!" The long-haired blond swordsman hit the table with 1700 attack points. "And since it's Miho's turn, it's stronger than your Command Angel. But she's also going to equip it with Book of Secret arts and increase its attack points further by 300 points." Neo the Magic Swordsman now glowed and its attack power increased to 2000. "And now," she pointed at Command Angel. "Attack!"
Neo the Magic Swordsman took its magic sword and sliced Command Angel across the chest, destroying it, resulting in Tristan's life points falling to 3600.
"Miho ends her turn."
Tristan nodded and drew the top card of his deck. Here we go! "I activate the ritual spell Garma Sword Oath!" Tristan declared as a spell card depicting 3 cards crossing over each other flipped face up on his side of the field. "And by discarding these three monsters from my hand," he said, showing them off to Miho, "I can play this powerful monster, Garma Sword!"
Out came the multi-armed and fiendishly powerful Garma sword with its massive 2550 attack points. "Go," Tristan declared, pointing at Miho's monster. "Attack!"
Garma Sword lunged forward, dicing apart Miho's monster with its many swords, bringing her life points down to 2950.
"See, Duke? I know what I'm doing," Tristan said.
"Whatever," Duke said, curling a lock of his hair dismissively. Tristan growled.
Now it was Miho's turn again. And she looked positively ecstatic. "Miho activates her deck master special ability. During Miho's standby phase, she destroys all dark monsters on the field, which Garma Sword is."
"Say what?!" Tristan shouted. Even Duke and Teá looked uncomfortable. That was Tristan's only line of defense.
Miho let out a powerful, bright light from her body, which incinerated Garma Sword. "And for every monster destroyed this way, all light attribute monsters, including Miho herself, gain 400 attack points." Dunames went up to 2200 attack points. She then stepped onto the battlefield. "Dunames Dark Witch is now in play," she smiled. She then held up a card in her hand. "And Miho now plays Maiden of the Moonlight," she said, putting the light-attribute 1500 attack point winged spellcaster in play.
"Tristan!" Teá called out in alarm. This could not end well.
"And now," Miho said, giggling, "Now…" she giggled again and held up a hand above her head. "Miho attacks with Valhalla and Moonlight arrows," she licked her lips. "Wiping out the rest of your life points."
Tristan was assaulted by purple and bright blue beams of energy as his life points fell to zero. He then collapsed on the ground on his back, sore.
"Tristan!" Teá exclaimed, only to get pushed back by a hateful gale emitted from Miho flapping her wings. She fell on her side.
"You okay, Teá?" Duke asked her. Teá only groaned and sat up, holding her shoulder.
"Tristan!" Teá shouted again.
"Tristan is mine," Miho said, walking over to him and crouching down beside him. He was rapidly losing consciousness. She put his head in her lap. And then the two vanished just like a mirage.
"TRISTAN!" Teá shouted.
(A/N: Goddammit Tristan, can't you even go a fanfiction without becoming the distressed dude? So, yeah, I'm not combining chapters, as you're noticing. And who'd have thunk that Miho was actually alive? I kept that well-hidden, didn't I? If you're confused, look carefully back at chapter 11. Yes, this was actually foreshadowed very subtly. What's going to happen? Well, I can't tell you that. You'll have to wait until chapter 47 before we revisit this subplot XD.
Speaking of subplots, YAY! Chiaki has a chance to save Hajime! Go, Yukizome!
But before we can even revisit that, next chapter, it's Byakuya's turn to duel. I'll see you then. And, as always, from all of me, to all of you, let your hearts stay human and your wrath draconic. Ja ne!)