(A/N: It's so much fun to see how much warm reception I get from you all for this. This is why I haven't updated Fairy Without Wings in god knows how long. You guys are supportive. Everything there tends to be…controversial. Right. That's all I really wanted to talk about. Let's get started!)
"Maga-Z!" Gundham shouted, "Charge!"
With a hellish trumpet, Gundham's mighty beast trampled towards Marik, who dodged out of the way with rather fine grace, arms folded.
"San-D! Unleash your silver flame!" Gundham ordered.
Tails whipping back and forth, San-D blasted several bolts of silvery-blue flame at Marik.
With a swipe swipe of his road extended across the open air, Marik unleashed a wave of magical pressure that reflected the bolts into the ceiling, floor and walls.
Maga-Z made its return trip towards Marik, but Marik evaded the attack once more, but not before a blast of black hellfire came scorching towards him.
When the flames died down, Marik actually had a bleeding, burning wound on the side of his right eye and along the back of his right forearm, but seemed no worse for wear. Remnants of a shield of shadows crumbled.
"BAHAHAHAHA! It would seem your defenses are no match for the powers of Cham-P's flames!"
However, Marik only grinned like an axe murderer at work. "Fool! I'm merely getting started!" Marik declared. The eye of the Millennium Rod glowed and several millennium eyes appeared around Marik like tiny satellites. Each blasted a bright beam of gold towards Gundham. However, Maga-Z stood in front of his master, taking the brunt of the impact. Jum-P, with a screech, flew over the mighty elephant and dove on Marik.
Marik's eye blasts tried to shoot the hawk down, but the all missed. However, they at least diverted the hawk away from actually diving on him.
But the Ultimate Breeder had wanted Marik to pay attention to Jum-P. For with Marik distracted, San-D could unleash her flames in one, condensed fire blast.
However, Marik needed only to fire an equally powerful blast from the Millennium Rod itself. The two attacks neutralizing each other.
However, Jum-P flew back behind Marik and grappled him in its talons, lifting him into the air.
"Cham-P! Attack! Your prey is wide open!"
With a loud roar, Cham-P unleashed its black hellfire upon Marik once more.
"I'm done playing around!" Marik declared and by whipping his arms out at his sides, as though trying to break free of some steel chains, Jum-P was thrown aside and to the ground and Cham-P's flames were reflected.
"Fool! The power of the Millennium Rod is far greater than you could ever comprehend! I unleash the power of darkness!" A powerful shockwave of darkness erupted from Marik's center of mass, dealing heavy metaphysical damage not only to Gundham's pets, but also to Gundham himself. The Ultimate Breeder took a knee, feeling as though Marik had managed to punch the inside of his body several times.
"Do not take me lightly, Gundham Tanaka. You think your feeble powers are enough to defeat me? Feast your eyes on this!" A stone tablet rose up from the shadowy ground. "I invoke the power of Ancient Egypt. Bring me forth forbidden power! I summon thee, Makyura the Destructor!" A green-skinned, one-eyed warrior with claw weapons attached to its arms appeared. Makyura then swiftly attacked Maga-Z, shredding the armor on its right foreleg.
"Maga-Z! Damn you, Fell Dragon! Cham-P! Cleanse the interloper with your unholy flame!"
Cham-P attacked Makyura with its flames, but Makyura resisted the attack and stabbed forward at Cham-P, but San-D protected him by pouncing on the warrior from behind. From this, Jum-P returned to the fray and slashed Makyura's only eye with its talon. Blinded, the warrior lashed out at the golden hawk, knocking San-D aside. It missed Jum-P considerably and was subsequently picked up by Maga-Z's trunk.
"San-D! Finish him!"
The silver fox leapt from the ground towards Makyura's head and, with great bite force, decapitated the monster with her strong jaw alone.
"Impressive," Marik grinned. "You can take on a lowly servant of the shadows. But I'm afraid there are many more monsters where Makyura hails from. Power of Shadows, I sacrifice my own life energy to bring forth a creature of greater power." Marik clutched his shoulder as Gundham could see Marik's own energy ebbing out.
"What are you up to, Fell Dragon?"
Marik laughed. "In ancient times, the summoners of monsters had to use their own life energy to summon powerful beasts. That is what made the Pharaoh and his council so mighty. They could summon great beasts like the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the Dark Magician, and even the Egyptian Gods with very little threat to their own lives."
"Heh, the fact that you tremble at what will be only a medium creature of the shadows shows how weak and unworthy of the Pharaoh's Millennium Puzzle you truly are!" Gundham exclaimed.
"HA!" Marik scoffed, tongue hanging out, eyes crazed with glee. "My "trembling" as you put it, is merely pain from these scratches you have so impressively managed to incur upon me. I tremble at nothing! Now! Come forth o mighty creature! I summon the almighty Legendary Fiend!"
A large blue, bipedal demon with wings appeared with a loud screech, steeped in thick shadows from its legs upward.
"San-D! Cham-P! Combination attack!" Gundham exclaimed.
San-D and Cham-P unleashed their flames simultaneously at Legendary Fiend, but the creature swatted aside their attacks and howled loudly.
Marik chuckled. "Legendary Fiend grows stronger the longer it remains in the shadow realm. And here it has a home field advantage. Your monsters are all beast demons, but mine is pure-blood. You could never hope to match the power of a true master of the dark arts, Gundham Tanaka. You are out of your league!"
"Heh…" Gundham chuckled with a smirk and then laughed loudly. "BAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Me? Out of my league? I have never heard anything so absurd!" Gundham crossed his arms, grinning wildly. "I feel right at home. The shadows are where I truly feel alive! Send any monster you wish against my creatures of the fell arts. They shall slaughter them all!" Gundham declared. I say that, but Legendary Fiend is indeed very powerful. Its astral level is six, where at best my minions are four or five. Gundham took a bag of sparkling dust out of his bag. I will have to act quickly. Against a beast that mighty, my familiars may not hold out. Gundham crouched behind Maga-Z so that Marik could not see what he was doing. He dabbed his fingers in the dust and began drawing symbols on the floor. I must summon, he glared at Marik from across the room, my most powerful archfiend of chaos and lightning!
Deck ready to go, Chiaki squared off against the Duel Computer. "Please select your deck master," it told her.
"Deck master?" Nagito was surprised by this.
"I guess this security system was designed by Noah rather than Hope's Peak itself," Chiaki deduced.
"That means Hope's Peak only controls the pod Hajime is in and must be executing a program. It's just like Miss Yukizome," Nagito said. "They have limited access."
"Good news for us then," Chiaki said. "I'm getting Hajime back!" She readied her usual deck. Noah likely designed this computer to be as skilled at the game as he could program it. If she underestimated it, it would be game over. And she could not fall here, not after coming so far. "I select the monster Soul Tiger as my deck master!" Chiaki exclaimed. The flaming blue tiger with 0 attack points and 2100 defense points was crouched at her side.
"Processing…processing…decision made. Activating Deck master Cyber-Tech Alligator."
The green, cybernetically enhanced reptile, encased in red armor appeared next to the computer. It had 2500 attack points and 1600 defense points. "Opponent has been determined to go first," the computer stated.
"Very well," Chiaki said. "Let's Duel!" She looked at her opening hand and nodded, plucking the card second from the right. "I summon Fencing Fire Ferret, in attack mode!" Chiaki's bread and butter 4-star monster appeared on the battlefield wreathed in flames with 1700 attack points and 600 defense points. "My turn is over."
"It is my turn," the computer said as a sixth card simply materialized in its hand from its deck. "Summoning to the field Gemini Elf." The twin sibling elves appeared. Together, they had 1900 attack points. "Gemini Elf attacks with Gemini Double Radiation." The twins blasted their magical attacks Fencing Fire Ferret, destroying it.
"Fencing Fire Ferret's special ability activates," Chiaki said. "When its destroyed, it destroys one monster on the field and deals 500 points of damage."
Fencing Fire Ferret's spirit lashed out its tail at the elf siblings, piercing them both through the stomach and piercing the computer as well.
Chiaki's life points adjusted to 3800. The duel computer's became 3500.
"Activating Deck Master special ability. Cyber Tech Alligator directly attacks from the deck master zone for 500 points of damage."
Cyber Tech Alligator blitzed towards Chiaki, slamming its mechanical fist into her solar plexus and causing her to slam her back and the back of her head against the wall separating her and Nagito. Chiaki crumpled to the floor on her stomach and chest.
"Chiaki!" Nagito exclaimed.
"I'm fine," Chiaki said, pushing herself to her feet. "It's…it's nothing." Her life points fell to 3300. She swayed on her legs a little, only to give a fierce, determined glare at her robot opponent.
"My turn is complete," the computer said. "Opponent's turn begins."
Chiaki nodded and drew the top card of her deck. She looked at her hand. She lacked a card to take advantage of the opening in front of her for a direct attack. No, even if she did have one, that was likely what the AI intended. She needed to play defensively. "I set one monster and one card face-down," Chiaki said as the two similar holograms appeared. "That's all for now."
"My turn begins," the computer beeped. A new card appeared in its hand. "Activating spell card, Shield Crush. Opponent's monster set on the field is destroyed."
A beam of blue light destroyed Chiaki's monster. Chiaki only gnashed her teeth in frustration. She'd miscalculated. This was going to hurt.
"Calculating…Calculating…Summoning Vorse Raider in attack position."
The other staple 1900 point beatstick hit the field.
"Vorse Raider attacks directly," the computer exclaimed.
Chiaki was struck across the chest by Vorse Raider's double sided weapon, taking heavy metaphysical damage as her life points plummeted to 1400. She held her shoulder, wincing.
"Cyber Tech Alligator's deck master ability activates. Cyber Impact Dash."
Chiaki got bowled over yet again, hitting her back on the wall and falling to the ground.
"Are you okay?" Nagito shouted at her. This was painful to watch.
Chiaki groaned, getting up off the floor as her life points fell to 900. "I'm fine. I'm still in this duel. It likely didn't want to take the risk of my face-down card."
"Not about that! You're hurt!"
Chiaki took a deep breath and seemed to snort as she stood tall. "I fought a shadow game and won. This is nothing."
Nagito's eyes shined with delight. Chiaki's hope really is something. That's the class rep for you. You can do it, Chiaki. You'd never lose to a robot, which has no hope at all.
As Chiaki began her third turn, Gundham continued to battle it out with Marik. However, the Legendary Fiend was difficult to contend with. As San-D, Jum-P and Cham-P shot flames and swung their claws at the creature, it had little trouble overpowering them. San-D was swatted aside into the wall, Cham-P was clawed across the face and Jum-P was thrown at the ground and then stomped on.
Gundham sweat bullets. His Four Dark Devas were giving their all and yet they were not enough.
As Maga-Z charged with a hellish trumpet, its armored head slammed into Legendary Fiend's claws.
Only a few more seconds. My ritual is nearly complete! Gundham exclaimed. Curse this feeble mortal body of mine requiring an alchemic ritual to accomplish what Marik can in seconds!
Maga-Z trumpeted loudly, pushing Legendary Fiend back, but the creature moved with its loss of ground and eventually overturned Maga-Z onto its side. It howled loudly.
Marik laughed. "Your pets have all defeated! You lose! Now Legendary Fiend will tear you apart and send your mind to the shadows!"
Gundham, however, drew the final character upon his magic circle and a fiendish red light glittered all around him.
"What is this?" Marik growled.
Gundham stood triumphantly arms folded as the glow grew stronger. "BAHAHAHAHA! Marik!" Gundham grinned, striking his signature ninja-like pose. "You underestimated me! For now, I shall unveil the true power lurking within my heart. I shall summon a fiend, much like you, the most trusted and powerful of all of my chaotic archfiends! Though I am the Supreme Overlord of Ice, I can command the very bolts of heaven's divine retribution no problem! Especially when those bolts are channeled through the powers of hell!"
"Get to the point!" Marik snarled.
"Hmm? I thought you enjoyed a good presentation, Fell Dragon. BEHOLD! My ultimate monster! Feel the wrath of Summoned Skull!"
A powerful bolt slammed from the ceiling into the ground as the mighty creature known only as the Summoned Skull appeared with its familiar hellish growl. "And in the power of the shadows, despite the time your fiend has spent here, it shall be no match for my fiend's unmatched power! Summoned Skull, attack! LIGHTNING STRIKE!"
With a hellish growl, lightning surged through Summoned Skull's body and the lightning then rained down unto legendary fiend in several bolts, destroying it.
"San-D. Jum-P. Maga-Z. Cham-P. You may rest now. Your fabled ancestor and I," Gundham said, standing next to Summoned Skull. "Shall take it from here."
"Heh heh heh heh. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! How amusing! To think even you could call upon the ancient power of the shadows! But your effort will mean little in the end, for I shall summon an even greater beast, one with power no mere monster can hope to match."
Gundham turned pale. "It cannot be! You plan to summon the Winged Dragon of Ra? Here? Now?"
Marik laughed. "Don't be absurd. Your power is vast, I shall admit that, but you have not proven yourself worth the wrath of Ra. Instead, witness a creature of terror surpassing that of even the mighty Summoned Skull. I summon Masked Beast Des Gardius!" The orange, purple legged, tri-masked fiend appeared. Marik was right about one thing, its power far exceeded that of Summoned Skull's. Gundham seemed to strain under the weight of its massive power.
Guh! My demonic blood boils at the mere sight and presence of it. The four dark devas…would be no match. Is my astral level still too weak? Can I not match the might of the Fell Dragon on my own?
You can do it.
Gundham's ears perked up. What bewitching spirit was that just now.
You can do it, Gundham!
You can do it!
I believe in you!
It can't be! That voice! The Dark Queen! But how?
Gundham strained his ears to hear her voice, but could no longer. However, he did chuckle. Yes, I understand. This is where your mind and soul reside. But I shall rescue both. Alone I fall, but together, we shall STAND!
Gundham could feel dark powers enveloping him. The scar on his face turned as red as his right eye as both eyes now matched in color. The scar glowed as he gained another one symmetrically to it along his other eye.
"By the wings of Icarus, I shall fight with the power of heaven and hell itself! Though I fight with the mind of a demon, even I have an angel's blessing! And I shall use it to cut you down, Marik! My blade be no Falchion, but it shall be the strength of my conviction!"
A long, black sword, thick with shadows appeared in Gundham's right arm. The bandages on his left arm rescinded backwards to reveal an arm resembling that of an actual demon. "I may be best suited as a summoner," Gundham said and held the sword in front of him with both hands as it glowed with red runes. It now resembled the blade of Sonia's fabled Darklord Morningstar. "BUT I CAN STILL FIGHT AS A WARRIOR!"
Marik grinned. "Excellent, seems you are not beaten just yet. This is truly entertaining! Sending you to the Shadow Realm will truly be worth the effort."
"Sending you to the shadow realm will truly be worth the effort," Gundham chuckled, repeating Marik's declaration. "Heh. That's a good line." He then sped forward faster than any human in history and swung his borrowed blade down towards Marik's face. Marik blocked with the side of the Millennium Rod and then pushed Gundham back who stood with the blade held in one arm. "Like the fallen angel of Gaia," Gundham said as the blade pulsed with dark lightning, "I shall celebrate your demise with fireworks. FELL DRAGON!" Gundham roared, his lips contorting into a manic grin. "This shall be our magnificent dance of death!"
With Summoned Skull at his side, Gundham prepared to face Marik and Masked Beast Des Gardius two on two. No…three on two. After all, he had the blessing of the Dark Queen boosting his strength. And as long as he had that, he could not fail. That is what he believed.
Oblivious to Gundham and Marik's Shadow Duel, as they were fighting in a completely separate dimension, Chihiro Fujisaki entered into a room that appeared to be the central computer that controlled the virtual world. Setting his laptop down and pulling out a cable from his skirt pocket, Chihiro plugged alter ego into Noah's mainframe. Tapping a few keys on his laptop into a command prompt, he then looked at the screens hooked up to Noah's database.
"Ah! Master!" Alter Ego exclaimed. "Hello!"
"No time for pleasantries, Alter Ego," Chihiro said, typing rapidly, putting on a headset to communicate with his AI verbally. "I need your help."
"Understood," Alter Ego said. The AI was able to see both the commands Chihiro was typing and the information on Noah's computer system. "Ah, it appears you are trying to communicate with the digital avatars of the Battle City contestants and friends registered in my data banks. Would you like some help?"
"Digital Avatars? My friends have become virtual?"
"Yes, allow me to show you!"
Alter Ego promptly put a full display of Yugi and friends on Chihiro's screen. They were summoning monsters left and right to contend with Gozaboro's summoned monsters from a chess board he was using inside the virtual KaibaCorp Tower.
Chihiro typed away furiously at the main computer for the virtual world. "Ah! I see! According to these lines of code, their avatars are stuck in synchronization. A full-dive virtual reality program," Chihiro said, contemplative, "That's like the therapy program I'm working on with Matsuda-senpai and Gekkogahara-senpai. Alter Ego, pleas copy all relevant data from this program into a dummy folder for my notes on the Neo World Program."
"Understood! Downloading! Estimated completion time: 12 minutes!"
Chihiro continued to interface with both Alter Ego and Noah's computer. "Hmm, all the escape routes out of the world have been shut down," he thought aloud. "I'll have to make a new one. But first, I need to help Yugi and Mr. Kaiba. Wait…where is Mr. Kaiba?"
"Mr. Kaiba does not appear to be in any imminent danger. According to his walking path over the last few minutes, he appears to be headed for direct confrontation with avatar Gozuboro Kaiba."
"Ah! KaibaCorp's previous owner? His stepfather?" Only those that did careful research ever knew about Gozuboro and those who were smart enough to learn it, were also smart enough not to mention it at all.
"Yes. According to the information at my disposal, that is indeed Kaiba's stepfather, virtualized. Ah! DNA match found!"
Alter Ego showed Chihiro Noah as he was standing behind Mokuba playing arcade games. "According to my scans, this boy is Noah Kaiba, the blood-related son to Gozuboro Kaiba."
"Ah! Really? Is there any data?"
"Scanning…match found! There are many videos and medical records listed. Would you like to read and view them?"
"Copy them for later. Focus on Yugi and the others." I can't believe Kaiba had a stepbrother. But Noah looks so young. I'll watch the information later. I need to help Yugi and the others.
"If you wish to destroy all methods of interference, may I suggest this monster?"
Alter Ego showed Chihiro a picture of the card A-to-Z Dragon Buster Cannon.
"Oh! That's perfect! Summon that please."
"Initiating summoning protocols!"
In the virtual world, Joey stood hunched over from all the adrenaline, anxiety and running around. "We're gonna get killed out here."
"Don't quit on us now, Joey," Makoto said as he summoned Genesis Dragon to attack, blowing up another monster. "We've gotta keep at it."
"Keep at it?" Mai asked. "I'm with Joey. There's no end to these things."
"Wait! What's that over there?" Ibuki pointed as suddenly a massive mechanical monster made from smaller mechanical monsters seemed to materialize out of nowhere.
"Aw, come on!" Duke shouted. "How are we supposed to contend with something that big?"
"Wait, Duke!" Yami exclaimed. "I don't think it's our enemy!"
The cannons fired up and lasers and missiles went everywhere, blasting and blowing up all of the monsters, except for Yugi and his friends.
"Where'd that come from?" Tristan inquired.
"Everyone!"
The group turned to see Chihiro materialized behind them. "Hey, it's Chihiro!" Joey exclaimed and darted towards the little runt to give him a noogie, only to pass right through him.
"Sorry, this is just a hologram program," Chihiro apologized.
In the real world, Chihiro was typing furiously at his keyboard, speaking through his digitally created avatar. "Alter Ego and I are going to get you all out of here. We're working on creating an exit program. Please be patient. I'll have you all safe soon. I'm going to create it on the Dance Dance Revolution Machine in the arcade." Flashing arrows appeared on the ground. "Please stay together and follow the arrows."
The group jogged to follow Chihiro's directions. Chihiro's own avatar flew overhead. Since it was a mere program, it did not have to follow the laws of reality like the others.
Joey laughed happily. "What took so long ya programming genius?"
"Oh, sorry," Chihiro apologized. "We didn't know what happened to all of you. Quite frankly, I only stumbled into the control room by chance."
"Chihiro, what's going on out in the real world?" Yami wanted to know.
"Ah, you're not going to like this," Chihiro said sadly.
"So, Marik has made a move," Yami said gravely.
"Ah, don't worry, he hasn't hurt anyone, at least, not that I know of. And this virtual world is safe as long as I'm the one controlling it."
"What about Gozuboro?" Byakuya asked. "According to Noah, he locked us in here and then Noah stabbed us in the back."
Makoto seemed to internally wince at this reminder.
"With Alter Ego, I can essentially rewrite the virtual world remotely. I have to give Kaiba's stepfather credit. This program is very complicated to understand." Chihiro smiled proudly. "But it's no match for my programming skills!"
"You rock, Chihiro!" Ibuki exclaimed.
"We need to hurry, Gundham's out for blood and looking for Marik."
"What?" Yami gasped.
"Gundham's going to himself killed trying to take on Marik."
"Or worse, banished to the shadow realm," Celeste gulped.
"Hey, Chihiro, are Chiaki and Nagito okay?" Joey asked.
"Oh, right, they went to go rescue Hajime," Téa said.
"Huh? Oh. Yes. They don't appear to be with you," Chihiro said and typed away furiously. "Ah! Chiaki is currently engaged in a duel against Noah's most advanced security system. Hajime and Nagito's avatars appear to be close by." However, as Chihiro examined Hajime's avatar, something appeared to be wrong with it. Well, wrong may not be the right word for it, but Hajime's brain patterns seemed…unnatural, as though they were constantly shifting and changing. Chihiro was no neurology expert, but he had picked up a few things from Yasuke Matsuda.
"Chihiro, are you all right?" Téa asked. "You went quiet."
"Huh? Oh. No. It's nothing," Chihiro said. I probably shouldn't worry anyone over Hajime. I don't have the best idea of what's going on, and Nanami-senpai seems to be doing her best to help him.
"Alert, one desynchronization activated!" Alter Ego exclaimed.
"What?" Chihiro looked at the visual. It was true. Mokuba was desynchronized. However, unknown to Chihiro, that was not really Mokuba, but Noah using Mokuba's body to escape.
After getting her bearings straight, Chiaki drew the top card of her deck and she was ready to counterattack. "I activate Fissure, destroying Vorse Raider!"
A hole opened up in the ground and swallowed Vorse Raider into it, leaving the Duel Computer wide open once more. However, Chiaki set a monster and ended her turn.
Nagito was confused. Why didn't Chiaki attack? Surely with her Ultimate Gaming talent she had more than enough skill and knowledge to take advantage of the opening before.
"It is my turn," The computer beeped. "Summoning to the field, Insect Knight." The hissing, mantis and roach fused sword and shield wielding monster hit the table at 1900 attack points strong. "Attacking."
It's now or never. "Reveal face-down card!" Chiaki exclaimed. "Mirror Force!"
Nagito was surprised. If Chiaki had had that, why did she not play it on the previous turn?
The trap card destroyed Insect Knight and then Chiaki placed it in her graveyard.
"Activating Cyber-Tech Alligator's deck master ability. 500 points of direct damage will be deducted from the opponent's life points."
Nagito winced. He could barely bear to watch this. However, Chiaki did not go slamming against the wall this time. She was ready. Cyber-Tech Alligator's fist slammed into her crossed arms and she barely moved a few feet. This surprised Nagito, but it was a good surprise.
As Chiaki lowered her arms, her life points fell to 400.
Not good. Chiaki may be acting confident, but that Alligator will destroy her on her opponent's next turn.
"Cyber-Tech Alligator is now in play," the computer beeped as the monster stepped onto the field from the deck master zone. Nagito gasped and sweated. This was bad. Chiaki had to turn this all around in 1 turn and her opponent still had 3500 life points.
No, she had to have a plan. This was Chiaki he was talking about, the Ultimate Gamer. She couldn't be outshined by some robot.
And, true to form, Chiaki did and Nagito's fears were laid to rest. As she placed her hand on her deck, duel disk arm raised, Chiaki declared, "This duel is over!"
Drawing the card swiftly from her deck, she flipped her defense point monster face-up. "I reveal Kaiser Seahorse!" The ever prevalent bi-pedal, blue and purple sea-serpent with 1700 attack and 1650 defense points appeared. "Next, I activate its ability. When sacrificed, Kaiser Seahorse can be used as two sacrifices for the summon of a light-attribute monster."
Chiaki slammed down a card onto the reader. "And no monster of mine is better for that than this: Thunderclap Skywolf!"
With a loud howl, Chiaki's signature monster appeared on the battlefield, lightning sparking all around it.
"That's amazing, Chiaki!" Nagito exclaimed. "If you attack, both monsters will be destroyed and the deck master will be annihilated!"
"No," Chiaki said. "I would never sacrifice Thunderclap Skywolf like that," she said. "But I don't need to. Because I'm activating Soul Tiger's deck master ability: Soul Force! Whenever I summon a monster, my monster's attack points are checked against the attack points of all the other monsters on my opponent's side of the field. Any monsters with fewer attack points than the monster I summoned are instantly destroyed. And, if it's a tie, monsters with lower defense points than my monster will also be destroyed. Thunderclap Skywolf has 2000 defense points. Cyber Tech Alligator only has 1600. That means," Chiaki said, pointing at Duel Computer as she performed her best dramatic Phoenix Wright impression. "You LOSE!"
Thunderclap Skywolf howled and let loose a series of thunderbolts thanks to Soul Tiger's deck master ability, destroying Cyber Tech Alligator and frying the duel computer, causing it to explode and then disappear. The security wall then vanished, allowing Nagito reach her.
"That was incredible, Chiaki," Nagito said, practically ecstatic. "But there's one thing I don't get. Why did you wait to use Mirror Force?"
Chiaki held up her finger to explain. "Elementary, my dear Nagito," she said, impersonating Sherlock Holmes. "Cyber Tech Alligator was too strong to take head on. Fissure was of no help if my opponent placed any other monster on the field and it could attack directly every turn. So, I created a scenario where it was guaranteed to put its deck master on the field, thinking me defeated."
"I see. I see," Nagito nodded. "You certainly had me fooled."
Chiaki walked over to Hajime's pod and began looking for an off switch or a release lever. She continued to explain her actions. "Games need to be fair, even if they're extremely difficult. After all, if the enemy could see everything, including what was in my hand, it would've known Mirror Force was face-down the entire time. So, it couldn't have possibly known what I was planning. Machines lack that sort of unique human creative thinking." She smiled as she looked at Hajime still in stasis, hand flush on the glass. "You can't program that type of creativity with rigid functions and absolutes."
"Well said."
Chiaki nodded. "Now come on, we gotta get Hajime out of that pod and get him out of here!"
As Chiaki defeated his Duel Computer, Noah was running down the hall, eager to escape in Mokuba's body. However, as his thoughts were encapsulated in what he was going to do now that he was free of that virtual hellscape, he ran straight into a person in the hallway and fell on his backside. The person he'd bumped into, being taller, stood there bewildered.
"Mokuba?"
Noah looked up to see a red-haired teenage girl in a green dress over a white, collared shirt with a red and white tie. She had a camera dangling from her neck.
Noah got to his feet and rudely chided. "Out of my way, woman!" he snapped.
"Wow. Rude, much?" Mahiru asked, irritated. "And what the hell is wrong with your voice?"
Noah tried to push Mahiru aside, but she grabbed his shoulder as he tried to move. "Hey!" she barked. "What are you acting so rude for, you little brat? Where's Kaiba? He needs to teach you some manners."
"Ha! Seto, is probably still wandering my virtual hellscape, unaware that his brother's body has been stolen by me."
"Stolen? What are you talking about?"
However, Mahiru then remembered the conversation Noah had given the group when the all first arrived here and she realized that Mokuba now had the same voice. "Noah?!"
"Hahaha? Surprised, girl?"
"I don't know what you did to Mokuba, but give him back his body right now!" Mahiru demanded.
"No can do," Noah stated. "This body is mine now and I plan to do with it as I please."
"Oh, is that so?" Mahiru asked, furrowing her brow.
"Indeed. Now, run along to whatever it is you're doing. I'm getting out of here."
"No," Mahiru said, scowling, "You aren't."
"Oh? Are you going to try and stop me?" Noah asked.
Mahiru's eyes simply narrowed.
"Okay, that should do it everyone," Chihiro said to the group. "My Escape Route executable program is complete. Please stand on the game stage when ready and tap up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, and then the green button on the console."
"You're the best, Chihiro," Tristan stated.
"Wait, so was that up down, left right…gah, I'm confused!" Joey exclaimed, rubbing his hair.
"Oh well, guess you're stuck here then," Celeste chuckled.
"Hey!" Joey snapped at her.
"Ugh. I'm getting out of here," Byakuya said, tapping the foot panels with his feet. He was the first one to escape.
Chihiro watched Yugi and friends escape from the virtual landscape one by one. Good, now he could figure out how to release Chiaki and Nagito from their synchronizations.
However, as he did his best to connect to the part of the virtual world the two students were in, he heard footsteps behind him, along with a single noise.
"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow."
Chihiro turned around to see Mahiru dragging Mokuba into the room by her ear. When she entered, she was still pinching his ear with great force.
"Unhand me this instant!" Noah exclaimed, trying to release his ear from Mahiru, but her grip was like vice. Nobody escaped her scolding mom mode, least of all snot-nosed brats with stolen bodies.
"What's wrong with Mokuba?" Chihiro asked.
"It's not Mokuba," Mahiru said. "This is Noah. The guy who trapped us here. He apparently stole Mokuba's body and released himself from cyberspace."
"Ah. I see."
"I see? You're taking that awfully well," Mahiru said.
Chihiro smiled. "I've kind of read up on the whole situation." He looked at Noah with pleading eyes. "Um, Noah, would you kindly mind giving Mokuba back his body, please?"
"No! Absolutely not! I'm finally in the real world after being stuck in cyber space for six long years. Who the hell are you anyway?"
"I'm Chihiro Fujisaki. I'm an intern programmer and KaibaCorp and the developer of the Alter Ego AI. I've been reading all about you on this computer, Noah."
"What, but how can you simply interface and edit what took me years to program?"
Chihiro smiled. "I guess I'm just that good."
"No! I won't accept this! I'm not going back to that virtual hellscape! I don't want to be all alone."
"Noah, please. I know it must be lonely, but I can make you mobile! I programmed Alter Ego to be just like a human. I know it's not exactly the real world, but I can make you portable and take you with me. Please, Noah, give Mokuba back his body."
Noah angrily slapped Chihiro across the face, causing him to turn and spin and brace himself against the console.
Mahiru looked horrified.
However, Chihiro didn't get angry. He didn't cry and he didn't snap. He simply took a big breath and said. "Mahiru, please escort Noah back to his virtual pod and lock him in. I will take care of everything from there."
"Uh, okay," Mahiru said.
Angry, Noah lunged for the controls, but Mahiru grabbed him by Mokuba's hood and then tripped him by the ankle, causing him to tumble to the ground.
"You want to act like a child, you'll be treated like one," she scolded and began dragging Noah by his legs back to the virtual pods.
"No! I don't want to goooooooooooo!"
As Noah faded down the hall, and Mahiru with him, Chihiro returned his attention back to Nagito and Chiaki. Where they were, security was much lower, so he could easily desynchronize their avatars with the push of a button. However, Hajime's was on lockdown. As Chihiro contemplated what to do, he heard more footsteps behind him. Tristan had walked in.
"Hey there, Chihiro."
"Oh. Hello, Tristan. Did you need something?"
"Yeah," he said, looking a bit down. "It's about my friend, Miho Nosaka. She's trapped in there and can't get out. I don't want her to be alone, Chihiro. But you got us all out of there. Can you get her out too?"
"Let me try," Chihiro said and turned back to the console. Tristan watched Chihiro type like a fiend. At times Chihiro's fingers turned into blurs.
"Oh, here we go!" Chihiro exclaimed. "I found something."
An image popped up, a single pod isolated in a KaibaCorp R&D basement. The pod's ID# was 3d-0H. "Let's see," Chihiro said, digging for details. "According to this, her body is still being kept inside a KaibaCorp virtual reality pod. Oh, her case is different from Noah's."
"Different? Different how?" Tristan asked.
"Noah's body is completely gone according to what I've found, but Miho's is still alive, if a bit underfed. Her head trauma was severe that they thought she'd never wake up. But, if they were able to transfer her consciousness into virtual reality, then it's possible to transfer it back." Chihiro looked forlorn. "The problem is waking her up. According to these scans I'm getting, her body can't wake itself up on its own. It'd be no different from a comatose patient."
No," Tristan gasped. "There has to be something we can do!"
"Don't worry, I'm getting to that part," Chihiro said with a smile. "I'm working on developing a therapy program with two senpais from Hope's Peak Academy. I went to elementary school with them. Their names are Yasuke Matsuda, the Ultimate Neurologist and Miaya Gekkogahara, the Ultimate Therapist. With my programming skills, we're working on a highly experimental therapy program called the Neo World Progam. I'll spare you the technical stuff and just say that, with the Neo World Program, we could directly stimulate the neurons in Miho's brain after her consciousness was transferred back to her body."
"So…Miho can wake up? She can go back to school?" Tristan asked.
"Y-yes, in theory."
Tristan dropped to his hands and knees. "Chihiro, I owe ya big for this."
"Ah, no! Please don't, bow your head to me like that. You don't owe me anything." Chihiro smiled. "I'm just happy to help."
Tristan got up. "You have to be one of the nicest brainy chicks I ever met," he said. "Seriously though, I owe ya one," he said, giving Chihiro a wink, a thumb's up and a smile. "You ever need my help for anything, you just let me know."
"Oh, um…thank you," Chihiro just decided to take the gratitude and leave it as is.
"Oh yeah, um," Tristan rubbed the back of his head. "Can you do something for Noah too? Makoto's really adamant about that."
"Oh don't worry about Noah. I was already planning on doing something for him myself," Chihiro said.
"You da man, Chihiro!" Tristan exclaimed. "Girl…erm lady….um…I'm gonna go." Tristan then awkwardly shuffled out of the room.
After much fiddling around, Chiaki and Nagito managed to get Hajime free from his imprisonment. Unfortunately, as soon as they did, his avatar glitched with red polygons several times as a cloud of thick steam surrounded him.
Are…are we too late? Chiaki wondered.
From out of the steam, stepped a young man with Hajime's height, girth and muscularity wearing a business suit and perfectly knotted tie. He had red eyes instead of Hajime's more olive-like color. And his hair was long and dark, coming down towards his ankles.
Chiaki's lips trembled. "Ha…Hajime?"
The being before her looked at her and then at Nagito. "I am still incomplete. Why have you woken me early?"
"Early?" Chiaki practically squeaked.
"I don't think that's Hajime," Nagito said.
The figure examined their hand. "Hajime…Hajime Hinata. Yes, that's who this body used to belong to." He stared directly at Chiaki and Nagito. "My name is Izuru Kamukura. I am known as the Ultimate Hope."
"No…" Chiaki gasped, horrified.
"My integration with this body is only 62.35743759% finished. Please allow me to rest so that I may finish acquiring it."
"That's not gonna happen," Nagito said to him. "Chiaki wants her best friend back. And even though your hope is stronger than ours, when hope and hope collide, a true, even brighter hope remains."
Izuru examined Nagito thoroughly. "Ultimate Luck, is it? And you said collide? You mean to challenge me. Sorry, but I'm not interested."
"No!" Chiaki exclaimed, covering her mouth, eyes swollen with tears. "It couldn't be. Hajime couldn't be gone."
"Chiaki," Nagito said, hanging his head, "I think we may have—"
"I want him back!" Chiaki exclaimed in a weepy voice.
Izuru looked at Chiaki, puzzled.
She looked at him with tears streaming down her face, a bit of snot trying to escape from her nose. "Everyone I've ever cared about and cherished was always driven away from me by my talent. Rivals, friends, classmates, even my own parents. They all became obsessed with beating me, or just started ignoring me entirely."
"What? Right now? Uh, maybe some other time Chiaki."
"They were polite about it, but I knew. I knew everyone hated how much better I was." Chiaki covered her eyes with her hands. "Even my parents left me alone. No matter how many tournaments I won, no matter how many games I beat, I wasn't happy." She looked at Izuru with the tears pouring down her face. "I was miserable. I retreated into virtual reality. I did everything I could to numb the pain and make it go away." She sniffed and then hyperventilated. "But then I met Hajime and my class," She rubbed her eye with her sleeve. "Miss Yukizome gave me something to cherish. But, no matter what, Hajime means more to me than my entire class!" Chiaki shouted.
She stared at the ground, fists clenched, shaking. "I've seen too many rivals and too many former adversaries go to underground gaming tournaments. They always feel disillusioned of their skill when I win. But no matter how often I won, or how many times he claimed I was better than him, Hajime didn't care. He just…" Chiaki hyperventilated and then sobbed. "He just played games with me. He was still nice to me." She hiccupped. "I won't lose him. I refuse to lose the only real gaming friend I've ever had." Chiaki then held her knuckles by her face and just stood there and cried like a child not getting its way. She howled like a wounded deer. "He never needed to be as good as an Ultimate to be my friend. I thought he understood that." She howled louder. "My talent drove him away too!" she sobbed.
Izuru looked at her intently. His top priority was the hope of the world. And yet…
"Even if you say that," Izuru said. "I am not Hajime. I am Izuru Kamukura. Hajime Hinata no longer exists."
"Really? Are you sure about that, Izuru?" Nagito asked craftily.
"Nagito," Chiaki looked at him, sniffing.
Izuru looked at Nagito oddly.
"If you still know who Hajime is, that means he's still somewhere inside you. After all, what reason would the Steering Committee have to leave you any shred of your former existence."
Chiaki gasped. Nagito was right. There was still a chance. She stopped crying. She sniffed in hard and wiped her eyes of tears.
"Even if that were true, I cannot simply give up this body. That is impossible."
"Nothing's impossible for hope," Nagito said. "Miss Yukizome said that if we were able to stop you from fully synchronizing, there was still a chance we could save Hajime. And the rules of this world are pretty clear cut."
"This world?" Izuru asked and gazed at the ceiling. "Ah, you mean this virtual world created by Noah Kaiba."
Chiaki gasped as a pair of tears leaked out. She got it. She got what Nagito was trying to do. That was their chance. That was how they could save Hajime. Bracing herself, she said, "Nagito's right. If there's even a shred of Hajime left, that means he can still get his body back. The rules of this world are simple, the loser has to forfeit their body. Izuru Kamukura," Chiaki said as she pointed at him with her index finger, yet again dramatically impersonating Phoenix Wright. "We challenge you to a duel!" Gone was the crying girl from seconds earlier. The Ultimate Gamer had returned to her peak of focus and skill. She would save Hajime. All she had to do was beat Izuru.
"We?" Nagito asked, surprised.
Chiaki smiled at him, sniffing. She gave Nagito a thumb's up. "I'm going to need every bit of good luck you can give me to pull this off, Nagito. I can't do this alone."
Nagito smiled from ear to ear, touched by Chiaki's faith in him. "All right, Chiaki. I'll give it everything I've got!"
Izuru glanced around, taking every atom of the room into his analyses of the situation. He then looked square at his opponents, one eye on each. "I see. So that is your intention. I should point out that you have absolutely no chance of defeating me. Even then, you still wish to make this attempt?"
Nagito grinned craftily, holding up his index finger. "That's called Hope. Shouldn't you know that, Mr. Ultimate Hope."
Izuru's expression did not change. He simply said, "You will both lose and when you do, I shall forcefully exit you from this virtual world."
"I've come too far!" Chiaki declared, holding up her fists to pump herself up. "I will get Hajime back!"
"I see. Then I suppose I am left with little choice. I accept your challenge, and we shall use the deck master system."
The card database began to scroll upward, allowing Nagito, Chiaki and Izuru to pick whatever cards they wanted to duel with.
Hajime, I know you're in there somewhere, Chiaki thought. I know Izuru's probably a much better player, so, she thought, tapping Blackland Fire Dragon, followed quickly by Versago the Destroyer, I'll use your deck. That way, it'll be like you're still fighting with me in spirit. Together, we'll all beat Izuru and save you!
When each player was finished selecting their cards, Izuru said, "Please select your deck masters."
"I pick this monster," Nagito said. "Come forth, Black Luster Soldier!" Nagito exclaimed.
Chiaki's jaw hung open a little. Such a powerful monster, especially given this was Nagito she was dealing with.
Nagito smiled, a bead of sweat running down his right temple, "Hey, come on. I get it. But, I'm not gonna do something dumb like say, Oh I'll just foster your hope Chiaki." He spoke with the utmost seriousness. "We've got to fight together, as equals. I hope that's okay."
Chiaki smiled at Nagito kindly. "Yes. That's exactly what I want right now. Thank you, Nagito." He'll probably go back to being his weirder self when this is over, but even just for a little while, I'm happy to see him acting like a true friend.
"And you, Ultimate Gamer?" Izuru asked. "What will your deck master be?"
"I choose this card. Come forth, Versago the Destroyer!"
Nagito and Chiaki both saw it. As Versago appeared, Izuru's eyes shrunk in.
"Hajime," Chiaki said with a smile. "Do you remember? This was the first monster you ever got when Duel Monsters was first made. You built your whole deck around its concept. Please, Hajime. Wake up!" Chiaki had hoped it was that easy, but alas, Izuru quickly regained control.
"Your sentimentalism will be your downfall," Izuru said as he shuffled his deck, plucking one card from it with the speed and skill of an Ultimate Magician.
"Oh yeah, and what's your deck master going to be?" Nagito asked with unexpected animosity.
"The most powerful monster in all of duel monsters, encapsulated into one card."
"Most powerful…" Nagito said and then stopped. Both his and Chiaki's blood ran cold and their faces turned pale. No. That wasn't possible…was it?
As their worst fears preyed upon them as Izuru slowly turned around the card in his hand, Seto Kaiba was dealing with the worst fears of his own.
Both Gozuboro and Izuru were about to summon the same monster, but in entirely different forms.
"Meet the most feared creature in Duel Monsters!" Gozuboro exclaimed at Kaiba. "The mighty Exodia Necross!"
"I choose The Legendary Exodia Incarnate as my deck master," Izuru stated.
"Exodia Incarnate?" Chiaki questioned. She thought that card was a myth.
"The only thing more dangerous than facing the threat of an instant win condition of the five pieces of Exodia, would be if there was an actual, playable version of the being itself," Nagito stated. "Brace yourself, Chiaki. This is going to be one hell of a duel." I can't believe there's an actual summonable Exodia monster out there in the game. This is going to be even tougher than I originally thought.
At the same time that Exodia Necross rose from the grave to challenge Seto Kaiba in a showdown to bury his past forever, A golden-tinted—but not golden colored—Exodia appeared in all its massive glory behind Izuru. Its massive form shattered the room that Chiaki, he and Nagito were dueling in, bringing them to an enclosed space of swirling, constantly neon colors like an old Windows Media Player or screen saver. There were no discernable boundaries in this dimension. There was only Chiaki, Nagito, Black Luster Soldier, Versago the Destroyer, Izuru and the almighty, unstoppable Exodia.
The most powerful duel monster of all time towered behind Izuru. He barely came up to its ankle. "Are you ready?" Izuru asked. "Prepare yourselves for the most difficult duel of your entire lives." Izuru said as he clenched his fist in front of him, as though crushing an invisible diamond to dust. He then released all the tension in his hand, making his message clear as he drew his hand.
All players' life points reached 4000 and each one drew a hand of 5 cards. The stage was set and the curtain was up, gone and burnt to cinders.
Chiaki did not bat an eyelash at this. While Kaiba was fighting to let go of the past, she was fighting to pursue the future. Fitting, she thought, that the final boss to save her friend would be a variation of the unstoppable Exodia. But no matter how difficult or how hopeless it seemed, Hajime was counting on her. She had to win, no matter what.
Then, at the same time, she, Nagito and Izuru declared at the same time, "Let's duel!"
(A/N: HOLY FUCKING SHIIIIIIIIT! Izuru Vs Nagito and Chiaki. The final chapter for the Virtual World arc is upon us! And yes, Legendary Exodia Incarnate is a real card. Look it up. Hold onto your hats and seats, ladies and gentlemen. Next chapter will be an arc climax the likes of which this story has yet to see. Strap in for thrills, tears, and ham so perfectly roasted you won't even need the honey and cinnamon. Now you know why these next 3 chapters are going under the continued title of Duel for Salvation. See you all for the concluding part.
But until then, as always, from all of me, to all of you, let your hearts stay human and your wrath draconic. Ja ne!)