"You failed." An authoritative older voice spoke bluntly. The room was gloriously constructed with vibrant colours of gold and white, in the middle was a red throne with a golden trim to it, numerous people in white cloaks with golden shawls were stood in every corner of the place. The voice belonged to an elder male who was dressed in similar robes, although his included a design of a golden Coptic cross right in the middle. "The mission wasn't difficult and yet you still disappoint us with your lack of ability to act decisively."
The person he was speaking too, a male that was probably no older than 17, was bowing down to him on one knee, he had a white hood covering his head and the same shawl as the rest of them draped across his shoulders, apart from that the majority of his body was barren of clothes, apart from, thankfully, his bottom half. "I apologise, Sir, but there were other individuals present at the time, I was barely able to sneak the incantation past them and if I was to go any further, suspicions would've have been raised further."
"Tch, insolent brat." The man sneered, getting up from the throne as one of the other people in the room passed him a bottle "This shall be your punishment for once again disappointing the guild."
"N-no!" The younger male spluttered as he noticed the bottle "Please! Reconsider!"
The older male was having none of it "It's the only way forward, learn your lesson well and make sure this never happens again." He then poured whatever was in the bottle over the younger male's back.
"GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The liquid burned. It burned badly. The young male howled in pain as it seeped into his skin. The pain forced him flat to the ground and exposed his scarred back to the air. Upon it was a large symbol that made the others in attendance sneer, the design was blank and circular with two spokes coming out while a smaller circle inside gave it the look of an eye.
A few more drops were then sprinkled on both of his hands "Silence, you will take the punishment properly." The young male had to grit his teeth and bear the immense pain that was still coursing through his body, his hands smoking in the places where the liquid had touched it "By the sacred and exalted name, obey me! O ye who reside within the spirit of this vessel, prostate thyself before me and be gone forever more!"
The pain caused forced the male's body to convulse and his hood to fall off his head, revealing his spiky light blue hair and red eyes which had a strange cross shape in place of regular pupils "No more! I repent! Please! I can't control it! It's not my fault!"
One of the servants came and retrieved the bottle from the man's hands as he spoke "This is non-negotiable, retrieve the Grimoire for us before the demon is resurrected and the punishment shall stop, fail and we will make sure that this punishment is tame in comparison."
(Unknown Location)
When Yuri awoke he had no real clue where he was. The scene around him was nothing but endless blackness with nothing visible for miles on end and with nothing else he was really able to do, Yuri began to walk into said darkness. 'What the hell is happening here?'
As he walked further and further, still with no discernible end in sight, he began to start feeling that there was someone stalking him. It started off as a small thing, maybe the extra odd sound of a boot or the unwelcome addition of heavy breathing but it was something that could've easily been something that he had done subconsciously.
However, the feeling had gotten much stronger the longer he stayed in this place, wherever the hell this place was… 'Wonderful, first I have to see Yuzu lose her shit in a duel then lose said duel and now I'm stuck in this black hole in the middle of nowhere. I love my life so much…' The point that confirmed it for him was when he had heard the sound of laugh that he definitely let out. The voice was also much more a baritone and far deeper than his own one. "I know you're here, show yourself now or forever hold your peace!"
"My, my. The little dog does have a bark after all." Steeping out of the shadows was a figure that Yuri never wanted to see again as long as he lived. He didn't need to take note of his physical appearance, the shoulderless jacket was all that was required for him to identify Jex "Yet I believe that there is a human saying which goes "A dog's bark is worse than its bite" and if what our little encounter shows then your bite may be even weaker than I first imagined."
"What do you want?" There was a burning anger that made Yuri's face contort at the sound of Jex's voice, there was something about it that made Yuri want to attack and wipe the smug grin off of that stupid face. It made him angry beyond any reasonable measure that someone like this, who would willing attempt to kidnap a girl and also attempt to seriously harm them, could be allowed to walk free with no repercussions "As far as I'm concerned you ran away when you had the chance to talk to me alone. If I didn't know any better then I'd say you were a coward."
"Fufufufufu…" Instantaneously after he laughed, Jex lunged at Yuri without any prior warning. Yuri tried his best to dodge the green haired male's assault but he soon found himself once more under the powerful grasp of Jex. However, this time round there was something far stranger, unlike before where Yuri felt like he was nearly strong enough to break free from the goons, Jex's hold was inhumanly strong and the Predator Plant duelist found himself dangling in the air. "I like rambunctious souls the best, I found out that the more determined a human soul is, the better it will taste."
"What are you on about? Souls, Grimoire, none of this makes any sense! Why did you try to take Yuzu away from me and are you behind what happened to here during that duel?!" Yuri unleashed a barrage of furious questions and was only stopped when he felt Jex's free hand poke his forehead.
"So many questions and so little time…" Jex lamented before he laughed again "Was I behind what happened to the little rabbit during that duel you had? How could I possibly know that? It's not like I was there. Why did I try and take her from you?" He yanked Yuri downwards and cracked his head to the side, allowing him to whisper into Yuri's ear with a sickingly saccharine tone "Unfortunately, I'm not at liberty to tell you that detail yet. However, I suppose that's one of the things about humanity and humans in general that always fascinated me, you always want answers to ever question upon learning about it and get impatient when you don't know the answer right away. If I told you the real reason then all of the thrill you would've gotten from figuring it out would've been lost."
"B-bastard… I know you're up to something!" Yuri retorted, once more he tried to figure a way out of the hold and yet again he found himself restrained by supernatural strength. "I'm not letting you near Yuzu or any one of my friends for that matter!"
"I'm sorry to say this, Yuri-chan, but you don't have a say in this matter." Jex finally relinquished his grip, leaving Yuri gasping for air on the ground "It's rather sad to see how the mighty have fallen so far. You were such the hot shot at Academia."
Yuri's ears pricked at the mere mention of that authoritarian hellhole masquerading as a learning facility "What would you know about me?! You don't know anything about me or Academia so don't even pretend to claim you have even the faintest clue about that abhorrent place!"
"Don't I?" For some odd reason, Jex's voice underwent a strange morph right in the middle of him speaking. His voice cracked upwards and began to sound awfully familiar to Yuri "I'm harmed by how badly you must've fallen to forget me." He pulled off the eye mask, revealing a set of purple eyes that were identical to Yuri's shaking orbs "Have you realised it yet? We've been apart for so long and to see you like this is positively electric to me." He kneeled down to Yuri's frame and gentle ran his thumb over Yuri's chin "I'm sorry for having to take on this form and pretend to be that demonical wretch, although you have to admit that I made a very convincing stand in." The figure removed the hood, showing off not only an identical facial structure but identical hair.
In fact... Everything was identical.
And that fact made Yuri's jaw drop.
"Ta-da!" The doppelgänger exclaimed "Did you miss me? Yuri? Of course you did! I'm you after all! And I just can't wait till the moment that we finally become one once more."
The darkness engulfed the scene with cries of "Yuri! Yuri! Yuri!"
(Real world)
"Yuri!" Yuri bolted upwards from his prone position with a massive headache pounding through his head and searing pain throughout his body. As his blurry vision began to clear he spied the beginnings of bandages wrapped around his arms and also a couple around one of his arms. 'Gah. Where am I? What's going on?' He found that his head was incredibly hard to turn, cracking after even the slightest movement making it borderline impossible to see anything that wasn't directly in front or slightly to the side of him.
"Are you alright?" That voice… That was Yuzu! Yuri felt a wave of relief pour through him. The details of what had happened in the duel had reared their ugly head and the greatest satisfaction that he could derive from it was that his childhood friend was okay and had suffered no physical damage.
"Are you worried about me, my dear? That's awfully sweet of you, given your usual hard and crass nature." Yuri replied in a teasing jovial manner trying to lighten the mood.
Yuzu replied by flicking the violet haired male on the forehead but did no more else but smile "Haha. Am I not allowed to be glad for one of my friends when they're alright? I didn't realise that was a requirement." She laughed and Yuri reciprocated it heartily.
"Ah~, it's so wonderful." The melodic voice of Shiki Sogami wasn't something that the pair was really expecting. More so Yuzu who in her shock at him appearing just behind her ended up on top of Yuri and causing said teen to yelp in pain. "Oh." Shiki's previously smiling face fell as he witnessed the scene "It happened again. Here I am telling Teru-kun not to sneak up on people and yet I do this. However…" He was quick to notice though that the prolonged contact from both teens had made their faces and ears heat up "Amour works in mysterious ways, I won't say sorry for watching something so beautiful bloom."
Realising the compromising position they were in, Yuri rather gracefully shoved Yuzu off of him and she fell with a resounding crash "Bah! Why would I love someone like her? She's crude, hard and possibly sociopathic! I'd be mad to be in love with someone like that! In f-" A good clocking around the face by Yuzu's fan was all that was needed to make Yuri shut his trap. That and the fact Yuzu looked like she could possibly return to that state he had seen in during the duel was what really shut him up on that issue.
"Why are you here, Sogami-san?" Yuzu asked sweetly, like she hadn't just looked like the devil incarnate to Yuri.
"I came to say my apologies to you two for what transpired in my school. I do tell those two to not go off the rails but they never listen to me." Shiki lamented "Sometimes it makes me wonder what they do when I'm not around to hound them."
'If that's what they did when you are around, I dread to think what would've happened to us then.' Yuri gulped. He then took notice of what Shiki was holding in his hands, a rather offensively large bouquet of roses and also a note "Um who's that for?"
"You two of course!" Shiki replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world "It's my way of saying sorry for the damage that was caused. I tried to bring Teru-kun and Bitch-chan with me but Bitch-chan refused and her precious Nii-san didn't want to hurt her feelings so he also pulled out, C'est la vie I guess." He handed the bouquet over to Yuri "I trust you to take good care of them, I put a lot of work into maintain my rose garden and from what I can glean, you seem to have an appreciation for the natural wonders of this world."
"Um, sure…" That brought Yuri's mind back to the possible state of his own collection at home. Gardening had always been a hobby of his, it felt like it was a natural calling in life. His cards were all plant based and he found it to be a great reliever of stress. He smelt a few of the roses, letting the wondrous scent fill him with bliss. He could tell that Shiki was telling the truth as he saw they were maintained to an excellent condition, this would satisfy him for now.
"Now!" the sandy haired male clapped his hands and smiled "I'm going to have to go now, I left the two reprobates in charge while I came here so I dread to think of what's happened." Yuzu and Yuri sweat dropped at the obviously pained smile he was wearing and the rather stupid decision to leave those two maniacs there. "If you ever want to have a rematch with those two or another match with any other students, don't hesitate to ask. I'll always be listening!" And with that the Principle had left the scene as quickly as he arrived.
After checking for a few seconds to see if someone else was going to make an unwarranted appearance, Yuri spoke up again "So what's going on, my dear? My head's killing me and I don't quite recall how I got here."
Yuzu blushed again "Well, um, uh, you see…" Yuri fixed Yuzu with a glare as she wringed her hands "Well, after the duel ended Sogami-san came up to me since he saw that you had collapsed." Yuzu began to think back to what was said then.
"Yuzu-chan, eyes up here." Yuzu brought her quivering eyes off of Yuri's sunken form and towards the adult behind her "Don't worry about Yuri-kun, all action fields have a limit capacity so that the real solid vision can't harm the duelist that much. However, your best course of action would be to take him to the hospital to get him checked out. Usually one can sustain a direct blow only once, Bitch-chan's attack wasn't only a direct hit but it also launched him it the gate which can effectively be considered another hit with possible damage done. Do you understand?" Yuzu wearily nodded her head "Good girl, I'll see you there."
"He said that because of what had happened that it would be best for you to go to the hospital." Yuzu skimped on the details but the main point was still there "So my dad called your mother to notify her of what happened. Needless to say she wasn't very pleased…" Yuri didn't need any details, he was already in a cold sweat imaging what happened. "I made sure to stay by you the whole time and wait until you woke up."
"Ooh, how sweet of you~." Yuri said cheekily "It's that type of things that make others fall in love…" His grin was like that of the Cheshire cat.
"Guess Sogami-san must have rubbed off on you." Yuzu replied quickly, shoving a hand over her face to cover her facial blush but falling to hide the fact her ears were now burning up. "A-Anyway, the doctors said that you'd probably have to stay here for a day or two so that they could measure the extent of the damage. Please listen to them."
Yuri frowned, of course it had to happen right before the qualification period for the Championship, even worse when he just gained a new weapon to use against those who dared oppose him. Honestly! It was like fate had it out for him! "Alright then." He conceded puffing out his cheeks like a six year old would do "If it helps you sleep at night that is." However, he wouldn't miss an opportunity to tease his beloved.
In response, Yuzu flicked Yuri on the forehead "It isn't for my sake, it's for yours you dolt!" She scolded the purple haired teen but there was no malice in her words, she was just happy the Yuri was listening to someone other than himself for once. The pink haired girl smiled and left the young Predator Plant alone with his thoughts.
'What the hell was that dream?' Yuri held his head in his hands 'More importantly, who the hell was that?! It wasn't Jex and it couldn't possibly be me so what on earth was that? And why did they say the wanted to 'Become one once again'?' The questions were causing far more pain than his physical scars were.
(Night Time) (You Show Duel School)
'I have to do this… We didn't win because I was too weak willed and lost control… If I want to be there if Yuri then I have to get better.' Yuzu panted, sweat was dripping off of her face and down onto her clothes 'And if I want to see Yuya I can't be resting on my laurels. He's probably gotten much stronger.'
Yuzu wouldn't exactly call this a secret per se. It was more of an open secret, her dad knew of the issues she had had after Yuya disappeared and how she felt that as she grew older she would have to grow stronger to contest what she saw as Yuya's increased growth, she refused to believe that Yuya was gone for good, she knew that he would be back one day and she would be ready for when that was. It had been ten years since they promised each other that rematch.
She went into the field generator room and shut it down for the night, the field she had previously been in disintegrating 'They'll find out soon… I can't keeping going behind dad's back like this, he's bound to notice soon…'
What was a secret however, was what Yuzu did in the middle of the night. As she made sure that her dad was fast asleep, she would sneak into his room and take the keys to the school. '"Hey, it was his fault for leaving them in the same place every night" Was the excuse that Yuzu recited to herself in order to make herself feel good about doing this.
When in the school she would go through a strict regime of increasing athleticism during the duel and also for formulating new combos that she could use. It also helped her gain a closer bond with her monsters, she had always been told that monsters were the duelist's natural friend and her training only increased this natural trust.
The pink haired girl looked up at the clock it read half past two in the morning. She sighed, it was probably time to go home and prepare to start this whole routine over again.
Walking out into the night, she took extra care to make sure that everything was locked up securely. When those checks had been passed she sighed once again and prepared to set off on the trek back to her house.
"Um? Am I late or something?" Yuzu really wasn't in the mood for whoever this was, she was too tired from her training and already had her quota of surprise appearance filled by Shiki for the foreseeable future since the sandy haired male seemed to love turning up out of nowhere to scare the shit out of people.
"Sorry, the school's closed for the night." She didn't even waste time looking at this person, she could tell from the voice that it was male but it wasn't the same voice of either of the mysterious pair of Jex or Demil, nor was it Teru as the shadow was too small and the speech too perfect. All in all, she had come to the conclusion that she could just ignore this person. "Come back later if you wish to join."
"Not even going to look at me? Ah, how mean~." The voice cawed "Good thing I'm not interested in joining then." Maybe it was the fact that she had just expended all of her energy and was close to collapsing on anything that was soft, that she missed the sharp turn in the tone of the male's voice. She was also missing out on the point that no one in their right mind would be out here at this time.
"Then please leave." Yuzu wasn't in the mood and went to push past the person in her way.
He responded by grabbing her arm and forcing her towards him "I won't leave until I got what I came for." Then, out of nowhere, he began to sniff Yuzu's skin and hair, licking his lips as he did so "And it looks like it feel right into my lap."
For the first time, Yuzu gazed at the male. He was standing at about 5'9, a roughly similar height to Yuzu and possibly slightly shorter. He was wearing a grey cloak adorned with golden designs on the front and a Coptic cross on the back. He was also wearing a shawl which was white and also had the Coptic cross on both sides. Underneath his cloak he wore a white dress shirt with ruffled cuffs and black trousers with thigh high sliver boots. In terms of physical appearance he had spiky-ish dark blue hair that was relatively unkempt, his bangs covered the right side of his face while the left side had part of the fringe tied into a small braid that went across his hairline. He had an unmistakeable set of sharp pinkish red eyes that had an ethereal quality to them. Finally, he wore a set of earrings in his left ear which were two dangling golden cylinders. "W-who are you?" Images of the last time with Jex started flash into her mind, could this be?
The blue haired male smirked and with his free hand held up three fingers "I'll give you three guesses. 1: My name is Daiki Welt, the person who is about to challenge you to a duel. 2: My name is Daiki Welt, the servant of the illustrious guild who will rebuild this wretched world!" He paused before dropping the third finger "3: My name is Daiki Welt, the one who will reclaim the Grimoire!"
Yuzu gulped. There it was again. This Grimoire thing seemed to be dominating her life recently, ever since her first encounter two nights ago with Jex and his goons. "G-grimoire?"
Daiki's eyes flashed "Indeed and from your expression I can tell that you know exactly what I mean." He tightened the hold he had on her arm "If that is indeed the case, then you need to come with me."
Yuzu, to put it bluntly, had gone from a state of shock to all out anger in the space of .5 seconds flat. As the adrenaline rushed through her, she pulled out her fan and repeatedly started to bash Daiki's face in "Who the hell do you think you are?! Grabbing a woman like that! Demanding that she follow you! Sniffing their hair and body! I should call the police on you!" She wouldn't stop until this fucker's face was pounded black and blue.
"A-a-apologies, ma'am..." Daiki wheezed after the blows to his face ceased, speaking of his face, it was now emblazoned with the marks of Yuzu's fan. He fell to the ground in an attempt to breathe life back into his hollow husk of a body.
However, that wouldn't last long as Yuzu picked up by his hair, flames burning behind her "Now, tell me what you were going to do to me or else!"
"Get off! It doesn't look like it but my hair is hard to maintain and I don't want you messing it up!" Daiki had never felt better in his life as Yuzu relinquished her hold on him. He bounded back to his feet and fixed the portion of hair that had been moved out of position.
Yuzu was about to ask him another question when suddenly a black beam flew out of Daiki's hand and attached itself to her duel disk arm, forcing it to activate. She tried to pull her arm away but found herself unable to "Don't bother, it's a duel anchor. You won't be going anywhere." Daiki pulled out his right arm where his own duel disk of an emerald green and an odd wing shaped design lay. "Tell me something, Yuzu Hiiragi… How do you sleep easy at night knowing you're hiding not one, but two big secrets from your friends and family? You sink your teeth deep into those who you depend on and infect them, you're quite the problem it would seem."
"What? How do you know my name? And what are you talking about?" Yuzu asked a flurry of question towards the smirking pink eyed male.
"Nehehehe. Wouldn't you like to know?" He yanked his duel disk arm backwards, taking Yuzu with it causing her to collapse into his waiting arms "Unfortunately, Yuzu-chan, I'll be the one asking the questions here and you'll be the one answering me, kay?" Having unintentionally placed her hands on his chest, Yuzu came across something she hadn't seen due to the dark of night. It was a small silver Coptic cross, the very same one that she had witness Demil pull out during the Jex incident.
'Are he and Demil part of the same group…?' Yuzu thought, refusing to relinquish her hold over it 'Demil vanished straight after that duel but he seemed to know who Jex was, this guy seems to know too.' She took a good look over Daiki's features again and shook her head 'No, they're not brothers. His name is Welt, Jex called Demil "Kaimia". Unless they both happened to cross him at different times, but then there's this cross and then the "guild" he just mentioned and then…'
Daiki nudged Yuzu gently, chuckling at how deep in thought the pink haired girl was "Yuzu-chan. Yuzu-chan." She snapped out of thoughts and store directly at him "Here's the deal, if you manage to beat me, I'll tell you anything you want to hear. However, if I win… Let's leave that little detail for until after the duel. So what do you say?"
Yuzu thought it over, she could get answers to the questions that had been plaguing her ever since Jex had shown up. Maybe… Just maybe… Daiki would now about Yuya too. With that her mind was set and she moved off of the navy haired male. "I accept your terms. When this is done I will have you tell me everything! No going back on your word!"
The navy haired male waved her vitriol down "Now, now, you have to beat me first. And there's no chance in hell that I'm going to allow that to happen." He grinned wildly as the black blade of his duel disk, which was in a similar wing shaped fashion, extended.
"Duel!" Both declared simultaneously.
Daiki's LP: 4000 Yuzu's LP: 4000 Cards x5
Turn 1
"I'll take the first move." Daiki declared whilst flashing the first card from his hand "I summon to the field Eternal Emperor – Staki!"The monster that appeared bore quite the striking resemblance to its owner. The monster was male, a very handsome looking one at that, he had blue hair styled in a similar fashion to Daiki although his was markedly neater and well kept. He was wearing a brown and black aristocratic type outfit with a ruffled white dress shirt underneath, there were golden trims down the lapels and a blue rose was pinned on his left torso. Finally, there was a black muffler scarf around his neck.
Eternal Emperor – Staki, Level 4, Warrior, EARTH, Effect (1600/1600)
"I activate Staki's effect, he grants me the ability to summon one Level 4 or lower Eternal Emperor from my hand to the field in defence mode." Staki's eyes flashed as he grinned, a strange runic symbol appeared on the palm of his hands as Daiki took out his partner "I summon Eternal Emperor – Gack." Gack was a similarly handsome male with purple eyes and very long purple hair tied into a braid. Just like his counterpart, Gack was dressed in a brown and black aristocratic type outfit with a ruffled white dress shirt underneath and golden trims down the lapels. However this time round there was a purple rose pinned on his left torso. Another difference was in place of the black muffler scarf, a fur line half cape rested over his right shoulder.
Eternal Emperor – Gack, Level 4, Warrior, EARTH, Effect (1400/1800)
"Gack's effect now! When this card is present on the field alongside Staki I can add one Spell or Trap card from my deck to my hand." The same runic symbol appeared although this time it was present in his eye. The card ejected itself from Daiki's duel disk and he took it into his hand "I now activate the card which I just added, the Continous Spell Card Eternal Fest!" As the card materialized on the field Yuzu took a good look at its rather strange art. The scene depicted both Staki and Gack sat in golden red thrones on either side of an empty one in the middle, Staki was holding a fork in his hand with a pensive look on his face, Gack was smirking and holding a knife. Behind them was a long white table with an indiscernible mass on it.
"In order to keep on living, there must be a sacrifice of other living things." Daiki stated "That is where Eternal Feast comes into play, it grants me the ability once per turn to destroy either a card on my field or a card in my hand."
Yuzu was perplexed "Destroying cards in your hand? You can't do that!"
Daiki snickered again "Nehehehe, watch and learn, Yuzu-chan." He took one card from his hand and showed it to Yuzu, it was another one of his monsters a small blonde haired girl was dressed a yellow ball gown and was wearing a small black hat which was adorned with a rose. "I use Feast's effect to destroy Eternal Emperor – Nel." The card burst into particles and the spirt was sucked into the card "Now two things happen. I first activate Nel's effect from the graveyard! Should this card be destroyed by card effect whilst it is either in my hand or on the field, I now get draw one card from my deck and if it is a monster card you will take damage equal to that monster's level x100." Yuzu gritted her teeth as she watched Daiki draw, hoping that he wouldn't draw a monster card. "Would you look at that? Looks like you're going to be getting away with it this turn, I drew a Trap card."
'Thank god, I don't think could take any damage straight away if I'm to win this…' Yuzu thought, breathing a huge sigh of relief.
"However! You're not out of the woods just yet! Feast's effect now activates! The destroyed monster now has its attack divided up amongst my current monsters until the end of your turn. Nel had a total of 1000 attack points, both of my monsters now gain 500 attack and defence points." The spirt of Nel appeared once more, emerging out of the card and slipping into the bodies of both Staki and Gack, increasing their power as the runic symbol became more prevalent in both their designs, enough for Yuzu to fully see it now.
She felt a cold sweat run down her neck and her mouth went dry. The symbol was reminding her of that terrible night two days ago. It wasn't exactly the same, whilst Jex's tongue had been burned with an eye like marking, Staki and Gack had a star shaped cross design with Staki's having the addition of an eye in the middle of it.
Staki's ATK: 1600 – 2100
Gack's DEF: 1800 – 2300
"With that I end my turn by placing three cards face down." The three cards materialized and then disappeared as Daiki smirked "Your turn, Yuzu-chan. Please make sure you don't disappoint us, the guild put their faith in you and I'm not going to be the bringer of bad news to them." He then shrugged "Although, I'm certain that if they understand where I'm coming from they'd understand just what a virus you truly are."
Yuzu gritted her teeth, she had just about had it with this guy's antics, especially this late at night with the adrenaline pumping through her through her veins "Virus, huh? I was always taught to believe that dueling was a game of honour where opponents would go dancing through the air alongside their monsters and fight their opponents with all of their heart. Insulting people and being rude wasn't in that contract."
The navy haired male's eyes flashed once more as he placed a hand under his chin "Really? You want to talk about heart? Trust me, all I have to do is see people once and then I know everything about them. I see your heart, it's full of darkness." He then moved his hand to where his cross was "By the sacred and forbidden name, obey me! O ye who preside over the sprits of the world, gather in front of my eyes and lay the fruits bare!" There was a flash of light and Yuzu felt something briefly invade her spirt, when it died down and she opened her eyes again she could see that Staki was whispering in his master's ear "Oh? Is that so?"
Staki nodded and went over to Gack, whispering into his ears and causing the purple haired monster snicker just like his master. "It would seem…" Daiki began "That you are even worse than first feared, everything you've done up to this point in your life has been for selfish reasons."
The pink haired girl narrowed her eyes dangerously "What are you on about?"
"Don't deny it, you can't lie to me. Ever since that pitiful day ten years ago, when your first love disappeared from this world and was replaced by the second flame you've been acting out of your own selfish desires. Because you missed your first love so much you decided that it would be for the best if you were to implant your desires onto Yuri-chan."
"And? Yuri chose to become who he is of his own choice! He said so himself!" Yuzu spat back, recalling what Yuri had told her during the previous duel.
Daiki replied by wagging his finger "Tsk, tsk, tsk~ you're such a shallow individual. How much of that was really his own volition and how much was you forcing him down that path?" Yuzu found her mouth catching itself before it could spit out another retort "But that's just the tip of the iceberg, you still hide two big secrets from your friends and family, if you were truly magnanimous in your personality your secrets wouldn't be staining your soul black."
Yuzu's retort was interrupted for the second time, although this time it was by Daiki continuing his philosophical ramblings. "Then again, everyone in this world has a secret or two that we're not proud of, they include withholding information from your parents about what happened or hiding cards because you're scared about what might happen should someone find out." The callous disregard of her feelings hurt more to Yuzu than the building pressure on her head "And that thing about being rude, I'm not rude… I just wasn't taught to politely pretend to be nice to people I can't stand."
Daiki's cards x0
Turn 2
Yuzu took a deep breath, steeling herself for the incoming turn 'Right, he's got two monsters on his field and three facedowns, from what I can gather so far is that he's probably going to be revolving around the destruction of cards on his own field and hand. I need to be carefully to not trigger any of those effects as best I can.'
"I draw and to start I will activate 1st Movement Solo!" Yuzu declared after formulating the plan for the turn in her head "This card allows me to Special summon one level 4 or lower Melodious from my hand or deck, I summon Serenade the Melodious Diva from my deck!" Serenade was a pink haired and skinned woman with a yellow and red ball gown and small pink wings coming out of her back.
Serenade the Melodious Diva, Level 4, Fairy, LIGHT, Effect (400/1900)
Yuzu's eyes zeroed in on one particular card in her hand, one she hadn't been able to summon during that duel against Kioka and Teru but one that had always been reliable for her in the past "Serenade can be treated as two sacrifices for the tribute summon of a Fairy-type monster! I sacrifice Serenade!" Serenade split into two and was soon consumed by a bright pink light. "I tribute summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra!" Descending to the field in the same bright pink light was a new monster. It was a very mature woman with blue skin and an extravagant red dress with a ruffled white skirt and golden quartet notes on each side of it, a large pair of teal coloured butterfly wings with a gold edge around it.
Mozarta the Melodious Maestra, Level 8, Fairy, LIGHT, Effect (2600/2000)
"I see…" Daiki drawled "So that's your ace monster I'm guessing? How cute~."
Yuzu ignored him, she wasn't going to give into his provocations "My monster's effect! Mozarta summons one Melodious monster from my hand once per turn! I summon Opera the Melodious Diva!" Opera was a small yellow skinned girl with pink hair styled in an up-do, she was wearing a lilac tinted dress with blue musical notes on it.
Opera the Melodious Diva, Level 4, Fairy, LIGHT, Effect (2300/1000)
"Normally, if Opera had been Normal Summoned then I wouldn't be able to attack with her on the turn that she was summoned. However, since she wasn't that means I can attack with this turn!" Yuzu proclaimed.
Daiki didn't look awfully bothered "Oh?" He placed his fist against his chin and smirked.
"And I'm not done yet! Since I control a Melodious monster I can summon this wonderful diva to the field! Come on out, Canon the Melodious Diva!" Cannon was light blue skinned monster with a tight fitting pink dress on with a blue and black checked mini skirt on, she was also wearing a golden Domino mask and had spiky blue hair.
Canon the Melodious Diva, Level 4, Fairy, LIGHT, Effect (1400/2000)
Yuzu grinned, all the pieces were in place for her to win! "To battle! Opera attack Staki!" Opera flapped her wings and ascended into the air, from their she slowly began to recite a melody which gradually got louder and louder until it took physical form as a stream of notes which sped towards the Eternal Emperor.
Staki cast an uninterested glance to the approaching attack before turning to face his master. As if there was some form of secret conversation going on that Yuzu couldn't hear Daiki nodded his head "Indeed, we can't allow that can we? Well, let's not waste anytime then! Trap activate! Eternal Appetite!" This card's scene was markedly difference from the previous one, this time Staki was the only one present on the art dressed down to his shirt and a black waistcoat, he looked somewhat manic and was holding his hand over his heart "This card can only be activated when my opponent controls more monsters than I do. Whilst one of my monsters is under attack I can destroy one of the monsters I presently control either on the field or in my hand, like Gack for instance."
Once more, Yuzu was surprised by how Staki turned his head and looked sad as his fellow monster was sacrificed into the card 'This isn't an action duel… This shouldn't be possible…'
"Now, here's what happens! Staki now gains attack points equal to half of Gack's original attack!" The spirt of Gack emerged from the card and dissolved into Staki's body as the blue haired monster gained another runic symbol, this time in his eye.
Staki's ATK: 2100 – 2800
"He's stronger than Opera!" Yuzu exclaimed.
Daiki snickered, holding his hand over his heart "And that's not all… You see, if it brings them satisfaction I will gladly offer up my most vital and important thing so that they can become happy! Gack has a particular effect whenever he is destroyed, whomever destroys him is dealt damage equal to Gack's level x200. So I'll be taking 800 points." Yuzu didn't see anything happen with her naked eye, but she knew for sure that something had changed, a loud slash reverberated across the field and see could see the beginnings of a bleeding gash forming on Daiki's face.
Daiki's LP: 4000 – 3200
Images of Yuri in the hospital began to flood into Yuzu's mind and she started to feel queasy, holding her stomach "A-are you okay?"
Daiki held his shoulders as the blood trickled down from his face "Yes… For me it would be the highest honour to embrace rapture in my destruction! Fight back Staki!" Staki jumped into action at his master's decree, snapping his fingers as the two spirits that had emboldened him with power now returned to the corporeal realm and acted as the sponges for the attack. The two spirits then raced towards Opera, slinking into the Melodious monster who then screamed and exploded, blowing Yuzu back.
Yuzu's LP: 4000 – 3500
"The downside of this is that now Staki loses any boost in his attack that he may have received over the past few turns." As Staki returned to his master's side he looked notably weaker, the symbols disappearing from his person.
Staki's ATK: 2800 – 1600
Yuzu smacked her cheeks 'Calm down, Yuzu, you've still got this, his monster is weak and Mozarta can destroy it, leaving Canon to mop up. I can get him down to 800 and go from there.' She steeled herself once more "Mozarta, you're up next! Attack Staki!" Two conductor's batons appeared within Mozarta's hands, a blast of musical notes coming out of both them and obliterating Staki, leaving Daiki's field bare just as she had planned.
Daiki's LP: 3200 – 2200
"Now you, Canon!" Just like all the other monsters, Canon attacked with a stream of musical notes that swarmed over the navy haired male to his odd amusement.
Daiki's LP: 2200 – 800
Yuzu was pleased by what had happened, she had really overestimated this guy's capabilities, she should be home and dry by the start of her next turn "I end my turn!"
Yuzu's cards x3
"Nehe… Hehe… Hahaha…" Daiki's disjointed laughing sent chills down her spine, he was shaking with excitement and grasping his shoulders with a huge smile on his face "Nehehehehehehehehehehe! Oh, Yuzu-chan! Yuzu-chan! Yuzu-chan! I didn't know you were such a violent individual, but I'm not about to complain~, make sure you do it harder next time."
'This is the same person who got annoyed at me for pulling his hair?'
Daiki clapped his hands "Well, it's time for the resurrection!"
That declaration shocked Yuzu "What do you mean?"
"Isn't it obvious? The monsters are called Eternal Emperors, they can't be easily destroyed by simple means." Daiki tapped his right temple with a shit eating grin on his face, Yuzu really didn't like where this was going "Just as I said before, in order for something to keep on living, you must first preform a sacrifice. I just did so." He ran one of his hands through the bleeding gash, smelling his fingers shortly afterwards "Did you ever here that story about Duel Monsters having spirits and souls?"
Yuzu nodded her head, her dad had been pretty adamant that that story was true and that it had been the basis for why action dueling had become so popular. It allowed for Duelists to have a closer connection to their monsters and legend had it that some were even able to talk to their monsters and feel what they felt.
"That story is true. Each and every monster card has a soul and a spirit that resides within its confines, while you may be able to destroy the cards physically their spirit will never be vanquished. Why am I telling you about this? Because my monsters are impossible to get rid of unless I decide that their time is up. Staki and Gack's effects! During the turn that both of these cards were destroyed and sent to my graveyard and I took at least half my life points I damage during the turn, I summon these two back to the field! Return!"
Yuzu's eyes shook with horror as the graveyard portal emerged in the middle of the field with both of the men crawling out of it like they were a pair of zombies. "The downside to it though is that they can longer use their effects and are locked into defence mode for the rest of the duel."
Turn 3
"However! That doesn't matter! I draw!" Daiki slashed at the top of his deck with a fervent passion in his eyes. "I hope you're prepared for this, Yuzu-chan, to see if you really are what I was searching for I must use this card." One of his facedown cards flipped face up and instantaneously Yuzu felt something in her mind switch, that same dark aura was starting to invade her mind as she gazed at the card art.
The card art was graphic. Laying on the floor of a dining room were Staki and Gack. Staki's mouth had been ripped clean off with the blood pouring onto his clothing, he was lying in a pool of blood and alongside him Gack had befallen the same with his hair being stained blood red with half of his face missing entirely "I activate the Ritual Spell Eternal Resurrection Ritual! With this card I can Ritual summon using monsters from my hand, field or graveyard!" A large table, not too dissimilar from the one present in the Eternal Feast card, appeared before Daiki "I sacrifice Eternal Emperor Staki and Gack from my field and Eternal Emperor Nel from my graveyard! That makes for a total level of ten!" The three monsters materialized on the table sliced into numerous pieces, once more triggering another shift in Yuzu's mind and sick to build in her throat.
Daiki began to chant as the pieces of the monsters were incinerated in blue flames "By the omniscient name, o ye spirits who wander this planet, descend from the heavens and assist me!" The whole table was incinerated and new monster began to form "Ritual summon! Level 10! Eternal Emperor – Stakel!"
The new monster was a Frankenstein's monster of the three cards that summoned it, it had the body of the two male Emperors while it had the face of the female one. Its hair had taken on the long form of Gack's but had the blue of Staki and the yellow of Nel as its colour. Its clothing was a mess of waistcoats, belts, scarves and fur capes. That took nothing away from the pained looking turquoise eyes.
Eternal Emperor – Stakel, Level 10, Ritual, Warrior, EARTH, Effect (3500/2700)
Yuzu felt queasy juts looking at these monster and the pounding headache she was having wasn't helping. It felt like the dark aura emanating from this monster was invading her. She was so caught up in it that she didn't realise that her bracelet gem had begun to glow. "Stakel is the epitome of my philosophy, in order to truly escape the mundane you must constantly evolve. Life is like an ice cream, you've have to enjoy it before it melts! This is Stakel's effect, once per turn I can select one card in your hand and destroy it, if that card is a monster then you lose life points equal to half of that monster's attack points." Yuzu's breath hitched, all of the cards in her hands were monsters! She was going to get hit with this no matter what "I'll take the middle card." The selected card levitated out of Yuzu's hands and exploded. "Hmm, Elegy the Melodious Diva, that monster has 2000 attack points so that means you'll be taking 1000 points of damage. Stakel! Fervent Slice!" Yuzu didn't see anything move but she sure as hell felt it when a slash of claws across her face caused a large gash that was even worse than the one taking home beneath Daiki's eye.
Yuzu's LP: 3200 – 2200
"What was that?" Yuzu muttered as she felt how real the gash was, she had seen Daiki do the same thing not that long ago but to have to happen to her was just so surreal. Physical damage like this shouldn't be possible since they weren't in an action field and real solid vison wasn't being fully utilized.
"Did you listen to me? Monsters are real and thus will cause real damage." Daiki winked his only visible eye "You shouldn't complain, it's lovely what they can do to you sometimes."
Yuzu was about to reply but she was quickly cut off by Daiki announcing his next move "Trap activate! Eternal Devouring!" Just as the Ritual spell this card was heavily graphic in its imagery. Gack had a knife sliced into Staki's face, right where the jaw muscles were, meanwhile Staki had his fork stabbed into the side of Gack's face. While all this was going on, Nel was watching on innocently unaware of what was happening. "With this card I cut my life points in half." Stakel turned on a dime, a surprising feat for the over encumbered giant monster and slashed the navy haired male's stomach and tearing the undershirt Daiki was wearing. That revealed the fact that he too held the same mark that Staki and Gack held, his was just above his belly button and was markedly smaller but there none the less.
Daiki's LP: 800 – 400
"With that, Stakel's effect comes into play! Whenever a card deals damage to me via battle or card effect, Stakel now gains the difference between our life points subtracted by the damage that I've taken this turn. Presently the difference between our points is 1800 and if you take away that 400 I just took, that would leave us with 1400 extra points to add onto Stakel's attack!" Stakel's stitching bulged as a dark mist seeped underneath it.
Stakel's ATK: 3500 – 4900
"You're in a right mess now, aren't you?" Yuzu was startled by the addition of this new voice, she looked over the field seeing that Stakel's mouth had been stitched shut and she knew that the voice wasn't Daiki's "Don't worry about who I am or even what I am, all I need you to do is to decide whether you want to go out with a whimper or with a bang."
"W-what?" Yuzu stuttered.
"This duel is over, you have no cards in your hand to help you and he has all the advantage in the world. If you give yourself to me then I will allow you to at least prove your worth to this reprobate."
However Yuzu wasn't given the light of day to make a decision "Battle! End this Stakel! Dine on your victim! Obliterate Mozarta the Melodious Maestra! Last Supper!"
Stakel tore easily through the flesh of Mozarta, ripping her apart graphically limb from limb and devouring each and every digit on the hand and foot. The head was the most disturbing as it was lopped off with one clean cleaving, the head rolled to Yuzu's feet as tears began to stream down Yuzu's face. Mozarta was the last card she had used against Yuya, she had made a resolution that if she ever summoned her that she would never allowed her to be destroyed because it would be the equivalent of destroying her hope in Yuya coming back. Here was that hope being torn and devoured. She was too numb to everything to realise the final blow that Stakel struck, ending the duel.
Yuzu's LP: 2200 – 0
Daiki: Win!
"No…No…No!" The pink light which had begun shining during Stakel's summon now reached its crescendo, engulfing everything in pink, obliterating the remaining monsters that hadn't vanished as the duel ended. The duel anchor falling from both their arms.
As he saw this light Daiki broke into a bout of insane laughter "NEHEHEEHEHEHEH! I found it! Nesta-sama! It's over! It's over! It's over! Once that light dies down I'll collect it! Then it'll all be over! Yuzu-chan! Yuzu-chan! You did it, I'm so proud~!"
'Why me… What does everything bad always happen to me?! First Yuya, then Yuri, then Jex, now this! Does this world hate me?!' Yuzu pounded the ground, unaware of what was going on around her. She swung down harder and harder until her knuckles began to bleed, eventually her energy had peaked and with the adrenaline dying away the distraught pink haired girl collapsed to the ground.
Daiki approached as the light died down, kneeling down before Yuzu "Nehehe, this is goodbye, Yuzu-chan, don't worry though, I won't be bothering you again after this and neither will Jex." He reached down to her arm and went to remove her bracelet.
However, just as his hand touched the metal he pulled back haphazardly with a searing pain blazing through his hand 'What the fuck?! What was that?!' He went to pull it off again but this time the gem blasted the same pink light which died out just moments before, it covered over the bewildered Daiki as the navy haired male panicked"What?! No! I was so close! Nesta-sama! I fai-." His sentence was cut off as he disappeared from the scene, leaving a limp but still semi-conscious Yuzu by herself.
A/N: Would you look at that? I got this out way sooner than I expected too. I honestly didn't expect to finish this for at least another couple of weeks because of my exams. But in-between revision periods I was able to finish this.
So, onto the chapter. In this chapter there is the emergence of this mysterious new group at the start and the appearance of Daiki Welt who gives Yuzu a duel she isn't likely to forget anytime soon.
Yuzu is also hearing a mysterious voice for the first time. I wonder what caused that?
Anyway, this will be the last for a while, I mean it this time. Review if you wish and tell me how to improve on it.
See ya!