(Dreamscape)
Opening his eyes, Yuri was greeted once more by an empty, black void. He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes on the spot 'Wonderful! Just fucking wonderful!' Sighing, he grasped the side of his head, shook it, and got to looking around the void in an attempt to predict what was going to happen to him next.
He didn't quite remember what had happened immediately prior to waking up here. The last he could recall consisted of him getting him, greeting his mother at the door like he always did, tending to the plants that he kept up in his room, and finally getting along to opening those packs that Demil had helped him pick out to improve his deck. What he didn't remember was what happened straight after opening them, any of the cards he may have gotten drew a blank in his memory.
It didn't help as well that anything could've happened between then and now. How long had he possibly been out for? An hour? Two hours? Twelve? An entire day?! 'Ugh, this… Why is this happening to me now of all times? I thought I was done with this shit when I got here.'
If it was going to be anything like the last time he had been whisked away into a void, chances were it probably wasn't going to make a whole load of sense and he was going to wake up with someone peering over him for no discernible reason. Of course, Yuzu had been sat there the whole time and it was totally natural for her to be there considering what had happened prior, he was just expecting, in line with his seemingly increasingly shitty luck, for some random asshole he had never met in his life to be looming large. 'I swear if that waste of bandages is behind this, I'm goi-'
Before Yuri could actually accuse anyone any further in his mind, the scene shifted. The black void shifting into a different visage, one of a futuristic city that sprawled for miles and miles with islands containing massive public works and structures floating just above it. One building, a distinctly Academia looking building on one of the floating islands was quickly out of sight and blacked out of Yuri's mind as he continued to look around the new city.
It really was a marvel, there was no doubt about it. The only issue being that Yuri didn't have a single clue where this city was, or even what the city was. Was it some place near Academia? Was it some place here in the Standard Dimension? Was it something that existed at all?
But before Yuri could tear himself to pieces over those questions, he heard a voice call out to him(?) "There you are! Come on! We're going to be late to meet my Father and Kauikazu-san!" The voice was female and the figure that bounded towards him was certainly blessed with a graciously feminine physique, not that Yuri was paying attention or anything…
The strangest thing about it, though, was that despite the rest of her body being visible, that futuristic looking getup and marron hair tied into twintails, her face was shrouded in darkness with only her mouth being visible. Frankly, that imagery was quite disturbing to Yuri as he felt the girl tug on his arm and drag him across the street. At least the sights around him allowed reprise from having to think about it much more.
"Honestly, I don't get you sometimes. If you were half as good at being a functional human being as you are at duelling, you would be the Supreme King of the World already." The girl complained, she was probably pouting if Yuri decided to look over. "At least promise me this, whenever you meet those two, even if you don't like them, try to grin and bear it for me. They're very important for both of us if we want to be high ranking duelists in the future."
Yuri stopped looking at his surroundings as those words spilled from the girl's mouth. Trying his best to cobble together a coherent structure to this strange situation that had been thrust upon him, the Predator Plant duelist was able to gather two things. 1) Whoever he had taken the place of was a close friend of whoever this girl was. 2) Whoever they were going to meet, it was evidently clear that whoever he had become didn't like them in the slightest.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he muttered under his breath "Great… This is just great… What am I supposed to do now?!" It was just after he pulled his hand away that he noticed yet another thing that was off about this situation. "Holy shit…" His reaction was a bit of an understatement to say the least, barely reaching above the cadence of someone pointing out an everyday occurrence as it was supplemented by him gawking at his now glove covered hand like a gormless idiot. "What the hell…?"
The girl beside him picked up quickly on the fact that her "friend" was staring at his own hand for what seemed like the first time in his life. Sighing, she elbowed Yuri in the gut in an attempt to knock him out of his fugue state. "Ugh, can you please snap out of it? It's not that bad. Sure, Kunikazu-san isn't the most approachable person on first glance, but he's just like my dad. He's really passionate about helping us, so please don't do anything hot-headed or weird. 'Kay?"
Yuri shuddered, the sweetness coated in the last part of the sentence would make him in real life, he was awfully glad at this point in time that he couldn't see her face. Horrors about the murderous aura emanating from her were already doing a good job weaselling their way into his mind and existed right until they found themselves at the doorstep of a very lavish looking mansion.
The mansion looked rather old fashioned in comparison to the futuristic marvels that were built around it. Plain white with the occasional lick of gold and a very stereotypical looking entrance complete with obnoxious statue of some Knight that Yuri could only assume was some kind of Monster card by its unnatural proportions and unrealistic design in general.
Yuri then felt the girl's hand carefully intertwine with his, briefly feeling it squeezed as a blush erupted across his face. 'Holy shit… What the hell... That did not just happen… Why am I dreaming this?!'
Any time Yuri might have had to process the incident was interrupted by the door swinging open and another of the shadowy-faced people taking up the frame. This one seemed to be dressed like some kind of scientist, complete with the white lab coat/robe and grey undercoat. A bright smile radiated from the face"Ah! There you are! We've been waiting for quite a while, I hope you two didn't get too side-tracked on the way over here."
Yuri's world stopped in the very instant he heard that voice. He remembered it all too well 'No… It can't be him! This place… What is this place?
NoThInG MaDe SeNsE!
(Real World) (Night time)
Yuri awoke with a jump, flinging his bed sheets to the ground as soon as he sat up. His body was coated in a thick, cold, slimy sweat that oozed without an end as his breathing steadily reached to a near crescendo. 'It can't be, it simply can't be. It's been years! Years! Why did I dream that now? And what was that world? It was too real!' His mind ran at a mile a minute as he tried to ascertain any semblance of structure.
Slowly, as he gently manoeuvred out of the bed and quietly across the floor as not to cause any disturbance, he once more tried to make sense of the dream (?) 'A futuristic world… A girl that knew me… I was apparently someone who was hotheaded and weird…? Who's Kunikazu…? And then that voice… Nothing said that he would be there!'
There may have been a seven year gap between him hearing it, but the voice he had heard had long built a permanent residency in his mind. Somehow, Leo Akaba was a part of that dream, the shadow covering his face lifting in that very moment. The reason why Yuri was dreaming about it now of all times was what he really wanted to know. Was that dream all really a construct of his cognition? One where he was able to create a vast world with seemingly real people, only for it all to be so he could meet the man who could've possibly ruined his life had he been trapped longer in Academia.
Reaching the table nestled in the corner of his room, sweat still trickling down off his body, he gazed upon the spread out cards with the booster packs they had come from creating a mess on the usually pristine top.
As much as it pained him to admit, Demil had really helped him out in this regard, the cards he had been able to attain from the packs were going to be more than enough to help him carry You Show and his friends to the top of the Duelling world. Personally, he couldn't wait for the moment where he was going to be able to use them in conjunction with his Pendulum cards to show Reiji up on the biggest stage of them all. Still, it would be a struggle and he still needed to master Pendulum before Reiji did so he could show that arrogant CEO who the best of the best really was.
Reading the time as 3:15 and recalling the feeling he had as he awoke, in addition to not wanting to risk starting up another one of those insane sequences, Yuri groaned softly as he let the thought of defeating Reiji and restoring You Show's pride consume his mind. There was no point going to back to sleep now when he had tons of work to do. The Maiami Championship was mere days away.
No one was going to stop him now.
Especially not that man.
The gentle rattling of rusty chains slowly filling the room went unnoticed as a result.
(Next Day)
Skirting and rushing through the gothic, macabre surroundings of this Action field was far more difficult than it had any right to be. Yuzu's body creaked and groaned as she powered on regardless, this was all for the greater good of You Show and she wasn't going to let anything stop her. "Go for it now, my butterfly!" Shiki's voice proclaimed as her two monsters raced to her side.
Hearing Shiki give the signal, Yuzu brought her hands together and began to chant "I overlay Level 4 Canon the Melodious Diva and Level 4 Aria the Melodious Diva to build the Overlay Network!" Two bright beams of pure energy erupted from the bodies of the two Melodious monsters, racing towards the centre of the swirling portal in the floor "I XYZ summon! Come on out, Ran-"
A loud buzzing noise screeched out as a red 'X' appeared on Yuzu's duel disk, causing her to cover her ears. The two monsters returning to her side as any trace of the Overlay Network vanished, as too did the Action Field, revealing a very annoyed looking Shiki sauntering over to his newest "student". "Do you want to tell me what went wrong?" He said, looking down his nose at the pink haired girl.
"Umm… I don't know…" Yuzu answered honestly, racking her brains for any reason that she might have failed. "I did what you said, I brought out two monsters, they were the same level, and then I tried to do an XYZ summon."
"Give me your disk, I want to see something." Shiki ordered, taking a scan through Yuzu's deck when he was able to get his hands on it. A sneer slowly began to creep up on his lips the longer he took to analyse the cards. Yuzu gulped when his eyes landed back on her, he didn't look happy in the slightest "I think I found the issue."
Flipping the cards around, Yuzu saw that he had landed on the XYZ card he had given her for this practice run. "What about it?" She mumbled as she quirked her brow, not quite getting where Shiki was going with this.
"You know something called the Extra Deck exists, right?" Shiki sneered, speaking as if he were talking to a five year old as Yuzu nodded her head. "And you know the Main Deck, right? Of course you do, you're a smart girl. Which makes me wonder why you put a card meant for the Extra Deck in the Main Deck!" The sand haired male finished, raising his voice as he did so.
Taking a moment to think it over, Yuzu's mouth slowly transitioned into an 'O' as she sheepishly began to laugh and scratch the back of her head. "Hahaha… I'm sorry, Sogami-san… Promise I won't do it again!"
"Sorry doesn't cut it." Shiki snarled, the aggression shocking Yuzu as he shoved her deck and her disk back into her hands. "I'm not interested in having someone that doesn't understand the fundamental basics of XYZ summoning!" Silence loomed for about a couple of seconds, before Shiki seemingly calmed down "Apologies about that, my butterfly, I've just got a lot on my plate at the moment. Just come back tomorrow and I'll be sure to rectify any complaints you might have."
Swivelling on his heel, Shiki left the arena without saying another word. Yuzu staring off in the direction he had gone, wondering what had caused him to explode that way. He had been so nice when teaching her about XYZ to begin with…
"Use this." Out of nowhere, Kichirou appeared at Yuzu's side with a towel draped over his arm like some kind of magical gothic butler. Grateful for the pink haired teen's sudden appearance, Yuzu took the towel with a small smile, suddenly remembering her aching body was still in fact a thing. "I hope you didn't get the wrong impression. The first session is always tiring with Shiki, he doesn't really care about pacing and he isn't that forgiving."
Hmm, he could say that again. Finishing wiping the sweat from her brow, Yuzu let the towel hang round her shoulders before replying "Oh no, don't worry about it! I can tell that he just really cares about what he does, it's just that I kinda jumped into this without thinking about the nuances behind XYZ!"
Kichirou scoffed, taking out a deck of playing cards and starting to shuffle them as he spoke "He does care. Maybe a bit too much. I remember when he first started teaching Bitch-chan about XYZ… Jesus, it wasn't pretty to watch." Interlocking the cards, Yuzu watched as they cascaded like a waterfall into Kichirou's waiting hands "She didn't get very far during the first lesson, apparently, and I guess Shiki got really angry because he's so attached to XYZ for some fucking reason. Trust me, if he asks someone who was probably about eleven when they first started to get it perfect on their first try, he's going to put you through the fucking wringer. I'm glad he doesn't touch anything else, just don't tell him I said that." He finished, scratching the side of his head profusely.
"He only teaches XYZ…?" Yuzu asked innocently enough, tilting her head at the choleric magician.
"Yep, he holds it so near and dear to his heart that he straight up refuses to teach anything else himself. He gets others to teach us all the other methods. If I recall correctly, Teru-kun already knew how to Fusion summon for some reason before him and Bitch-chan joined, although, like I said, Bitch-chan had to learn XYZ from Shiki. It all fucking sucks compared to me anyway, I knew Synchro and mastered it when I was just a kid!" Swelling with pride and bravado, the tone of voice and dramatic flair that accompanied Kichirou's declaration wasn't that far off that of a magician on a stage.
"What? You know Synchro? That's really interesting, You Show doesn't have any Synchro Duelists! Who taught you?" Whilst the question was reasonable enough on the surface, and sure Yuri had already told her that Kichirou was a Synchro duelist, Yuzu had a hidden reason, unbeknownst to the puffed up magician, in gathering this information. It was clear, at least to her, that Gongenzaka was looking to find out who he could learn to Synchro summon from. Maybe, just maybe, she would be able to get who taught Kichirou and then subtly pass it on to him.
Shortly after Yuzu finished, Kichirou sagged. "If you're looking to learn something from him, you ain't getting shit. He's not open to teaching anyone who's not a part of our family, he's very proud of our history with Synchro summoning, and thinks that telling others how we do it is the most taboo fucking thing in the world. It's like Shiki in reverse, but just as annoying."
"You have a family history with it?" Yuzu blinked, confused and intrigued at the same time. Sure, the information that she wouldn't be able to get help straight away was annoying, but she could always hold out for hope.
What she didn't notice as she was too busy going over her thoughts, was that her comment had caused Kichirou to promptly bury his face into his clothes and yell his lungs out. Eventually throwing his head back like a baying hound "Godamnit, I did it again! Why do I fucking suck so much at this?! Kioka, Shiki, Teru, they all fucking know it, so why the hell not?! Sort your shit out, Kichirou!"
"He-Hey! It's alright." Honestly, Yuzu would be lying if the magician's choleric outbursts weren't concerning, but she would also be lying if it wasn't getting the tiniest bit on her nerves now. If said outbursts didn't have such a violence to them, he wouldn't have been much from when Ayu or Futoshi were throwing a tantrum. "It's okay! You don't have to tell me if you don't want to! I'm not trying to be a hassle.
Deflating again, Kichirou let his head drop before replying "No, no, no, it's fine. I may as well do it as is. You see, my family is one that you could consider "eccentric" by normal people means. Fuck, look at me and look where I ended up! I'm from a long line of magicians, and you know how hard we safeguard our trade secrets. Well, my Dad was even more secretive than most."
(Flashback)
"You see, my Dad is the Great Illusionist Illumi Kaneko, and I love him like I love nobody else in the world. Dad's the greatest magician in the world, hands down, and he's everything I've ever wanted to be."
Illumi Kaneko was a dashingly handsome man standing at 6'1 tall, with an appearance that mirrored his son's nearly identically minus the face of piercings. He had flowing cold pink hair that fell down to just under his shoulders with long bangs that framed his face, the same pinkish red eyes that were covered with face paint, a black diamond over the left, and a red spade over his right. Unlike his son, though, Illumi was far less over the top in terms of clothing, but maintained the same level of extravagant flair. He wore a billowing white cloak that covered the vast majority of his person, a black lanyard connected it together over his shoulder and showed off just enough of the red shirt underneath to confirm that he was indeed wearing something under neat. The same white colour trailed down to his trousers and the thigh high boots he was wearing, although the boots did have golden toecaps. A pair of white gloves, the left one having a black heart, the right one having a red club, decorated his hands. A black top hat finished off the look.
"I loved his shows so much when I was younger, you should've seen them! Granted, you people don't understand the intricacies of magic so you wouldn't get it, but they were incredible! The things Dad could do… They were on another planet. Don't get me started on his duelling as well, it was just another level of magic. To my younger self, I genuinely thought that he had magic and was a wizard in a past life."
"It's easy, son, just watch and learn. " The elder Kaneko said to Kichirou, who was no older than eight at the time, flicking both of his wrists as the two monsters in front of them ascended high to the sky, ready for the synchro summon "The tuner is like the magician in this sense, without it you have no trick, but the other monster or monsters are just as important. You can't get the trick without the cards, right? "
The archetypal synchro summon occurred, landing the new monster on Illumi's side of the field. Although it looked more akin to cenobite with a pin fetish than an actual loveable monster, Kichirou was enamoured with it nonetheless "Wow! Wow! Wow! You're so cool, Dad!" The young Kichirou couldn't help but fly into his dad's waiting arms "Do you think you could teach me?" He said with sparkles in his eyes and unbridled innocence in his tone.
"Of course, son~! " Illumi said, sweeping his adorable son high into the air and gazing at him with nothing but fondness. "Don't worry if you don't get it right on your first try, son~! I'm sure that one day you'll be even better than I am~! "
"You know how Yuri-kun got inspired by Yusho? And how Yusho revolutionised the entire field of Action Dueling and created the whole Entertainment Duelling crap? That's similar to how my dad inspired me, he did nothing but build me up. He taught me everything he knew. In addition to that, he knew the potential of synchro summoning so much that he was approached by LDS a couple years ago. I was already meant to be going there soon, but they wanted him to teach for them as well. However, that didn't go so well…"
"No! Get out of my sight!" Kichirou may have been a stupid 14 year old at the time, but he was aware enough to understand that a gang of black suited men probably didn't spell good news. He could hear how angry his father was getting and it scared him quite frankly, his father had never been this angry before. Keeping his place behind the wall, his knees shook. "If you think for a single second that I'm teaching at that sorry excuse for a school, you're in the wrong fucking timeline! Your main cash cow vanished, Action Duelling is a sorry sham of what it once was, and if you, you child, are the CEO, do you take me for an idiot?"
"I can only assume that they wanted him to do something that went against our family's wishes. They were probably asking for shit that they had no business knowing, my dad doesn't get as angry as I do, so it was justified. He did tell me later that he really didn't have a choice for a while. He was getting pressured by my Grandparents to get me into a prestigious school, LDS was the one everyone knew and no one was going to want to be associated with You Show after Yusho's no show."
"I heard that you were thinking about sending your son to us soon, Mr Kaneko." The CEO, a one young Reiji Akaba, spoke clearly and firmly. He was too swarmed those men in black for Kichirou to actually see what was happening between him and his father, though. "I mightn't know a lot about your son, but I'm sure that having his father there with him as he traverses a new situation may help him to adjust faster. Just a thought."
A thud quickly followed, his father slamming his foot down in indignation "That doesn't change anything! I'm not going to be another one of LDS' puppets, and the only reason I was considering sending Kichirou your dumpster fire of a school is because I have literally no other option! Do you think I want him to go there, after all of the stories I heard about Leo Akaba?"
"Hmm, so be it then. If my Father were still around he'd be very disappointed to see the person you've become." Reiji said, turning on his heel as his coterie of bodyguards flanked him once more. "You're making a grave mistake, Mr Kaneko, if you wish for your son to have no future in Duelling you're doing a very good job of assuring it. Don't expect any help from us in the future in terms of promotion, you can consider your run over."
"I don't mean this in a bad way, but you've got no hope in hell of actually getting Dad to help you with Synchro. That whole event has kinda poisoned his view on helping people, apparently he had some kind of deal with Reiji Akaba's dad a couple years ago and he didn't take too kindly to Reiji exploiting that. He pulled the plug very quickly on me going to LDS after they had their bust up."
Kichirou stumbled out from behind the wall just as Illumi was in the process of screaming incoherently into his hands and obsessively smoothing back his hair in a vague attempt to maintain sanity. Knees knocking together at the sight, the younger pink haired male stammered "Da-Dad… Who… Who the… Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Was that?"
The sound of his son's voice helped to bring the illusionist back to reality, hands falling to his sides and a smile, one that Kichirou could see was strained and forced, spread across his face "Ah! Don't worry about them, son. They're just… A couple of people who wished to call in a favour... They're nothing you need to worry your little head about."
"No! That wasn't okay, Dad!" Kichirou bawled "I heard what you said! I heard what they said! What the fucking fuck is going on!" Reflexively, he began to scratch at the side of his head as his breathing grew increasingly heavy.
A heavy, yet soft hand lifted Kichirou's hand away from his progressively damaged head. A lightbulb had just gone off in his father's head "Hey, hey, hey, Kichi, don't worry about it, I've got an idea." Illumi said, a smirk powering over that pained smile from earlier "There was someone that I met during one of my shows recently, we talked about our respective protégés and it turns out that not only does he have two kids of his own, he also turns out to have just set up a Duel School of his own. Why don't we go over there now and see what it's all about, hmm? I'd be awfully proud of you if you can catch his attention." Kichirou sniffed, running a hand over his runny nose as he nodded. If his dad wanted him to check it out, then he wasn't going to complain. So long as it got his mind off what he had just seen.
(Flashback end)
"Shiki's school seemed to be the only option at the time. I wouldn't say that they are friends, I don't think they ever spoke to each other again after the decision was made to send me here. But, I'm glad that he did. Shiki really allowed me to be myself, not that Dad wasn't already doing that! It's just that I feel more at peace when I'm here, and I'm really happy that despite not being here as long as Kioka and Teru-kun, Shiki still appreciates all I've done for the school!" Kichirou smiled brightly as he finished rattling off more about himself than Yuzu had asked him, but to see him like this actually made Yuzu briefly forget that he attacked Sora out of the blue and had psychotic anger issues. He looked so… Normal in this situation.
"I see…" Yuzu said, handing the now drenched towel over to the pink haired teen "That was very interesting to listen too…" She thought through the information she had just learned with a frown on her face. Kichirou was adamant that his dad wouldn't be able to teach them, and from how the magician spoke about his dad, it was also clear that she wouldn't be able to drag it out of him either. He may have gave a brief rundown of how Synchro worked, but Yuzu was already able to glean that from Gongenzaka's duel against Yaiba. "Thank you for telling me anyway, I feel bad for your dad, I don't think I could ever imagine what it would be like if my dad were threatened like that."
Returning to his previous card flourishes, Kichirou hummed "He's that childish man in the tracksuit, isn't he?" Yuzu resisted the urge to sigh then and there. She loved her dad to death, but he could really send the wrong message 99% of the time. "I can imagine he also had it hard, having to take over following Yusho's no show
She nodded "Yeah, the first year was especially tough. We lost a lot of students because they no longer wanted to be associated with our name, I remember that Dad was really tearing himself to pieces over the whole issue. He was concerned that we would have to shut down, but then Yuri come up with this scheme and just about kept us afloat!"
Now, Kichirou was curious, the cards he had been playing with vanishing as he gave Yuzu his undivided attention. "That asshole did something to help you? He seemed pretty content to throw that other kid under the bus when he duelled me."
"Yeah!" Yuzu proclaimed, silently taking note of Yuri's apparent treatment of Sora that she would have to bring up to the Predator Plant duelist when she saw him again "He was convinced that we had to do something truly special and he pulled it out of the bag! He was really depressed for a while after Yusho, but he said to my dad that he wasn't about to let his dad's legacy just end like that!"
"Oh, that's cool…" Kichirou murmured. Wasn't Shiki's duel against Yuri meant to be about said Pendulum wielder wimping out on his goals and legacy? Granted, his principal had been particularly adamant that his opponent was going to change his ways.
Just then, a message came through on Yuzu's disk. Her face lighting up as she spied who it was "Speak of the devil…" She mumbled, a smile tugging on her lips as she turned to face the magician "Looks like I'm wanted elsewhere. It's been nice talking to you, Kichirou-kun, let's do this again sometime!" The pink haired girl said, jumping to her feet and rushing out to meet up with Yuri.
Left in the wake of her departure, Kichirou swiftly returned to his cards, deftly pulling out one card in particular as he rest of the deck vanished with the flick of his wrist. His purple lips curled upwards as he snickered softly "Hehehe, now this… This is a really interesting turn of events… Yes, let's speak again, Yuzu-san."
(Fusion Dimension)
Reisuke was bored. Super bored. Yali hadn't come back in ages and nothing was interesting without him, he felt like a wife waiting for her husband after he had gone off to the war. He only hoped that it wouldn't be for as long as last time.
Anyway, it was all his fault for not heeding Yali's warning about going to XYZ. Yali had been there for far longer than he, he knew the type of people that were there, and he too had scars to prove it.
Sometimes Reisuke wondered what it would've been like had they not been born into this situation, a place where they had to fend for themselves the moment that they were able to walk. Academia had twisted what should have been happy and fulfilling lives into ones dedicated to some obscure goal about reuniting the Dimensions.
It was funny, though. How the word "reunite" was always used by the Professor, never "unite" as one may expect. It made the Commandant think about who the Professor actually was.
Nothing much ever came of it.
Reisuke, despite being promoted for his Dueling prowess and strategic thinking, never really was the "thinker" out of the pair of them. Yali could handle all the long term planning for the two of them whilst Reisuke secured that future. It was a situation that he liked and a situation he wished to maintain, probing too far into it would only lead to suffering.
Cleaning a bit of dust off of his piano, he stared at the now pristine white top. He could practice his melodies again, but that's all he had been doing recently and it bored him to tears. Art was something that needed inspiration, and his muse was currently out in God knows where doing God knows what.
He could go and see Yuya, but he had heard that Yuya was preparing for some mission he was going on to Standard. His presence would be disregarded immediately as if he weren't even there. It hurt a bit, knowing that the young smiling child he had helped to teach had turned into a sadistic monster no different from what you usually got at Academia.
C'est la vie, he mused.
The Obelisk Force training was always an option, he was almost required to go to all of the meetings by virtue of being placed in charge of the damn thing, but he would honestly rather find out how deep the water surrounding Academia was than sit through watching the new recruits duel. They were always so… Insistent… About their dueling skills, watching them all repeat the same combos and then card their opponent made his blood boil. He could pick them apart in one turn if he bothered to try, in fact, he did that to one upstart before. The idiot, Manjome? Manjume? Thought he deserved to be the one in charge. Needless to say, the conceited asshole was summarily torn to pieces and quit in shame.
Yeah, now that he thought about it, he wasn't going to go there if he could help it.
That left one last option. With Yali gone for the time being, there was absolutely nothing stopping him from entering his best friend's room and finally getting to see what he was on about when he mentioned his collection.
Resolving to follow through with it, the walk to the room didn't take long at all, considering that they were nearly right next to each other. They were close enough that Reisuke was straight up considering just asking Yali to move in with him since they spent so much time with each other already, it would purely be economical for them and would allow Yuya, who Reisuke had heard was also looking for more space, a place where he could practice and not be heard.
Entering the room, he made sure to cover his nose. He wasn't going to make the same mistake that others had made when entering Yali's room.
The room itself was very messy, like multiple tornados had been through it on more than one occasion. Reisuke was always meaning to tell Yali to get his act together and clean the pig sty. Right next to him as he entered was a pile of clear plastic bottles with no labels on any of them, the sight of them made him wanted to roll his eyes, Yali was still so hung up about such a trivial thing and it infuriated him to no end.
Right in front of him was pile of Yali's old discarded clothes that ranged from hadn't been washed in days to hadn't been washed in years, the main reason he had covered his nose as he entered and passed through that pile with more miniature mounds stacked up the closer to a second door near the back of the room. Closer to said door was a purple vanity that was stacked to the brim with more empty bottles and tubes. Picking up one of them, Reisuke placed it in one of his pockets, he was wondering where that particular cosmetic ended up.
As he stood before the second door in the room, he softly knocked on it "Hey, Little Birdie, are you in there?" It didn't matter that he wouldn't be getting a reply, there was thing called common courtesy that he practiced that Yali seemed to piss all over with every person he met. He still hadn't forgiven his grey haired friend for the numerous times he had burst into his room for no discernible reason.
Waiting for a few seconds for a reply that would never come, Reisuke entered the room holding Ruri Kurosaki. The room was empty for the most part, Yali never using it for much else than somewhere to mope in if something had gone wrong despite the possibility of shoving all of his mess in it. There was a simple window that allowed a moderately cool breeze to nip at the two of them. Sat in a chair against the wall, hands and legs tied against the chair with numerous scars now littering her body and her eyes dulled by the experience, was Ruri Kurosaki. "Are you okay there, Little Birdie? Is Li-Li treating you well?"
Reisuke knew what he was talking about was highly hypocritical, the damage that Yali had already done psychologically and physically was obvious even to the world's most oblivious person. Spying an empty holster, black and engraved with golden designs, Reisuke was glad that she probably had at least a brief release from whatever torment was being dealt to her.
"Silly question, I know." Reisuke said, continuing the imaginary conversation between the two of them. "He means well, you know? Li-Li's not the type of guy who goes around and does this just for the hell of it, none of us at Academia are really like that… Well… I guess a few in the Obelisk Force are loose cannons, those Slifer rejects are impulsive as all hell, and the Ra students ar-" Catching himself before he ran the entire school's reputation through the mud, the Commandant returned to his previous line of conversation "Anyway, Li-Li's a good guy really, I know you don't believe me, most people don't believe me, but you just need to get to know him. I heard you knew him well in XYZ."
Bending down to her eye-level, Reisuke took hold of her chin and gently rubbed his thumb back and forth "Yeah, he left me for a while and met your group instead. A year or so, if I recall correctly. Can you imagine your best friend not being there for you for a whole year? Tell me, did you treat him well?"
Ruri's brain played nothing but static. Reisuke's words were just white noise that faded into obscurity the second they entered her ears. Her mind was simply a mush at this point, and no matter how much she might have wanted to fight back and scream, no matter how much she want to rip off these binds and escape, she found herself unable to act. Hope that Yuto and her brother would swoop in and aid in her escape had long vanished. She knew that they hadn't forgotten her.
At least, she hoped she hadn't been forgotten.
Reisuke placed his other hand on Ruri's soft, pale cheek "Sorry, silly question again. Please excuse my brain dripping out of my ears, Little Birdie, I must be losing it today." His grip tightened as his eyes narrowed in on the girl in front of him. Nothing but contempt existed in said cat-like eyes "You hurt him. Not you specifically, but your little "Resistance" did the deed. You scarred him. Imagine my surprise, just for a moment live in my shoes, when I saw Li-Li for the first time in a year and he's having to be rushed to the infirmary because some XYZ scum had injured him. Do you have any idea of the damage you did to him?!" It was a sudden burst of anger that even startled Reisuke with how much vitriol and venom had been spewed within a short few seconds.
Momentarily, it stirred Ruri. She didn't know why, but something within her enabled her to get one question out to the Commandant. "Did you think about the damage you did to us?"
"I did think about it, Little Birdie. I thought so much about it…" The Commandant wiped away a stray tear with his thumb "I went insane." Reisuke, if he could help it, didn't wish harm on anyone. He knew it was inevitable in war, but that didn't stop a man from dreaming, did it?
Although, he had no compunctions about fighting back hard if the enemy wasn't honourable "I'm going to let you in one something, Little Birdie. Your brother injured me recently, that's how I got this scar all the way down my face, turns out a mechanical bird slicing its claws into your face is really painful." The scar was deep and large, three distinct marks made it up, each one of them cutting harsher than the last on the previously angelic looking face. One trailed directly down from his eye, stopping just on the side of his face, whilst the other two grew longer and followed the first one down in a diagonal pattern. Reisuke considered himself to be lucky to still have his eye at this point "But unlike Li-Li, I can actually deal with getting hurt." Taking a step or two back, the Commandant turned around and began to undo his uniform, letting it fall to the ground unceremoniously, exposing his back to the purple haired girl. If Ruri was capable of reacting in real time to what Reisuke revealed, she would've been gagging and trying not to throw up all over the floor.
"My whole life has been nothing but getting hurt for one reason or another." Reisuke's back was a litany of scars, burns, and charred skin that had turned purple at some point. Various spots seemed to carry an imprint of a weapon as well, looking distinctly like a whip or a riding crop had struck him viciously hard at multiple points. Just below his shoulders, two patches of scarred skin looked more like something that belong on an eldritch abomination than they did on a human teenager, twisted skin that was stained purple and a repugnant yellow, puss coated every inch of it and it looked unimaginably painful. "Another scar like the one your brother gave me hurts in the moment, but like everything, it doesn't hurt once the moment passes." The most afflicted area appeared to be his lower back, which was where the majority of the burns were, it was covered in flaky, purple skin that no human could have possibly inflicted "These hurt more, but I can live with them since I was born to be harmed. Li-Li can't deal with things hurting him, his body doesn't handle it like mine."
Picking up his uniform and lazily covering his back with it, he turned back around to Ruri. "Keh, it's funny, really. I came here to see what Li-Li was doing to you and maybe find out a bit more about you, instead, I spill something I've only ever told Li-Li before. Am I just going insane without him? At this point, that could be true."
He then began to frame Ruri with his hands, much like he was going to take a photo of her as he began switching between portrait and landscape with a smirk gracing the corner of his lips "Say, I've been lacking a muse for the longest time for both my art and my music. It's just so hard to do anything when you've got a block and you have no inspiration. The last time I was able to paint anything of worth was upon my first arrival in XYZ. Ah, those wondrous velvet flames that licked your precious city and burned it to the ground… They looked so… Cleansing… They say life imitates art, but in this case, I'm going to allow art to imitate life."
Ruri gulped, she was most certainly wasn't going to look forward to this. Feeling his heavy hand run through her purple locks, she shivered as a golden eyed gaze leered down at her. "That said, I was wondering if you would impart your opinion about Heartland. Pre-invasion, if you would. I could go ask Li-Li, but he's not here right now so you're my only real source of information." His eyes then widened as it seem like a light bulb had gone off in his head "I see! How about you tell me what Li-Li really did in that waste dump? That way, I get to kill two birds with one stone. I get to see how you lived, and what he did at the same time! Oh, this is going to be great!"
It was insidious, Ruri knew perfectly well what Reisuke was attempting to do. Yet, she couldn't find the resolve to stop her mind from turning back the clock and reliving those last few painful months before everything she had held dear was destroyed.
(Flashback, three years ago) (XYZ Dimension)
Like most of the days that had passed before the invasion, the sun shined bright in the sky as joy reigned supreme in the many parks of Heartland. Ruri had always loved going to these places with her brother and Yuto to either see the many birds that would perch themselves on the trees, or to have a nice fun duel with either of them in a kind of mini tournament that they liked to hold occasionally.
Shun, as much as he was loathed to admit it, really was a big nerd when it came to birds. He always said that he had come in order to finally beat Yuto, his current record standing a whopping 0-13, but, in reality, he always got that look in his eyes when one of those rarely seen birds ended up within his eyesight. It was great fun to tease him about it when they could, not like anything fun could be had following their lives being destroyed.
"So, Shun, you finally have the right strategy to defeat Yuto this time?" She remembered asking teasingly to her brother as she stood in between them, hand teasingly close to the blushing mess that was Yuto. "I saw you last night going over your deck, you were cackling madly, so I only assume you've finally figured it out or have snapped under the pressure!"
Her brother had done a full heel turn following the invasion. Honestly, it was disheartening to see her serious, but still kind and considerate brother turn into a war crazed, xenophobic maniac. She still held out hope that that fervent desire would translate into him breaking down the doors of Academia to help her out of this accursed place, but he was so self-destructive now that Ruri didn't think she knew him anymore. He didn't listen to her, insisted she stay out of the frontlines, and always fought with Yuto on tactics.
Shun spluttered, going red in the face "What the-? Ruri! How many times did I tell you not to spy on me! And no, I wasn't doing what you think I was doing!" Yuto couldn't help but laugh as Shun playfully shoved his sister.
It was so nice to hear Yuto laugh again.
Yuto…
Poor, sweet Yuto had been thrust into the situation so suddenly, yet had dealt with it probably the best out of the three of them. He was always so noble and genuine, it was what she loved the most about him. He always seemed like that knight in shining armour that turned up in fairy tales, he had even raced alongside her brother to try to help her…
But the shine in his innocent eyes didn't exist anymore, any sense of boundless joy had been replaced by an everlasting sorrow. Just like so many of the Resistance members.
It already hurt enough to think back in general, but those extra changes made it even worse.
"Oh sure, Shun, how's about we have our duel now? I can feel Dark Rebellion's ready for one!" Yuto said, smiling happily. Ruri giggling as an affirmative nod was given by the Raid Raptor Duelist. Seeing the two most important men in her life happy was enough on any day to light up her world.
Shame that the harbinger of their destruction happened to be standing only a few feet away, then.
They had just started the process of setting up the duel when a loud shout brought their attention to another duel that was already in progress. "Come on, man! You really gotta keep me waiting for five minutes every turn while you write, or what?!" The screeching voice belonged to a male with medium length purple hair that resembled tentacles with deep blue eyes and a strange "crown" sticking out of the top of his forehead. His clothing resembled the same colour as his hair and had a kind of punkish flare about it, mainly coming from the male's disposition.
"Mhmm…" Maybe if they had ignored him, they would've been spared from the brunt of the suffering that hung around their necks. Even now, Ruri wished she could travel back in time and force them away, but the minute they laid eyes upon him, there fate, for all intents and purposes, was sealed. "Give me another few seconds."
Lithe and lean with his hair tied in his usual low ponytail, Yali's clothes even then seemed to evoke a militaristic kind of style to them, albeit more muted as he tried to blend in. His ultramarine shirt, the top two buttons being undone, seemed to be the one constant in all of his appearances. Only now did she know it was likely something he got for being in Obelisk Blue. Covering it was a black, spike studded blazer and adorning his hands was a pair of fingerless red gloves. Black trousers were held up by a white belt with some silver boots completing the usual look.
What was different about him then was what he was wearing on his face and what was attached to his belt, clasped upon his face was a deftly crafted red and white Kitsune half mask whilst a similarly coloured tail found itself dangling on the left side of his body.
Taking their eyes away from Yali, they surveyed the duel with great interest. Frankly, Yali was getting his ass handed to him in no uncertain terms. The purple haired teen held a decisive life point advantage of 4000 to 100, had a Monster on the field, Black Ray Lancer to be exact, but was losing to Yali in terms of cards in hand with him having 5 and the other having none.
Thinking back on it now, there was no doubt in Ruri's mind that the whole situation was fabricated. There was no way that he knew that they would turn up that day, but everything had been set up too perfectly, and she knew Yali too well, for it not to be part of his plan.
"Hey, Yuto, have you seen this guy around before?" Shun said to his friend, who was about to reply before a dry, loud sigh escaped from Yali's lips.
"I think this duel is just about over, my friend." Yali spoke, his voice sounding more airy and curious as usual. Ruri still couldn't believe that they had fallen for his mopey act.
"Hah?! What are you on about? If anything, you're the one who's in deep shit!" The other teen yelled back "And quit it with that whole act already! I know you're a human, dipshit!"
Placing the notebook back in his blazer pocket, Yali's smirk poked out under the nose of his mask "You humans are so interesting to me! But, fine, if you don't want to waste any more time then why shall I waste my time as well! I draw!" The three of them still swore to this day that the tail wagged as the grey haired teen saw what he had drawn. "Let's start off by discarding Reactan, Dragon Ruler of Pebbles and Burner, Dragon Ruler of Sparks to summon Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders from my deck!"
The two cards that Yali tossed into the grave briefly took form on the field. Smashing up from the ground, a medium sized dragon made entirely out of jagged pieces of rock snarled and gnashed its teeth as the piercing red eyes store deep into its master's opponent.
Similarly, another medium sized dragon erupted from the ground in a sea of fire, the red, fiery body sparking as it gave a screech and joined its companion before dissolving into nothingness to make way for the new monster.
An advanced form of Reactan took the field, two larger boulders acting as a second pair of eyes as a spiked tail swerved and destroyed the field wherever it stood.
Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders, Level 7, EARTH, Dragon, Effect (1600/3000)
"Huh, you'd think he'd have gone with some kind of Kitsune deck, given his whole getup." Shun murmured, Ruri quickly shushing him.
"But why stop there?!" Yali proclaimed, plucking another card from his hand "You see, I now banish Reactan and Burner from my graveyard to summon Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos from my hand!" This time, the advanced version of Burner exploded to the field. Being forged in the flames of a volcano, the very being of the monster melted the ground itself as it roared.
Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos, Level 7, FIRE, Dragon, Effect (2800/1800)
Making a grand sweep of his arms, because Yali had always been, and still is, a drama king, he gave his opponent a sinister smirk. "Blaster alone could cripple you, I highly doubt your next draw is going to be anything decent. But, why wouldn't I want to ramp up your suffering further, human?! I overlay my two Level 7 Dragon Rulers!"
As Redox transformed into an orange beam of light and Blaster a deep red, the Overlay Network came into being above the grey haired male's head. "Take to the skies! Let these two thunderous beings of destruction evolve and merge into a new form! Death from above!" The portal exploded, accompanied by a mechanical whirring, as Yali finished his chant. "I XYZ summon! Rank 7! Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack!"
True to his words, Yali's monster hovered above him as it emerged from the stormy portal. The monster bared a striking resemblance to an Antonov An-225, and it would've seemed like an ordinary aircraft. That is, if it weren't for the fact the front of it was completely mangled and contorted into the frightening visage of a dragon, a satellite dish poking out of its mouth as the mechanical whirring turned into a low growl.
Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack, Rank 7, WIND, Machine, XYZ, Effect (2600/2200) OLU's: 2
"Again, not a card you'd think he'd have." This time it was Yuto who picked up on the strangeness. Of course, they'd later learn why he had the card in the first place, along with so many others. Gathered in a way only befitting an Academia student.
"I activate Dracossack's effect! By removing one Overlay Unit, I now get to summon two Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens to my side of the field!" Snarling as one of the green orbs floating around it was caught in the now glowing satellite dish, Dracossack gave a roar and two mirage fighter jets zoomed out next to the huge airplane. "Now, Dracossack cannot attack the turn it uses this effect. Al-"
Yali found himself interrupted by raucous laughter from his opponent "Oh, this is great! You had me worried there a second! But you went and got rid of your two monsters for some measly tokens and a monster that couldn't attack?! It'd be even funnier if it weren't so sad."
Undeterred, Yali rolled his shoulders "As I was saying, Dracossack may not be able to attack, but he is now immune from destruction for as long as I have one of these tokens on the field. I haven't even mentioned the best part as well! Kehehehehehehehe!" Yali, very much, remained a hyena too. "By destroying one of these tokens, Dracossack can destroy one card on the field. I bet you know what that means now."
Purple haired male blanched as one of the jets sprung to live, ramrodding into Black Ray Lancer and consuming the monster in a massive explosion. "But that's still not the end of things! I now activate the Spell Card Sacred Sword of Seven Stars! By banishing Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls I now get to draw two cards from my deck and since Tidal has now been banished, I get to add Stream, Dragon Ruler of Droplets to my hand!" Three more cards out of just one Spell Card, the Drago Rulers, even then, made them drop their jaws through their sheer advantage producing prowess.
Yali smirked once more, this time turning it more maniac "I bet you know what happens next, I discard Stream from my hand alongside Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms to summon a second copy of Tidal from my deck!"
A rush of water flooded the field as a soaking wet, blue dragon rose gently up from it. Beating its wings as if it were having a particularly hard time getting off of the ground.
Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls, Level 7, WATER, Dragon, Effect (2600/2000)
"And now, it's time for the grand finale! By banishing the Stream and Blaster that now reside in my graveyard, Tempest can now rise from the ashes!" With the removal of the other two dragons, a great storm kicked up. One powerful enough to nearly rip up the tree that stood behind the grey haired teen at the time. A green and grey dragon made entirely out of tornados and multiple other storms happened to be the culprit as it took its place on the other side of Dracossack.
Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms, Level 7, WIND, Dragon, Effect, (2400/2200)
Shun whistled "That's pretty impressive, this guy turned the situation around like it was nothing. Ryoga must be pretty pissed with himself."
"You ready, human? Because now Tempest and Tidal attack you directly!" Yali declared, directing his monsters like it was some grand orchestra as they flooded and battered the now named Ryoga with storms. Right until his damp body was finally allowed to rest about a few feet from where he was previously standing.
Ryoga's LP: 4000 – 0
Yali: Win!
Marching over to his downed victim, tail swaying in the wind as he moved, Ruri simply couldn't associate it without any negative connotations. She had lost far too many friends through that exact movement. "Now, I suppose it would be time to honour our deal, wouldn't it?" Yali sneered, grasping hold of Ryoga's clothes. "Get to it, human, I don't appreciate people that wimp out on me simply because they don't feel like following through."
Scrambling away from the maniac, Ryoga took a shaking hand to his deck and trembled as he started to hand it to Yali.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Lucky for Ryoga- Ruri didn't want to think about what may have happened if the incident had happened during the invasion- it was Shun that broke Yali's concentration for a second with his shout. It allowed the purple haired male to quickly recant on his deal and scamper out of the park.
Enraged by the action, Yali turned on his heel and faced down the three teens coming down to face him "What do you lot want? I ain't done nothing wrong, so if you would kindly fuck off so I can get my reward, it would be greatly appreciated." They should've left then and there, from that point it had always been a slippery slope to his final act.
"What were you doing?" Yuto repeated Shun's question, levelling Yali with a glare that wouldn't look out of place on him nowadays.
"The human made a deal with me, he would give me his deck if I won and I would give him the card he most wanted in the whole world. It was a standard Ante duel and he lost." Yali explained, still glaring over their shoulders as he tried to track where Ryoga had gone.
"Ante? Don't you understand how wrong that is? A duelist's deck is their soul!" Yuto responded, the nobility he held shining bright in that very moment as his offence began to creep through underneath. "How many people have you done this too?!"
Yali shrugged "Eh, one, two, five, I don't count." Of course, that was just another lie upon a lie. There was a reason Dracossack had ended up in his deck after all, alongside the myriad of other unrelated cards that would continue to pile up. "Now, would you humans please move?!"
"Humans?" Shun scoffed, folding his arms "Come on man, you're not fooling anyone with that act."
Innocent was a word that belonged nowhere near that devil, but Ruri swore that in the instant that he tilted his head at them, he looked like he was a young child being told off for the first time and was confused as to why. "Act? What act?"
"Just take off the mask." Shun sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Ruri understood his frustrations quite well, apparently having to deal with all sorts of shenanigans with the lower years at school really took a number on your patience for this sort of stuff."
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Yali followed through and reluctantly pushed the mask up to the side of his head. His reddish brown eyes looked just about as hateful as they usually did, but there was a deeper calculating side to them this time around. Probably down to fact it was their first time meeting. "You happy? Can I leave now?"
"Not until you apologise for what you were going to do." Yuto said, joining Shun in folding his arms.
The grey haired teen scoffed "Yeah, that ain't happening. I don't apologise for the stupidity of idiots around me that take a deal that's obviously bad."
"That doesn't excuse it!" Ruri shouted, causing Yali to do a double take as he spied the girl. Frankly, he had thrown up all sorts of red flags from their first meeting alone and she felt so stupid for not noticing. But Yali had one advantage, they were ignorant to the sheer scale, and he played that card perfectly.
"Kehehehe, you're an interesting bunch." Yali laughed, pulling the mask fully of his face now "Alright, alright, sorry. I get it, my bad for doing that. Hehehehehe, I like to get into character too much when I wear this thing."
"Character?" Yuto blinked, vocalising all their collective confusion.
"It's a stupid thing." Yali replied "It's something I've done since I was a kid with my best friend, it's like when you dress up on Halloween and you try to act as whatever you're dressed up as. Guess I just got a bit too into that time. Name's Yali, pleasure to meet you."
(Flashback end)
In hindsight, Ruri still didn't know what mask was Yali's own personality. The Dragon Ruler Duelist had always been proficient in shifting masks whenever the situation called for it, be it the mask he literally wore for the majority of their time spent together, or the mask that he gradually tried out on them. She still reckoned that he never honest with her, the only person that probably knew who he really was happened to be in the room with her.
"Perfect! Perfect!" Reisuke exclaimed, a sketchbook suddenly being present in his hands. Had he left while Ruri was thinking? "Hold that look! You said jack shit, but I can feel it! The emotion pouring from your lovely face is more than enough for me to dictate what I want to see. They were really right when they said true art comes the best when the artist sees suffering! Ahahaha! Yali's going to love this."
She couldn't…
She couldn't deal with this anymore.
She would lose her mind if she didn't get out of here soon.
She had to escape.
She would escape.
…But how?
No deck, no drive, no nothing.
Seen as an object. A puppet with no strings for the amusement of two rampant sadists.
Passion and desire had long been drained.
Yet hope burned on. The last flickering embers in her eyes still bright.
Sitting opposite her, Reisuke grinned wildly. Crushing that remnant of hope would be the sweetest victory he ever had.
A/N: Hey, remember me! Yeah, I wasn't joking when I said it could be two weeks or two months in the previous chapter. Truth be told, I was having a great amount of writer's block for the last thrid of this chapter and I really couldn't get my head around it until the start of this month. That's without mentioning that I got my hands on Persona 5 and spent a month trying to beat that game (I spritually idenitfy with Yusuke).
Anyway, this is more of a buliding chapter, I swear there'll be more action based duel chapters coming up soon. The Maiami Championship is about to start soon and I can assure you that it will be worth it. Regardless, it wasn't like there was no movement in this chapter, Yuzu finally starts to learn XYZ, Ruri suffers, and Yuri has a strange dream (I wonder what that was?)
Reviews:
Super Shadow 2018: Thanks for reviewing a few of the older chapters. I hope you;re still around for this one.
PinkRose2006: Thanks for your review as well. Some aspects of the story may be a bit infuriating, but rest assured that I'm going to give everything I can equal time to shine. Sigma rising to the top of your ranking wasn't expected so soon, and I have the feeling Reisuke may go down in your estimation a bit. But, that's how it goes. I hope you enjoy this chapter too.
Right, I'm not quite sure when I'll be able to get this next chapter out, but I will do it at least by the end of August. That I will say for certain.
See ya.