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The chapter begins in Estelle's point of view.
WARNING! Blood!
Disclaimer: I do not own any Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's characters! I only own my OCs!
Chapter 18: Late Night Showdown
I tucked the children in bed, but it was mainly for Kokoro and Hikari. The boys didn't want to get tucked in because they thought it was embarrassing in their age. They claimed they were too old to be tucked in, so they wanted to be big "guys" who could go to bed by themselves.
"What are you going to sing?" Hikari asked curiously.
"Well… It's a short lullaby I learned a couple of years ago", I explained as I settled down at the edge of Kokoro's bed.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before singing a song from one of my favorite anime in a soft voice.
"Apple" by Yōko Hikasa and Yui Horie
"Ringo wa ukanda osora ni
Ringo wa okkochita jibeta ni
Hoshi ga umarete uta ga umarete
Ruru ameru wa waratta tokoshie to
Hoshi ga kisu shite uta ga nemutte
Kaeru doko wa doko deshou?
Kaeru doko wa doko deshou?
Ringo wa okkochita jibeta ni
Ringo wa ukanda osora ni"
I opened my eyes and saw the children had quickly fallen asleep. I couldn't resist the urge to smile and gently caressed Kokoro's head. I walked out of the hut quietly and joined the others who looked at me with smiles.
"I had no idea you could sing, Estelle", Blitz commented. "You're good."
"Thank you", I blushed shyly as I sat down by the campfire.
"How come we've never heard you singing before?" Rally asked.
"I sang whenever you weren't at Yusei's place", I admitted as I played with a curl of my hair. "I…feel a bit embarrassed if I sing in front of people because I don't have the confidence of singing good."
"You should sing more openly; you're good", Nervin told me.
I blushed modestly as I waved my hand. "We'll see about that."
"It's getting late", Yusei suddenly said, breaking up the conversation. "We should get to bed too."
I didn't realize how tired I was until he mentioned that. I got up and rolled out my sleeping bag to get comfortable on the ground. The others followed my lead and started rolling out their sleeping bags.
"Yeah, good night", Nervin nodded as he crawled into his bag.
"And sleep tight! See ya in the mornin'!" Tank added loudly.
"Quiet…!" I shushed him while placing an index finger against my lips. "The children will wake up."
"Oops, sorry", Tank laughed sheepishly. "I'm just worried 'bout the Dark Signers and-"
"Good night, Tank!" Blitz said with a tone that meant "Shut-up-already".
I crawled into my bag and removed my glasses that I put on top of my satchel right next to my head. If I recalled correctly, Yusei would try sneaking away to face the Dark Signers alone and Crow would intercept him. I had to wake up when that would happen so I could go with them. I wasn't going to allow Yusei to do something so reckless by himself.
XXXXXXXXXX
I was sleeping deeply when I was awakened by Rally's cry of panic with a jolt, pulling me out from the land of dreams.
"WAKE UP! YUSEI IS GONE!"
My heart pounded fast in my chest by the sudden cry before I managed to calm it down. I sat up and rubbed my eyes before putting on my glasses to see the others were getting up from their sleeping bags. Due to the commotion, Crow's "children" woke up and gathered by the campfire, tired and curious about what was going on.
"It can't be!" Nervin exclaimed in shock.
I stood up just as Blitz ran past me to check the shelter that Crow said it was his private hut.
"What if the Dark Signers got him?!" Tank questioned frantically.
"No, that's impossible", I told him. "The Dark Signers are mainly after me. Yusei must have gone off on his own."
But what surprised me was I never noticed Yusei leaving. My Mark didn't even react when he left, which was bothering me. Why didn't the Crimson Dragon wake me up?
"Because I could sense your fatigue from lack of sleep from last night", the dragon God whispered in my head.
The explanation made me a bit irritated, but I couldn't help but agree. Neither Yusei nor I got any sleep last night due to the talk with Goodwin that took 'til morning.
Blitz ran back to us as he tied his bandana around his head. "Looks like Crow took off too!"
"Did those two go out on a late night ride or something?" Blister commented.
"We need to go and look for them", I told the boys.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Nervin turned to Blister who sat by the campfire with the children. "You stay here in case they come back while we're lookin', okay?"
Blister nodded and waved his arm. "Sure."
"Let's split up", Nervin suggested. "We'll cover more ground that way."
"That won't be needed", I shook my head while I put on my satchel and Duel Disk. "The Signers and I share a bond with our Marks, so I can probably locate Yusei with my powers."
"Then hurry and locate him already!" Tank said frantically.
I nodded and closed my eyes while placing my left hand on top of my right arm. I used my powers to sense Yusei's Mark and I got a response. I could tell the bond was open, but Yusei wasn't aware of the contact. His feelings told me he was distracted by something, and that something could be what I feared for.
"I found him", I called, opening my eyes. "Follow me."
XXXXXXXXXX
We ran through the empty streets, me on the front as I led Rally, Nervin, Tank, and Blitz to the location where Yusei was. I could sense Yusei's presence the closer we got, but my Mark started burning when I sensed the familiar evil force of the Dark Signers, except this time the pain was a bit stronger than with the Shadow Drone.
I looked up at the sky and gasped in shock when I spotted the geoglyph of the Giant in the sky. It was glowing in a nasty purple color and looked bigger than in the anime. The others noticed the geoglyph as well when I stopped in my tracks.
"Whoa! What is that?" Tank asked.
"Does anybody else…think this is bad?" Nervin asked nervously.
"It's one of the Dark Signers' Marks", I explained. "This means Yusei is Shadow Dueling them."
"And that's a bad thing, right?" Blitz questioned.
I nodded slowly. "We better hurry, so we can be there for Yusei."
"Wait! Does this mean Yusei's going to get hurt?!" Rally exclaimed in shock.
"I hope not, Rally", I shook my head before running ahead.
I wished Yusei wasn't going to get hurt, but from my experience so far in the 5D's dimension the removed scenes from the Japanese version had occurred multiple times. This could mean Yusei was going to get stabbed by a metal piece in his abdomen after the end of the Shadow Duel, putting his life in danger.
I had to be there for him. Maybe my powers could prevent this disaster from happening. If not… I shivered by the chilly thoughts.
XXXXXXXXXX
I had to stop running a couple of times when I felt Yusei's pain through the bond. It would cause my Mark to hurt twice as much and make me grit my teeth. I could almost taste the evil power of the Dark Signer as we came closer to the mist of the Nazca Line of the Giant. We were able to avoid the purple mist and found Crow on the top of a hill. I noticed a helicopter was flying a few miles above us, but I knew it was Jack.
"Crow!" Rally called as we ran up the hill and joined the Blackwing Duelist and his Duel Runner. "What's going on? Where's Yusei?!"
Crow turned around and pointed at the misty course. "There."
I squinted to find the two moving figures of Yusei and Kalin, but the Nazca Line was too large to scan through and the purple mist blocked the view of the course. Luckily, Crow had connected his Duel Runner to Yusei's Duel Runner's frequency, so we could watch the Turbo Duel on the screen of the dashboard.
"Whoa! He's Dueling?!" Tank, Rally, and Blitz exclaimed in surprise.
"He's not just Dueling, you guys! He's Turbo Dueling!" Nervin corrected.
"So who's the other guy?" Tank asked.
"It's Kalin", Crow replied in a low voice.
"As in 'Let's-take-over-Satellite' Kalin?" Tank questioned.
"I thought they locked him up and threw away the key", Nervin commented.
"Looks like they didn't throw it far enough", Blitz shrugged.
"Is he the one behind the big glowing thing in the sky?" Rally asked nervously.
"Yep", Crow nodded. "Remember those Dark Signers Yusei and Estelle were talking about? Apparently, Kalin is one of 'em and he use some sort of dark mojo to trap Yusei in this seal and force him to Duel. Only this isn't like other Duels. The damage in this Duel is real."
I noticed how Yusei's Duel Runner seemed to slow down and it was bouncing a bit, from what I could tell on the screen. "Guys… I think Yusei's Duel Runner is slowly giving up."
"WHAT?!" the others shouted in shock.
"Look", I pointed at the screen on Crow's Duel Runner's dashboard. "I know the ground in Satellite is covered in trash and junk, but it should still be very smooth to drive on. Yusei's a good driver, but the problem now is his Runner."
The group stared at the screen before Rally noticed the same thing. "Estelle's right! Yusei's Runner just bounced unnaturally!"
"Oh man, this is not good!" Nervin cold sweated.
"Yusei's taken quite the damage from the Duel and he was close to crash several times already", Crow confessed. "He really needs to end the Turbo Duel as fast as he can."
XXXXXXXXXX
Everything went in the same way as in the anime. Yusei Synchro summoned Stardust Dragon and destroyed Kalin's Hundred Eyes Dragon and dealt damage to the Dark Signer. However, my Mark began hurting once again as I sensed the Earthbound Immortal was preparing itself for the last-minute show.
Just as Kalin summoned two Ghost Tokens to the field, a massive horde of people wearing Shadow Drone cloaks appeared in the purple mist of the Nazca Line.
"You see that? It looks like there's people in the purple mist", Rally called.
The others looked up from the Duel Runner monitor and spotted the hundred plus people in the Nazca Line.
"Where'd they come from?" Tank wondered.
"Your guess is as good as mine, Tank…", Nervin swallowed nervously.
"Maybe they're the same people who were taken in by that weird group and went underground", Crow guessed.
"But what are they doing here?" Blitz asked.
I gripped my arm with the Mark as I felt my heart beat in worry. "They're going to be used as offering…"
The others turned to me with questioning eyes. "Offering? For what?" Rally asked.
"For the Monster Kalin is about to summon…", I bit my lower lip as my worry increased by each second. "One of the Earthbound Immortals…"
"What's an Earthbound Immortal?" Tank asked.
The question got slowly answered when a stone in the shape of a human heart appeared above the Nazca Line in the sky, replacing the two Ghost Tokens. It was beating in an even rhythm while the Shadow Drones cried out in pain before turning into purple energy that got absorbed by the heart. If this had happened in different circumstances, I would have to say the lightshow looked pretty, but now it made me sick to my stomach. Innocent people had been manipulated by the Dark Signers and their life force was now being used to awaken one of the Earthbound Immortals.
A beacon of purple light erupted from the stone heart and hit the ground, causing it to shake like an earthquake. The wind blew around us with a harsh force, but it didn't make us fall down. Once the light died down, we saw a giant black form with blue pattern on its body raising up on its feet with a roar. One of its hands almost hit the helicopter with Jack and the others that was soaring in the air just above the Nazca Line.
The Earthbound Immortal Ccapac Apu had made its appearance.
"That…is really big", Crow gaped while cold sweating.
Next thing I knew, I clutched my head as a headache almost split it in two. I felt my knees giving up on me, so I fell down to the ground.
"Hey, you okay?!" Blitz called as he got down on his knees and put a hand on my shoulder.
"N-No…", I hissed through gritted teeth while tears accumulated in my eyes. "T-The Earthbound Immortal…is doing something to me."
Nervin and Blitz helped me get up on my feet. I panted through gritted teeth to smooth the pain that refused to go away. I looked up in time to see how Ccapac Apu was reaching its hand towards Yusei to kill him. Stardust Dragon tried to intercept the attack, but his body flew through the giant hand. Yusei then tried to use his Scrap-Iron Scarecrow, but the Trap card's activation was negated by the Earthbound Immortal's effect.
It was like watching a horror movie as Ccapac Apu's hand kept reaching for Yusei who was now wobbling violently on his Duel Runner. The giant's hand crashed against the concrete and threw up pieces of the asphalt and debris as it crawled towards the Signer. I couldn't watch anymore, but I couldn't just stand around and do nothing. I closed my eyes and intertwined my hands for a prayer.
Please, Crimson Dragon… Do something to protect Yusei!
I opened my eyes when I heard Stardust Dragon's roar. I glanced quickly at the dashboard and saw the Earthbound Immortal's hand was only meters away from Yusei's Duel Runner when it reached its final limit. The Duel Runner gave up and threw itself back just before Ccapac Apu pounced its hand on the ground. It threw big boulders of concrete and dust around the area. We had no vision of the Shadow Turbo Duel anymore on Crow's Duel Runner. Yusei's Duel Runner must have shut down shortly after the engine gave up.
I turned my head to the Nazca Line and saw that Stardust Dragon was still flying in the sky, but he quickly dived towards the ground and seemed to grab something. Even though we were far away from each other, I sensed the dragon's eyes on me, telling me he had saved Yusei, but something was wrong. I could sense Yusei's pain through our Marks.
Seconds later, the Earthbound Immortal roared as it seemed to sink into the purple mist. It reached one of its hands up, as if it was craving to remain on the surface and not be imprisoned in its card form. The purple mist of the Nazca Line disappeared along with the Earthbound Immortal, and I didn't waste any second once the danger was over.
I ran down the hill with my heart pounding in worry. I heard Rally call my name, but I ignored it. I had to go and see Yusei and make sure Kalin wouldn't do anything else to him. Anything could happen besides of what happened in the anime. This was a completely different reality.
I ran as fast as I could while I had my eyes on Stardust Dragon's figure that was still around, despite the Shadow Turbo Duel being over. I was like thirty meters away when I heard Kalin mock Yusei. That made me so angry internally, so as soon as I reached Stardust Dragon's crouched form, his wings surrounding Yusei, I stood in front of the Signer Dragon with my right arm stretched out to the side while glaring at Kalin.
"Oh, would you look at that! The Crimson Star Priestess has come to protect her poor little Signer!" Kalin laughed maliciously.
"Get out of here, Kalin!" I growled.
Kalin snorted and turned his Duel Runner to leave, but not without throwing one last insult at Yusei. "What was it that tournament MC started calling you? Satellite's Shooting Star? More like Satellite's Falling Star! See ya around, Yusei!"
With that said, Kalin drove away to wait in the shadows for the next Duel. Once his figure was gone, I turned around to face Stardust Dragon. The dragon rumbled sadly from his throat before he opened his wings. Yusei was lying on his left side on the concrete, his helmet still on his head, but he was grunting in pain.
Stardust Dragon's body slowly faded away, his duty now done, so I got down on my knees and placed a hand on Yusei's right shoulder. He was in so much pain he didn't even notice the physical contact.
"Yusei…?" I called concernedly.
"Yusei!"
Rally, Tank, Blitz, and Nervin ran to us and they all looked worried. "Hey, man, you still with us?" Blitz crouched down next to Yusei to roll the fallen Signer onto his back.
I felt nauseous when I saw a large metal shard had pierced through Yusei's shirt and into his abdomen. The others gasped in shock at the shard and the bloodstain that slowly spread on the shirt. Yusei needed medical attention, and fast!
"Hey, Yusei, can you hear me?" Rally called worriedly as he reached his small hand towards the metal shard to pull it out.
"Don't!" I called, slapping away the boy's hand. "We'll only do more damage to him if we touch the shard."
"She's right!" Crow called as he drove to us with his Duel Runner. "I'll take him to Martha's place!"
"Good idea…", Nervin nodded with a worried expression.
Tank and Blitz worked together to pick up Yusei as gently as possible by putting the Signer's arms around their shoulders before they put the numb body behind Crow's seat.
"Is she still in the Notting District?" Blitz asked.
"Yeah, I'll see ya there", Crow nodded.
He didn't waste another second and drove off as fast as the lightning to get help for Yusei. The rest of us watched the black Duel Runner fading among the shadows with the sound of the engine.
I only noticed now the noise of the helicopter that was still flying above us. I could sense Jack's worry for Yusei, but the helicopter turned around to fly back to New Domino City. I could also sense Jack's anger at Kalin and the need of revenge, but there was nothing we could do now. Kalin had retreated to the Dark Signers' hideout and who knew what kind of traps they had set up for intruders.
"I hope he's okay…", Rally mumbled sadly.
I turned around to find Yusei's Duel Runner, and, boy, it was almost crunched into scrap metal. It needed lots of cosmetic work to regain its proper shape. I rushed to the red Duel Runner and saw several cards of Yusei's Deck had fallen around the vehicle. I picked them up and put them away in my satchel, along with the cards that remained on the hybrid Duel Disk plus Stardust Dragon's card.
"We've gotta go through Outcast Alley to get to Martha's house, don't we?" Tank said.
"Then we should move before it gets late and the thugs come out to play", Nervin added.
"Wait! What about Yusei's Duel Runner?" I called before the group could run off.
Rally turned to me with a nod before running over to me. "Yeah, we can't just leave this!"
"Get real, you two!" Nervin threw his hands up. "We can't push that thing all the way to Martha's! It'll slow us down! Besides, when we get to Reaper Row, a Runner like that is gang bait!"
"And you don't think someone will steal it if we leave it lying out here?" Rally retorted. "We can't just let that happen! There's a piece of every one of us in this Duel Runner!"
"The kid's got a point", Tank said. "We all pitched in to help build that thing. Remember? We spent weeks spreadin' out and gatherin' parts we thought could be useful and we brought everything back to Yusei. And when Yusei revved that engine for the first time, it was a feeling that I'll never forget. It was like we really had accomplished something…together! We gotta bring it!"
"He's right!" Blitz nodded. "That Runner is a testament to the power of our friendship!"
It made my heart melt to see how warm and loyal Yusei's friends were. "I may have not contributed with the building of the Duel Runner, but I still helped out by protecting it from being taken by Lenny. This Runner is, after all, the key to Satellite's future, and Yusei need it to unlock that future."
"C'mon! Help us", Rally called.
Blitz and Tank ran over to us so we could pull the Runner up on its tires that luckily weren't punctured.
"Geez! Don't blame me if we get jumped!" Nervin sighed before joining us.