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"I have another prediction. You'll give me your locator card and
your rarest card!"
-Esper Roba
Four: Curse of Dragon's Revenge
An eyebrow lifted. "I get da feelin' you've got another name." But his hand came out as well. "So. What's that name?"
"Swamp Battleguard." Dar smiled at Joey's expression. "Did you really think that? It's none of your business." Dar thought on the news that had been flying between the cards during the start of Battle City and recalled the pertinent information. "First you win Black Jade from Rex, then you lose him to some moron who wasn't even invited, then you beg the King of Games to get him back-"
"I DID NOT!"
"Didn't your mother teach you not to interrupt?" Dar snapped back. "-and then Rex gets cheated out of the tournament by a so-called psychic, and what does the almighty Wheeler do?" Dar struggled to block out the memory of the Roba apartment; after all, he told himself, his anger was completely valid. Cheating was cheating. "He sides with the fraud after he pours out some sob story! And where, just where, is Rex Raptor and his right to an honorable duel in this equation?"
"I- I-"
"Oh, forget it." Dar walked right past him, out the door with the outline of an extremely simplified human. "Just forget it."
He walked right past Black Jade, who ran after him. "Dar, wait up! Dar!" Dar waited up and then waited for him to speak. "Don't ya think you're being harder on him than necessary? I'm sure Geoffrey'd say the same."
"No," said Dar, "I don't think so. If I had thought that I wouldn't have done it. At least you got back to the one you call a Master."
"No," said Jade. "It was only for the night. He gave my card back to Yugi this morning. I felt it."
"Oh. Lovely set of values your Master's got there." They were walking across the quad, to another block of classrooms. "You think that's why he doesn't give a damn if I'm stuck with a cheater for the next millennium? If he had given even one damn he would've helped Rex get me back."
"It's not like that! He just doesn't think you should have other people fight your battles, is all."
"That works fine when nobody spies on anyone else's cards. But cheaters… now that's a whole new game." They reached the block; Dar leaned against the wall and Jade joined him. "And Rex couldn't even challenge him again for me, because he'd lost his locator card. The least he could've done was give Rex back the locator card. I don't care if he's Geoffrey's Master. He's not Geoffrey. I'm pretty sure Geoffrey knows better than he does."
Before Jade could have responded, the noise began, a long wail that made Dar think of some of the temporary-death cries in the Shadow Games; the ones he still remembered. Doors opened and students poured out, many of them chattering loudly. They reminded him of the crowd during Rex's duel with Esper Roba; in fact, he thought he recognized a few of the faces. And then there was one he really recognized.
If Dar hadn't known he might have thought he was a completely different person. Rex was wearing the school clothes, just like everyone else. His hat was gone, and the length of his two-toned hair (Dar had concluded that it was almost too long for a boy in this era to have and still be considered normal. Then again, Rex understood the mind of the cards as well as the Heart- that definitely wasn't normal in this era, not that it had been in previous ones) was even more obvious.
More disconcerting was the fact that Rex's attitude had undergone a near-complete flip-flop. His regular aplomb, which some labeled as simple arrogance, had completely vanished. Any arrogance there had ever been had gone along with it. He went along with the others all around him, being swept away with the flow, like a stick Job had tossed into the river. And once, Dar remembered, Alexander Sang- or maybe it had been one of his brothers, they were so hard to tell apart- had fallen into the river, gone almost to the bottom and almost gotten trapped in the mud before they had managed to fish him out.
Rex was nearing the bottom of the river.
Dar went against the flow, leaving Jade behind yet again. Jade could go run along to the oh-so-wonderful Joey Wheeler. Dar had loyalty to those who deserved it, and he had a mission. "Rex! Hey, Rex!"
***
"That comes to $8.39. Thank you and have a nice day."
Mai handed the customer the bag and the receipt, and then, when he was
safely headed for the door, she pulled her fingers through a section of
her hair and sighed.
She had Job on the brain. She knew she should keep
all her attention on her work (she had to resist the temptation to think
of it as her "Job"), even though she had long ago started longing for the
day when she could walk away from it. She knew she should concentrate on
that and not on that red hair and those green eyes and that kinky collar…
He was permanently stuck in her thoughts! No guy-
or girl, for that matter- had managed to do that since Joey Wheeler!
Mai managed to keep from frowning and proceeded to attend to
the next person, who approached the cash register with a 100-pack of pre-sharpened
pencils.
The manager was out today, visiting her daughter
in the hospital. Why Stephanie Malloy sent her to the one in Domino instead
of the one in Lantern, Mai had no clue whatsoever. Maybe the procedure
required equipment the Lantern hospital didn't have, or something like
that.
She sighed as once again she did the well-worn calculations
in her mind. Four years at the most prestigious (read: expensive) private
school in the city, two years in college where she had learned the names
of 101 renowned artists (most of them which she later forgot), how to type
on a QWERTY keyboard without looking down, and various other items. And
now she was stuck punching away at a cash register like a sixteen-year-old
kid, dreaming of the day she could buy one of those houses with a swimming
pool bigger even than the one in South Cherry Park had been, and at last
get her revenge in her contentment.
Whatever way she was going to do it, it wasn't going to happen this
way.
She checked the store clock and calculated the Daylight
Savings Time switch. Another few hours until Ms. Malloy would be due back-
about an hour after lunch, and Roba would show up around four. Ms. Malloy
would stick around past the time Mai would head back and Roba would leave
the same time as Mai.
Mai got the feeling that Roba would like to stay
even longer, get more money that way, but since he was legally a sixteen-year-old
kid, he wasn't allowed to stay any longer. He came in on Saturdays too,
usually in the mornings, but last week (the Saturday of Job and the Harpies)
he had requested a shift change to the late-night one. "Domino City," he
had said. "I've really got to go to Domino." Ms. Malloy had lifted an eyebrow,
but she had granted his request. Mai knew perfectly well why he wanted
to go to Domino, but she kept her mouth shut. After all, she too had gone
to Domino that Saturday.
He was an oddball, no doubt about it. It wasn't
just the hair- Mai could take the hair after seeing Yugi's unique 'do,
not to mention Rex Raptor's purple bangs. She had heard rumors that he'd
worked in a freak show as a little kid, and after seeing his psychic act
on Rex Raptor she felt inclined to believe those rumors. He looked like
he had practiced.
But he wouldn't be showing up for hours anyway.
And she didn't talk to him. What would they do, anyway, swap tips on faking
ESP?
Mai sighed and finally noticed the next customer.
***
A Battle City duel had started in the middle of the
quad, still wet from the rain which had just cleared up. Joey Wheeler versus
some cocky idiot or another. Yugi and the cheerleaders were of course gathered
behind Joey, now with the addition of Black Jade. Behind them stood nearly
the entire student body. Joey's challenger was near completely alone. Dar
wondered if he knew what he had gotten himself into.
Dar and Rex were standing behind the challenger
(the benches were also wet), getting a very good view of his hand- not
that they were going to broadcast it or anything. To their right were his
few friends; to the left was Weevil Underwood, the duel disk still strapped
on his arm. Dar kept one eye on Weevil and the other on Joey, who apparently
hadn't noticed them.
"What were you supposed to do with the duel disks?"
he whispered to Rex.
"Keep them," Rex whispered back. "Souvenirs or something.
But I wouldn't be caught dead wearing one now. They see a duel disk, they
assume you're still in. And when they find out you're not…" He grinned
sideways; there wasn't much laughing behind the grin. "Underwood got challenged
twice this morning. You should've seen how they were laughing at him. For
a so-called champion strategist he's one heck of a moron."
Dar grinned and nodded in returned. "Ran and Sora
are avenged, huh?"
"Yeah, guess so." Rex seemed to take great interest
in his sneakers.
Someone standing on the other side of the quad and
wearing headphones could have heard Joey. "I sacrifice the Swordsman of
Landstar- to summon Giltia the Knight! Giltia! Attack Harpies' Brother!"
Someone standing on the other side of the school
wearing headphones blasting out rock music could have heard Black Jade.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Kill him dead!"
Rex whispered to Dar, "Was he always like this?"
Dar tore his eyes away from his first sight of Geoffrey
Giltia on the field. "In a way, yes," he said, "but I don't think he picked
up that way of talking until he moved to that deck."
"They'll probably ban Battle City duels tomorrow,"
said Rex, "because of all the noise. And because they're actually fun.
Hey, Dar- do you know those people?"
Dar turned to follow the direction in which Rex's
arm gestured. Someone- to all appearances a regular human girl around seventeen-
was standing at the corner of one of the classroom blocks. She wasn't wearing
the school uniform; instead pants that looked like they had been stolen
from Yugi Motou's closet, a black T-shirt with the image of a Curse of
Dragon on it, and a ceramic whistle. Her hair was like dark gold and her
eyes were the same red as Dar's own.
"Now I summon Baby Dragon!" Another sequence of
cheering from Jade began.
Dar nodded to Rex as she put the whistle to her
mouth and blew.
All the heads in the crowd turned. Jade's shout
stopped in mid-word. Joey Wheeler and his challenger, too, looked to the
classroom block. "Weevil Underwood!" she shouted. And when she had apparently
ascertained that he was looking at her, her hand not holding the whistle
came out, in a fist.
As everyone watched, a certain finger snapped out
directly at Weevil- and no, it wasn't the index finger.
"That was for disrespect of Exodia."
Withdraw. Flip again.
"That was for disrespect of me."
She abruptly grinned, marched over to Weevil, picked
him up by the front of the shirt, and threw him so he landed just short
of the challenger's shoes.
"And THAT was for being an obnoxious cheating insect."
It was another moment before the mass paralysis
wore off, and by then she had sprinted behind one of the classroom blocks
and was gone. Then, everyone began moving, not to mention talking. The
duel was forgotten; the images of Alexander Sang, Geoffrey Giltia, and
the challenger's four monsters vanished. Yugi Motou was apparently explaining
something; Dar watched his mouth form the word Hikari.
Dar told Rex, and Rex actually smiled. "I can't
believe," he said, "that someone actually flipped Weevil off. Not to mention
did that."
"That's the way Hikari Kenshin is," said Dar. "Knowing
her, that bug was lucky he wasn't squashed completely. Bad joke, I know."
Rex gave Dar the key he had mentioned getting for
Dar and Ran and Sora, but hadn't gotten until after the duel- that was
his explanation. When the wail came again, they exchanged hope-I'll-see-you-again-soons,
and Rex ran off toward the blocks. It was then that Dar realized they hadn't
mentioned That Duel or Esper Roba once.
***
Hikari ran through a door with a simplified picture
of a human wearing a skirt on it, and into one of the compartments. Several
minutes later, she walked out again, the clothes borrowed from Yugi stuffed
in a bag. She was, instead, wearing constructs made to approximate the
uniform. Nobody took any notice of her as she slipped through the gate
and broke into a run.
She made it to the front of the Game Shop before
collapsing, laughing harder than she ever had before.
"Hikari, are you in pain or something?"
Hikari got to her feet, shaking her head and grinning
in Job's general direction. "No, I was just thinking of the look on his
face."
Job grinned in return and adjusted the scarf acquired
from Mr. Motou. It had slipped down, exposing a corner of the collar. "I
can imagine. Oh, I can imagine. Too bad I heard that Eliminator idiot's
dead. He annoyed the hell out of me. Where to next?"
Hikari considered that for a moment. "Pegasus,"
she said at last. "Him and his stupid Relinquished… Wait a minute. I need
to go look up hospitals. And I'd better get Tani, too. I wouldn't want
her to miss out on this."
A vigorous nod. "Considering what I've heard happened
to her, it'd be, like Giltia said, a sin to not let her in on it."
Hikari held up a hand. "Do. Not. Mention. Sin. Again.
It makes me think of him."
"Oh. Okay. You were going to-?"
"Yeah." She ran back inside, yelling, "Tani! Tani,
come on! We've got some vengeance to be wreaked!"
***
Cassiel had been frightened almost out of his mind
when Chihiro's Master had come in. The look in his direction did not help
at all.
"Who is… this?"
"Master," Chihiro said, "this is Cassiel. There
seems to have been a magical accident, result being that he materialized
in this room."
An eyebrow raised. "Oh? And what was his intention?"
For a moment Cassiel waited for Chihiro to speak
again, then realized he was expected to answer this one. Her Master took
several more steps forward, cutting the distance before him in half. He
was tall, but not quite as tall as Cassiel. Cassiel hastily lowered his
head so the difference was negated.
"I… I intended to visit my cousin and sister…" Cassiel
looked through his memory of Before- what was left, that is- to try and
determine the correct way to address someone else's Master. No use. Before,
he wasn't permitted to speak to most of those not his Master. Some of those
who he did speak to insisted he call them by their names. And one of them
was called Pharaoh. "… I did not mean to trespass. I apologize."
"Tell me the name of this cousin and sister."
Cassiel could tell it wasn't a request. "… Gabriel
and Miriam."
He could feel the eyebrow lift this time;
he saw it in the tone of voice. "Another card?"
"Master?"
Cassiel kept his head down but saw the other turn
in Chihiro's direction. "Yes, what?"
"I know Gabriel, and I know the name of his Master.
Should I direct him to the correct location?"
"So they are cards."
"… yes, Master, they are."
"So who owns them?"
assiel winced; he had never thought of it as owning
exactly, more like… oh, he didn't know. But the word own was harsh
on his mind. Somehow he couldn't imagine Gabriel and Miriam being owned.
Then there was Chihiro's voice again, perfectly even, as if she was used
to statements like these.
"… Yugi Motou, Master."
The silence nearly deafened him. Then just one word,
"Fine." And then, sharper, "Well, what are you waiting for? Go!"
Chihiro escorted him to the gates and pointed him
to the right street. He thanked her and ran, her eyes echoing in his head.
***
Dar went back to Rex's house and used the key, for
once thanking God (if he was even there) that both the Raptor adults had
jobs and wouldn't be there to see one of Rex's "friends sleeping over"
walking into their house.
The money was where he had left it, in a wooden
sliding-lid cigar box (Rex said he had bought it at a garage sale without
the original product inside) on Rex's dresser, next to a 1988 book of world
records and his deck, which was aligned with the cards face-up. Dar saw
Ran and Sora's card on the top and touched it, giving them a brief greeting
and letting them inform him.
The amount of money had been cut in half- Job had
come by after all. There was still some left, and he removed it. There
was also a fifty-cent tiger's eye and several fast-food coupons, and he
took those too. Then Dar turned to the closet, pulling out the box of clothes
that Rex had found for Ran and Sora when it turned out they couldn't make
constructs. He selected a navy blue jacket and placed the neatly folded
money into one of the pockets. It was back to the box for pants of the
same material- Rex called them jeans- and a shirt with a message printed
on it that made him smile. He made the constructs vanish and donned these
clothes.
There was a pad of paper from some hotel or another.
Dar picked up a pen but couldn't think of a good message. In the end he
decided a bad one was worse than none at all and returned the pen without
making a single mark.
He went out the door, not forgetting to lock it,
and began on the journey back north.
***
Esper simply could not pay attention. As the teacher
went on about variables or decibels or something, all he could think
of was Kyosuke and how could he have been so stupid as to leave his youngest
brother alone with a dragon who obviously hated his guts. His hand holding
the pencil finally moved on the notebook paper, but almost immediately
stopped. He had been about to, not take notes, but draw his worst-case
scenario. Which was not a scenario for little kids to see.
He sighed and made another attempt to pay attention;
even without ESP he knew it wouldn't work.
***
An arm straightened and a hand waved. "Good day to
you, Hikari Kenshin."
Hikari nodded. "Lady Elaine, right?"
Elaine smiled and nodded. "Do you have any knowledge
of how Michael fares?"
"Last time we checked he wasn't dead," said Job,
"and one of Giltia's little spells hadn't backfired and mangled him. Last
time we checked. I can't make guarantees for now."
Elaine returned her hands to their folded position
in her lap. She was seated in one of the hospital waiting room chairs.
In the chair next to her was an object wrapped neatly in floral paper,
complete with shiny ribbon (real fabric ribbon, not the curly paper kind)
and gilded card. "I understand. But he is in no clear danger?"
"Besides being blown apart by Hikari because he
questioned her belief system once too many," said Tani Koumori, while leafing
through a random magazine, "no, he isn't in clear danger."
Elaine sighed- if it were an act, she would be an
instant star for all the pathos she conveyed- and looked down. "Hikari,
I apologize, but Michael really does mean for the best."
Hikari made an unidentifiable contemptuous noise
and turned away. "Oh, sure he means for the best. He tells me to believe
in the existence of an omnipotent idiot who hates me because I am what
I am. He calls me sinful. He's all high-and-mighty about his stupid numbers
which are only three hundred higher." She kept her voice down, which was
fortunate, as there were others in the room. "And he really does mean for
the best. Sure. If you say so."
Elaine put a hand to her mouth. "…Oh my. He said
such a thing?"
"You bet."
"I'm sure he didn't really-"
Tani quickly changed the subject. "Why are you here,
Elaine? Your Master's hurt?" She, too, kept her voice low.
"Oh no, my Master is unharmed."
"So who is it then?"
She lifted her head. "Maximilian Pegasus," she stated.
"Master had to go to school, and he asked me to deliver this." She indicated
the object.
And right then Tani wanted nothing more than to
walk over to a wall and hit her head against it. Repeatedly.
"I think you'd better go see him first," said Job.
"Kari and Tani have very special presents for him."
"Really? What sort?"
"I think they might be giving him sandwiches. But
they'll be special sandwiches, if you get my meaning."
"Oh, I see," although she clearly didn't see at
all. And then she picked up the package and walked off.
After Elaine had gone, Job defined a "knuckle sandwich"
and Tani laughed for what seemed like forever until it was over.