AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well, here's Chapter Two. It was begun at midnight after my birthday, August 26. Everyone wish me a happy birthday! I got lots of really cool presents… but I'm sure nobody cares. In this chapter, the plot will actually begin! Ooo, how exciting! In addition, there are new places and OCs to be introduced, as well as the continuing development of the new N. Realm characters I've picked out.
Also, Negative Pegasus and Negative Mai WILL be getting new names, like Kaze and Company. Oh, and if you're worried that Kawari and Kaeru will be left out- don't worry. They'll be sticking around in a subplot in the N. Realm, so you'll be seeing more of them.
One final note: I know that thing where Kaze's people could artificially create a Realm Portal was a bit of a plot hole, but for the sake of this fic let's just say that he's done lots of research into the subject and discovered a way for any magic user to open a Realm Portal. I had forgotten that all the previous portals had been accidental when I wrote that chapter- for some mysterious reason (most likely my terribly faulty memory) I thought Kaeru had created one at one point, but I was sadly mistaken. Sorry!
* * *
In a street in the True Realm, three figures were walking down the street toward the game shop. One, with a BIG head of blond hair, appeared to be attempting to prevent the other male in the party, who had spiky black hair and dice earrings, from getting too friendly with the only female traveller, who had long brown hair and was fairly short compared to the two boys.
"I'm fine, Joey," the girl protested. Joey simply ignored her.
"Listen, punk, you stay away from my sister if ya know what's good for ya…"
The black-haired teenager just laughed. "Since when do I have to ask dogs permisson to talk to girls?" he whispered in Joey's ear so that Serenity wouldn't hear.
Joey's noises of anger and indigation were abruptly cut off when three interesting things happened at once: Tea appeared suddenly at the end of the street running down the block, the door of the game shop the party was approaching opened to reveal Yugi and Rex Raptor, who were apparently walking to school, and a large silver disk, floating vertically in midair, appeared out of nowhere across the street.
Duke Devlin's attention was first drawn to Yugi and Rex.
"Rex?" he intoned bemusedly. "Rex Raptor? I heard on the news that you were killed!"
"Yeah, well I came back to life, apparently," Rex snapped impatiently. "Shit, this is gonna be hell to explain to everyone…"
Yugi quickly jumped in before the swearing got out of hand. "Rex wasn't actually killed, you see," he explained with incredible patience. "The news was mistaken…"
Joey, meanwhile, had been staring at the silver disk across the street. "Hey, Yuge, isn't that one of those Realm Portal thingies?" he asked suddenly.
No sooner had he said this than the portal disappeared and in it's place appeared four frazzled-looking Negative Realm residents.
"Hey, Saguru!" Joey shouted as he registered the identity of the frontmost new arrival, barely even noticing the fact that two of his greatest enemies were also in the group. He ran over to greet his opposite.
By this point, Tea had reached the growing crowd, running so fast that she was oblivious to all else going on. "Yugi!" she puffed, when she reached him. "I just heard on the news, Rex Raptor was murdered, and-" she broke off abruptly as she lifted her eyes to see Rex standing in front of her. Then, she turned her head to the group coming across the street, which included not only Pegasus but two Joeys, and her mouth dropped open in shock.
Yugi smiled. "Something tells me this is going to take a little explaining."
\\You got that right,\\ his Yami replied irritably from his Soul Room.
* * *
Kaeru, in control of his aibou's body, strode across the control room of the Opposition impatiently. Now, he knew how Kaze felt most of the time.
"How's the current operation going?" he asked the man at the control panel, for lack of anything better to do. He felt that he had none of Kaze's cool authority and charisma, and all of his impatience.
"Not good, sir," the man replied. "A quarter of Mako's unit was wiped out by Hand of the Shadow agents, and Weevil's unit isn't doing much better. We thought recapturing this warehouse would be a good strategic move, but…"
Kaeru shook his head sadly and walked off. Running an Opposition was harder than he had thought it would be. He approached the communications room and stopped a woman who was leaving with papers in her hand. "Any news from abroad?" he asked her.
"Well, the American operations are going well," the woman replied. "Mai's secret agents are doing their job. But our European efforts have been failures for the most part. The Hand's got too many of their own people there already, and almost half of our installed people have been exposed."
Kaeru bit the inside of his lip. "Any chance of recovering the major cities?" He ran over the possibilities in his mind. He knew Kaze had formed a plan to take over the British navy before he left and send it to Japan, but nothing else about it.
"London and Munich are lost, according to what's in front of me," the woman replied. "Paris… well, we don't have any agents in the government, but as far as we know neither does the Hand, so that's a start. Vienna, Rome, and Venice are pretty much ours, but they aren't powerful enough on their own to aid our cause here. The Vatican did release a statement condemning the Hand of the Shadow, but…"
"…fat lot of good that'll do in Japan," Kaeru finished. "Well, that's enough bad news for one day. Maybe they'll have more luck if we can get America to go to open war against the Hand…" His thoughts trailed as he walked off down the hallway, realizing the near-impossibility of that plan.
The Opposition was not in good shape.
* * *
Ten people sat on the various couches, cushions, and chairs occupying Yugi Motou's living room, listening to Yugi and Rex explain their knowledge of the past evening's events. Duke Devlin had attempted to sit next to Serenity, but Joey quickly took a seat between them. Kaze listened thoughtfully to Yugi's report of Yami's theory that it had in fact been the Negative Rex who was killed, further supported by Kaze's release of the knowledge that Negative Rex had disappeared while on a mission by being drawn through a Realm Portal.
"So lemme get this straight," Saguru said when the story was finished. "Everyone in your world thinks the True Rex was murdered, but it was actually our Rex. His team is probably lost and scattered, lying low without a leader. And the body was found unblemished?"
"Straight out of the newscaster's mouth," Yugi replied. "If the Realms are having an imbalance… that sounds a lot like magic is involved in these murders. The murder could be connected to the imbalance…"
Kaze had been thinking hard also. "Pegasus," he said then. "If you could get into physical contact with the body of Negative Rex, could you find out what killed him?"
"That and more, Kaiba-boy," Negative Pegasus replied. "You see, when someone kills someone with magic, they leave a taint of themselves on the body. If I could contact it, I could find out not only who killed him, but what type of magic they used, and, most importantly-" he paused, in a very Pegasus-like way, for dramatic effect, "I could find out where they are now."
"That would be awesome!" True Joey exclaimed. "We could track that creep down and find out what he's killin' all these people for!"
"Wait a minute," responded Duke Devlin. "If somebody spots Maxamillion Pegasus running around the local morgue, it's not gonna be kept quiet."
Pegasus grinned again. "Disguising myself will be simple, with the help of my Millennium Eye!" The golden object flashed in his empty socket. Yugi shivered involuntarily, remembering several times when True Pegasus had finished sentences in the exact same way, and with dire results.
"Another thing," Negative Mai began, speaking for the first time. "Before we begin planning this operation, if Kaze plans to have us remain and help…" She waited for her leader's nod of affirmative before continuing. "Pegasus and I should pick new names, like Saguru and Kaze did when they came over last time, so that we can tell ourselves apart from our True counterparts."
"Indeed," Pegasus replied. "For my name, I believe I shall choose… Miyaburu. It has a good sound to it, you see."
"And I shall be Aikan," Mai decided. "It will do very nicely. Now, onto planning."
"If we're gonna have to sneak into the morgue, that's my department," Saguru began.
"Nah," Duke Devlin replied. "I've got a better idea."
* * *
She was running.
Running away from the crazy man who had chased her, who had burned down her precious library. Running away from the reality of disaster.
Her entire life had been kept in those wooden halls of knowledge. She had devoted herself completely to the study of the past, and one deranged vandal was all it took to erase both her own past and her future.
She clutched the one possession still remaining to her, the ancient artifact that had been the object of most of her years of research. If necessary, she thought to herself, I can use it.
She thought she had shaken off pursuit, but she couldn't be sure. After the strange man had set fire to her library and come chasing after her with a knife, she hadn't thought about much except running and continuing to run for about fifteen minutes, but occasional glances behind her had yielded the pursuer at first, but later, nothing.
And she was exhausted.
She stopped for a moment to catch her breath. She was not out of shape, but now that the adrenaline had worn off her body was paying the price for her exertion. She would have to sit down and rest for a few minutes. It would not do, she reasoned, to be found by that crazy loon while I'm too out of breath to do anything about it. So, she sat against the stone wall of the alley she had flown into and let her wits and lungs catch up with the rest of her.
She did not want to consider her predicament. It was too painful, and the memory of the burning knowledge, her burning past, too fresh in her mind for her to reexamine it as of yet. Instead, she looked at her surroundings. Stone walls, on every side, but not the fancy marble and slate used to build the government buildings in the town center. This was the rough, quarry stone used to build the apartments in the poorest section of the city, where those who could not pay their taxes to the king were forced to live. She had no idea where she was.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps, running, sounded from the far end of the ally. She jumped up, only to come face-to-face with a little boy. She sighed in relief and chided herself mentally for being so jumpy. She had probably shaken off pursuit long ago.
"Gee ma'am, should you be out here all the way in the middle of nowhere?" the boy asked "You could get hurt in a part of town like this."
The boy probably noticed my fine clothes, she reasoned. "I'm fine, just run along home, little boy," she smiled down at him. No use troubling him with her worries, many as they were.
But then, before her eyes, the little boy was suddenly not so little anymore. He spoke in a much deeper voice, but still slightly high for the young man of 20 or so that he was. "And appearances can be deceiving, you see."
She jumped about a foot in the air, and looked around wildly for an escape path, but she was cornered. Cornered by the man who had burned down her library and came after her with murder on his mind. "What do you want of me?" she asked him, with an odd mixture of defiance and resignation to death in her voice.
"Well, now that you've conveniently led us out here in the middle of nowhere," he began with a grin, "all I want is that most interesting device in your hand."
He knows about the Rod of 1,000 Minds! "This old walking stick? Whatever would you want this for?"
"You know as well as I that it is no walking stick, Ichiko."
"How do you know my name? Have you been stalking me?"
"Don't try to distract me!" the man barked. "I am below your petty, villainous tricks!"
Ichiko was shocked. "Petty, villainous tricks?" she asked, more baffled than scared for an instant.
But the young man grinned. "If you will not give it to me willingly, I will duel you for it."
* * *
Duke Devlin walked down the hallway at Domino Hospital, gazing at the signs on the walls. With his easy charm and persuasion skills, it had been simple to convince the female receptionist to let him through to the back room. Now, he just had to hope that idiot Wheeler and the weird kid who looked like him were in their places… and the Pegasus lookalike, of course, but he was fairly sure he could trust him to pull this off without a hitch.
He checked his watch. Wheeler and his hot kid sister were set to move in two minutes. He just had to make sure he found the right place in time.
Turning a corner, Duke continued to read every sign he passed. Some advertised that their interiors contained labs, beds, exam rooms, or offices. None of those interested him. Finally, at the end of a particularly dingy corridor, Duke spotted the sign he was seeking. "MORGUE" read the large black letters on the wooden plate above the doorknob. He smiled to himself, then looked around. He needed somewhere to hide and wait. Spotting a broom closet a few doors down, he slipped inside and glanced again at his watch.
Only ten seconds before Serenity makes her move, he thought.
He began a whispered countdown. "Five, four, three, two…"
An ear-piercing shriek suddenly ripped down the corridor. Even through several hallways and the broom closet door, it was still quite audible to Duke. He could also hear Joey's shouts for help. Damn, he thought, I sure would have liked to have been the one out there alone with Serenity. But he couldn't have trusted the most crucial part of the operation to Wheeler, no matter how much trust Yugi had in him.
A scuffle of feet outside in the hallway signified the result Duke expected. The doctors, reacting on their doctorly instincts, were responding to the emergency call. And they would probably be careless in their rush to see who had screamed so suddenly. Devlin smiled to himself, thinking how perfectly his brilliant plan was coming together. Not even Kaze or Miyaburu could think of anything better, Devlin complimented himself. He may not have known either of them personally, but he knew both their counterparts and reasoned that they would probably have near-equal intelligence.
The scuffle had died down by now, and Duke cautiously opened the door to see who was outside. As he expected, the corridor was abandoned and every door was ajar. He opened the door to the morgue and looked inside.
The body he assumed to be the Negative Realm Rex Raptor was lying under a white sheet on an operating table. The autopsy hadn't begun yet, Devlin realized. The thought relieved him considerably. The window was also closed and locked, as he knew it would be, but a glance through it revealed that Kaze, Saguru, Tristan, and the "real" Rex Raptor were all in their positions in the alley below, forming a human tower up to the window so Miyaburu, who was standing on Rex's shoulders could climb through. Normally, a spectacle like this would have raised some questions from passerby on the street, but fortunately the morgue window faced an alley between the hospital and the adjacent building, so there was no one else in sight.
Duke unlocked the window from the inside and opened it, helping Rex to haul the American CEO through the opening.
"Are you okay?" Duke asked Miyaburu, who was straightening himself and brushing off his clothes.
"Fine," Miyaburu grinned. "Just take me to the body." His grin became wider, as both of them realized how disgusting this sentence would sound if taken out of context.
Devlin indicated the sheet-covered Rex and prepared to turn away (even if the autopsy hadn't begun, he would rather not have to look at a day-old corpse preserved in formaldehyde, or whatever they put those bodies in.
Miyaburu, however, didn't remove the sheet. He just stuck his hand under the cloth and touched what was, apparently, Rex's face. Devlin was still slightly queasy.
The golden Millennium Eye (or the Negative version of such) glowed in Pegasus's socket, and his Millennium Magic began to work. Duke gazed in awe at the pale green light that enveloped both Miyaburu and the white sheet, and was slightly afraid that the glow might attract someone's attention even through the walls. Judging from Rex's excited shouting coming through the still-open window, it could probably be seen out in the alley, anyway.
But Duke was impatient. It had been ten seconds already, what more did he need to find out? "What's going on, Peg- I mean, Miyaburu?" he asked. "Where'd the killer go?"
"Don't distract me!" Miyaburu snapped. The glow became still brighter, and Miyaburu looked, if anything, confused.
By this time, the combination of Miyaburu's lack of concentration and the confused look on his face had annoyed Devlin so much that he decided to go yell at Rex out the window, who was still shouting excitedly down to the lower tiers of the human ladder. But before he could reach the window, the green light faded once again. Devlin spun around to discover, to his disappointment, that the confued look on Miyaburu's face had not.
"Well?" Duke Devlin asked impatiently.
Miyaburu stared at him for a minute, then broke once more into his trademark grin. "We need to talk to the others."
That was all he would say for the moment.
* * *
"Duel you?" Ichiko asked incredulously. "Why should I duel you?"
"Well, I can think of several good reasons," the man said. "Because you must duel me at some point, and because I have proven myself worthy of dueling you, but, most importantly, this." He drew a glowing, dark purple longsword from a scabbard at his belt.
Ichiko forgot her fright for the moment. "What is that thing?"
The man replied with a smile. "It has had many names," he said grandly, "but its true name is the Saga Blade. It records the history of the world. In fact, some say that it was the maker of the world's history. The Eight Legends which define our past, were the creations of this weapon… and the Ninth prophecied to come will be its work as well."
Despite her terror, despite this man's obvious insanity, the historian in her was awakened. "The Saga Blade? I've never heard of such a thing."
"You've heard of the Eight Legends, obviously?" the man ascertained.
"Of course, every historian knows of them," she replied "Eight catastrophic events that affected all of the Realms and their Negative counterparts. They are used as turning points in historical research and in putting dates and time frames on other events."
"Yes, yes, all very scholarly," the man replied "The point is, they were all caused when a true hero wielded the Saga Blade in the name of good. Think what an amazing new life you could build with a new ancient weapon to research! I will wager it on a duel with you if you will agree to part with your Rod of 1,000 Minds if you lose."
I should be afraid, Ichiko thought to herself. I should be terrified of this insane guy with a freaky glowing sword and I should be running for my life. But for some reason… I'm not. It was if a similar insanity had overtaken her, as though he was contagious. "Very well," Ichiko replied, that rare competitive glint in her eye that appeared whenever she was called to a competition. Leave her shyness, her submissiveness, and her fear behind. This was a fight. "I accept your challenge. Do you have a duel disk with you?"
He laughed at that. "Now, would I have challenged you if I didn't have a duel disk with me?" Both fighters removed their pocket duel disks, a common item all over the world now, since Horatio Corporation had come out with them. Now, duelists could have complete holographic duels anywhere they wanted.
Ichiko slipped her prized dueling deck into the slot, and moved forward to allow her duel disk's laser scanner to register the presence of another duel disk.
"We play with 4000 Life Points," the strange man shouted at her, across the hologram of a dueling field that had appeared.
"Fine," Ichiko replied, and the number 4000 registered on each duel disk. "You take the first move."
The man grinned again, and sheathed the Saga Blade before drawing seven cards. "Villains always say that." Before Ichiko could puzzle out his meaning, he had made his move. "I'll play one card face down, and one monster in facedown defense mode," the man said, removing the named cards from his hand and placing them on the field. Two facedown cards appeared, one horizontal in the first row, and one vertical in the back row. "Your move!"
Ichiko drew seven cards. Hmm, I drew my most powerful card on the first draw, she thought. But I need the ritual magic card to summon it… "I'll also play one card face down," Ichiko decided. She scanned her hand one more time. "And I'll summon Neo the Magic Swordsman (1700/1000) in Attack Mode!" The blond-haired spellcaster appeared on her side of the field, swinging his broadsword and gazing with cool eyes at the opposing cards. "I won't attack this turn," Ichiko decided. Too risky.
"Excellent," the man replied. "You already seem like a talented duelist. You might even put up a good fight." He grinned again as he drew his card. "I will leave my first monster facedown," he announced. "First I'll play the magic card Defective Grenade, which allows me to search my deck for any three cards except monsters with a higher level than 6 and discard them to my Graveyard." Ichiko watched him play this strange move curiously, gazing distractedly at the hologram of a grenade being tossed but blowing up on the three cards the man had picked, and made sure the duel disk automatically shuffled the deck afterward.
He continued. "And then I will summon the mighty Vorse Raider (1900/1200) in Attack Mode!" The mighty warrior appeared, swinging a sword twice this size of the spellcaster's. "Vorse Raider, attack Neo the Magic Swordsman!"
"Reveal trap card!" Ichiko quickly shouted before her spellcaster was destroyed. "Magic Arm-Shield! It allows me to place your facedown monster in the way of Vorse Raider's attack!" The red-gloved arm on a spring grabbed the facedown card and held it in front of Vorse Raider's oncoming sword. The facedown card was revealed for a split second as a crouching female spellcaster before she was destroyed.
"Ha!" shouted the man. "I'm a better duelist than you give me credit for! You destroyed my Magician of Faith, which allows me to return a magic card from the graveyard to my hand!"
So that's why he played that weird Defective Grenade card, Ichiko thought.
"I choose the magic card called "The First Legend." It represents the First Legend of history, which was the Creation of the Continents. The First Hero took the Saga Blade in his hand and struck the ocean's surface, and the ripples echoed through every realm, and the land rose out of the sea!"
"How the hell did he stand if there were no continents and no trees to build a boat from?"
"He was a hero, what more explanation do you want?" the young man asked
impatiently. "Anyway, this magic card prevents any field magic cards from being played for the rest of the duel, and it also removes itself from play instead of going to the Graveyard."
Hmm, thought Ichiko, beginning the preemptive strategic thinking that had won her more than a few duels. If he has a card based on the First Legend, he probably has other similar cards. I'd better watch out. Perhaps his deck is entirely based around the cards? Well then, blocking all magic could be a counterstrategy.
"It's my turn, weirdo," Ichiko announced as she drew her card. "Lucky for you, my deck doesn't depend on Field Magic cards, so that First Legend did effectively nothing."
"That's what you think, I suppose," responded the man nonchalantly.
Definitely a chain of magic, Ichiko reasoned. "I'll sacrifice Neo the Magic Swordsman in order to summon the Like-Minded Psychic Twins (2300/800), and I'll use them to attack your Vorse Raider!"
Not even a frown crossed the man's face as the two female spellcasters, one with jet black hair and a pure white dress, and another with a jet-black dress and pure white hair, concentrated hard and caused his monster shattered into thousands of little pieces and 500 life points were subtracted from his duel disk. "No matter," he told her arrogantly. "I didn't need that throwaway monster anyhow."
This guy was starting to get on Ichiko's nerves, but she didn't show it. She was 500 Life Points up, she could beat this guy!
"Okay, for my turn I'll start off by summoning the Giant Solder of Stone (1300/2000) in Attack Mode," he announced. Ichiko was puzzled.
Giant Solder of Stone is most definitely a defensive stall monster, she thought. But he knows I have a Level 6 monster out that can beat it quickly, so why'd he bother summoning it in Attack Mode?
The guy seemed to take pleasure in Ichiko's puzzled look. "Let me introduce you to my Second Legend magic card," he told her. "The Second Legend was when the land flooded with lava and created mountains, valleys, and other features of the land."
"I know all this history." Ichiko was getting impatient. "Finish your turn!"
The man just smiled. "The stories say that in the Second Legend, a wicked sorcerer stole a powerful sword and melted it into raw iron to craft himself a new magic shield that would make him invincible. But the hero destined to wield the Saga Blade, for that sword it was, came to him and lifted his hand, and the shield jumped from the sorcerer's hand to his, and turned instantly into a blade again, and with it, he slew the sorcerer in one fell move. When the sorcerer died, his blood stained the Earth and spread to all the Realms, and became lava, and crafted the geography of every world."
"You're a good storyteller, that's for sure," Ichiko taunted. "But can you match your stories with any sort of power? What sort of lava made of sorcerer's blood are you going to create? I must tell you, my version of the Second Legend involves fewer wicked sorcerers and more geology, but what have you."
"You mock me," the man shouted angrily. "But you won't as soon as I play the card! In honor of the sorcerer's shield that became a blade, the Second Legend card removes itself from play and adds the defense value of every monster to its attack value! Therefore, my Giant Soldier of Stone now has 3300 Attack to your pitiful Like-Minded Psychic Twins, who have only 3100 between them both!"
"Damnit!" shouted Ichiko as one of her more powerful monsters was destroyed by such a weakling as Giant Soldier of Stone. She was still ahead by 300 Life Points, but he now had a monster more powerful than the Blue-Eyes White Dragon on the field, wheras she had nothing.
And there were six legends still to go, she thought. What other tricks does this storytelling loon have up his sleeve?
* * *
"Look, Yami, there's no way around it. We're the only truly trustable agents left in the Opposition with Kaze and Saguru gone. We've got to do this mission ourselves."
Kaeru sighed. Kawari was being very difficult about this particular aspect of leadership. "Aibou, we're in charge of the whole Opposition now! If we die, everything falls apart!"
"Everything's falling apart anyway, and you know it. Kaze always went on missions himself!"
"Kaze had seconds he could trust to take over, or rescue him if something went wrong." Kaeru sighed again. He seemed to be doing that all too much lately.
"Yami, Kaze didn't promote us to second to sit around on our asses and ask the communications people what the weather in America is. Honestly, how much good are we doing here? We don't need another ass-sitter right now. We need agents. Good agents, to do complicated missions. And that's us. Otherwise, we can just kiss Kaze's precious Operation goodbye, and show him the rubble when he gets home."
Kaeru was caving, but he had to try at least one more tack. "Remember what happened on our last mission, Kawari? I can't risk losing you again."
"We'll all be lost if we fail now."
Okay, time to stop fighting. Kawari had a point, and loath as he was to risk his life again, he could always take control of his aibou's body if things got to hairy. And he did have his promise to Kaze to consider.
"Very well," Kaeru relented. "Tomorrow, we'll lead Operation #7741- the infiltration of the Hand of Shadow headquarters."
* * *
Sitting around the table at Yugi's house, the "Operation Rex Raptor Death Info" team was gathered for Miyaburu's debrief.
Duke Devlin was still slightly resentful that Miyaburu, the Negative form of his former idol, had refused to give him any information ahead of time when it had been all his doing that they even had the information in the first place. However, he was presently too curious to really care much about making a stink over it.
The others were all waiting with bated breath to hear what news, good or bad, the wielder of the Millennium Eye had divulged from Negative Rex's corpse. And they were soon rewarded.
"Well, we have some interesting results," Miyaburu began, his voice losing its usual humorous overtones as he began to talk serious business.
"The murderer of Rex Raptor is definitely a magic-user, and more than that, he's a magic-user who can travel between Realms easily."
"How do we know this?" Kaze demanded.
"Simple, Kaiba-boy," Miyaburu told him. "He's no longer in this Realm, so he must be an adept Realm-traveller."
"So he's in the Negative Realm?" Saguru asked. "We have to return immediately, if that's the case-"
"He's left this Realm, but he's not in the Negative Realm either."
"Huh?" Yugi asked. "That makes no sense. Unless… is he caught between the two Realms, like I was once?"
It was Aikan who figured out what Miyaburu was talking about. "I know a little about the Realms Theory in our Negative Realm, which we're pretty much assuming is true, right? It says there are lots of True Realms, totally different from each other, each with its own corresponding Negative Realm. So… I think what Miyaburu is trying to say is that our killer has left this Realm series entirely.
"Right you are, Mai-girl," Miyaburu responded. "In fact, I can take us to the Realm where he is right now." He glanced at the large crowd around the table. "But I can't take all of us."
Kaze quickly sized up those under his command. "If we're going to be away for any extended period of time, Saguru should probably return to the Negative Realm. Inter-Realm crisis or not, we've still got the Opposition to worry about."
Saguru looked extremely disappointed at this news. "Okay, I'll head back to give the Bakuras some a little helpin' hand," he started, "but only on one condition. My True Self needs to go along with youse guys. So I know there's at least one Joey-style guy along with youse all."
Yugi nodded. "Joey will go, and so will I. I haven't let my Yami out yet, out of respect for our Negative friends, but Pegasus can't be the only magic user coming along."
"I, of course, will join you," Kaze added, "and Aikan as well, so we have enough Negative representatives."
"Yes, Blue-Eyes," Aikan agreed.
Duke Devlin was now severly pissed off. "I thought up that whole plan, played the most important part in it, and now it's all 'Sorry Duke, seeya when we get back?' What's up with that? I'm coming too, like it or not!"
"And that, I think, should be our limit," Pegasus jumped in quickly. "Six people I can manage, but more than that and I might have trouble. And I'll want leftover energy in case things escalate to a Shadow Game."
\\Tell Pegasus that if he can get us there, I'll fight the Shadow Games.\\
Yugi grinned and repeated his Yami's attempt to sound powerful to the group. Miyaburu laughed, but agreed that he'd rather not risk the greater portion of his functioning mind in order to transport six people across a Realm and fight a Shadow Game.
"One more thing," Tea wanted to know. "What about school? We're already four hours late!"
Joey and Saguru looked at Tea, and then looked at each other, and cracked up.
* * *
"I place one monster face down on the field, and I'll also play two other cards face down. Then, I'll end my turn." The super-powered Giant Soldier of Stone had Ichiko on the defensive game for the time being.
"Hiding behind facedowns never won any duels," the young man chided. "As I'll prove to you now when I summon the Swordsman of Delstar (1400/300) in Attack Mode!" The hologram that appeared was of a toy-looking soldier with an oversized sword. "He may not look powerful, but that sword packs a wallop! Attack her facedown card, Swordsman of Delstar!" Ichiko's Fairywitch was revealed briefly before it shattered into oblivion.
Ichiko drew her next card. Aha! The Ritual Magic card I need to summon my most powerful monster! But I need to get some monsters to sacrifice on the field first… and this card should do the job! Maybe I should pretend to go on the defensive, so he'll think I don't have a clue what to do and become overconfident. "Uh… I guess… I'll just put this in Defense Mode, and play a third card facedown in my magic/trap area."
"Hmm, running away from the might of my Swordsman of Delstar, are we?" the man cackled. "Well, wait until you see my next move! I summon his partner, the Swordsman of Lanstar (500/1200), in Defense Mode!"
What a weak monster. He must have something in mind. Two partner monsters on the field together often have some special bonus I don't know about.
"If your thinking my two swordsmen can help each other out, you're right! Alone, they aren't very powerful, but together, they become one of my more powerful monsters! I'll play one trap card facedown, and then say hello to Polymerization!"
Uh, oh. "Activate trap card Magic Jammer! I discard this Stop Defense card from my hand to stop your Polymerization!"
He grinned. "You really must think me a mediocre duelist, don't you? I'll use my own trap card Seven Tools of the Bandit to sacrifice 1000 Life Points to stop your Magic Jammer! And Polymerization will go through!"
"Damnit!" And now what's he gonna do?
"Swordsman of Lanstar and Swordsman of Delstar, combine as one, to become the all-powerful Stellaris, Guardian of the Weak (2400/1500)! Now, Stellaris, attack her facedown card!"
"Activate trap card Magic Weather Curtain! All attacks from Earth- and Fire-attribute monsters are prevented, which includes your Guardian of the Weak!"
"And now, watch as my next trick is unfolded. The Third Legend, as you know, was a piercing split, as each Realm split into two- an opposing Negative and True realm. And now, I'll play the card that represents this Third Legend! It reverses the elemental attribution of all cards on the field, so my Stellaris has changed from being an Earth-attribute monster to its opposite, a Wind-attribute monster. Now, he can complete his attack!"
Every time I've just finished recovering from his last Legend card, he plays a new one. At least he didn't have an accompanying story this time. The Mystical Elf card she had played (now a Shadow-attribute monster, for the record), couldn't even last one turn.
"And now, my Giant Soldier of Stone will attack your Life Points directly! You are left with only 200 points in spare change."
The mighty rock monster struck Ichiko over the head, causing her to scream as she was knocked back several feet against the wall of the alley. Not even bothering to get up, she began to comprehend the hopeless mess she was in. Should I even bother to continue? With no monsters to sacrifice, I can't summon my Ritual Monster even with the Ritual Magic card I need. I have no magic cards that can help me, and my face-down Reverse Trap can't do me any good either. Anything else I play will be destroyed by Stellaria next turn, and then Giant Soldier will just finish off my Life Points!
She began to cry, silent tears of despair. When this man finished her off, he would have succeeded in destroying the last bit of her life that remained to her. He would have taken not only her library, her Rod, but her spirit as well. There was no hope for the future.
"Hurry up and make your last move, if you even have one," the young man taunted. "I must continue my ques- GLAAGLH!" He suddenly emitted a choked scream. Ichiko looked up curiously to see what had happened.
What she saw astonished her. Standing behind the mysterious man was another man, possibly a few years older than she was, with his left hand gripping him tightly around the back and his right hand holding a staff mounted with several blades to her tormentor's throat.
"I've caught up with you at last, you bastard!" the new arrival shouted in rage. "It seems my father and I weren't victim enough, was it? You have to go attacking innocent women as well! I've had enough of your damn cruelty! And unless you have a very, very good reason for all of this-" he pressed the largest blade on his staff into the man's throat at these words- "I am going to kill you."
Amazingly, the man laughed. He actually laughed. He's insane for sure, Ichiko thought, as she studied the new man carefully. Was he friend or foe?
"I am the savior of all the Realms, that is my reason," the man told his captor. "And while I doubt it will be sufficient reason for you to release me, I hardly find any other evidence necessary." He turned to Ichiko, grimacing as his neck scraped the blade pressed against it. "We may have left our duel unfinished for now," he told her. "But we'll have our rematch- eventually. Consider this your lucky break. For now, I have business elsewhere!"
The new arrival roared again and gathered leverage with his blade arm to strike a killing blow… only to slash at empty air. With an aura of bright red light, the mysterious man had vanished, taking his dueling deck- and, Ichiko noticed to her dissapointment, the Saga Blade- with him.
There was nothing to do now but talk to the man who had saved her the loss of her most prized possession. But there was only one question that would come to mind. "Who are you?"
The man's reply was immediate. "I am Kouten the Stormborn, and I seek revenge on that man- the man who has murdered my father."
* * *
* * *
And that's Chapter 2!
Okay, just a few notes for the end of the chapter. First, I have to please, please have some comments on the duel for this chapter. It wasn't even a full duel because it wasn't completed, but was it well-written, at least? There's more of them to come, for sure, but if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to include them. I think most of the cards will be new, but some will be old friends. The new cards will always come with a description of their holographic image, by the way. The only other note is an apology for the slowness of the plot elsewhere. I think the hospital scene was pretty good, but otherwise it was just a bunch of talking, and I'm sorry for that. The action will pick up a lot soon, don't worry! In addition, Kaeru and Kawari will have a few action scenes next chapter, so Bakura fans should have fun there. And if anyone was disappointed because their favorite character wasn't included in the "travelling to the next Realm" team, sorry. I picked either characters I liked or characters High Crystal Guardian hasn't used a whole lot yet. Anyway, until Chapter 3 (and I have the goal of a chapter every two weeks, so look forward to it then), I'll say sayonara!