Chapter Three - Dueling Field
"Flame Swordsman! Attack the Red Dark Magician with Salamandra!"
Akai barely had time to focus his eyes on the dueling field before he was defeated and sent to the Graveyard.
"Jo-ey!" Yugi complained.
"Wha...? Oh, sorry, Yugi!" Joey was contrite as his heavily boosted Flame Swordsman took out Yugi's Red Dark Magician.
"How am supposed I to work with this new card monster at all if you send him right away to the Graveyard?!" Yugi continued in an aggrieved tone.
Joey ran his hand through his hair. "It's your fault anyway!" he snapped.
"How is it my fault?!" Yugi demanded.
"I've learned the hard way how not-good it is to let you get a Dark Magician out during a duel! Heh, heh!"
Yugi blinked at him, then smiled.
"That bad, huh?"
"Yeah, pal. That bad. Once you get ole DM out, I haven't got a chance!"
"Well, this is a different Dark Magician," Yugi noted, picking up the Red Dark Magician card from his Graveyard pile so he could look at the picture.
"Come on, Yug. One Dark Magician is like any other. Especially in the hands of the master!" Joey teased. "You don't think this one's gonna play differently just because the image is different, do you?"
"Maybe what he can do won't be any different, but he is different, Joey. I can just tell," Yugi tried to explain. "The look in his eyes during the duel with Arcana went beyond any programming of the duel disk system. I really think there is a difference between him and my Dark Magician. A difference in his heart."
Joey half-smirked at him. "Whatever, pal. I think you're just trying to sucker me into letting you get him on the field without taking him out right away!"
Yugi grinned up at Joey. "Well, there is that too!" he admitted.
"I knew it!"
********
"I now see why you talk with the monsters in the Graveyard," Akai admitted, walking up to where Mahaad was seated on a gravestone. "It would be very boring otherwise!"
Mahaad laughed ruefully, having been taken out of the duel by one of Joey's monsters a few turns before Akai had been summoned to the field.
"Joey's learned not to let Yugi get his Dark Magician out unchallenged," Mahaad admitted. "He's apt to use a strong attack as soon as Yugi plays my card. I'm sorry that's making it hard for you now."
"No matter," Akai seated himself on the tombstone next to Mahaad. "I've got the feeling that somehow Yugi will find a way around it."
"Oh, he will. You'll fight for him yet!"
"But...you pay attention to Yugi's opponent? Enough to know his name even?" Akai asked.
"It's important to know Yugi's opponents, too. Joey is a friend of Yugi's, though they have faced each other as opponents in duels of consequence too. Joey's not one to ease up and just let Yugi get your card out without sending you to the Graveyard, but don't worry. Yugi will find a way to get you into the duel."
"Of course that means I'll probably languish here in the Graveyard for a while..." Mahaad mourned.
"Awww!" Akai teased.
Mahaad just rolled his eyes. A moment later, Akai vanished.
********
"...Reborn the Monster! Recovering my Red Dark Magician from the Graveyard!" Yugi finished.
"Dammit!" Joey exclaimed. "I haven't got anything strong enough to send him back!"
"Well then! I finally get to play my new card!" Yugi seemed satisfied.
Akai was just a bit stunned. Not that he'd been recovered from the Graveyard with Reborn the Monster, even Arcana had done that, but that Yugi would opt to recover him, not Mahaad. He still thought of Mahaad as "Yugi's Dark Magician" even though he was Yugi's now too. Maybe actually playing for Yugi would help him to feel more like he belonged here. He hoped so.
Constrained by the protocols of the duel, Akai could only pose impressively and wait while Joey played his turn. Akai noticed that Yugi had somehow deprived Joey's Flame Swordsman of his Salamandra boost.
"Let's see what you can do. Red Dark Magician, Dark Magic Attack!"
Akai moved willingly at Yugi's command, leveling his staff at Joey's Flame Swordsman.
"Give Mahaad my regards!" Akai thought as the Swordsman exploded in defeat at the touch of his Dark Magic. His task completed, Akai crossed his arms and returned to floating in position.
"Huh. Looks like a regular old Dark Magic Attack to me!" Joey noted. "Annoying as usual!"
"Yeah...but..."
Only then did Akai realize that Yugi had been watching his performance very closely.
"Yami said that he was different," Yugi explained. "And that Arcana had mistreated him."
"That one?! No offense, pal, I know you two got the whole mystic connection goin' on and all, but sometimes I wonder if Yami's got ancient dust for brains!"
"Hey!"
"Heh, heh! Are you finished? Is it my turn?"
********
"You were wonderful!" Rowan, the Lady of Faith, claimed as she stepped forward and took Akai's arm between her hands in a friendly manner. "That hit from Joey's Red Eyes looked like it hurt! Come over here and rest a while," she suggested as she led Akai to sit on a tree stump in the forest area of the Magic Box.
"Vialla! Looks who's back!"
"What?" Akai asked, looking up at Mahaad.
"Let them fuss over you," Mahaad suggested. "It's how they show they care."
"They...care...?!" Mahaad nodded once into Akai's stunned eyes, grasped his staff and walked off toward his workshop.
"Oh! Akai! tell us what it was like!" Vialla rushed up with a smile. "Are you hurt?"
Mahaad smiled to himself as he heard Yugi's two most soft-hearted monsters welcoming Akai in their own special way by having him recount the duel from his point of view while they exclaimed appropriately at his actions. Mahaad knew the girls knew it had been a very basic duel, but their behavior was the tentative beginning of the other card monsters accepting Akai into Yugi's deck.
Mana pushed herself off the wall of the atelier as Mahaad approached.
"Master," she greeted. Mahaad lifted his eyebrow.
"Why are you not with Vialla and Rowan welcoming Akai back from his duel?" Mahaad asked.
"You want me to twitter senselessly like them over that...Red Dark Magician?!" Mana made a face. "I thought...perhaps...you might let me..."
"Enter the workshop?" Mahaad finished. "Not today. You are not yet ready."
"When will I be ready?!" Mana demanded petulantly.
Mahaad laid a hand on her shoulder, trying to soothe her frustration. "That is entirely up to you, Mana. I would suggest learning what you can about Dark Magic from the new Dark Magician."
"Him?! What can he teach me that I don' t already know?!"
"You won't find that out by asking me," Mahaad replied before he turned and entered the atelier, firmly closing the door behind him.
********
"So, how goes it this time?" Mahaad asked as Akai appeared in the Graveyard again.
"Joey is very tough today!"
"I told you!" Mahaad laughed. "But how is it fighting on Yugi's side?"
"Frustrating. I can't explain it, except...in all these duels, I have to be the Dark Magician. Just the Dark Magician. I'm glad that my attacks and abilities are for Yugi now, but I can't tell him that or show him that somehow. All I can do is obey his commands like I did for Arcana. How is it any different?"
"In some ways it isn't. When you use a Dark Magic Attack it does the same damage as mine would. We both summon the same number of Magical Hats and they behave the same way. In many ways, we are identical."
"So how am I any different than you? Or...how am I any different than the other two Dark Magicians in Arcana's deck? I am...just a card monster...like any other..." Akai realized. "No matter what you try to say!"
"Yes...in and of yourself you are just a card monster. The difference in any card monster is in their duelist and how that duelist treats his cards," Mahaad replied serenely. "And then in how you respond to that treatment. You are suspicious now because of how Arcana treated you. As you get accustomed to how Yugi treats you, you will come to trust him. He will come to trust you. And that is where all the difference is."
"Trust," Akai murmured. "Somehow...I thought being Yugi's card would be different somehow. That I would be able to..."
"Able to what?" Mahaad asked softly.
Akai shook his head in frustration. "I was wrong. It doesn't matter."
********
"So, what do you think of your new card?" Yami asked internally.
"The Red Dark Magician? He's okay...."
"What's wrong?" Yami asked, sensitive as always to Yugi's moods.
"I know what I saw in the fight with Arcana. This Dark Magician," Yugi held up the card, looking for the hundredth time at the image, "seemed to be...more than just a card somehow. But...what if Joey is right? In all these duels using him, I haven't seen anything at all to show that he is more than just a card monster. What if he really is no different than any other Dark Magician card?"
"Do you believe that?"
"N, No..." Yugi replied slowly. "Would it make sense if I told you I think he," Yugi lifted the Red Dark Magician card, "is just as frustrated as I am? I wish I could talk with him as you did...face to face..."
"No, Yugi. Without the Millennium Key it's too dangerous for you to try to enter the labyrinth of my mind!" Yami exclaimed.
"I know. I won't try. I just wish I could, so I could meet 'Akai' as you did..." Yugi finished wistfully.
-------------
Author's notes -
I'm so sorry. I'm going to have to do some research for the next two chapters. I want to make sure of my facts before I write them into a story. So don't be surprised if the next chapter takes a bit longer for me to finish. I'm also afraid if I don't write another chapter for another of my stories in progress *pokes Cybercat* I'm going to get a visit from an irate dhampir. Or *shudder* his Left Hand!
Next Chapter teaser - Shadow Realm
Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!
stargarde@stargarde.com