Chapter 11: Shadows of the dead
The figure in Kou's body still didn't seem worried that his hunter was as good as dead. But this was a different story for the monster, it began to fiddle with its weapons, and just as the Vampire bit into him, there was a loud screech of pain, and they both disintegrated in digital dust. Skull looked in surprise at the turn of events. Then he shrugged, figuring this to be the work of a trap. "Ha, you never learn do you?" he quizzed his opponent cheerfully. "My monster will only come back to me next turn!" he re told his monster's very useful ability in even more triumph than the first explanation.
"No, it won't." the silver haired man stated in the utmost of simplicity.
"Really, then tell me, what could you possibly have to stop it?" Skull was amused at how stupid his new opponent was. Then, he stole a sideways glance at the LP score and gasped.
Kou's body-1150
Skull-1670
"Wha- but- HOW!" the absence of eyes and eyebrows made Skull comical, to hear such a surprised voice coming from a skeleton was laughable indeed to the figure. At least it seemed to be as he snickered.
"Idiot, my Hunter with Seven Weapons (2000/700) gets an extra 1000 attack points for battling a monster of the type I declare when it's summoned." he folded his arms in clear glee at his opponent's confusion, and now anger.
"No matter, my Zombie will be back next turn, but your monster will be laid to rest in the Shadows forever!" Skull had the malevolent tone back and laughed hysterically. "Right my dear!" he looked at the Vampire lady (1550/1550). Namia's face stared at the Obnoxious Celtic Guardian (1900/1200) unmoving. She had the coldest of looks in her normally bright crimson eyes. "Ahh, she'll come around!" Skull taunted.
The one in Kou's body only snickered, not rising to the bait of his opponent. Instead he drew. At first, there was no expression, but then he looked up at Skull with a smirking look. "I've drawn the card I needed, your doomed!" he stated. Skull looked at him suspiciously.
"Your bluffing!" he bellowed, so worried that his opponent really had drawn the win. "No way did you draw a card that could bypass my defense, and if you attack, you have to hit the girl!" he smiled, weaker than usual, but still feeling more confident.
"I'm going to shoot over your strategy." the mystery man stated.
"Ha! Do you know how insane you sound!" Skull was now completely sure that he had over taken his opponent so well he was becoming delusional.
"My strategy is this, watch and learn!" he inserted another card into the magic and trap card zone of the duel.
It took a while to adjust to being in the grasp of mad skeleton men, Sei admitted it. But the thing that he found even harder to grasp than this, was that Kou was still trapped in the dome of shadow, and Namia was nowhere to be seen. 'Maybe I should make a break for it… Heck, they might not even stop me."' Shisei began to ponder to himself the chances that he could escape. Counting the fact that his best skill in gym was running, his chances were good. But then he remembered that he had almost failed gym six consecutive times. 'Better not risk it."' he thought. He then sat back, and watched the dome in slightly more interest as to what was happening inside.
Namia felt a strange lifting sensation. As though she were… well, floating on a cloud. But, suddenly she heard it, the voices. "Right… WIN…My…Strategy…Dear…Learn. It was only snippets, but she continued to listen, and she began to think, that maybe, this was… a duel. But no, it couldn't be. Bit by bit, she was wondering where she had been before this all happened, then she remembered. 'I was at the Duel Monsters Japan tournament!"' she felt as though she had broken the barrier between her life in a distant past, and her new life now. As though she was remembering a very tragic event she had blocked out of her memory. 'Kou… THAT VOICE!"' she realized. "KOU!" she screamed aloud. The thought that she had to find him, see him, that was what made her hear, feel and see.
"Now I'll act-" the mystery duelist, in the middle of his speech, was suddenly cut off as the Vampire Lady screeched Kou's name. Skull and the figure looked at Namia in the monster. Namia blinked and looked at her surroundings.
"Umm… Kou?" she looked at the figure in surprise. Then, before anyone could make a move, the figure winced.
'What the hell… Why do you want your body back now!" he thought to Kou.
'Take a wild guess!"' Kou responded, still in thought speech to the mystery figure. The figure rolled his eyes, muttered something about younguns and receded back into Kou's soul room.
"Look, your not going to be able to free Namia, so just let her be, if I can win without attacking her…" the figure stated, cutting himself off to think if he could really pull it off.
"I hate to be so rude to someone that saved my life and all… but this is kind of my body, and so my choice!" Kou retaliated. "So just let me see her, and besides, I've been watching and know the strategy, so just let me try-" he broke off. He was about to say "Try to win' but he didn't want to think about failing. "Let me win!" he finished.
The figure looked at the determined face of Kou, and sighed in exasperation. "Alright then, you go, but don't do anything stupid, risky, cutthroat, or… well Kou like." he turned away. Kou blinked.
"You make it sound like you know me." he stated, closing his eyes. It was odd, but Kou felt like he had already been made to jump from his soul room to his body before, and it was very easy for him now. "By the way… What's your name?" he looked questioningly at the figure.
"If you must know… My name is Chiro, holder of the seals." he stated. "Now go, before she forgets you." Chiro stated, looking away.
Kou flashed a thumbs up at him. "Don't know you that well, but apparently were going to share a body, so see ya." and he left with a smile. The thing about the smile though, as Chiro plainly saw, it was not one of Kou's happy-go-lucky smiles. It was one of utter fear and confusion.
"Alright, hey there no skin, Namia!" Kou suddenly opened his eyes, Namia and Skull both turned to face the boy with shock. His hair and eyes were back to normal, and his voice was boyish again.
"YOU!" Skull was actually getting glad to have an "idiot" of a duelist, instead of Kou, the mighty savior. Kou looked at Skull with a smirk of his normal mischievous nature.
"Yep, me, and now, Namia, if you'll excuse me, I have to take out the garbage!" Kou pressed the Magic card activation on his disk and hopped into duel mode, giving Namia a wink and smile. "I'll play Monster Reborn, to bring back the Mataza the Zapper (1300/800) in attack mode," the deadly samurai appeared with a wide smile of his own. "my Mataza is the key to your defeat!" Kou continued smirking.
"Nice try boy, but you still have to mow down your girlfriend to get to my LP!" Skull tossed a finger at Namia. "So go ahead, if you want to come out with one less soul." he gave his own smirk.
"Kou, what is he talking about!" Namia asked, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
"Don't worry Namia, I'll save us both, then I can explain this whole thing." Kou assured her. "Now then, I'll show you I don't need to mow down Namia! Activate, Shooting Star Bow – Ceal on my Mataza!" he smirked. A huge Bow with arrows fell from the sky, the Samurai sheathed his blade and took up the bow and arrows with ease. "This will lower my monster's attack points by 1000, and force me to discard a card, but it'll give me what I need to win!" he smirked again as he sent a card to the grave yard. His Mataza the Zapper (300/800) continued smirking, though this time it looked rather fixed.
"Ah, that will give you the ability to attack directly… to bad you'd need three turns to attack and inflict enough damage to defeat me." he smirked. "Your annoying Mataza isn't strong enough alone!" he hissed with glee. "Next turn you get to destroy it my dear!" he told Namia, who gagged.
"You wish! I'll never harm Kou or any of his monsters!" Namia responded with fury in her voice. Kou beamed appreciatively at her.
"Now allow me to show you my finishing play, I'll show you another card you've probably grown to hate… say hello to, Horn of the Unicorn!" the beautiful horn glowed brightly and attached itself to the armor of the samurai. Skull's eyes widened.
"No, you can't, this is impossible, you can't beat me!" Skull looked in horror at the deadly Zapper (1000/800) who was raising his bow in eagerness.
"Alright Kou!" Namia cheered.
"You lose , Mataza (1000/800) double direct attack!" the monster raised two arrows in his bow and shot them into Skull's LP.
Kou-1150
Skull-0
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Skull screeched, there was suddenly a blinding light, and the sphere of darkness had lifted, and Namia was suddenly in her dueling attire that she wore before. Skull was nowhere to be seen. Shisei looked up at the two in shock.
"Holy cow! You won!" he ran over and thumped Kou on the back. "I didn't think- well that is, I didn't- I well- you know- YOU WON!" he stated in confusion as to how best to express his happiness and relief.
"Yeah, that's what you meant to say!" Kou smirked at him. "Now let's get out of here!" he exclaimed. He turned to lead them out, when suddenly, his face turned hard. Standing around them, were none other than thirty or forty skull look-a-likes. "Yeah, I get the feeling they want us to stay here." They were all looking menacingly at Kou, Shisei and Namia, obviously wanting revenge for Skull.
"You killed Maester Donovan!" one glowered, removing a dagger from his belt. "Now you shall pay in your blood!" they all charged.
Shisei and Namia cringed (Shisei actually screamed like a girl as well) and ducked. Kou on the other hand, grabbed them both around the waist, and leapt over the heads of the skulls. "Sorry, can't talk right now, got to fly!" he bounded off tables and chairs, slowed only slightly by the weight of his comrades. The skull men were just as nimble, and the only thing slowing them was the sheer size of the group. But eventually, they grappled onto Shisei's dangling leg and pulled him down. "NO, SEI!" Kou hit the wall and slid down into a mass of skull men.
"Kou- oof!" Namia fell from Kou's grasp and landed on another few skulls. They all ignored her though, and went straight for the swordsman. Soon poor Kou was buried in skull men, and they were all to occupied with trying to kill him to notice Namia getting up. Shisei raised himself as well. "We have to help him!" Namia stated, though she wasn't too keen on the idea of attacking the undead.
"You first." Sei responded. But suddenly, it was obvious Kou didn't need any help, if that silver haired man was Kou, anyway.
"ARGH!" strangled cries erupted from the crowd of skull men as they were sliced by a glowing blue. "What the hell!" the last few skulls managed to register the long curve of blue that belonged to a sword sheath. But Chiro had already started taking them out. He took a huge leap and punched one of the shorter skull's head off, literally. Then one with a table advanced on him. Chiro turned and caught a leg of the table, then wrenched it from his opponent's grip. He tossed it as though it were made of paper and cut the skull in half with his still sheathed blade. Three skulls charged him at once, one was the dagger holder. "YOUR DEAD!" he roared, making a futile stab at the elusive man.
"Guess again!" Chiro leaped over him and pulled up the head of a reforming skull man, tossing it at another of the charging three. It was a clean bulls eye as his own skull was knocked off. Then Chiro spun on his heel, a full three-hundred and sixty degrees, cutting the dagger wielder and the final charging skull to shreds. He turned to Namia and Shisei, who both backed away. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!" he glared. "MOVE, WE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE!" he didn't wait for a response, he grabbed them and leaped away, out into the cold night.
"Okay, folks, now that your all riled up, time to get ready for… Namia vs. Stopper!" the announcer shouted out to the people of the audience. The next match was already about to begin, but unfortunately, both Namia and Stopper were missing. "Oookay… INTERMISSION!" he stated nervously. Suddenly, one of the entrance doors burst open and everyone near it saw the impressive fire duelist enter with a warrior and M/T duelist.
"S-sorry I'm a little late," Namia breathed deeply, Chiro had transformed back to Kou and they had all ran the rest of the way back to the Duel area. "let's get this show on the road!" she finished, straightening her hair, she whispered to Kou: "And after this duel, tell me what happened back there!" she said.
Kou nodded and went to the duelists watching area. Shisei followed. And Namia, all alone on the duel field, prepared to duel.
Higentaka Osmos reviewed Kou's latest duel, the duel in the Shadow Realm. "So then, Chiro, if I'm right, you are the holder of the seals…." a smile crossed his lips. "This should be fun!" he then left the chair he had been sitting, and exited the room. Leaving only the darkness behind.
Next time: Namia and her opponent, a young genius who is deemed Stopper, step into the ring. Meanwhile, Osmos hatches a special plan for Kou. Will Kou be able to handle it? Find out on the next Duel Monsters: Maximum!
