OP2: "Back Again" by Daughtry


Chapter 20: "Ghosts - Part 1"


- Two Years Ago -

Silence hung in the air of Saddlebury, save for the muffled crunch of hooves to sand as Mike, Aeron, Casey, and Liam crossed the town line.

As they strode along the road, Mike kept his eyes peeled for the rogues gallery he remembered staring murder at him before. But this time, nary a soul seemed to be about: nobody walking down the road or up on a front porch, nor any distant chatter from within their walls or out of sight. It was as if Saddlebury's citizens had up and abandoned the town in the dead of night.

"Why is it suddenly like a ghost town here?" he asked.

"What did you expect, for them to roll out a red carpet?" Liam quipped, earning a side-eyed glance from Mike. "Saddlebury's only ever resented Frontier Haven and its people. So imagine how that resentment multiplied after you took out their longtime leader."

"Well, going to lengths like this to avoid us isn't very tactful, considering why we're here," said Casey as her eyes swept the barren streets.

"The townsfolk aren't the ones we're negotiating with," Aeron reminded her, his eyes fixed firmly ahead of them.

Mike's brow furrowed as he considered everyone's input. Despite the rationale, the eeriness of the town's desertion unsettled him. He was starting to feel his earlier apprehension again, but he didn't have long to dwell on it as his eyes caught the end of their trip. They were approaching a cabin, close in size and design to Samael's, with a railed deck before the front door. Standing out front was Seth Harald, his arms crossed and his face wearing the same sadistic smirk that Mike and Casey had greeted the day before.

The four riders came up to the edge of the cabin before cueing for their horses to halt, while Seth's arms dropped as he approached. "Welcome back," he said as they dismounted their steeds. "I see you settled on the emissary option. And a whole party, no less."

Casey scowled. "Really? False niceties right out of the gate?"

Seth looked at her with an odd smirk. "I'd watch that sharp tongue of yours, if I were you. This is supposed to be a diplomatic meeting, after all."

Casey shifted her weight with her legs as she broke eye contact with him. Aeron stepped forward, grabbing Seth's attention as he said, "enough posturing. Where is Jared?"

"Awaiting you inside," Seth replied, unfurling his arm towards the cabin. "Right this way."

He turned and led the four up the steps to the deck. As he followed suit, Mike felt a pit beginning to form in his stomach. He wanted to call for them to stop. To turn tail and ride back to Frontier Haven before something terrible happened. But the thought of what rode on the outcome of this meeting stayed his tongue, defying his nerves and filling his stomach again as Seth put his hand upon the door latch.

"After you," he said, releasing it and pulling the door open.

Aeron crept inside, followed by Mike and Casey as they scanned the room. No windows, a bed in one corner, and a medium-sized table at the center surrounded with chairs on two sides. Three were positioned closer to them, while a fourth leather-bound chair that looked too lavish to belong there sat with its back turned to them. As he processed the sight, Mike felt the pit he'd tried to fill boring a hole through his stomach lining, as though whatever it was trying to warn him of was about to close in.

Aeron's eyes narrowed. "Well? Are you going to face us or not, Jared?"

"Actually, I'm afraid you just missed him."

As the three of them turned back around, they barely caught sight of the door behind them slamming shut, before hearing two loud THUDS from steel meeting wood on the other side.

"What?!" Casey gasped as she and Mike ran to the door, attempting to release the latch on the handle, but it wouldn't give. They had been barred inside.

"You'll have to forgive him, but my father wanted to make sure Frontier Haven's finest were taken out of the picture," they heard Seth drawl from the other side of the door. "I'd wager you have a little less than two minutes to set your affairs straight with whatever god you prefer."

As he spoke, Aeron whipped over to the other side of the desk and spun the leather chair to face him. A bomb sat before him, having just ticked past two minutes to detonation.

"But don't worry," Seth's voice went on. "You'll all see your loved ones again soon enough... after we raze your precious Frontier Haven to the ground."

Mike's eyebrows rose as he realized who else had been left on the other side of the door: "Liam!" he yelled as he pounded his fist against it. "Liam, you need to get us out of here!"


"I can't do that, Mike," Liam replied. "I hate to be the one to tell you, but Jared sent me to Frontier Haven to stake out every duelist that posed a threat. Luckily, you and Aeron proved to be the only problematic variables."

There was a brief silence on the other side before Mike said, "you son of a bitch... so everything you told me, every word of it was a lie?!"

Liam's eye twitched. "Not all of it," he admitted. "Not that it matters now."

He turned to pace back down the steps as he heard Mike berate him: "then was what you told me before a lie, too?! About your childhood, your parents, and wanted to get away from being controlled?! Because doing this, on Jared's order, doesn't make you any freer from control than you were before!"


Silence fell on the other side of the door as Mike panted. Casey had already tried to find any failings with the door, and had moved to inspect the rest of the cabin looking for an escape. Aeron was kneeling beside the chair holding the bomb, gently removing components as he struggled to realize a way to disarm it.

Finally, the only thing Mike received back from Liam on the other side was, "I'm sorry," before his footsteps trailed off from the cabin stairs and became inaudible in the sand.


"Hurry up, Liam! We don't have long!" Seth called to him as he swung a leg over one of the visiting horses, which whinnied with disapproval.

Liam jogged over to the horse beside Seth's and mounted it too. "Are Jared and the rest already stationed at camp?"

"Just as scheduled," Seth replied as he took the reins in his hands. "Once we've regrouped, the march begins, and Frontier Haven will finally burn."

With a nod of understanding from Liam, Seth spurred the horse he'd mounted to action with his heels, and they dashed down the road towards the town line.

Liam, meanwhile, spared one last glance at the cabin he'd condemned Mike, Aeron and Casey within. His lip curled into a frown, before he too grabbed his steed's reins and beckoned for its haste, riding off after Seth.


"Please tell me you're close to disarming that thing," Mike said as he hurried over to Aeron, watching as the timer closed in on one minute.

"Not without more time than we've got before it blows," Aeron said as he stood to face him. "Whoever built this knew what they were doing."

"There's no other way out of here either," Casey reported as she joined them. "No hidden escapes or exploitable openings. And I can't shoot the door off without knowing where the hinges are on the other side."

"So you're saying we're actually trapped in here?" Mike asked, his voice on the verge of cracking.

"Unless anyone has an idea to escape through the roof somehow, yes," Casey admitted solemnly.

"The roof..."

Mike and Casey turned to Aeron, whose crimson eyes suddenly seemed to flicker as an idea took shape behind them. "That's it. Both of you, against the wall, now!"

Though surprised, they obeyed and pressed themselves against the wall. The countdown timer reached fifty seconds.

Aeron whipped his revolver-disk out and activated it upon his arm, before pulling a card from the deck case on his belt. "I summon Doomkaiser Dragon!" he shouted as he slapped the card on the disk.

Mike and Casey's eyes widened as sparks flew from the duel disk, the electricity gathering before Aeron as they expanded to take the form of his skeletal dragon. The shape surged upwards, bursting through the cabin's ceiling in an explosion of snapping wood and crackling energy, before the blinding light faded and behind Aeron stood his ace monster, roaring into the sky. The timer reached thirty-five seconds.

"Quick, grab on!" Aeron yelled as he grabbed hold of one of his dragon's ribs, swinging himself up onto the monster's back.

Mike and Casey quickly exchanged unbelieving glances, before hurling themselves towards Aeron's dragon. Casey leapt up and managed to use the beast's leg to secure a spot behind Aeron on its back. Mike attempted to do the same, but felt his foot slip on the creature's leg, causing him to barely grab hold of the creature's tail. The timer reached twenty seconds.

"NOW FLY!" Aeron commanded his dragon, and its wings beat downwards upon the floor of the cabin, lifting itself into the sky.

"Uh, guys?!" Mike said as he looked down, his heart threatening to jump into his throat and choke him as he saw his legs dangling higher and higher from the ground. "Is this a bad time to mention that I really hate heights?!"

"Shut up and brace for impact!" Aeron shouted against the wind as he and Casey hunkered down, pressing themselves against the dragon as close as they could. The timer reached 5 seconds.

"Wait, brace for what—!?"

Mike had no time to finish as the blast erupted from below. The shockwave felt concussive as it swept over them, knocking Doomkaiser Dragon off its flight trajectory and sending the creature spiraling with a distressed howl. It didn't take long for Mike's grip on the dragon to fail, sending him hurling towards the ground at breakneck speed. He could feel the wind ripping at his skin but couldn't hear it; the bang of the explosion had deafened him, leaving only a piercing ringing in his ears.

His body flailed in the air, spinning him so he could see Aeron and Casey not far behind him being pulled by gravity. His body whirled again and he was facing the ground, his mind barely able to process being seconds from impact. And then—


- Present Day -

Mike's body lurched forward as he woke with a start.

It took a moment for his sight to adjust, but as the sleep left his eyes he remembered where he was: in his bed inside Ciro's cliffside home.

He groggily rubbed the back of his head. It had been at least a few weeks since he'd had a flashback dream so vivid. He could almost feel the wind from the fall still pushing against his face, prompting him to run a hand over his cheek to debunk his recollection with reality.

"Bad dream, kid?"

Mike's head snapped to his right: there sat Ciro in one of the chairs from his center table, leaning forward and staring at him. Not creepy in the slightest, Mike thought in the back of his mind.

He shook his head. "Bad memory, more like," he said, pushing his covers off him and moving to sit upright, facing his mentor. "Do you usually watch your students while they sleep?"

"Only after they wake me up groaning and muttering as they do," Ciro replied with a cock of his head.

Mike turned away, his face flushing. He clambered to his feet and walked over to the corner where his duffel sat, reaching down for his jacket on top of it.

"Not that it's any of my business," he heard Ciro say as he rose from his chair, tucking it back under the table, "but from the way you were saying the name, I presume you and this 'Liam' character aren't exactly on the best of terms?"

Mike froze as he held his jacket, cussing internally. Of course that would be the name to escape his lips while muttering in his sleep.

"Yeah," he said, pacing towards the closest front window to him. "You could say that." He peeked outside to find that dawn had barely even broken; it wasn't pitch-dark, but light enough to see through the woods without the fire pit ablaze. "What time is it even?"

"Early enough for us to get started," said Ciro as he made for his chest by the door, extracting his backpack and machete and adorning them on his person. "Grab whatever you want to eat, and meet me outside with your things when you're ready."

Mike watched as Ciro exited the cabin, and shook his head as he put his jacket on. For a moment, he wondered if there was something about him that kept drawing such standoffish mentors. Then again, considering the success he'd had from training under Aeron, he couldn't bring himself to question the universe's decisions.

After a brief search around the home, Mike settled on boiling water over the fireplace to pour into an instant ramen cup for breakfast. Ciro seemed eager to get the ball rolling on their day as soon as possible, and every other meal option would have taken longer to prepare. Not to mention the fact that he hadn't been left with much of an appetite after reliving the nightmare of Saddlebury anyway.

When he was done, he equipped himself with his duel disk and stepped outside. Ciro was sitting by the firepit, his machete unsheathed in his hands as he ran a small file along the blade's edge to its point. Sunlight was finally beginning to peek over the edge of the woods in the distance.

"All right," he said, watching as Ciro replaced the file in his bag and his machete in its sheath. "I'm guessing today's gonna be all about addressing what's 'holding me back,' right?"

Ciro stood up and met his eyes. "Good guess, kid," he said with a nod.

"So where do we start?" Mike asked.

Ciro turned his head away, appearing to look towards the rising sun as it started to penetrate the forest's darkness. "Not here," he said. "Follow me."

Mike watched as Ciro rose, before marching into the woods with a sense of purpose. He wanted to lead them into the haunted forest, supposedly populated with wicked spirits that wanted to drag the living into their graves with them, at the earliest break of dawn imaginable? The idea was almost enough to drive him back into his bed and return to sleep, despite how sleep had treated him.

But he shook the hesitation from his mind. There was no point in him being here to train under Ciro if he wasn't going to follow his lead. So with one more yawn to expel the last bit of sleep from his weary head, he set off to follow his mentor into the wild.


Though he'd expected the trek to be rocky like when he'd first entered Aokigahara two days before, he found the trip much easier on his footing this time as he trailed behind Ciro. It made sense: after eight years of living in these woods like the man had, Mike had no doubt that he had its paths mapped out internally to the last detail, despite how alike every rock and tree looked.

As they ventured onwards, they stepped through a clearing where Mike could see beyond the canopy, and his eyes caught sight of the looming mountain in the far distance. The first night he'd spent with Ciro, after their duel, his mentor had briefly explained to him how the forest sat at the foot of Mount Fuji, the highest peak in Japan. As he stared, he felt an odd sense of peace in observing its serene majesty, as though it were a fleeting glimmer of hope awaiting him at the far end of the weary desolation that surrounded him.

"Keep your feet moving, kid," he heard Ciro call somewhere ahead of him. "Unless you'd rather fall behind and get lost out here."

Mike's focus snapped back to reality as he picked his feet up again. He followed Ciro to the bottom of a narrow hill, whereupon they trekked upwards with broader and broader steps as its incline steepened. Mike felt his legs starting to strain as they neared the hill's top, despite the fact that they hadn't been walking for longer than an hour. Either his body hadn't quite woken up yet, or it had already fallen out of the shape that traversing the desert between Frontier Haven and Saddlebury had put him in.

When he finally joined Ciro at the hill's top, he was surprised by what awaited him: the hill plateaued out before continuing its ascent in the form of a bare rock formation, forming the entrance to a cavern that he couldn't see beyond the depths of. Though it seemed unremarkable on its surface, something about it sent a chill crawling down his spine as he gawked at it. An eeriness that felt like it overcast the rest of the forest.

"This is the place," Ciro said as he strode across the hill, arms outstretched.

Mike spared a moment to glance around, looking to qualify his mentor's words by discovering any discernible qualities that might've made the space fruitful for training. "And what is this place, exactly?"

Ciro turned to him with a smirk, as though Mike's perplexion amused him. "In a moment," he replied. "But first, a question for you."

Mike kept his eyes on his mentor as he leaned himself against one of the few trees atop the hill. "Tell me, kid," he said, "have you ever heard of something called 'Instinct Dueling' before?"

Mike's brow furrowed. "Can't say I have, no."

Ciro chuckled. "I thought not," he said. "Few have ever heard of the concept. And even fewer believe in it."

Mike's head turned curiously as Ciro crossed his arms. "If I were to ask you to define the word 'instinct,' you'd likely say something along the lines of being an innate ability to react to situations on a subconscious level. In dueling terms, it's along the same vein."

Ciro separated himself from the tree again and stepped towards Mike. "In order to achieve Instinct, one's mind must be clear of distraction, and your focus entirely on the battle in front of you. When that happens, you'll find yourself harnessing better control over your cards, and by extension, over every duel you find yourself in."

Mike stared back at Ciro with a look of disbelief. "You make it sound like some kind of cheating magic."

"It's nothing of the sort," Ciro corrected him, pacing around the hilltop like a teacher presiding over a classroom. "In fact, those who know of it would classify it more akin to a 'spiritual ability,' due to its rumored origin of being a way to connect with the monster spirits that inspired the game in the first place. Kind of like praying to a god, only they actually listen and respond in kind."

Mike scoffed. "Now you're talking about 'duel spirits,'" he said. "You realize how crazy that sounds, right?"

Ciro's head snapped to meet Mike's eyes again as he stopped his pacing. "No less crazy than the idea of the damned spirits that dwell in this forest that you're obviously spooked by, kid."

Mike opened his mouth to retort, but no sound came out. He couldn't bring himself to contradict the idea of Duel Monster spirits without feeling like a hypocrite.

Seeing he'd won his pupil's attention, he continued: "I'm more than sure that you've seen Instinct Dueling in action for yourself before. Whether it was you or another, or if they had full control or awareness of it or not."

At this, Mike racked his brain to think of when he might've seen it before. He quickly drew the conclusion that Ciro must have possessed the ability himself. Aside from the fact that he was clearly well-learned in the subject and held a belief in its merits, he found himself thinking back to how impressed he'd been by him during their duel. He remembered thinking about how he seemed to have complete control over everything, from his own cards to the flow of the duel itself—as though he had guided the duel to the outcome he'd desired through nothing but his own willpower.

Then another memory pushed itself to the surface of his mind: near the end of his rematch with Liam. After he'd laid his field out with his two Cyber Dragons as the third one sat in his hand.

"Now it's my turn again," Liam had said as he readied to draw his next card. "And given how this duel has progressed so far, I have a feeling that I know exactly what I'm about to draw."

He'd drawn the card, and his eyes had narrowed. "Just as I thought. I activate the spell card, Power Bond!"

Mike's eyes widened as the realization hit him like the impact of Cyber End Dragon's attack following that moment. The reason he'd known that he would draw Power Bond... Liam had already mastered this "Instinct" too.

His attention snapped back to the present as he met Ciro's gaze again. He was looking at him with a knowing smirk, as though amused by how quickly he'd managed to change Mike's mind from dismissing the idea minutes before.

"Okay," Mike said, a new sense of resolve in his voice. "Let's say I believe you about this Instinct Dueling thing... how do I learn to use it for myself?"

Ciro's smirk only broadened. "By freeing yourself from what's holding you back."

He continued his pacing as Mike's eyes followed him. "In my experience, I've found there to be two aspects that define a duelist's ability to grasp Instinct: their mental and their emotional fortitudes. And what you managed to accomplish with those puzzles yesterday showed me that you've a keen eye for the smaller details. You're able to identify threats from wherever they are across the board, and know how to exploit the weaknesses in your opponents' strategies. All signs of an exceptionally strong mental fortitude."

"Which leaves the part doing the holding," Mike guessed. "My 'emotional fortitude.'"

Ciro nodded. "Which brings us to why we're here."

He adjusted the course of his pacing and began strolling towards the cave entrance, stopping beside it. "This is the entrance to one of the ice caves formed by Mount Fuji's volcanic activity over a great many centuries," he said, putting a hand to the stone. "One of the few left that hasn't been tainted by tourism."

Mike suppressed his body's urge to tremble as he felt the chill crawl down his spine again. "And we traveled out for nearly an hour to reach it for my training... why?"

Ciro turned back to Mike, his face turning a dour shade. "Because it's also an active yūrei spot," he said. "They're drawn to the colder environments, and sometimes you can even see them manifest in the ice reflections along the cave walls. And I want you to face them."

In an instant, Mike felt as though a glacial shard had been thrown into the center of his chest from the mouth of the cave, rendering his bloodstream cold. "Wait... what?" he asked with a shaky breath. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Well, even if I were, it's not my mind we're here to focus on, is it?" was Ciro's retort, his hand slipping from the rocks as he stepped towards Mike again. "As I'm sure you're aware, yūrei have a habit of preying on weakness in the hearts of the living. I've no doubt that were you to confront one, they would bring you face-to-face with whatever it is that's holding you back from your potential.

"So that's what I want you to do," he said, pointing a finger towards the cave without taking his eyes off Mike. "Confront that weakness inside of you, and overcome it. You manage that, and you may yet have a chance at achieving Instinct."

For a moment, Mike's eyes flicked between his mentor and where his finger was pointed as he tried to process Ciro's request. "You know, I had to sign a lot of different papers just so I could get a flight out here," he said, "and I'm fairly certain that I never signed a liability waiver for being killed by goddamn ghosts!"

He expected Ciro to crack a smirk at his outrage like he had the morning before. But instead, his eyes only seemed to harden as his arm dropped back to his side.

"Listen, kid," he said, "if you were just some rube looking to get into the Pro Circuit for the thrill or fame, I would have already sent you back home with nothing more than a few notes, a wish of good luck, and if I was feeling generous, a card shop gift certificate. But I'm offering you a chance to tap into a power to bring out the best within yourself, so that you can protect your loved ones from those 'rough crowds' you mentioned last night. But if you'd rather rest on your laurels on the bottom rung for the rest of your life, you're more than welcome to walk away now."

Mike's eye twitched as he felt Ciro's words seep into his skin, before passing another glance at the cave. It was just like Saddlebury again, where every nerve in his body was screaming to get as far away from this place as he could. And yet, despite his desire to oblige, he found his legs unwilling to obey the command to take him back the other way. It was as though his natural inclinations had been overridden by the promise of what could be if he weathered this challenge. To finally reach Liam's level so he could give him a real duel in the Pro Circuit. To feel confident in his ability to protect everyone he cared for. To face down whoever had taken Casey...

His fists clenched as he made peace with his decision. "And if worse comes to worst while I'm in there?"

"It won't," said Ciro, his tone implying his words were a statement and not just assurance. "I'll have my eyes on you at all times. The moment I see things getting too dicey, I'll pull you out. You have my word."

Mike's eyes wandered the ground for a moment, before he finally found the strength to will his legs forward, passing his mentor as he strode toward the cave.

"Hey, kid."

He stopped to turn and lock eyes with Ciro. He was looking back at him with an apprehensive frown, as though he were holding the weight of the two different ways this could go in his face. "Good luck."

Mike gave him an appreciative nod, before turning to continue onwards. He reached the cave's mouth, where he paused as he felt the draft of its bitter air against his skin. As cold as the sensation he'd sensed traveling down his spine before.

He heaved a sigh, before ducking his head as he crossed the threshold into the cave.


Upon entering, he found himself fortunate as he eyed the broad formation of rocks before him. It was as if his arrival had been anticipated centuries before, as they had taken the form of a misshapen stairway for him to climb down to the cavern floor. Though the trajectory of the sun's rays allowed little light to shine beyond its depths, forcing his eyes to adjust to the black of the cavern. Nevertheless, he took his time with his descent, taking note of broken edges and scattered patches of ice so he could navigate around them.

It wasn't long before his feet finally led him to the bottom, and he stepped onto a smooth landing again. The light from the entrance above was enough to provide a dim illumination, allowing his eyes to explore the shadowy interior. The space around him looked to be roughly half the size of a football field. Where he wasn't surrounded by dark stone, he was instead surrounded by ice formations: some from the floor and ceiling of the cavern protruded from their roots like crystalline stalagmites and stalactites, while others decorated the long stretch of wall before him like mirrors crafted by a master silverer. All of them beautiful to behold as the little sunlight that could penetrate the darkness made them gleam and sparkle.

He couldn't find time to admire the sights though, as he slowly paced around the cave with his head on a swivel. He had no way of anticipating how or when the yūrei might appear before him, leaving him lost in his paranoia. He felt his heart rate rising and his breathing growing heavier as he continuously glanced in different directions, expecting to be jumped at any minute.

And then he felt it. A touch on his shoulder. Was it—?

He turned on his heel and looked behind him. Nothing. But then what had touched him?

Suddenly a new sensation started tickling that same shoulder, and his head whipped to the spot. There was the culprit: a dark, stubby worm-looking insect that was making a wiggly beeline for his neck. He raised a hand and swatted the bug off him, sending it flying into the shadows of the cave. He heard it land somewhere in the darkness, and his body shuddered. He'd never liked bugs, ever since the time he'd discovered a nest of roaches in his room at the orphanage.

"So quick to jump at the touch of an insect."

His body froze as he heard the voice echo across the cave, before turning to face the wall of mirror-like ice behind him. In place of what should have been Mike's reflection, there it stood: a full-bodied apparition in the guise he'd remembered from their last encounter, staring back at him beyond the frost.

Liam.

"Makes me wonder," it said, sticking his hands in the pockets of its blazer, "how you'll react when faced with the real horrors that dwell here in the dark?"

Mike swallowed hard, doing his best to put a brave face on before stepping tentatively towards the reflection looking him down. "Of all the forms you could've taken to spook me," he said, stopping a fair distance away from the wall, "you chose to go with one that immediately gives away the fact that you're not real."

The phantom let out a low and unsettling chuckle; one that didn't belong to Liam yet had used his voice. "'Not real,'" it repeated amusedly. "The only reason I took this form is because it was at the forefront of your mind. So by that token, I'd call myself a lot more real to you than you'd prefer to admit."

Mike was silent as his eyes lidded. He wasn't about to give this yūrei any power by engaging everything it said. It had already ripped the image of Liam from his mind to take on his likeness, and that was already more than he was comfortable giving this thing.

"But I'm no fool."

He watched as the phantom's mouth curled into a twisted grin. "Your eyes say it all," it said. "I'm merely a facade to hide what truly haunts the deepest recesses of your mind.

"So tell me..." An evil glint flickered in its eyes behind the glasses. "What else are you trying to keep buried?"

Mike's expression soured, but he remained silent.

The edge of the phantom's crooked smile seemed to curl further upwards. "So resilient... but for how long?"

It then raised his left arm up, and Mike watched as Liam's silver and gold duel disk materialized around its wrist in a flash of dark shadows, before setting it in a duel-ready position.

"I look forward to shattering that wall you've built around yourself," it drawled as the disk activated, "so that I get to watch every last bit of pain you've struggled to keep at bay swallow you whole."

Mike felt his body start to tremble, but quickly forced it to cease. There was no room to show this phantom any sign of weakness, no matter how much what was about to happen had him on edge. He stuck out his chin and raised his duel disk arm, sparking it to life as he said, "you're welcome to try."

The both of them dealt their five cards, and cried out, "LET'S DUEL!"

- DUEL -

[Mike - LP: 4000] VS [Phantom Liam - LP: 4000]

Mike fanned out the cards in his hand, but upon looking down to inspect them, he suddenly felt as though all the air had been driven from his lungs in a forceful evacuation.

Wait a minute... these cards are—!

"Surprised?"

Mike's eyes flicked back up to the phantom in the glacial reflection as it sneered at him. "I thought you might enjoy a little reunion with the deck you first faced me with," it said with a shrug. "For old times' sake."

Mike hissed, struggling to bury his panic as he realized how deeply this yūrei had already infiltrated his mind, while it picked a card from its hand. "I'll give you a little time to reacquaint yourself, and take the first move. By discarding one other monster in my hand, I can special summon my Cyber Dragon Nachster to the field!" [LV: 1/DEF: 200]

"And upon its special summoning, its effect lets me call forth a machine monster in my graveyard with 2100 ATK or DEF," the phantom continued, "like the Cyber Dragon I discarded to summon it!" [LV: 5/ATK: 2100]

"Next, I'll activate the spell card, Iron Draw!" it said. "With exactly two machine monsters on my field, I'm allowed to draw two cards, but I can only special summon once more during this turn.

"Then I'll summon my Cyber Dragon Drei!" the phantom went on. [LV: 4/ATK: 1800] "And as you likely remember, its effect turns all of my 'Cyber Dragons' into level 5 monsters!" [Cyber Dragon Drei - LV: 45] [Cyber Dragon Nachster - LV: 15]

"And I'm sure you know what comes next," the phantom said, raising a hand to the sky as a spatial vortex opened above him. "I'll now overlay my level 5 Drei and Nachster to build the overlay network!"

The two named machines were absorbed into the portal, and bolts of electricity emitted from within its center before the all-too familiar monster emerged from its depths. "Xyz summon!" it exclaimed. "Unleash your fury, Cyber Dragon Nova!" [RK: 5/OUs: 2/ATK: 2100]

Mike's brow knit. So it has Liam's deck, and all of his skills to go with it. Just my luck.

"Finally, I'll set two cards face-down," the phantom finished, the set cards materializing before him, "and end my turn there."

"My turn, then," Mike said as he drew his card, "and I'm about to make you regret giving me this deck back! First, I'll call on my Infernity Mirage!" [LV: 1/ATK: 0]

"Next I'll set a card face-down, and activate the continuous spell, Wave-Motion Inferno!" he continued. "And I'll use its effect right away, and send it to the graveyard to discard the rest of the cards in my hand!"

The spell card disappeared from the field as quickly as it had appeared, and Mike slipped his three remaining cards into his graveyard zone, earning a curled lip from the phantom. "The infamous handless combo," he said with an air of nostalgia. "Tell me, how many bodies did you drop with that strategy while you were in Frontier Haven?"

Mike winced, but refused to engage the question. "I activate my Mirage's effect! With no cards in my hand, I can release it to summon the two Infernity monsters I just discarded in its place: Infernity Beetle and Infernity Destroyer!"

Infernity Mirage erupted in dark flames, quickly burning into cinders that divided themselves before taking the form of two different monsters: one a winged Hercules beetle with green eyes, and the other a towering demon that balled its fists threateningly. [LV: 2/ATK: 1200] [LV: 6/ATK: 2300]

"And with my Beetle's effect," Mike went on, "having no cards in my hand means I can release it to special summon two more Beetles from my deck!"

The massive bug morphed into a black glowing sphere, which then split itself into two before they each reformed into the same creature again, this time with wings tucked in. [LV: 2/DEF: 0] [LV: 2/DEF: 0]

"Time to put one of them to use!" Mike said as he outstretched a hand. "I tune my level 2 Beetle to my level 6 Destroyer!"

The Beetle transformed into two emerald rings and engulfed Destroyer, who turned into six glowing orbs before all was consumed by white light. "Synchro summon!" Mike called out as his creature emerged from the luminescence. "Send all to meet their makers in Hell, Draco Berserker of the Tenyi!" [LV: 8/ATK: 3000]

"And he's about to unleash a hell of a lot of hurt on all your monsters," Mike said, pointing a finger at Cyber Dragon. "Draco Berserker, attack with Infernal Onslaught!"

The being launched itself towards Cyber Dragon with a spiraling motion, the friction against the air causing a layer of flame to form around its skin before ripping through the monster's metal exterior with the force of a missile, leaving it no time to react before imploding. [Phantom Liam - LP: 40003100]

The phantom looked from where its monster had been to Mike as the latter said, "you're not off the hook yet; 'cause when my Berserker destroys one of your monsters in battle, it gains that destroyed monster's ATK for itself and gets to attack again!" [ATK: 30005100]

"Then I guess now's as good a time as any to use my Nova's effect!" the phantom replied, taking a card from its hand. "By banishing the Cyber Dragon I have in my hand, my Nova's ATK strength rises by 2100 points!"

"Not happening!" Mike returned. "My Berserker's other effect activates once per turn when one of your monsters activates its effects, and then banishes that monster!"

The phantom huffed as it watched Draco Berserker sprint towards his Nova, before motioning for one of its set cards to flip up: "I reveal my Magnet Force trap! This makes any and all machine monsters I control unaffected by my opponent's monster effects this turn, which means my Nova can't be affected by your Berserker!" [Cyber Dragon Nova - ATK: 21004200]

Mike grit his teeth. "Well, you'll still take some damage!" he said. "Draco Berserker, move in for round two!"

Draco Berserker repeated its earlier motion, charging through Nova in a spiral flame that erupted the monster, clouding the phantom's side of the field with smoke. [Phantom Liam - LP: 31002200]

Though Mike was ready to crack a smile at how the turn had gone, he stopped himself when he noticed the phantom had already adorned one of his own, hauntingly laughing before its image was completely caught in the smokescreen. And then, he realized someone else was emerging in its place.

And then his heart skipped a beat.

"Violet!" Suddenly the duel he'd been fighting no longer mattered, and all else fell away from him as he rushed to her. As he approached, he saw that she was half-turned away from him, holding her arms together at her elbows. She didn't seem to notice or acknowledge him.

"Violet...?" he said her name again, reaching a hand out to rest on her shoulder.

She turned to him. Her eyes were red and swollen, as though she'd been crying for a time. As she eyed him, she seemed to grimace, as though the sight of him brought her immense pain. A look that he'd never seen her give him before, and one that made his heart feel as though it were drowning at the bottom of an ocean.

Mike opened his mouth to speak again, but she pulled away to free her shoulder from his hand before he could utter a sound, turning her back on him... and then she was gone.

He felt his insides scramble in turmoil. He hadn't blinked or turned away once. She had just faded away in front of him. But how?

It was then he caught another figure in his periphery, and he turned to see who it was: "Danny?" he said, this time slowly approaching his best friend with caution, but came to a halt when he turned to meet his eyes. He was standing with arms crossed, and like Violet, his expression was one he'd never seen him adorn before: his features were stiff, and his eyes felt hard as they stared back at Mike's. He could've sworn he saw Danny's eyes soften only slightly as he shook his head, before turning away as he too vanished.

A lump began to form in Mike's throat. Why was this happening?

Then, almost on instinct, he turned to see two more figures standing in the short distance. Marina and Josiah. Each with the same sullen expressions as they met Mike's eyes.

"Please, don't." Without any thought, the words left Mike's mouth as he reached out his hand to them. He didn't want them to leave him too. But sure enough, they followed the examples of the others, turning away and then fading from his sight.

He couldn't stop himself from trembling anymore. All of his friends... what wrong had he wrought to make them turn their backs on him like this?

"It hurts, doesn't it?"

Mike whipped to the direction of the voice: there stood the phantom Liam, grinning mischievously at him. "Watching your friends vanish before you, one by one?"

"And just what was the point of showing me that?" he snapped back.

The phantom shook its head. "Idiot," it said. "For all the damage you're able to inflict upon me, you really can't see just how much damage you've inflicted upon the ones you love."

It started pacing along slowly, not taking its eyes off of Mike as it went on: "what you just saw was your future: the consequence for all the lying, secret-keeping, and distance you've put between yourself and your friends. Eventually, enough will be enough for them, and they will abandon you. Especially that pretty one you call your girlfriend. What was her name? Violet?"

Mike growled. "Why, you—!"

And then it dawned on him. All tension released from his body, and a small smile crept onto his face. "So that's your play, is it?" he asked, pointing a finger at the phantom. "Is this really all you're capable of? Playing mind games to try and distract me from our duel?"

The phantom's shoulders bounced as it chuckled again. "Please. Mind games would be if I were putting new ideas into your head," it said. "All I'm doing is pulling truths that you've buried within yourself, because you're too scared to face them."

Mike felt as though his heart was about to shatter. Much as he would never admit it, the phantom was right. Ever since he'd returned home, he had been constantly at odds with himself thinking about the toll his secrets would take, especially with Violet. It was why he'd given in and finally told her about Casey and what had happened before departing to finish his training, despite how painful it had been for him. But now, he couldn't help but think about how he should have told her more. How he should have told all of his friends more. All so he wouldn't have to grapple with the thought of losing them to his own grief.

His fists clenched as he steeled his face. "Are you done? Or do you just want to waste more time trying to invade my mind?"

The phantom's grin broadened. "Where did you think you were?"

At these words, Mike realized: not only had their duel disks, cards, and projections on the field returned somehow without his notice, but he was no longer staring into the surface of an ice mirror to see the pale reflection of Liam's visage. The both of them stood upon the same dark plane, with no such wall between them. Somewhere that the phantom could appear before him as real as he himself was.

The yūrei had already brought the both of them inside his own head.


ED1: "Behind Blue Eyes" by Limp Bizkit


PUBLISHED: 4/4/2022