Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh. I do own Temarocia though.
Song of Temarocia; Rainbow Flower Arc
Chapter 20: Wing's First Lesson
The sun was falling rapidly from the sky, the forest growing darker rapidly. "Damn it!" A single tree shook as if it had been struck, sending a cloud of frightened birds into the air above it.
Dirty and sweating from the amount of effort he had exerted so far in his futile dust cloud chasing, Jason looked to try and regain the trail he had lost. To him all of the trees looked exactly the same though. "Where did he go? How did I lose him that easily? I need to get to Karot's Kingdom, why is that so hard?"
"It's because you're following routes that have no trail and because you're asking way too many questions." The voice came from a hanging tree branch high above him. A few moments later the black-cloaked form of Wing dropped down from the sky and landed in front of the young man. "Yo, we meet…" He side-stepped as Jason made a flying leap to tackle him. "What's the deal with this, eh? You trying to catch me, kid?"
"You aren't running away mysteriously until you tell me which direction Karot's Kingdom is!" The New Yorker stood up and patted his stomach to assuage the grumbling coming from it. "I'm freaking starving! I don't even think I can use my Grafts right now…" He fell on his back. "I'm way too tired."
Wing laughed and pushed the front of his hat up a little. "You're way too honest. What if I was secretly an enemy? Wouldn't that information have given me plenty of reason to kill you right here?"
"You're not an enemy though, you're Wing." Jason sat up and crossed his legs to balance himself. "You helped me out when I was in trouble, so of course you wouldn't betray me right now."
"Of course." Wing laughed again. "You're really way too trusting of me, don't you think?"
"Did you come here to ask me if I trusted you too much, because if you did then I don't even want to bother talking to you." Jason fell onto his back again. "Ugh, I can feel my stomach gnawing at itself."
"Well then I won't keep you here very long." The man brushed back his cape and sat back against a tree. "I just wanted to tell you an interesting little bit of information about Stonequills."
"Stonequills?" The Grafter rolled over enough so he was looking at the man. "What about them? They're spiky?"
"If that was an attempt at a joke then I'll just be on my way." Wing stood up and started to walk off.
"Wait!" Jason leapt to his feet, made it about halfway to Wing's position, and then collapsed. "It's no good, I'm too hungry…"
"Heh," His cape covering his front, Wing turned to face Jason with an odd smile on his face. "You did well against Masquil, considering you used your wind Graft for the first time. It was a pretty big bet though…why didn't you use the Epic Level monster?"
"You mean the last one?" Jason stuck his tongue out at that thought. "Because it's too powerful to control right now, and trying to use it would result in me more than likely losing control. By the way, what's an Epic Level monster?"
("Good, I caught his interest.") Wing sat down in front of Jason. "Let me give you a little lesson on Wild Fusions and on Grafts and Graftborn in general." He held up his index finger. "There are two ways beyond the type of monster and element to classify Wild Fusions. They are called Integration and Graft Level."
"…" Jason had a far-away look in his eyes.
Wing cuffed the side of the young man's head. "Pay attention! This is going to be very important for you to know in the near future. Integration can be divided into three possible classifications. The first is Hidden, which is when the Graftborn can hide the attributes of all of his or her Fusion until needed. The second is Permanent, which is where the recipient of the Fusion is constantly wearing their Graft. The final is called Overload, and it's a rarity. It's where the Wild Fusion recipient actually turns into the monster that they fused with, the final product having their intelligence and thoughts but a permanent body."
"Right, three kinds…" Jason yawned. "Why is this important?"
"Because you're a Grafter and you need to know this crap!" Wing huffed angrily. "The other is Graft Level, which can change with time. The higher the strength of the monster though the harder it is to control when you're Grafted with it. That would be why you can't use the Light Graft, correct?"
"Yeah, that's right." Jason picked a piece of dirt out of his ear and flicked it away before he was cuffed again for not paying attention.
"So far you've found something interesting about the Burst Fox Graft, I'm betting." When Jason shook his head Wing's eyes started twitching in frustration. ("This kid must not be paying attention or something!") "Your endurance in that form, you idiot! A Burst Fox can normally only move full speed or use its wind powers for twenty seconds total every five minutes, while so far you've used it without a problem! Now why would that be?"
"Ummm…" Jason shrugged. "I've got a really good amount of endurance, maybe?"
Wing calmed down. "That's right. A Burst Fox is incredibly powerful but incredibly taxing on the energy of the Grafter or Graftborn. You seem to be like some kind of monster freight train when you fight though, so it's not a problem for you. However I'm wondering just how long you can last relying on that thing's air pressure attacks to win your fights for you."
"Huh?" Jason sat up and looked at the sky. "You think I can't win my fights without it?"
"What happens when you fight an opponent that is unaffected by Burst Fox's Impact attacks?" Wing smirked. "Every Graft has a word of attack that symbolizes their strongest attacks, and you already found the word for Burst Fox. It's Impact."
Jason started counting something off on his fingers. "Turret, Shot, Setup Shot, Cannon, Sidewinder…wow you're right, they all have Impact in their names."
"Do you know why you say them before you use them?"
"Ummm, just cause?" Jason figured that answer was wrong when he got cuffed again.
Rubbing his sore palm, Wing wondered what kind of rock the kid's head was made out of. "If you don't say the name of the attack before you use it then its power is halved at least. That's pretty bad if you're in a fight. Therefore you need to…"
"Learn the other key words for the other Grafts?" Jason relaxed when he didn't get cuffed. "Alright, that shouldn't be too hard. I just have to try as many combinations as I can, right?"
"It's not quite that simple." Wing stood up and brushed himself off. "Even if you guess the word it won't work until you understand that monster. I'm not sure how you immediately learned to understand the nature of the Burst Fox, but the others won't be as easy." He turned to leave. "If you go the direction I'm going and keep heading straight then you'll reach Karot's Kingdom in a few hours."
"Wait a second." His hunger temporarily forgotten, Jason hopped to his feet. "Weren't you going to tell me something about Stonequills?"
"Yup." The black-caped man leapt up into the tree-tops and disappeared from sight. "They're not just spiky."
"…" Jason blinked up at the spot Wing had disappeared from... "What does that mean?"
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Back at Karot's Kingdom…
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King twiddled his fingers together nervously, following the rules of conduct around Saika and not smoking one of his trademark cigarettes. "How did you wind up here of all places, Saika?"
"Well," The girl pulled the black coat she had borrowed from King a bit tighter around herself, biting her lower lip fearfully. "I'm not sure where to start…"
"If you're not sure where to start," Alita threw in, stirring a straw in her water. "Then try starting from where it all started."
"Well," Saika rubbed the back of her head, a green strand of hair falling in front of her face. "Alright, well I remember falling through the sky and waking up in this weird grotto…"
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Flashback…
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"How did I wind up in a city park?" Saika pulled a twig from her hair and looked around at all of the towering tropical trees that surrounded her. "Hmmm, maybe it's an exhibit in a museum…"
She suddenly stuck her tongue out in displeasure. "Blech, I hate museums though. That must be why I had that weird dream where Ricky was getting beaten up by this guy in black."
The brush behind her started moving back and forth. "Who are you? How did you find your way into my secret hiding place?"
"It's a talking bush." Saika blinked at the clump of foliage and waved at it. "Hello talking bush, do you know where this is?"
"Answer my question!" A pair of shimmering white eyes lit up within the depths of the bush's shade.
"I fell from the sky." She pointed up at the sky. "I think…or maybe I dreamt that…" She gasped in understanding. "Or maybe I'm still dreaming now! That must be it, since bushes don't actually talk!"
"I am not a bush!" A crystal-furred head poked out of the bush and sniffed the air fearfully. "Are you a hunter? Have you come to kill me off like your kind has killed off my parents? Like you've killed off the rest of the Mirror Wildcats in this valley?"
"Mirror Wildcats?" Saika stared at the little furry cat with wide eyes…and then she swept it up into a tight hug. "Kitty!"
"Ack! Unhand me right this instant!" The crystal-colored feline hissed in anger and tried to bite her.
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"Wait…" Alita had her mega-sized tome open on the table in front of her. "You ran into a Mirror Wildcat? A live one?"
"Yeah…is that rare?" Saika sweatdropped. "I wasn't really sure…"
"They are an endangered species of monster." Flair made this comment from his sentry position at the booth behind their's. "It is highly prized for its fur, which is supposed to possess the properties necessary to make a potion that, when used in alchemy, creates a rare jewel called a Mirror Eye. Its worth is somewhere in the realm of one billion Tem."
"A billion Tem?" King whistled in amazement. "Wow Saika, you found a gold mine the moment you showed up in this place. I wound up getting my butt kicked by a guy named Kyris the Hell." A deep sigh escaped his lips. "It just shows the difference in our luck. So after you befriended it what did it have to say?"
"Hang on a second," Alita injected. "Mirror Wildcats, like most monsters, hate humans. What makes you think…"
"Well after I got him to calm down and I played with him a little bit I learned that I was in Temarocia." Saika apparently didn't notice as Alita face-planted into the table.
King chuckled at Alita's reaction. "Saika is part of the Freaks Gang for two reasons. The first is she seems to be blessed to avoid danger, while the other is that she can make friends with almost any animal no matter the circumstances. Well anyway Saika, how did you find your way to this place?"
"…" The rainbow-haired girl stood up suddenly. "I need to get back to work. I'll talk to you guys later, when my break comes around." She started to leave but was stopped when King's hand shot out and grabbed her own. "Come on King, seriously, I need to go."
After a few seconds of awkward silence the fake Frenchman removed his hand and narrowed his eyes slightly at Saika's back. ("You suck at hiding things. What happened, Saika?")
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Up on the top floor of Karot's Kingdom…
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"Excellent!" Don Karot clapped his hands together strongly. "Do you mean to tell me that you've seen this man, Bronzo?"
"Yup, that's the Tree Sprite I saw while I was going to the bathroom!" The bronze-coated man pointed at the picture of Jason sitting on the Don's desk. "I can't be sure but I think he was following me too."
"Considering how fast you move, mon," Revlis said from the couch. "That don't mean a thing."
From the other side of the room Gansaku ran a comb through his hair and started laughing eloquently. "Would you like to hunt him down, Don Karot?"
"No, that will not be necessary." The Warlord of Pleasures sat back in his seat. "I have a dinner engagement in an hour with a man I'd like the three of you to meet. He seems a bit dangerous and I'd like you three on hand in case things turn sour during the game I have planned."
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Alita sighed in frustration. "Well there's no way we can just ask her what happened. She won't tell us, will she?"
"Not a chance. She can be very tight-lipped when she wants to be." King groaned a little and took a puff from his cigarette. "She picked up that little trait from the most stubborn of all the Freaks Gang members…"
"I see you happen to know Saika," A woman's voice came from the same booth as where Flair was. "It's nice to know that poor girl has at least a couple of friends…"
"And who might…" King turned to look at the booth behind him and immediately had hearts in his eyes. "Mes yeux brûlent avec les feux causés par votre brûler la beauté chaude!" Pulling a bouquet of roses from out of nowhere, the fake Frenchman hurled himself out of his seat and landed on his knees before the person seated across from Flair, extending the group of flowers while bowing his head slightly and holding his eyes closed. "One such as you must be a goddess that descended from heaven to be worshipped by a humble man such as myself."
The current target of his affections was a vision of brown-haired mature beauty wearing a uniform just like the one Saika had been wearing, but the big difference was that her uniform was adorned with numerous glittering jewels and bits of gold. Resting her chin on a well-manicured hand the woman laughed pleasantly and took the bouquet from King. "You must be King, the 'Casanova'."
"That is merely hyperbole, Madame." The fake Frenchman stood up and took another puff of his cigarette. "I am not so simple. I am a man of many masks."
"It's a shame," She replied. "I prefer a simple man myself. They are much easier to please."
"For your sake," King quickly threw in. "I can change."
"Oi, that's enough out of you fishbowl." Flair crossed his arms across his chest. "Well, you said you knew what the deal was with Saika? First though, who are you?"
"Ah yes, how rude of me not to introduce myself." The lady crossed her legs daintily. "I am Head of Female Staff Ari Medora. As for dear little Sai-chan…" She sighed and did a King, pulling a cigarette from out of nowhere and holding it out to the fake Frenchman. "Got a light?"
"But of course," King offered his lighter to her and she lit up, taking a puff before a sad look crossed her face.
"Sai-chan…" Ari frowned. "There's no simple way to put it. She's a prisoner of this place, and a personal 'toy' of Don Karot."
For a few seconds it looked like King was about to do a Jason impersonation and declare that he was going to kick someone's ass, and then he quietly pulled up a chair. "Explain that in more detail before I misinterpret it and start testing these new shoes on faces."
To be continued…
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