Pixelshipping (Noa x Meyari)
(First person POV from Noa's view)
All I knew was that I shouldn't have ever opened my eyes again. I especially knew that I shouldn't have felt anything ever again. The computer was destroyed. I was destroyed, and my father along with me.
I shouldn't have existed anymore, but I did. And I wasn't sure if that made me glad or angry.
I was lying in tall grass, that was all I knew. I could feel the grass against my skin, the breeze that filtered through the tall grass, hear birds singing in the distance – although that meant nothing as all of those sensations were normal in my virtual prison.
Sitting up, I still found that that grass was too tall to see past. My body responded smoothly and easily. My heart sank just a little. That could only mean that this was the virtual world, as I didn't feel dizzy or anything when I stood up. The grass reached my shoulders, but I could see now. This field stretched out for miles. Turning around, I could see a forest in the distance. Or maybe not my virtual world, at least. I didn't remember any of the scenery.
And then a cry split the peaceful landscape. I whipped around. All possibility of this being the real world vanished, because there was a freaking five headed dragon in the sky. Not only that, but I recognized this five-headed dragon – it was a Duel Monster.
A much smaller figure stumbled along through the tall grass, tripping and tumbling against the green blades. The dragon circled over head, one head firing off bursts of green gas that I assumed was supposed to be noxious. I couldn't quite see the figure being chased. The grass was too tall. But obviously, whoever it was was terrified. An NPC, probably. I should probably just ignore it.
But then Mokuba's face appeared at the back of my head. He was frowning at me.
Why won't you help them? Even if they're not real, they need help, don't they?
I sighed.
"Damn you, Mokuba, for giving me a conscience," I muttered.
This virtual world wasn't much different from my own. Now that I was certain of my surroundings, I could feel the data around me like air. Reach out here, tweak a code there, mess with the programmed over here...
And as the figure stumbled towards me, the dragon froze in midair. I had disabled its motor programming, so it was only a stationary object. But just in case whoever programmed this world decided to make it move again, I started picking apart at its code so that it started to fizzle into midair. Joint programming? Gone. Color? That's gone too. Each head? Disappear, one at a time...
The figure practically fell down in front of me. I could hear her heavy breaths – now I was certain it was a girl according to her sounds, although I didn't quite look at her yet.
"W-what are you doing? The dragon is coming, you must run!"
I didn't expect her to speak to me and I messed up on the code for the third head joint, accidentally programming a second joint so that it bent funny in two different places.
"Could you just be quiet for a minute? I'm working on this."
I felt her staring at me in awe, but didn't bother to pay attention. Once I had picked the scale programming apart, the rest of the 3D model fell away easily. The five-headed dragon disappeared as though it had never existed before.
"There," I said. "That's taken care of."
"Are...are you a wizard?" the girl said breathlessly.
I rolled my eyes, suddenly realizing that I was going to have to put up with this for however long I remained in this world. I turned towards the girl.
And then I stopped. Because Mokuba was staring at me with wide, admiring eyes.
My mouth fell open, and had I been in a real body, I'm sure my throat would have gone dry and I would have started stuttering. But that wasn't part of my program.
"Mokuba?" I finally said.
She blinked. And then it hit me that it couldn't possibly be Mokuba. She was somewhat taller than Mokuba had been, definitely more slender, and her eyes were more rounded, even if they were the same color. Her black hair, identical to Mokuba's, had been drawn back into half a ponytail, and she was clothed in a long yellow dress of apparent fine make.
"Mokuba?" she said, sounding out the word. "Do I look familiar to you? My name is Meyari."
I shook my head, finally regaining myself.
"Oh, uh, yes, you look just like my – ," I said. I stopped myself just in time. I had been about to say "brother." And I didn't think I had really earned the right to call Mokuba that, yet. "Friend," I finished lamely.
"How very interesting! I have never met anyone that looked like me. And you – you're a wizard! You destroyed the dragon!"
"Well...uh, yeah, I guess so," I said, rubbing the back of my neck.
"What is your name, good wizard?"
"Noa. Noa Kaiba."
And then she paused. Her dark eyes grew distant for a moment.
"Kai...ba?" she said slowly. "That sounds...familiar, somehow."
I stared at her for a long moment. She really did look like Mokuba. It was kind of scary. But what was even scarier was that...
She didn't feel like a program.
There were definitely hints of her data floating around her, but unlike the dragon, very little of it was something that I could play with. Like the data of Mokuba, and Seto, and Yugi, and all the others I had brought into my virtual world – like my own data – it was something that couldn't be changed. Something permanent, like she was a real person in a virtual world, not even an avatar, but real.
It both scared and intrigued me.
I tested the waters, seeing if I could change her eye color. It flickered to green at my mental touch, then blue, then –
It stagnated at a soft hazel. The data for her eye color had suddenly become unalterable.
"Meyari, right?" I said.
She blinked out of her own reverie.
"Yes, that's me. Princess Meyari."
She didn't quite look like Mokuba anymore, not with her eyes a different color. Something about her was changing. I could feel it. It was like her programming was solidifying.
Like a program was becoming real.
I swallowed. Strangely enough, I could feel my own dry throat, like this world was becoming real too. I wondered, for a minute, how far this rabbit hole would go.
"I'm...pleased to meet you, Meyari."
She smiled brightly. I could feel the data of her hair color and style slowly altering itself. This was so weird.
"I'm pleased to meet you, Noa."
A/N: This is canon too. XD Next is Pillowshipping (Ryuzaki x Haga x Mai). I sense a smackdown on the horizon...
