Nibelungshipping (Siegfried von Schroeder/Valkyrie Brunhilde)
. . .
He found his first Duel Monsters card when he was ten. It was bent in one corner, fallen to the side of the road as though abandoned, right in his path as he stepped out of the car to walk towards the university for his presentation. He had picked it up, turned it over curiously. Valkyrie Brunhilde.A Valkyrie—a goddess of war and victory.
Siegfried von Schroeder had taken it as a good luck charm, a sign that he was going to succeed.
That day he attracted the attention of no less than three college professors with his presentation, and his father signed on two more prestigious tutors in result.
Siegfried put the card in his breast pocket. Victory's goddess had most certainly smiled upon him.
It was not until almost a year later that he noticed the rest of the game. The card still in his breast pocket, beginning to crease a little too much for his liking, he stepped into a card shop at the edge of town. It was not the sort of place he would normally patronize, but he needed a card sleeve, something to protect his precious token.
The old woman behind the counter laughed when he asked for a single sleeve. He had drawn himself up to his full height (barely four feet and five inches at the time) and pulled out his card to show her and demand once again that he needed a sleeve.
It was only then that the woman seemed impressed. Muttered some mumbo-jumbo about being very close to the spirit of the card. Siegfried might have believed in good luck tokens and smiling goddesses, but spirits in cards? He wanted to snort in her face.
But that was what it had taken for her to turn around to the back and rustle through boxes. She returned with a set of sleek silver card sleeves, and a stack of more cards. He had opened his mouth to tell her that he only needed the sleeve, but then she spread the cards out before him.
Valkyries—more of them. All with different names, different art, different colored cards.
She had smiled a crooked smile at him, and cracked that "would his card be happier with the rest of her sisters?"
It was a clever sales trick that he was still half ashamed he had fallen for. He walked out of the store with the sleeves andall of the cards.
Nights were spent shuffling and organizing. Reading effects—testing out combinations. It was a game, a game on a level of chess; it could be useful, he thought. Could help him work out his mind and stretch his strategic tactics.
Brunhilde remained in his pocket. At every meeting, the beautiful Valkyrie goddess was there, standing behind him, her wings outstretched over him. At every presentation, she was there with her lance gleaming. At every moment, she was there—sharpening her blades and waiting.
It was not until he met Kaiba Seto that he really felt her battle lust for the first time—a swirling in his chest. A tightening, a heat, a flush in his cheeks and an excitement that rippled through him that wasn't quite his.
Maybe there was something to the spirit of the card thing.
And now he stood, his plans in the balance, his lifelong opponent standing across the field from him. The final match. He drew the card from his pocket and stared at it briefly. Then with a breath, he kissed the top of the card gently, and slid it into his deck.
"Fight with me again, love," he said. "One more time."
. . .
A/N: This was a fairly new addition to the official list that I'm dropping in where it goes. Back on schedule, the next one will be Nellshipping (Amane Bakura x Noa Kaiba).
