Rainbow Dragon and Cyber-End Dragon crooned from within their cards, finally purified from Paradox's malefic influence. Neither dragon was the type to come out in their spirit form but Judai could hear their gentle purs of thanks. Well, proper thanks could wait for when he returns them to their partners. There was nothing he could do about Sho and Johan's injuries. This was the very least he could do.
"We should have done more." Yubel said, voicing the thoughts that he would never dare to. They glared at Paradox's scorched remains. "That bastard deserved all the tortures of the Dark World for what he did."
The rage of the Supreme King bubbled alongside Yubel's as he remembered the near-death state his friends had been left in. He took in several deep breaths. "We've done all that we could." Sho and Johan were in stable conditions back in their era. They had rescued the stolen dragons. Nothing remained of Paradox except dust and ash. "What? Are you in the mood to hunt down his soul and show him what a real baddie can do?" He joked.
They could. They had the means to give Paradox a fate worse than death, make him suffer every moment of pain and anguish, make him pay for leaving his friends at death's door. All Judai had to do was give into that rage.
But he wouldn't. He had given in once and he promised himself to never do so again.
But on the topic of newly freed dragons...
Stardust Dragon curled around Yusei, fussing over her partner like a giant brooding hen. The duelist from the future (a duelist from the future where they dueled on motorcycles!) was either oblivious or unaware to his overprotective dragon partner as he fiddled away with his duel-disk-motorcycle.
Judai took a step towards Yusei and Stardust snarled at him. He held his hands up in defence and took two steps back. Golden eyes continued to glare at him as Stardust coiled even tighter around her charge.
"That snobbish light lizard." Yubel scoffed. "Not everything that's of darkness and shadows is inherently evil."
Stardust jerked up, blue-white flames curling around her nostrils. She growled, apparently saying something in a draconic language that immediately had Yubel bristling.
Yubel raised their chin and spread their wings. "How dare you insult my partner, you harpoon-faced-"
"Hey we're all friends here!" Judai said quickly, raising a hand to stop Yubel from launching at Stardust. The last thing they needed was a brawl between dragon spirits.
Then Yugi awkwardly high fived his raised hand. "That we are, Judai."
He blinked as Yugi gave him a sheepish smile. He turned to Yubel. Yugi followed but stared blankly at the spirit. He looked back at Yugi again.
The legendary King of Games gave a small cough and an apologetic glance before looking away. "Is that an actual motorcycle, Yusei?"
Stardust growled at him as well as he approached, shadows were just as bad as darkness to a spirit of righteous light, but Yugi was completely unperturbed as he crouched down beside Yusei. Either he had no fears of incurring the wrath of an overprotective dragon... or he couldn't see the spirit at all. It was possible Yugi gained spirit sight later in life, he knew that was the case for Manjoume and Hayate, but it still felt odd that Yugi couldn't see spirits when he had introduced Judai to one of his most trusted partners.
The Dark Magician stood vigilantly behind Yugi, eyes locked in a warning glare with the dragon. Judai couldn't tell if Stardust was normally this hostile to non-light aligned spirits or if this was a side-effect from being ripped away from her partner, but the smoke streaming from her nose and mouth made it clear that now wasn't the time to be encroaching on her territory.
"Hey, Dark Magician!" Judai said cheerfully but soft enough not to make it look like he was talking to thin air to a casual observer.
However, that didn't stop the other two duelists from throwing him odd looks. Judai would have loved to join their conversation - another chance to talk with the King of Games and a duelist so far into the future where new forms of dueling and summoning had been invented filled him with a childish excitement that he thought he had lost mid-way through Duel Academia. It was a rare opportunity to talk with the duelists but it was even rarer to get a chance to talk with the spirits - and doing a little damage control on the side never hurt.
"You can see me?" the Dark Magician said, then he raised his brow. "Ah yes, you would have the ability to...Herald of Gentle Darkness."
Stardust growled at the mention of his title. After all these years, Judai was still getting used to it but he would prefer Herald any day over Supreme King.
"It's an absolute honour to meet you." Judai said with a slight bow.
The Dark Magician smiled and bowed back. "The honour is all mine, especially after the assistance you rendered to my pharoah."
"At least some spirits here still remember their manners." Yubel said, throwing a not so subtle glare Stardust.
The dragon huffed but thankfully didn't rise to Yubel's taunt.
"So pharoah, eh?" Judai said. "Kinda figured there was a bit of reincarnation involved with the whole Egyptian aesthetic thing going on."
The Dark Magician chuckled. "Reincarnation is one way to put it - or at least partially. It takes the ba millenia to gain the strength to survive without their ka but I had no doubt that my pharoah could do it."
The terms flew straight over Judai's head - definitions had never been his thing, especially those from ancient Egypt - but there was no missing the fondness in the magician's smile or how Yubel mirrored it. "You guys must've been really close back then."
Then the Dark Magician blushed and turned away. "I simply wish to continue to serve my king...in whatever form that may be."
"The decision to sacrifice your humanity is not one to be made lightly." Yubel said with a knowing smirk. "Your pharoah must have been someone extremely precious to you - and continues to be for all of time."
The Dark Magician, the ace of the King of Games and an ancient and powerful spirit in his own right, turned a flustered red like he was an Osiris receiving his first bit of praise.
Judai let out a boisterous laugh, not caring that he looked like a madman to an outsider. "He's really lucky to have a friend like you."
"You can see spirits?"
Judai snapped to attention. Yusei looked as serious, and honestly a bit constipated, as always but there was a judgementless curiosity flickering in his eyes. Stardust growled at Judai again, further curling around her partner until she was a ring of scales and snarls.
"You can see spirits." Yusei said again, a statement this time and not a question. Then he blindly waved his arm, a loose signal for Stardust to stand down despite waving in the wrong direction. The dragon huffed but uncoiled. "Sorry about Stardust. Ruka says she's a bit…"
"Of an overbearing mother masquerading in scales and fangs?" Yubel snarked.
"...protective." Yusei finished, looking off to the side and once again completely missing Stardust, quite the feat considering the size of the spirit.
"It's all good!" Judai laughed. "She's not the worst I've had to deal with-"
"But she definitely makes the list." Yubel added.
Judai threw them a sharp look but kept his smile wide. "But she seems to care about you a lot. Besides, when else would I get a chance to talk with the legendary Dark Magician?"
The magician in question gave an undignified squeak while Yugi blushed. "Oh." but Judai also caught him muttering, "This isn't funny!"
Huh. So there were spirits even he couldn't see.
Yusei cracked a small smile. "Want to take a look at my D-Wheel? You seemed curious about it earlier."
Yeah, how Judai raced over to join the other duelists might have been a bit childish but at least a dragon spirit wasn't threatening to bite off his head for even looking the wrong way anymore. "You've gotta show me how Duel Monsters on motorcycles work!"
People come and people go. Some friends stay and others leave to never be seen again. But he would enjoy the present moment because not even the boundaries of time and space can take that away.