Judgement of the World
Written by: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"I'm glad you've agreed to come with me, the twins will be ecstatic to see you again," Aki commented as she followed Yusei up the platform while he rolled in his D-Wheel. He didn't answer her at first, merely secured his vehicle into the helicopter that Aki used to arrive at the orphanage. Once he felt comfortable with its stability he turned to look at her, before finding himself at a loss. He wanted to talk to her, yet she didn't seem to be waiting for a response. Rather she had turned her attention to moving to the front of the helicopter.
He was grateful for that because he wasn't sure how to handle her, and her distraction allowed him to study her without it seemingly like he was staring. Yusei had spent his life fixing and restoring things that were broken. But the things that were broken were things he didn't know how to fix, because everything was due to her power. That kind of power wasn't taught in television shows and probably not in a real school. So how could he approach her with the idea of mending her tattered trust in herself and her abilities? Grab a rose with a bare hand, and get stabbed by the thorns, be too much the teacher and that's all he would ever be to her...
Did he want more?
He turned to watch the platform rising up and caught a glimpse of Martha watching him with an encouraging smile on her lips. 'Go for it' was plain as day in her eyes and smile, encouraging him for a goal he wasn't sure about, withstanding the force of wind from the helicopter blades. More what? Did he have any right considering his social status to be even visiting ideas about a senators' daughter? He felt the jerk of pressure that went with rising in a helicopter and he moved over to a nearby seat.
Yusei watched as Aki moved into a seat across from him and he found himself with a strange sense of nervousness and calm. He knew nothing of this type of power, even Ruka was far too young to fully understand herself. They were separated by life before he could actually sit down and talk to her, but again, Ruka was a 'child'. Yet Ruka could speak to her Dragon, Ancient Fairy probably had a solid idea about the power that Ruka and Aki used. Unable to find a solution from that area he found his eyes roam about the cabin as he pondered where he would even start, when they turned upwards almost against his will.
The hair clip.
That's what it was referred to, but it was large, bulky and not visually appealing so why have it on? It stuck out on her outfit, a strange addition that didn't seem to have a reason to be on her, an oddity when she dressed to make everything flow. When he first saw her she didn't wear anything in her hair, then at the tournament he saw it in her hair. What was it? Did it have a purpose?
"Aki, tell me about that hair clip."
Akis' head snapped up from her thoughts when Yusei spoke, and her hand unconsciously went to the mentioned hair clip. She tilted her head to the side with her eyes showing her confusion over the sudden request. "Why?"
"I'm curious, when we first met you didn't have it, then at the Cup you did. Its not something that fits with your style so I want to know more." Yusei inquired with all the bluntness that he was used to speaking with. Watching her as her gaze turned inward towards memories playing back in her mind as she rested her hands on her lap.
"Divine gave it to me to wear before the Fortune Cup, its helps me control my powers," she explained, with all the calm tone of a cultured lady. Hard to believe this lady could lift a person a couple of stories high in the air and slam them into concrete. Though the mention of Divines' name had come to put a sour taste in his mouth, from what happened to that kid with the knowledge that it happened to others. Or the fact that Divine clearly did more damage to Aki than help, but the ability to fix that was up in the air.
Removing Divine from Akis' life took more than the fact that he had done terrible things, or exploited Aki. By dying when he did he essentially, became immortal, a flawed, but a near perfect, being in Akis' eyes. Rivaling his teachings, his knowledge of that power he and Aki shared, and whatever hooks he left in Aki would be difficult.
When he had been restored he tried to hide, but Misty had been restored as well and had her brother's case reopened. Because of that Divine was arrested for his part in the murder of not only Toby, but also anyone else that could be found to have died in the Movement. But did anyone else obey Divine? Could someone else come along and know the necessary triggers to bring out the Witch in Aki?
He was fortunate the last time, Divine was gone when Yusei called out to her. His voice fractured Divines' established control over her, but what if Divine had still been alive? If it came down to the two of them would Aki snap out of it because Yusei or would she stay under?
"Can I see it? I might be able to make it less bulky than it is," Yusei offered, after all he was able to make Rua and Rukas' duel disks kid sized, the clip wouldn't be a problem. He also wanted to see what was in that thing to make it so big.
"I can't risk it. Not when I'm going to be going to school again so soon. I'm so nervous I'm seeing my duel monsters all over the place," she replied. Shaking her head she looked a bit sheepish while her spirits were floating about. They were steadily staring at Yusei with a gaze that Aki herself found disconcerting. The moment the duelists were sealed inside the helicopter the spirits had roused themselves to keep an eye on Yusei, but it was only time before Yuseis' own deck reacted. Robot junk type spirits began to materialize around Yusei, with their smooth glass covered eyes staring back at her spirits.
"Please stop that!" She plead with her spirits, yet they didn't respond to her and the panic was starting to bubble up in her. Granted they weren't attacking, but the staring was unnerving and the fact that Yuseis' deck was reacting made it doubly so.
"Stop what?" Yusei asked, noticing her eyes staring at something in the air to the right of him. "Aki what are you looking at?"
Her eyes dropped to the ground in frustration, seeing her own spirits had been more than enough, now Yuseis'? How was she going to go to school if she was going to be surrounded by every duel spirit? Even if they didn't lash out at people, how was she going to go through day after day seeing Duel Spirits all over the place?
Her eyes grew wide in surprise as Yusei stood up just to drop down to his knees in front of her lowered gaze. Causing her to look at him and see one of his own Spirits hanging off the back of his jacket and peering at her. "I'm sorry. I thought it was just my own deck that I saw, but your deck is starting to appear as well."
She screwed her eyes shut from the images in front of her only to feel the lightly calloused touch of Yuseis' hand. It caused her to open her eyes to find his bare hand on her cheek and him staring intently into her eyes. "Can you ask my deck why they have appeared?"
"I'm afraid."
"Don't be, you're stronger than this."
That was probably the number one reason that Aki found comfort in Yuseis' presence. He didn't judge her insane for seeing what others couldn't, object to her presence or resent her, instead he accepted her and tried to help. Perhaps in the end it was because they both bore the marks on their arms. Perhaps his 'compassion' was merely based on the fact that they 'had' to work together. But Divine didn't teach her anything if not how to settle quietly in obedience to a leader. As she did for him, it only made sense that she follow Yusei with that same level of subdued obedience, as the 'head' of the dragon.
"Ruka told me I should talk to my deck more, however; while I've recently tried that, I can't hear any response." Aki looked down at her duel disk, where it housed her deck of duel monster cards. "I can only see them." Then in an effort to avoid facing this uncomfortable issue she reached up and took her hair clip off before holding it out to him, "here."
Better to let him look at it then ask invasive questions.
"She's scared of you."
"No, she's scared of all of us."
"She's not scared of us! She's just scared of you mechanical whatever you ares!"
"Well if you didn't treat us like we're here to hurt her, she wouldn't be!"
"We didn't have to do anything! You showed up and she was like this!"
Aki sat there with wide eyes as she stared at her Witch of the Black Rose, floating in front of Yuseis' Junk Synchron waving her staff at the mechanical Duel Spirit. The voices were clearly not of anyone in the helicopter, yet she heard them. Heard the Spirits! Even a quick glance at Yusei provide he was more intent on figuring out her hair clip, while this was going on. How was this possible?
"Ah, excuse me?" she called out, looking to the spirits and seeing Yusei glance up only from the corner of her eye.
Both spirits stopped their argument to turn and look at Aki, the black button like eyes on her Black Witch and the mechanical glass eyed gaze from Yusei's Synchron were as real and life like as any human.
"You can hear us?" The Witch of the Black Rose asked, floating herself over to Aki, her wand clenched in her hand, while a strange yet hopeful glimmer seemed to spark in her eyes.
Aki nodded, as Yusei put the hair clip down and began to show more focus on her again, leaving Aki praying silently that she wasn't going mad.
"You can hear us! Everyone Aki can hear us!" Black Rose began calling out, and like times before all the spirits in Aki's deck started to materialize. All of them. All of them appearing and talking all at once until the helicopter was drowning in a sea of sound. It should have been a welcoming sound, warm greetings from all her deck that had never been given the chance to speak to her.
But Aki was cringing, tears pooling into her eyes, she looked so scared that the spirits didn't know what to do. Junk Synchron suddenly flew between her and her Spirits with its robotic arms sticking out as though to shield her.
"Not so loud! Can't you see you're scaring her?"
"She chose us! How can we be scaring her? You metal things are scary! You're not natural!" Black Witch argued, somewhere in the mix of all the voices calling out to Aki.
Not that she could tell, she had shut her eyes tight and covered her ears in mounting panic when she felt her hand suddenly get grabbed. Eyes flying open as Yusei was tearing the glove off her arm, his own glove removed to expose the limb that bore the mark of the Dragon. Multiple voices roared in rage at his actions as he pulled her to him and linked those bare hands together. But it was through that glow of the Dragons' Marks that she understood what he was trying to do. His strength, his focus channeled into her as an anchor in this sudden storm of sound.
"Get your hands off Aki! You're scaring her!"
Aki heard Yusei begin to suck in air as though in pain, a bad idea to look up revealed that Yusei's deck was starting to appear as well, arguing with her deck. Amid all the chaos, Yusei's living body and his own mark served as a life line. Giving Aki a focus as he pulled her against him and pressed their foreheads together. Making her look only at him, at those intense blue eyes that were as steady as a mountain.
"I can hear them Yusei. I can hear the Spirits speaking."
"What are they saying?" Yusei asked, for him just loud enough to be heard over the blades holding the helicopter aloft, but to Aki it could have been a whisper.
"I'm scared. They keep arguing with your Deck about what's scaring me, they're so loud Yusei, I can't even hear you well." She clung to him like a life line, for which he didn't complain or push her away.
"You're saying 'them' so it's more then one, just ask them to elect a speaker for you to converse with," he suggested.
She blinked at him before turning to look at the Spirits, but even after a few false starts it became clear that the Spirits were ignoring her. She choked a sob before shoving her face into Yuseis' chest, her minor interest in communicating with her deck being shredded by the second.
"SILENCE! You are UPSETTING the GIRL!"
Aki froze at that powerful, regal and quite mad voice which fluctuated between roars and conversational tones with each sentence punctuated with a whip crack. Jerking her head to the side she could see Black Rose Dragons' shadow consuming the space.
"There now dear child, the floor is yours," the shadow of the Black Rose Dragon crooned out. Her head was swaying like a snake, almost hypnotic in how she moved, yet she had a voice. The Duel Spirits all had voices now and Aki could hear them! For a moment she retucked her face against Yusei's chest, take strength from his physical presence, even the scent of leather and oils was reassuring. Taking that moment she took a deep steadying breath and pushed herself from him and composed herself before looking at all her Spirits floating about the room.
"Witch of the Black Rose? Would you mind being the spokesman for my deck?" She asked, her eyes seeking out the first Spirit she heard.
Said Spirit rushed to her, her high pitch commanding voice almost trembling with happiness, "you have no idea how happy we are that you can hear us!"
"I'm happy to hear you, too," Aki replied, hoping that she would be like Ruka, who could hear her Spirits and was well adjusted with her powers. "How long have you been trying to reach me?"
"Ever since you were tiny, but you were scared! Like now!" The Rose Witch turned herself in midair to face Yusei's deck and Akis' heart dropped. "Now go away! You horrid machines are only scaring our Aki."
Aki started as she heard that and became mortified as she heard Yuseis' deck argue back, "no. No its ok! I was confused by all this, I just need some time to get used to everything!" What would she do if her deck drove away Yuseis'? Not that he could hear the Spirits anyway, but would it cause trouble if her deck was hostile?
"The moment you took that hair clip off you could hear them? But you haven't worn it all your life, why now?" Yusei asked, oblivious to the chaos around him, he sought only information.
"Black Rose said I was too scared to hear them before," Aki explained as she slowly straightened her stance so she wasn't curled against his chest like a timid kitten. He held her to him for a little longer, his eyes searching hers for any deception. But eventually he settled back dropping his arms before slipping his hand back into his glove. "But I still need my hair clip, I can't just go to school and hear all the Spirits talking all day."
"You won't, we Spirits don't just talk in front of 'everyone' we talk in front of our partners, and the friends they make. We'll be good!" Black Rose explained, floating up beside Aki.
Which created another problem because Aki, clearly able to see the Spirit, instinctively looked at the Spirit, but how would that look to Yusei? No, she just had to adopt a policy like what Ruka used, calling out her Spirits when she was alone or with others who understood.
"Do you still want to go see the twins? Or should we put that trip off?" Yusei broke into her thoughts with a calmly given question.
"No," she shook her head and gave a slight smile. "The twins will love to see you, in fact all the kids in their grade may get excited to meet you." She watched his eyebrow go up and a bit and she couldn't stop the amused chuckle that worked its way up. "You, if you have forgotten, are the 'Turbo Duel King', you defeated Jack Atlas. That makes you a celebrity," she explained.
"Even if I come from Satellite?" He questioned, his tone hinting that he didn't really believe that.
"Some might get scared, but I'll bet most of them will be excited. Rua will be there and he'll be as excited as ever. The other kids will probably follow his lead and rush you in excitement as well." She smiled up at him reassuringly while he continued to express a slight doubt in his expression.
"You won't be smiling for long when I point this out. But my D-Wheel doesn't have a side car, I don't think you're going to like your options."