Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta via working on a story bible so I don't forget stuff and thus found some stuff needing fixed: Lady Lunar Phoenix
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
The conversation started dying again in the room without the excuse of people eating, when Carly reached up to her chest pocket. Feeling the comforting weight of her deck she remembered that she needed to properly thank Aki and Yusei for going out to find them. She could still remember when she had dashed out of sight of Jack as he rode by only to fall backwards to the ocean at her back. As she fell a branch raked across her side before somehow hooking into the belt and ripping it off despite the buckle. Only to have the bright blue of the water consume her vision and the deep rip tides tear her away from the land.
"Ah, Aki, Yusei, how did you find my deck? It must not have been easy," Carly piped up looking for any excuse to keep this warm group in her apartment. Looking across at the pair of duelists who seemed rather interesting to read in an of themselves. What with the energetic reds of Aki's rose colored clothes, while compared to the darker, colder colors of Yusei's jacket. Hot and cold, female and male, one who ran on emotions the other logic, there was such a strong ying yang effect with them!
Aki looked up at the sound of her name, and a cautious smile crossed her lips before she glanced at Yusei. The Duelist didn't seemed fazed by the question, shrugging his indifference at her admittance to how. After all this was a small group, Carly being a reporter wasn't going to get in the way of much. Well, logically it 'could' be problematic for Aki to admit to her powers and that was a fact. But Aki needed to learn to trust her own instinct and judgment, to learn to decide on her own if someone was worth that trust or not. Yusei didn't want to be one doing all the deciding, if he did, how would he be any different than Divine? And with Carly, because there was already a bond of friendship, no matter how new it was, there was less risk of Aki getting hurt by it.
"Well, if you promise not to report on it," Aki answered with a slightly embarrassed look on her face, putting the tea cup down so she could fold her hands on her lap properly.
"Promise! I'm not much of a duelist but they're still important to me!" Carly promised with a firm nod, pulling out said deck and holding it properly to her chest. No matter how awesome it was for Lord Kaiba to give her the duelist belt, she just too clumsy to wear it. But on the other hand, wearing it when she did was the only thing that saved her deck from getting wet.
"Well, they were using their own strength to hold the belt you kept them in on a thin branch over the water. They had been at it since you fell in when they realized they couldn't pull you out, and were trying to get someone's attention. But well, no one could see them so they just stuck close to the belt until my Witch of the Black Rose found them and brought us to them." Aki began hesitantly reaching up to her hair clip then dropping her hand again. "Once Yusei got a hold of the belt and they knew their cards were safe, they were all over me worrying about-"
"You can see them!? You have that power?! Then can you-" Carly exploded in excitement sending Aki into stunned silence as the reporter bounced out of her seat and lunged for Aki. Moving so quickly that Jack had no time for pulling in his long legs. Thus sending Carly from an overenthusiastic lunge into a face plant at the foot rose themed duelist.
Carly laid there face down with her arms, still, holding up the deck towards Aki while Jack and Yusei both started in alarm. Aki's cry of concern was lost as was Yusei's leaning to help Carly when Carly bounced back on her own. Getting right into Aki's face her tilted glasses reflecting Aki's stunned expression and showing a strange near panic in Carly's eyes.
"Please make them visible for me!"
Yusei leaned back in his seat, crossed his legs and with one elbow perched on the arm rest beside him, and gave Jack a look. As though to say 'I never would have pegged you for liking such a spazzy type of girl'. Not that Jack cared, his woman was his woman and if Yusei had anything smart to say about that, he didn't, then Jack would settle it with the guy.
Aki looked at Yusei, but he was busy giving this smug smirk of a smile at Jack and realizing she was on her own, Aki looked back at Carly. "I'm sorry... I'm not very confident with my own-" She began only to see the tears starting to seriously pool in Carly's eyes at the decline. Normally she could brush it off and just ignore the crying. But she felt she owed something to Carly for what she had gone through because of Divine.
So she hesitantly removed her hair clip and tucked her bangs behind her ears then quietly took the deck into her own hands. The first thing she noticed was how warm the deck was, as though Aki had just got her hands on some freshly baked cookies. Warm to the touch and Aki realized in that moment how Ruka was able to 'read' the character of a duelist by holding their deck.
"Your deck is so warm, Carly. I can't explain it, but your deck feels wonderful, warm and caring," Aki began, smiling faintly at how the cards felt. As she tried to think of how to ask the Spirits to show themselves, they made themselves known on their own. First the Golden colored one, then Purple, and soon the Fortune Fairies were all hovering in front of her over Carly's head.
"Hey Carly! Its great that you can see us in person!"
"You need to learn to not make us worry."
"Its nice to see you 'fell in' with a good crowd!"
"You pun this up and first chance I get your card goes in a paper shredder."
"Carly you didn't hurt yourself when you face planted did you?"
"See! You got the best fortune! A boyfriend!"
Carly knelt there surrounded by six hovering fairies who were all atwitter with bright cheer, bright colors the glow of those lights making a type of disco effect on the room around them. Yet despite all this good cheer Carly began to cry, earning a faintly concerned look from Yusei before the bawling began.
"I'm so sorry! Please forgive me for nearly dropping you! I put you in danger because I was such a klutz and I'm so sorry!" Carly began sobbing with enough force to get Jack to sit up in alarm.
Yet the fairies in question just gave various expressions of worn patience and 'this again' shrugs before they flew closer to her.
"Hey stop crying Carly, we understand! We know how scared you were of running into Jack!" a Deep purple colored Fairy with bat wing like bangs barked out as she flew down directly into Carly's face.
"Yeah, stop apologizing! We're happy to be with you! Didn't you hear what the Rose girl said? We're a warm 'happy' deck, happy to be with 'you'!" Hikari dipped down pushing the purple light away with her own golden glow.
Yusei was struck by how the deck acted, watching as the purple and gold fairies made an effort to argue/comfort Carly while the others seemed resigned. They all had these rueful amused expressions on their faces as though this was a norm. As he thought on this an orange colored fairy with big round glasses like Carly seemed to notice his look and flew over, hovering before him.
"You're the guy! You're the guy who grabbed the belt we were in!" Said orange fairy proclaimed cheerfully while a red fairy without glasses joined her.
"Yeah, and you were the one who can see us naturally! Thanks for the save guys!" The red one hovered before them giving a cheerful bow of thanks.
"Yeah, it would have been a drag if we fell into the water, though the belt is water resistant..." the orange one explained which gave Yusei another question.
"What happens to you if your card gets damaged?" Yusei asked, leaning forward a bit to get closer to these fairies, extending a hand even for them to land on if they wanted.
The orange one did just that before pulling off her glasses and giving them a good cleaning. "Nothing really, they're just the doors we use to enter your world. So long as Pegasus' company makes them, we always have a way to come back."
"So, there's only one of you in all of that world?" Yusei asked, confused by that considering the information that Ruka had provided.
"Maybe? I don't know... All we know is that we are born when someone with a strong heart bonds with us. From there we're like this! You'll have to ask one of the older ones, like the dragons with you. They might know better about how we're born." The red one explained, and her eyes got wide and alarmed before she backed up a bit.
"Well THAT is simple, these little ones are all the SAME, mindless dolls until one of you HUMANS bonds with them. DESTROY the card and the doorway is gone, REPLACE THE CARD might get back what you lost in the BOND. Or NOT! So that RISK is real!"
Everyone froze at the eruption of that regal, mad voice, between roars and hisses the woman's voice consumed the atmosphere with an intimidating feeling. As though though the shadows of the room got darker and the glow of the Fairies had no effect any longer.
"And that, ladies and gentlemen is how you scare an audience..." Another, far calmer and saner voice noted pragmatically.
"Well she could stop being insane and say it like a proper dragon!" Another arrogant sounding voice rumbled out.
"At least she made an effort, you're getting as lazy as your partner." The second voice pointed out, then as almost an after thought added, "You might want to talk to Kaiba. He knows how this works, but good luck meeting him."
Every human was sitting at attention at the voices about them, the fairies were cowering behind Carly, their wands out just in case. Jack and Carly were looking around in a surprised manner until their eyes focused on Aki. Yusei had automatically reached out to Aki and took her clenched hands in his and did some rapid calculations as he sat there. The atmosphere in the room had a strangely unbalanced feeling to it, from standing before a harsh or dangerous audience, to something decidedly more calmer. It hit each person at different minutes that from what they had just heard, they were in the center of three of the five Signer Dragons.
Surrounded by such power was almost suffocating in a way there was this wear blend of scents of newly churned earth and blood. The smoke from eternal fires that gave no heat because the cold of interstellar space was pulling it away. While addressing Black Roses' clear mental state felt dangerous given how she spoke while the chance of finding out anything regarding the twins or the fifth, hidden, Signer Dragon via Stardust...
"Stardust?" Yusei spoke as he moved himself closer to Aki, not feeling any physical signs that her deck was getting upset with his nearness.
"Hmmm?"
Yusei blinked at the sound, realizing it 'was' Stardust acknowledging his voice and responding, "Where is that fifth insect type Signer Dragon?"
"Oh... well you've seen- No, we need to go... You should attend to your Priestess," Stardust sounded strangely mixed between apologetic and diplomatic. Fading away as did the some of the virtually overwhelming energy that seemed to consume the room.
"Its not her fault she's crazy. There's a reason that the Witch didn't permanently take the Priestess over, but it wasn't exactly the best method to stop that madness." Archfiend growled out even as he faded away.
"Life Stream is with his partner," Black Rose whispered, her voice close enough that she could have had lowered her wedge shaped head between Yusei and Aki as she spoke. "As for what happened? Who knows? Fairy isn't talking and Life can't."
So Power Tool Dragon 'was' the Fifth Dragon, and something had happened to silence the pair on what had happened. Yusei nodded giving a brief 'thank you' to the Dragon, as he stored that bit of information in the back to be dealt with later. The Fairies with Carly had ventured back out and settled down in her arms like so many little kids, or kittens.
"So, you guys are like this because of me? I mean, cuz we bonded?" Carly asked, looking down at the rainbow of colorful themed fairies in her arms. Her question shaking them out of their nervous reverie, allowing them to fly up into the air once more.
The group looked at each other and began exchanging shrugs of casual indifference, "we guess so. My first memories are of you talking to me." The Blue Fairy spoke for the group, and soon all the fairies were replying about their 'first memories' and how those memories were of Carly.
"So the more prolific a card, the more spirits there are of that type, each bonded to the person who put them in their deck?" Jack asked, seeking clarification.
"Yes and no, it really depends on if the human wants us as something more than just winning a duel." A new, for Jack and Carly, voice pipped up from Aki's side, as the Witch of the Black Rose appeared. "We need a partner who sees us as more than tools to win a duel, we need to grow via the bond of what we mean to you. Think of it like this, the more 'real' we are to you as something beyond the game, the more real we become." The witch glided her way down to Aki's lap and placed her dainty feet upon Aki's knee before resuming.
"To Aki I'm a friend, for all those years she was alone, so I became real and my card in her deck is my portal to her. But someone else may have a copy of my card and bond with that copy creating another 'Witch of the Black Rose' only that witch isn't me. I'm uniquely Aki's Witch of the Black Rose!"
"But what if your card is destroyed, what happens to you?" Carly asked, her original fear reappearing. Causing her Fairies to fly about her and stroke her hair to comfort her.
"Oh that's easy, I would be trapped in the Spirit World, but I would always exist even if I couldn't reach Aki again. However, if Aki collects another 'Witch of the Black Rose' card and bonds the same way she would draw me back." The Witch explained before settling down to sit primly on Aki's lap. "But the thing is that people change as they grow, the person she was when we bonded doesn't really exist anymore, so if she got a new card it would be a new witch. We'd be sisters!"
"So that's why you have such distrust and dislike towards me," Yusei noted aloud, causing the witch to stiffen. "There's a risk that Aki would change her style of dueling enough that you would be removed. You may be able to think for yourself now and have a 'Spirit World' to stay in, but losing a friend would be crippling."
And if anyone knew anything about the pain of losing a friend, it would be Yusei. It was probably the most diplomatic way Yusei could express his realization, since the alternative would be to point out that the Aki Divine wanted created this deck. The real Aki, who already didn't like to hurt people, may not want a deck that is designed for physical abuse.
"You'd like that wouldn't you!" The Witch turned and began waving her wand aggressively at Yusei. Floating up after a moment and getting into his space again, while he raised his hands in a passive manner.
Aki reached out and after confirming she could touch the Witches' dress, wrapped her arms around the angry spirit and pulled her back. But even after doing that she couldn't find any words to calm the Spirit down.
"You know, there's no reason to think she would do that." Hikari pointed out.
"Remember sometimes the best strategy is to have someone who duels against their own personality type." Swee noted floating up to hover near Witch.
"Yeah, that was how Lord Yugi did it, he could use any deck without knowing what was in the deck to begin with. Even before he ascended higher," Ann added parking herself on Carly's shoulder.
"That's true..." Aki noted as she folded her arms more firmly around her Witch.
Hu nodded, casting a green glow up Carly's clothes as she flew up before Carly, "so do you feel better now? Since you got to see us?"
Carly straightened as Hu addressed her directly, and her eyes got wide before softening behind her glasses. She nodded as she opened her arms and began hugging all her Spirits, quiet tears of happiness sliding down her cheeks. So many colors danced around her apartment, happy voices encouraging her on regardless of what her fortunes may be. Their voices fading away as they went back to their deck leaving the room quiet for a bit while she settled herself back down.
Leaving only the witch on Aki's lap as the only remaining visible spirit in the room, when a question occurred to her. "So, those were... what? And you can understand them?"
"Ah three Dragons would never fit," Aki pointed out quickly. "I've only seen Black Rose as a pair of eyes and moving shadow. I have no idea how the other two would manifest themselves short of their full body forms."
A darkly amused rumble emanated around Aki before fading away leaving Carly quiet. It was a vastly different display of power manifestation for the same of communication rather than manifestation for the sake of devastation. When it came to psychic duelists part of the fear factor had been how they caused nothing but rampant, senseless destruction. Yet there had been nothing destructive about what Aki had just done.
Yusei leaned over and placed his hand over Aki's bringing both Aki and Black Roses' attention back onto the duelist. "How are you feeling?"
Jack watched as Aki looked down at the top of her Spirits' head and pull said spirit in close, seeming to shrink in on herself as something occurred to her. Aki didn't look tired or strained, as Carly got off the floor and sat back down next to Jack.
"I'm fine. Which is not something I ever expected to say after using so much of my power."