Judgment of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta: By me on a third go around
A/N: Just opened this to read it while looking for information and realized I got the twins mixed up. So I fixed that and am reposting this!
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School. The institution of 'higher' learning, designed and created to provide a safe atmosphere for children to learn. A means to break the social class stigma that could be inherited by people who merely learned the trade of their parents and nothing more. It allowed for children to learn the basics of reading, writing and math, while teaching them about the history of their land and the world, sciences of how things worked. Basic cooking classes so children learned how to eat healthy, classes on how to play Duel Monsters so no one would develop artistic skills necessary to... draw... a person...
There was a type of bonding aspect that came from school, as kids were forced to interact with one another, and it was in these interactions that friendships and rivalries happened. The struggle to compete for the best grades coupled with finding people who shared your interests. Even dropped in a school uniform and taught to think of the nation before ones self. Kids still grew up to develop friendships and bonds.
In fact a school could be seen much like a micro version of a government, with the student body overseeing the 'population' of students. You had the nurturing 'doctors' who would hover over the injured and ensure they got to the School Nurse. The jokers, the hard workers, the slackers, everything that was found in the 'real' world was found in school. Increasingly so when a school maintained the whole student body of the city of Neo Domino. From the youngest to the seniors on their way out into the real world.
But it also meant that the students who had attended school with the 'Witch' were still there and still held on to the fear of 'her'. Sure some moved out of Neo Domino over the years, but the bulk had a clear memory of all the terrifying things she would do to people during duels. So learning that she had re-enrolled in school and that her credits from the Arcadia Movement had transferred sent up alarm bells. The awareness that the Witch was returning was soon compounded by the news that she was apparently 'friends' with the Satellite scum turn Turbo Duel King, Fudo Yusei.
Actually, that alone had created a buzz as the 'Fudo' name was well known among the citizens of Neo Domino, as a leading part of the Momentum Project. Though details weren't public knowledge the fact that he 'was' at one point connected before the accident, meant that the students knew of Yusei. Those who had gone with their younger siblings to an impromptu gathering at a rich pair of kids' house only confirmed it. Though Fudo wasn't really chatty, and indeed it was the Witch who did more of the engaging, there was enough clues.
If no better clue, all one had to do was look up an old picture of Dr. Fudo and compare the hairstyles on both people. People just didn't get born with hair 'that' irrational. Natural hair like 'that' only showed up on people born for greatness, like the legendary Duel King Muto Yugi. Natural different shades of color, spiking up in ways that just made no sense. Attracting every hot, sexy young man from across the GLOBE by just existing.
And Fudo was 'with' the 'Witch'? How did that happen? How was he able to survive her wrath and 'not' be scared away from her? Or maybe that was it, that he was strong enough to endure her terrible power and had tamed 'her'. Perhaps he had broken the Witch like the Shrew in that one Western play? But why was he living in 'Satellite', even if both Mr. and Mrs. Fudo passed away that day, didn't he have family beyond them?
But then again, the Kaibas' were 'also' brought into their family through adoption, so it was possible that there 'was' no family. Or fools who didn't realize what they had carelessly thrown away. After all, Fudo had managed to accumulate a deck capable of dethroning the former King while living on Satellite. A land mass where no one sold decks, though it was common knowledge that Security occasionally 'lost' their cards on the Island. But Fudo was able to put together a deck that followed a theme, and worked from 'those' odds. So whoever gave him up for dead was probably kicking themselves in the butt now.
But that was not their business, they were just hopeful that he could keep the Witch subdued so that they wouldn't get hurt. So when the Senators' daughter was brought to class and introduced to them, the fear was quite palpable. Izayoi was as quiet and poised as expected of a senators' daughter, yet that was to be expected. It was the 'dueling' part of the school day that had everyone in concern, and was what was held on to. Even as they could see those kids swarm her in excitement and spend every free chance they had by her side.
In fact, watching Izayoi 'with' those little kids was probably the biggest change of her personality that anyone could easily recall. She used to be withdrawn, quiet, and didn't socialize with anyone. Which made sense to a point, when a school had a dueling program, most everyone used dueling as a way to introduce themselves now. People didn't just 'befriend' anyone anymore, rather they tested each person with a duel. Win or lose, just the type of deck they used alone expressed a lot about the type of character they were dealing with.
So anyone who tried to befriend her was attacked, making it impossible to get near such a dangerous girl. Calm? Poised? All lies, because her deck showed the crazy sadist that she 'really' was and no one wanted someone who could cause such destruction. But as she sat there having lunch with the kids it was hard to believe that this was the same girl who destroyed the 'whole' gym in a move. Or perhaps not, perhaps she was just a victim of a power she couldn't control. Regardless, she was dangerous, someone no one should feel safe getting close to. Except the kids clearly didn't know as they hung about her. Though they wouldn't have been surprised if the reason was because of her clear connection with the Turbo Duel King.
Fudo looked intimidating to anyone in the civilized city of Neo Domino, with his riding leathers and covered from the neck down. Not to mention the Mark that ran down from his eye to his chin, all of it pointing out how dangerous he was. But he was King and a small crowd of children who already trusted him, was enough to encourage more kids to join in.
It wasn't until the school bell rang marking the time to attend the next class, and that class being 'Dueling' that Izayois' classmates got skittish. Ranging from nervous to outright scared, no one was interested in going. Friday was always the active 'dueling' class where students would go into the Gym to apply what they learned about dueling in actual duels. The grade school students were taught all the basics of the game.
From types like Light, or Dark, to Luck or Ghoul based cards, allowing them to see the vast variety the game provided. Since it was clear that the kids used the decks as another way of expressing who they were as individuals. So it was decided that they be able to learn about 'all' the options and how to find cards that connected with them. The kids easily had their 'own' decks, cobbled together from what they collected in a rush to be a part of the class. So it was important that they learn more about other cards as well and not commit themselves to just whatever they grabbed.
Thus most kids had a 'starter' deck structure with one card that served as their current 'signature' card. Having that card served as a way for each child to slowly learn how to connect from the myriad of cards in existence to their own cards. But having a card didn't always necessitate that they had the same exact structure as another kid. Offensive or defensive, burn, or lock down, were just a small sample of ways kids could use their cards. Deciding on a signature may limit some types of dueling or not but that was part of the learning process.
So Friday was always the 'Active Dueling' class, where the students got to leave their classroom and go into the part of the Gym designed for Dueling. Being allowed to actively duel using a system similar to the championship styles brought excitement and stars to the eyes of the younger students. While the older students used it to help get over any jitters they may have had gotten while getting into the 'big' league.
The origins of the class started in the high school, most people just assumed that Kaiba had been ahead of his time when he purchased the school and replaced the art and music class with dueling. It was hard to believe that 'anyone' would willingly purchase a school merely to stop their fans from their usual childish antics. Especially when Kaiba made the purchase in his final year of school, though eventually his brother Mokuba would be attending. So there was 'that'.
But such silly rumors eventually faded away as merely a myth, and over time the popularity of the game 'did' give rise to such schools outside of Japan. Kaiba eventually opened several similar schools, that allowed for orphans to attend free of charge. Those orphans who applied themselves the hardest were allowed to attend such schools, thus given the education that they would have been denied otherwise. For the most part it followed the direction that Kaiba had set, that passive note that for all his intensity and focus. The Kaibas 'did' care about the world around them.
But the high school setting wasn't imparted on the younger grades until after the Incident. The young children painfully wanted to take part in the duels. Begrudgingly the school finally allowed for the younger students to study the game. Even then, the younger students strictly learned the game if they chose it as their extracurricular study and their grades could afford such lessons. Needless to say, Neo Domino had 'somehow' become the DE-facto school system one sent their kids to if they wanted top of the country children.
Even after that pesky series of events that brought down the school gym when a large rose themed plant ran rampant. Due to a hologram malfunction during a duel of course, since no one was allowed to say that it was a Senators 'daughter'. It was purely mechanical, and just proof at how impressive the Holographic Technology of Kaiba Corporation was.
The accident served as an excuse to upgrade the schools gym. Originally, with the destruction of the original grade schools, the high schools' gym was taken over for the younger kids to continue going to school. Once it was decided that the high school was still structurally sound enough to build upon, they extended the buildings out and up. But the gym was crammed to capacity and the school realized there would be no way to take in the grade school students and use that one gym.
Only, because of all the re-enforcing and building upon that was going on, they didn't have the funding necessary to move that far. At the time there was no idea how they would gain enough money to build a bigger gym. Course it being 'flattened' by that 'malfunction' helped, not by the insurance companies, rather by Kaiba Corp and the Senator.
But at the moment there was a pair of students standing at the doors not letting anyone get through. Beyond them was the large stadium wide doors, one closed and one open to reveal the large expansive gym in 'Duel Mode' set up. With bleachers all around and stands that rose up to elevate a duelist for the crowds.
"I'm sorry, but there's been an incident, one of the students collapsed and their teacher asked that we keep everyone out." The Schools' lovely Duel Queen and another student stood by guarding the door.
"What? What happened Ms. Tenjoin?" the instructor asked in concern. While several members of the class did a head count to make sure that Izayoi was still among them.
"I don't know, a friend of theirs was running for the nurses and ran into us," the guy explained, followed up by the Duel Queen.
"Yes, Ryo is in there helping the school nurse, but he hasn't come back to tell us anything..."
Aki watched the door, growing anxious as she saw the age of the students in the room, worrying about Ruka and her weak heart. With that anxiousness, her deck roused up, and once again her Witch rose up by her side.
"Aki?" The Witch asked, waiting for a response, yet oddly enough Aki didn't notice her. The duelist looked rigidly forward towards a set of doors. "Aki? What's wrong? Why won't you look at me? You don't seem angry?" Which was completely unlike Aki, she had always noticed them, in fact normally everyone noticed when she showed up. She tried looking around to see who was attacking Aki, only she saw milling humans and in the distance she saw other humans. Deciding, for once, to not just attack indiscriminately everyone around them, Witch of the Black Rose followed the humans focus towards the gym. Looking inside she could see all the small humans and a few hovering Spirits above them. Which left her excited since no one ever seemed to have a duel spirit out and about normally, thus she took off towards those Spirits to do some scouting.
Leaving Aki a bit worried since she couldn't just call out to her spirit and call said spirit back to her deck. Not if she wanted to stay in her classmates good graces, though on second thought, her Witch could hopefully find out what was going on better than Aki could. But would the Witch understand that? Or was she just going to hang out with the spirits? For a moment Aki pondered that, but then chided herself for thinking so. Witch of the Black Rose was clearly not a simple minded Spirit, so she had to hope that the Witch would take it upon herself to ask what was going on and report back. For that matter, be ok that Aki would not be able to actively react to the Witch.
"Big Sister Aki!"
Rua had a voice that nearly everyone in the school was used to by this point. It was hard 'not' to imagine the enthusiastic kid bounding along with his sister usually in tow. His jaunty ponytail, his bright, happy demeanor, his epic failure as a duelist. His grades got him in the class, but his skills were so poor, some of the older students did their best 'not' to do their finishers when they beat him. Out of pity and not wanting to see him burst into disappointed tears.
Ruka was the quiet one, mildly introverted, she was cautious before engaging 'anyone' in any form of interaction. Hence her constantly following her brother into any fray, even if she was the more reasonable, responsible one of the pair. No one was surprised at her grades or her ability since she 'had' dueling skills, but it was a surprise when they heard her 'not' her brother calling out to Izayoi.
For everyone the alarm was seeing the more subdued twin rushing towards the gym doors not her brother, her eyes filled with concern and fear. For Aki it was coupled with the hovering spirits of her Witch of the Black Rose and Ruka's Kuribon hauling tail towards them. If it was weird for Ruka to know Aki was there when the older girl wasn't near enough to the door. They shrugged it off since their teacher was near the door and quite possibly the young girl remembered Izayois' teacher.
"Ms. Izayoi?" Mrs. Hanatsubaki voiced her concern as Ruka dashed past her and latched on Akis' waist.
"What happened to Rua?" Aki asked as she rested her hands gently on the young girls' shoulders.
The other students began milling about closer, while Ruka looked up with tear stained eyes at Aki.
"I don't know, he was dueling and, and fell..." Ruka blurted out in a rush, but there was something in the way she stumbled as she spoke felt off to Aki.
"Don't worry, the nurse will make sure he's ok," One of the male students spoke up behind Aki, for which Aki nodded in agreement.
There was an awkwardness to having Kuribon and Witch of the Black Rose hovering before her and above Rukas' head. Kuribon was clearly distressed about something, but Aki couldn't 'focus' on the poor Spirit considering that she was completely surrounded.
"Aki? Aren't you even going to ask Kuribon what happened?" Witch asked, her frown growing deeper on her face. She placed her hand on her hip and began tapping her shoulder with the wand in her other hand, but her expression was pretty on spot with what Aki expected.
Kuribon blinked in mild confusion before floating herself around to face the Witch, her vocabulary being exclusively 'Kurrs' sounds. Aki felt a twinge of regret that she couldn't just stand there and watch the pair talk. Kuribon was 'clearly' talking in some form of language that the Witch could understand. She bopped up and down in the air, her tail twitching occasionally, for which Aki's own Witch responded in suitable manner, giving Aki a clue that Kuribon was explaining how interaction worked. At least how it worked when you were a Spirit trying to converse with one lone person who could see you in a sea of others who couldn't.
'A puff ball with a tail is teaching my Witch. Welcome to my life...' Aki thought as she refocused her attention on Ruka.