Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"Patty?" Aki knelt down in front of the girl so they were on eye level. While the rest of the young group formed a near shield around the blond. "Witch hasn't gotten back yet, but when she does I'll send her to Ruka to let you know. If she doesn't go to Ruka directly on her own. Ok?"
"We know this is scary Patty, but your grandmother is very fortunate that you were with her!" Momoe added her tone supportive as her words pulled Patty's attention to her. While behind her the limo that Aki and co had ridden in pulled away out to return to the the Izayoi home.
"Yeah, just think what would have happened if you hadn't been there," Junko added, her short hair bouncing a bit in time with the earnest tone of her words.
"Thanks," Patty answered taking a big sniff to try to compose herself. "I guess all I can do now is wait..." rubbing her eyes once more, their teacher came up in person to collect this little group of her students. All in all the day wasn't looking too positive to help comfort Patty with its overcast skies darkening her natural blond hair.
It could easily be viewed as a day where the skies were prepping itself to enter mourning with Patty at any second. They looked weighted and low, bringing down the bright cheer of the children with their presence.
"Well that's no way to start a school day," Asuka commented once Patty was out of listening range. For which the rest of the girls nodded in unison while the rest of the guys caught up with them.
"You girls look down, did something happen to the kids?" Isao asked, a mop and newly empty bucket in his hands, and Kazushi by his side. Apparently the pair had room duty by the presence of the mop and bucket.
"Patty's grandmother may have had a heart attack," Aki answered and her words instantly brought expressions of concern and alarm from the guys. Who proceeded to issue question after question their words spilling over each other.
"One at a time guys," Ryo cut over their voices before Aki could even try to get a word in edgewise. His presence easily settling the guys worry at ease. The Emperor of the school was there, so all was well, Ryo would take care of it.
"I found her on my way to school and brought her with the twins," Aki explained as Asuka deftly guided the gang towards the school so they wouldn't be late. "Apparently Patty lives with her grandmother on the weekdays and found her on the floor this morning."
"Really?! Its even worse than what we heard then!" Junko exclaimed in disbelief and increased worry. "That poor girl, no wonder Patty looked so helpless."
"When they said 'family' we actually thought it was Patty's parents not Patty herself what with them being neighbors," Asuka explained quietly.
They went to their shoe lockers and began trading out their shoes while Aki found herself struck at how they seemed to know Patty's family at all. Not that Aki, herself, knew anything about Patty's family situation.
"I'm impressed you guys know all the kids in the school," Aki confessed her admiration while Kazushi scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Well, actually we don't... When Patty arrived she used to get a lot of flack for being black with blond hair. People kinda figured she was actually a gang member, you know... stupid impressions of race based on american television..." His confession was coupled with a shame faced lowering of the eyes while the others began to join up with Aki on the way to the interior of the school.
"It was actually Fubuki who stood up to the bullying for her. He was..." Junko began with a smile on her lips as she recalled something in her mind.
"He loved the ladies, but he didn't tolerate bullying, though it was hard to imagine given how laid back and social he was that he'd assert himself..." Momoe agreed her voice filled with a nostalgia that warned that there was a 'reason' why they were talking about the guy in past tense.
"Yeah... he could be an idiot.." Asuka confessed, "but he could also..."
"Asuka..." Ryo quietly approached her, dropping his arms from their usual position across his chest and hung at his sides.
Fubuki sounded like a legend to Aki, he wasn't always brought up or discussed and then, only in passing. Few words that would bring the normally cheerful, bright Asuka down into a dreary sadness. What little Aki could fathom was that Ryo was originally 'Fubukis' friend, and didn't really interact much with Asuka until this mysterious incident. What ever had happened, it had sealed away his deck, something that had concerned Aki. After all the last time she heard of a dragon 'sealed' it had been the Ancient Fairy Dragon that was Ruka's partner.
She needed time to study what happened, time to travel the Duel Spirit world and see if she could discover what happened to Fubuki in those final moments. If for no other reason than to give the pair an ending that they could accept. Far better that then the constant hanging cloud of 'what happened'. It wasn't really Aki's place to ask about what happened either, but if she 'could' help...
'I'm turning into Yusei...' she thought and barely kept her expression neutral as she came to that realization. His willingness to help others was seeping into her, and to be perfectly honest she actually 'liked' the notion of helping someone. Knowing she could help others created a feeling of wholeness to her, something that had been lacking in all her time with the Arcadia Movement.
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"I'm back! And by 'back' I mean I already checked in with Ruka, so you don't have to wor-," Witch of the Black Rose began only to cut herself off as she saw the state of the room. So apparently Aki was in the middle of a test, who knew? After a quick scan of the room Black Rose flew over and made herself comfortable on top of a cabinet.
She sat there, with her feet kicking off the sides of the cabinet as she watched a room full of students sit there working through a test. Her wand was placed over her lap and realized that a test was a 'good' thing! Once Aki turned in her test, she could sit there and be poised while Witch regaled her with what she missed at the hospital! Which was far better than trying to do reports during class and getting scolded for distracting Aki.
'Distracting'.
As 'if', Aki was smart enough she didn't need to pay attention 'all' the time in class! But every good Witch knew the importance of tests. After all Aki usually had them help her study when she was alone, so Witch was getting pretty confident in certain classes. But it 'was' boring waiting for Aki to finish her test. Manners meant she couldn't nag the girl, but on the other hand Witch couldn't do much else.
Sure she could look over various student's tests, see how they were answering questions. If there was a cheater she could just startle them with her magics to reveal that they were cheating! Or just magic a message on the teachers' desk so 'she' would go and deal with the cheater. But she had to confess that it wasn't a good idea. If cheaters were 'only' discovered in classes with Aki in them, since people knew about her abilities, they would just get mad at 'her'. Which was lopsided when one considered the fact that 'they' were the ones cheating.
Or accuse Aki of being a cheater, because there was no way to prove that a Duel Spirit didn't feed her all the information for a test.
Witch sat and watched as the neat rows of students worked at their desks, their hands working in spurts at their keyboards. Some students glaring at a question as though the answer would appear on its own if they simply stared hard enough. But this wasn't a math class, because those normally included the scratching of scrap paper as students would work out mathematical equations on paper first.
Witch wished that she had someone to talk to though, sitting there was no fun and unfortunately there was little stopping the other Duel Spirits coming out en mass if she tried to strike up a conversation. Not a 'bad' thing save that they preferred to stay by their chosen Duelists' side and that could end up with a room positively filled with Spirits. A noisy room of spirits that only Aki could see and hear. Even 'if' everyone accepted Aki's abilities it would hinder her to have such a crowd.
Even that Judai kid, for all his nagging to see Duel Spirits all the time via Aki, had limits. He understood that Spirits given the chance to be seen by their partners would try to capitalize on that. Though 'his' Spirits stayed out of their decks purely because they knew he 'could' see them if he entered a duel. So they didn't bother to even stay in the Duel Spirit World while waiting for such a chance, especially now that they knew about Aki.
"Izayoi." The teacher's voice broke into Witchs' inner thoughts causing her to look up.
Aki sat at her disk, her screen off and had just pulled out a book to read, supposedly. But it meant that Aki had finished her test and Witch hovered herself up from the cabinet and flew down to Aki. "Great! You're done so now I can report in!"
Witch settled herself down on a bit of empty desk space so she could face Aki properly, her long wand laid primly across her lap.
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"She's 'dead'?! HOW DO I EXPLAIN THIS TO RUKA?!" Witch of the Black Rose wailed in dismay as she stared at the covered body laying on the table in the room. She looked around distraught her gaze panicked when a ghoul rose up from a corner of the room. Clad in a doctors' long white coat it ambled over its vacant gaze hiding its living spirit.
Undead Duel Spirits... always an oddity to a nature based Duel Spirit like herself, but whatever.
"Do you know the person?" The Ghoul asked as it reached her and the table.
"Uh yeah, she's my partners' friends' friends' grandmother... wow that's a mouth full," Witch answered while her tongue tried to flop out of her mouth.
"You got the wrong body, because that woman was found dead in an alley between the age of 20 and 25. My partner is waiting for Security to come and collect the body."
Witch hovered there feeling a bit awkward because her first reaction was a fist bump of relief that she wasn't going to be reporting bad news. She was literally still scrunched up when her brain reminded her that this was still a dead person. And that she was being so very rude. "ehh... I'll just go higher up then. Thanks for clearing that up for me!" She flew up without giving the Ghoul a chance to give her any further type of answer.
She soared up past the ceiling that became the floor and found herself suddenly lost as she realized. Hospitals weren't really her 'thing' so she wasn't sure where she was supposed to begin in her search for Patty's grandmother. All she could do was hope that there were a few duelists roaming around so she could ask their decks. Maybe one of those spirits could give her some advice for how to look for people?
Witch of the Black Rose began searching room by room, and quickly figured the difference between doctors, nurses, surgeons, and patients. But while the occasional patient had a Duel Spirit, they weren't too confident on hospitals to be much help. The only advice that she could really get came from a giant pumpking who directed her to the Emergency room with one of its roots.
"What you're describing is something that would need rushed help, and that's what an Emergency room takes care of." The large pumpkin explained in its deep hollow voice, as it skittered across the floor after its duelist with its roots moving like spider legs.
"Oh! Ok thanks!" With that she flew off in the direction that the Pumpking gave her, flying above the occasional head as she passed through walls upon walls. Pausing when she came across an empty room when she heard something below her. Just a small gurgle that caused her to come to a halt mid flight and look down. There were rows of large doll sized glass like cribs, the sound coming from one that she had flown over. Backing up she found a new born human alone in the room their tiny little fists and feet pumping. Its face was turned towards the Witch, showing her that the little baby could see her!
"Hey you can see me!" She beamed as she waved her wand happily at the little baby. The child cooed and gurgled happily, encouraging Witch to stick her tongue out, making silly faces for the infant to look at. It seemed odd that there was only one baby in the room though, Witch realized as she began to look at the other cribs. The room was almost painfully empty with every crib save the one lone infant, the little one must have been so lonely. "This won't do, when Aki has a baby I'm going to make sure she has some spirits hang out with the baby! Those fairies would work!" Witch told the newborn before waving 'bye bye' and flying off again.
It was as she was searching rooms and hallways that a black sign with white words resting against a wall caught her attention. With its series of triangles that hosted a list of locations apparently in the hospital. But there was one that read 'Emergency Room' and she stayed in the hallway to avoid missing these needed signs.
She shot past different doors both normal and large swinging doors and came across a large sign announcing the very area she was looking for. Hurrying in she found a mostly empty room, a few people who looked ill and a kid in tears with his arm in a sling and his mother sitting by his side. But there was no one that looked like Patty only grown up.
"Now what?" She asked as she twirled a bit of her hair around a finger.
"Can I help you with something?" A voice off to the side startled her into whirling around.
A Mystical Elf stood behind a desk, her long leaf green gown flowed down her like the stem of a flower. Her long blond hair was crowned with a simple head dress and her sky blue skin completed a very nature orientated appearance.
"Uh, yeah I'm looking for Patty's grandmother," Witch explained as she floated over.
"I see, does Patty's grandmother's have a last name?" The elf asked patiently, with her eyes ever shut.
"Sure." Witch answered and floated there waiting for the Elf to tell her where she needed to go next. The Elf wasn't dressed as though she worked there but she had to be someone's Duel Spirit companion. And as a healing type of spirit she 'had' to know more about the ins and outs of the people brought!
They faced each other for at least a minute before the Elf finally realized she had to ask... "What's Patty's grandmothers' last name?"
"Oh!" Witch blinked and gave an embarrassed laugh. "Uh I don't know. Just that she was found on the floor...?"
Mystical Elf held out her hands in a 'go on gesture' and Witch realized that it wasn't enough for the Elf. Which was a problem because Witch didn't know Patty that well and probably should of dragged the girl's partner with her. Ugh.
"Uh... She's black, Patty I mean, I've never seen her parents so..." Witch began feeling out of sorts for having to use human skin color to describe a person.
"Elderly lady, found on the floor," Elf began as she turned around and looked about the room in concern. "There was only one, go see if this is the person you're looking for. Then come back and I can tell you more. But until then she's on the 3rd floor, you're looking for a section marked 'Critical Care Ward'."
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"So yeah, Grandma had a massive heart attack and is in the Critical Care area. The doctor says the only reason she's alive is because Patty was there with the presence of mind to call for the ambulance. She's a regular little hero! But... well, Elf said Heart attacks are serious so..." Witch concluded and felt the soft tug that was Aki's way of saying 'go back to the Spirit World'. Which was just a short hand for 'message received. "Well I'll go back to the hospital, I want to play with the baby a little more!"