Yugioh: Judgement of the World

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

A/N: Just to answer a question I was given... No the GX crew is not a crossover, they exist to help fill out the school. There will be 'some' overlap, some plot points from the GX series that happens in this one, but its not the main focus of this fic.

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The group looked over at Rua from his outburst, yet Aki slowly began nodding as they sat around the dinner table. The plate of fruit was quickly turning barren on the side with the twins, while Aki and Yusei barely touched anything. Yet Yusei being the one without any school connection was forced to wait for some elaboration from the three people before him.

"Asuka doesn't bring him up much, but when she does its as though she's clinging to the hope that he's alive. But Ryo and others are convinced he's died, though I don't know if they think he just had an accident and has yet to be found, or if he was murdered." Aki acknowledged thoughtfully as she looked at the card still held in the fingers of Yusei's hand.

"Its the down side when you're into dueling, you learn to have a good poker face," Ruka pointed out regret in her tone, her lips twisted up in a rueful smile. "Not everyone is as good as the Kaiser at hiding things. And for as long as I've been friends with Patty she's 'always' spoken of Tenjoin with admiration."

"Yeah, when Bob and Tenpei told me how Patty became part of their group before we started going to school. Tenjoin really 'does' come off as a Prince, the whole 'blizzard' thing is justified though. He flirted with 'all' the girls regardless of the grade, but apparently he did it to be friendly," Rua explained as he sat there picking out another slice of orange to enjoy.

"When Patty first came to school, he flirted with her as well, and defended her when the older students didn't think she understood Japanese." Ruka added her tone turning resolute and almost confrontational with her anger. Something that was generally unheard of, since this confrontational tone was more Rua's thing than Ruka's. Only Patty was Ruka's only female friend thus far everyone else that was female and Ruka was close to were Aki's age. Showing the desire to protect that which they cared for was 'not' a Rua exclusive personality trait.

"Yeah Tenpai told me about it..." Rua went on to elaborate for his twin while Yusei and Aki exchanged surprised glances at Ruka's protective outburst, turning the attention from her to him. "They used some pretty bad insults, he and Bob wanted to say something, but then 'bam' Blizzard Prince to the rescue! He was doing his regular 'flirt with all the girls' down the hallway routine including Patty, but one of the bullies told Tenjoin not to bother. That a girl like her wouldn't understand him, and the one thing about him is that when he stops being fun loving? You find out exactly 'why' he's called the 'Blizzard' Prince. He turned ice 'cold' on them and it didn't help that day had the Kaiser with him. Tenpai said that Tenjoin told them off, but good, then the Kaiser joined in and made a public example of those bullies!"

Yusei sat there looking between Rua's proud retelling, Ruka's noble indignation filled features to Aki's regretful apologetic one, trying to process this information. He had 'seen' the girl after all, it wasn't like Patty was something as abstract as a unicorn... "What's so special about Patty?"

"She's black." Rua answered simply while Yusei gave a shrug.

"So's Martha."

"She has blond hair and that's rather abnormal for blacks, I mean... there aren't many here in Japan and well..." Aki cut in already seeing where Yusei was heading in his questions. "There used to be a fad decades ago where women were intentionally tanning their skin dark then bleaching out their hair. A gang related reason ultimately and unfortunately Patty was naturally born with things that would be call backs to that time..."

"How well off is Japan that they can waste their time with that? I was too busy trying to survive to waste my time deciding if someone had any value as a human by the color of their skin. Or their hair..." Yusei demanded in irritation that a 'child' would be bullied, granted this was not a great pool of people to ask that question to but whatever. He took his right hand and dragged his thumb along his left arm before looking at it.

"But you're Japanese Big Brother," Rua pointed out, excited at the strength that Yusei was showing, even if Yusei never went to school. There was a nobility in the royalty of the school, an elegance and sophistication in their decisions and behavior. That they held such noble intentions were partly what made them royalty, power with compassion was something appreciated as a standard created when Yugi was still around.

Where as with his thick, tough clothes, his collar always worn flipped up to help hide side views of Yusei's face and his stoic, intense focus? It was fair to believe that he would just as likely punch someone for the same reasons as would duel them like one of the Royals. And insulting Martha was probably going to get a person punched regardless of the option for duels.

"Its not as bad as it used to be, Yusei, and this 'is' Neo Domino after all. Yugi had friends from Egypt so anyone who is into dueling would know better than to show that kind of attitude here." Aki offered as a counter point. "But back on topic, if that card belongs to Asuka..."

"It does," Rua answered nodding, yet the explanation came from Ruka.

"He was a show stopper type of guy, he loved the stage, lights, costumes, how could that card 'not' fit into his deck?"

It brought back how the stranger, now more proof that he 'was' Fubuki, mentioned Asuka and the stage as though both held relevance to him. Whatever doubt Yusei may have retained was resolved by the twins input and that left him with only one remaining task really.

He sat there picking up a slice of apple and giving it his attention before biting it. The card rested in his left hand as he ate the apple slice pondering what would be the best course of action. Giving the card back to Asuka was an obvious and he had been relieved to know that there would be little effort needed to find 'the' Asuka the guy was talking about.

Only now the problem was how to approach her.

This wasn't recent, the twins had spoken of the events involving Patty as though recalling history. Bringing back to mind the fact that twins only relatively recently started going to school instead of learning online. The condo that the twins, and now himself, lived in wasn't a standard for 'all' people, just the rich like the twins. Meaning that the events when Fubuki was still around was when the 'friends group' was just Tenpei, Bob and then Patty.

Meaning that he was literally holding a card that would reopen wounds that had years to be dealt with. Thankfully, Asuka had first hand experience with Aki, so she wasn't completely blind to the possibility of teleportation or Spirits. But this was her brother, how was he supposed to walk up to her, hand her the card and deal with the fall out. If Aki or Ruka touched the card confirmed that Fubuki was alive and Yusei didn't encounter a ghost..

What was the first step in bringing Fubuki home?

The card in question couldn't talk, it was just an outfit, and he didn't even know 'what' happened when Fubuki disappeared.

"Can we come with you tomorrow when you give Asuka her brothers' card?" Rua asked, nudging his way into Yusei's thoughts.

Yusei popped the last bite of the apple into his mouth as his gaze was pulled away from the plate back to the young boy's face. "I'm not sure I want to give her back the card so soon. If he's alive, it would be wrong to abandon him to where he is. Because he's not there willingly, I feel."

That was enough to shut the twins down as they realized the major part of the current talks that they had kind of skipped over.

That Tenjoin, Fubuki was possibly 'alive'.

Alive and being held 'prisoner' somewhere and no one even knew where to even start looking for the guy! And how exactly did one even 'try' to explain that to Asuka? They had nothing but his card, and no means to talk to him. What if that was just some spirit trying to convey a final message or his own ghost? If not for Ruka's abilities there would be no way Rua would believe such a thing was possible. Without the Crimson Dragon and the Earthbound Gods and their antics there would have been no way Yusei would have believed. He was a mechanics guy, not into mysticism in any of its incarnations.

Or even more of Fubuki's deck, if they just had 'one' card from his deck that he was apparently still carrying that had a mouth! They could ask and get a direction for where to go! Yet a costume could give them no real help so how would they do this?

"Hey Asuka, guess what! We're pretty sure your brother is alive and we don't know where he is, only that he's out of reach!"

Wow... too harsh...

"Poor Asuka," Aki noted as she looked down at the table before she folded her hands and rested them on the table. "Alright, we won't tell her until we can get something concrete, better that than letting her get her hopes up and dashing them. But with that, I'm going to start doing the dishes, since you were kind enough to make dinner, I'll clean up."

"Well, you 'did' help cook, the food kept smelling better and better the more trips you took to the kitchen!" Rua pointed out as he and Ruka began helping clean up the dinning table.

"We can do the dishes!" Ruka confirmed as she reached for the bowl while Rua's expression shifted to look like he had been hit in the back of the head.

"I didn't..."

"Come on Rua!" Ruka briskly replied as she climbed out of her seat and walked to the kitchen, Rua audible grumbles following them like a child fitful over being told to stop splashing in puddles.

The teens watched as the kids made their way into the kitchen before Yusei turned to look at Aki with a raised eyebrow. "Is my cooking 'that' bad?"

It quirked Aki's lips into an almost impish smile before she shook her head, "no, just needed some extra seasoning. Which given the situation on Satellite makes sense that you wouldn't know about them. I could teach you sometime," she offered to his slight nod.

"Do you need to leave soon?" He asked as the sound of the sink turning on quietly rushed its way to their ears. He studied her appearance from the corner of his eye, the school uniform, the hair clip still in her hair, but her eyes still held a bright, attentive focus that he still needed. As she shook her head, her expression curious as to be expected he continued. "I need to talk to you in semi private, its about the text report."

Aki's lips flattened into a serious line as she recalled the report and the conversations after it. She had been about the same age when her powers had come about making her painfully sympathetic towards Rua's situation. And while she didn't actively 'forget' what happened after the attack, though she probably would have liked to have, it didn't make the situation better. She had gotten her Mark that day, yet oddly enough Rua didn't.

Which created a bit of a conundrum for herself and Yusei, the twins were around in their past lives, Black Rose had confirmed that the twins were the 'adults' in the group in fact. Which meant, at least to them, that both twins had Marks of their own at the time. Yet they reincarnated with only Ruka inheriting a Mark while both still had their powers? There was this fear, a small twittering voice in the back of Aki's mind that fit no Spirit she knew of.

"He killed, that's why..."

It whispered when she thought on the matter, and it formed a pit in her stomach. The Godwins validating this by how the Head reassigned itself to Yusei and his Tail reassigned itself to Crow. The Godwins had no dragons connected to the past, yet they had the 'Mark'. But it took all the Marks to become active before the Crimson Dragon passed judgment and rejected the brothers. While Aki's went active the moment she attacked her father.

Rua must have had one of the Marks, the reassignment happening after he killed whoever it was that died.

"Soo... Perhaps his Mark is sleeping... Killing isn't a joke, but he was a child with no control over the situation. So maybe the Mark sealed itself and the memory of the events for Rua's sake, so the kid wouldn't be burdened with it.."

Jack had offered as a suggestion and it held a great deal of weight for the pair, since Aki only 'hurt' her dad. The idea that there was 'another' Mark made one ask if Crow had a unique Mark of his own or with Rua's? Once more the Godwins provided all the monkey wrenches needed to turn any rational explanation into another possibility instead of a fact. But what exactly did Yusei want to talk about regarding 'that'? Was it possible that he had found some new information and if so why not contact Jack and Crow?

After all Crow 'was' a part of the team, and they had to let him in on things sooner or later... Though it would help if they were all on the same page before they brought Crow in, solidarity was important since it helped them define what they even 'were'. Heroes to protect the world? A bit over the top in wish fulfillment that idea. Emergency group that dealt with the supernatural?

Aki packed up her things, a hair magazine flashing out to her reminding her that she 'did' need to come up with a hair style. Dropping her bangs down from the hair clip was going to make her look like Cthulhu and trimming them down... just didn't feel quite like 'her'. Perhaps just letting her hair grow out a bit more? The more Aki thought about it the more she wanted to just lie down and die, why did this have to be difficult?

It wasn't like Yusei...

Aki straightened up from her bag and turned to give Yusei an appraising look at his back while he walked off to the couch in the living room.

How 'did' the crab spikes stay up like that anyway? There was no hair care products in Satellite after all! She walked after him and after he planted himself on the couch, she walked up behind him and took initiative to pinch one of those spikes. It had a strange combo of being soft yet stuck out, so it wasn't chemicals it was just his hair. Though her pinch got him to turn around enough to look up at her as though he didn't quite get what she was doing.

Because he didn't, given it was his hair, he had a rough idea about what this was about.

"How... how is this natural? I mean Yugi's hair was a starfish for years yes, but..." Aki pondered aloud while Yusei sighed as they returned to a topic he often was dragged over.

Every time he met someone new in fact. Thus going short hand by reaching up and running his fingers through the sides of his head and dragging the spikes down. Giving Aki an idea what his hair would look like if gravity won the war. "Before you ask, I 'have' grown my hair out once, it 'does' come down if I let it grow long enough, but looks increasingly insane until it finally loses to gravity."

"Oh..."

With that he released his hair and it sprang back into its normal position, freed from the confines of his fingers. Though it wasn't enough to stop Aki from reaching for another of his spikes and giving his hair more pinches. Which he was used to from children, but Aki was about his age!

"Aki..."

Flick, flick, flick, Aki's fingers began to flick at his hair and her lips were turned up into a smile but if she bent down further she was going to start giving him a view of more than her throat. Granted she wasn't in her usual attire, but school uniforms could be seen down if one was up close enough and given a chance...

"Aki... Stop."

"We're done!" The twins announced, causing Aki to stand up to face the pair as Rua took the lead and rushed towards them.

"And its almost bed time anyway," Aki pointed out cheerfully earning groans from Rua.

But it wasn't the groan of a child forced to separate from loved ones, with the pleading of someone to stay. Just the pure put upon child who wanted to play longer than allowed and just as endearing when he flomped himself on the couch and looked up at Yusei. "But Big Brother..."

Yusei merely raised an eyebrow, feeling no reason to add words since the kids knew whatever per-established rules. So it fell onto Aki to argue with Rua's youthful protests while Ruka merely provided hugs to Aki and to Yusei before she turned her steps to the bathroom. Glittering shadows of a dragon slipping further into the condo as though the Ancient Fairy was trailing behind. Much the same as with Black Rose dragon, visible to Aki's eyes only...