Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"Why are we running around like this?" Cyber Tutu asked in confusion as she glided over the ground her ribbons dancing on the wind behind her.
"They... hear someone?" Benten answered, though her tone expressed her own confusion. Her long legged strides keeping her in time with the other spirits. All of whom had decided to stick with Aki since she could see them and communicate their confusion. Eventually. "Why run though?"
"That volcano is going to wake up," Witch explained as she glided into 'step' between them. "There are humans coming around to set up equipment. I guess they want to study the volcano which is fine... save..."
Witch held out the card she held then studied Aki's run, deciding that Aki wasn't going to want to stop. She wasn't really 'jogging' she was more like 'running to catch up'. With her momentum she was more likely to trip and fall on her face at worst and just be winded to the point she couldn't resume running at best.
"So let the humans find whoever it is that Asuka hears," Benten countered as she lightly jogged along her steps longer than the average human. Lucky Duel Spirit Duck.
"We need to be gone before it goes off, I agree," Aki gasped out as she struggled to keep up. She had chosen this outfit mostly as her casual wear, never having a second to consider the possibility that she would be running full out through a forest. Her heeled platform shoes were now a detriment, forcing her to move slower than the others. The ground had a strange feeling to it, her steps kept sinking slightly down as if she was jumping on floating stones across a river. Making her wary of rushing blindly along after them. She couldn't risk a run at full speed and could see the group moving further and further away.
'The group.'
Because everyone else had apparently come prepared for any potential situation that arose, all three girls skipping out on stylish heels for functional sneakers. No skirts all shorts, and the guys were never expected to wear heels to start with. Isao would regularly cast a glance over his shoulder to make sure Aki was still in view ultimately hanging back for her. While further ahead Junko and Momoe were easily keeping pace behind Asuka, while their respective harpies were gliding in a mirrored fashion with Aki and the others.
When they had 'all arrived' Aki had expected just the core group of Asuka and Ryo waiting at her door. So finding everyone else had been most distressing to her. She had no idea 'how' Isao, Junko, Momoe, and Kazushi had found out about this. But perhaps she had underestimated how close the group was, for they had shown up, dressed and ready for anything coming their way.
Kazushi was running on Ryo's left as he was on Asuka's left, but his Queen Dragun Djinn was also following in pace with the Spirits. Out of all of them, she seemed almost ill at ease, though given she was a fire spirit and this was a volcano... If Aki had breath to ask, she probably would have pointed that out.
"Well, if there 'is' someone that they can hear, it is for the best they find that person fast. This volcano could start emitting gases at any time that could kill the humans." She explained as her unique four legged body structure allowed her to run along the ground as a tireless beast. Unhindered by the number of trees and brush they encountered as she merely ran through it. Lucky Spirits not fully summoned therefore intangible
Which was the other issue that Aki faced, the ground felt awkward because of the magma or was it gas build up? There was no path for the group to take, they were running blind through a forest towards a volcano of all things. From above Aki could see that they were heading 'towards' it, so hopefully they would strike an area where there were no trees. While the others wore clothes that accounted for this, Aki's clothes kept getting snatched at by the wildly grown brush and branches that had grown up in the area. In fact, it was weird as all her, admittedly faint, recollections of volcanoes didn't have such thick trees near the base save those that were 'long' sleeping ones.
"All this will catch fire if that volcano goes off," Aki panted out as she moved along, earning nods from the spirits around her.
"With the nearest portal to take the group back to our world a good and growing distance back..." Dancer agreed with a frown growing on her face.
"That won't matter, I mean Aki can have us manifest fully like Witch is right now, we can carry our partners to safety. As well as whoever they managed to find," Cyber Harpy pointed out coolly as she glided along the supposed air currents she would be riding were she fully manifested.
"Ehh if she doesn't pass out before then..." Sky Scout pointed out as he looked down at said woman. She wasn't really a physical person, like Asuka and the others, so while the other girls could run for longer. Aki... looked like she was reaching her limits to his eyes, the distance between her and them was growing the further they ran.
Not a great thing when she was the only one who could find the portals or even see and summon the Spirits. It would do the humans well if they recalled that and slowed down for her. Already she was laboring for breath, struggling to keep her steps stable without twisting an ankle as she ran along. While above, beyond the vision of the humans confined to the ground, Scout could see a thin wisp of smoke rising from the volcano. There were signs of bulging here and there about the base and up the mountain. With small rocks and stones piled in strange positions with new growth plants tilted in such a way that their roots were revealed to the air. More over there were many many trees that were toppled away from the volcano. So strange if one asked him.
"Why not just call on one of your Spirits Aki? I'm sure they wouldn't mind carrying you," Tutu suggested slowing down so she could ease up the struggle Aki would have to talk.
"Scare people..." Aki puffed out as she carried on.
"Oh, they're actually going to stop so you can catch up!" Harpy called down before floating quickly to rejoin her partner.
"Thank goodness..." Aki wheezed while Tutu was left to ponder the answer on her own.
'She can summon us fully, any of us could carry her, so what's the big deal? Even if a human sees us we're just a girl carrying another girl from a distance right?'
"Oh man, Aki I'm sorry!" Asuka apologized as she looked at the group. Her casual pause to make sure that everyone was together revealing that she had over pressed them rather hard, that... maybe she over extended... The guys, well Kazushi was leaning against a thin tree while Isao had dropped to the ground as he sought to catch his breath. Junko and Momoe were fine and going so far as to lightly jog in place. Ryo was attempting to retain a stoic air about him but even he looked a bit out of it, while Aki, oh poor Aki.
The Rose duelist must have been positively winded, and so far behind that all Asuka could see was the play of sunlight on Aki's hair as the poor duelist tried to keep up. The forest wasn't really 'bad' to Asukas point of view. True there were trees and brush, but it was sparse enough to her and with her running shoes and body hugging sports clothes...
'And guess who came in her typical short dress and platforms...' a tiny voice in the back of her mind whispered.
"Don't worry! We're coming!" Asuka called out helplessly towards the volcano. It was kind of frustrating, a volcano set to blow and she had to stop because of how Aki was dressed. 'Its not her fault though, we weren't even planning to get this far and here we are. I just wish it wasn't near a volcano... its going to get hotter I suspect. We need to find him...' She thought as she glanced about.
'I'm in the volcano! There's lots of tunnels here!'
He had answered when he realized help was coming in the beginning. But with the volcano waking up she was becoming concerned that there would be fumes that could knock the man out. If this volcano was anything like an ant hill, and 'lots of tunnels' made her fear so...
"Actually... Its strange isn't it? He said there are tunnels around him, but I've never heard of a volcano this size having such a thing? I mean..." Asuka walked over and tried to catch a peek of the volcano they were trying to enter. "Its kind of small..."
"Its probably from the Zero Reverse incident," Ryo suggested calmly with only a slight tightness to his voice as he tried to keep his breathing even. Hide that even he got winded when Asuka got it in her head to run. "There was more damage than merely part of Domino being ripped and shoved away from the mainland... Some shifting had been reported, so this is not much of a surprise."
"Meaning we must still be somewhere in Asia." Kazushi spoke up as he pushed himself from the tree. "Perhaps the planet was trying to find ways to release the pressure from that day?"
"Makes sense," Isao gasped from the ground as he looked in the direction of the volcano. "Which I guess means if there 'is' lava its rerouting it from some other volcano..."
"Yeah, so... no one really knows whats going to happen soon huh?" Momoe asked Junko as they moved to serve as a type of 'finish line' for Aki when she reached them. "I mean, it could just be gas or something here?"
"And if Isao is right, then what happens to the volcano and that area that this lava would be normally go to?" Junko added, with a frown. "This is bad, I can't smell anything, but it 'is' getting warmer... maybe because of the region, but..."
"Can't the spirits help?" Momoe asked when she glanced over at their resident 'Spirit Speaker', "never mind..."
"Yeah, let her catch her breath first at least," Junko commented as she waved enthusiastically to Aki. "Almost here!"
The group waited patiently, mostly, as they watched Aki become more visible as she passed the terrain that they already had. The sound of her footsteps finally reached them, reinforcing even further that she 'was' trying to keep up with them. The sound of branches being brushed past, twigs snapping and the faintest of panting breaths were all they heard. Driving home the fact that maybe they ran a little 'too' hard.
Aki's arrival was heralded by her fairly crashing through the brush, and her short length of hair was proving to be a godsend. She was a bit of a mess, there were branches stubbornly latched on here and there, her stockings and gloves were twisted and pulled out of place. Also there were bramble spotting her attire, but what stood out the most was her legs. Red with multiple lashes of branches that stood stark against her pale limbs as were her arms.
Of course looking at her legs was problematic as well, as her already short dress had ridden up dangerously high as she ran. So much so that all three guys managed to turn around out of decency, after the sharp sound of Asuka clearing her throat.
Forcefully.
"I'm so sorry, it sounds urgent and I guess I lost my head," Asuka apologized as she quickly walked into Ryo's line of sight. With Junko and Momoe following suit and closing ranks so they blocked Isao and Kazushi's line of sight as well.
"Just look at your legs, ouch," Junko noted aloud as the girls quickly began fussing with Aki's clothes.
As Aki struggled to catch her breath bending over as she did so, they began helping clean her up from her unexpected run. Tugging down the hem of her dress to cover her thighs properly again, plucking the brambles from her coat while Witch of the Black Rose soared in from above. The Witch lowered herself so she was in eye level with Aki... or rather about hip high.
Witch looked at the card that Yusei entrusted to her, before looking at Aki. Her poor partner looked so winded, she didn't really want to distract her. Also if they were busy trying to rescue someone, she 'really' didn't want to distract them from it. She dipped down further and wedged herself between Asuka and Junko. Using her magic to flip open the side deck holder that Aki carried with her and slipped the card inside.
Once the card was in, she flipped the lid back closed and drifted down to check on Aki's legs and ugh. Yeah, angry red welts marred her skin all the way down, with an particularly ugly one that ran above Aki's left knee and raked its way around her knee and scratched its around her thigh. She made soft 'tisk' sounds as she began wiggling around to check more of Aki's legs. Pushing back the human girls as she moved along.
"Oh! Witch!" Momoe called out surprised at the small hand that pressed against her hip and nudged her back.
"I don't suppose you have any healing spells that you can use?" Junko asked as she winced at the sight of a particularly vivid mark on Aki's arm between the glove she wore and the puffy white sleeve.
"Well, I'm more a combat witch, Natures' defender not her healer, and really if Aki just has a healing spell or trap card on hand she's able to do it herself..." Witch explained, not really willing to tell people that 'Yeah this is what you can expect when dueling Aki'. Partly because she came already with the reputation for dishing out pain when she dueled...
"This man seems to have been trapped in one of the shafts that pierce the core of this volcano," Ryo finally stated. Feeling that Aki, and more importantly her Witch, should be caught up on what, albeit little, they had learned. "He slipped and has hurt his leg so he can't get out from where he is."
"More over, its been possibly 'days' since he arrived, he needs help as soon as possible," Kazushi added. "Which is probably why it was so hard to hear him, he's getting weaker and possibly inhaling fumes."
"Well, we could go into the tunnels right? Why not just ask us?" Dancer asked folding her arms across her chest, while looking between Witch and Kazushi.
"Ahh Dancer wants to know why you didn't just ask Aki to send them? Which is a good point, we'd be fine," Witch asked on behalf of her fellow spirit.
"It feels like ordering servants around though," Junko answered awkwardly. "I mean, for me at least, I get that you guys aren't human and maybe all the things that would be a threat to us is nothing to you... But..."
"We don't want you to die!" Momoe blurted out, "Asuka told us about what happened to parts of Fubuki's deck! I can't bear the thought of knowing that there's been spirits looking after me. Only to send you thoughtlessly into possible danger where someone might kill you off for good!"
Aki turned her head to glance up at Momoe in surprise, as did Witch and every single Spirit that had been there.
"Its not like when you're sent to the graveyard in a duel," Junko elaborated quietly. "Otherwise there would be very few of you I'm sure. This is worse, knowing now that you guys exist because of our bond, the idea that someone out there has the power to kill you. For good, and sending you off to find this guy like... like some..."
"We wouldn't even 'know'!" Momoe added her eyes filled with anxiety and her tone almost a desperate whine. "If it only works on Duel Spirits its better that you guys are out of range!"
"Well I'll be," Sky Scout commented as he landed out of surprise.
"They're... worried about 'us'!" Tutu blurted out as she looked over at Asuka to see the apologetic sentiment in the duelists eyes.
"Even if they can't see us, they consider our well beings so strongly," Benten flipped open her fan as she spoke. Almost idly fanning herself in surprise as she looked among the assembled young adults.
"Well... that's..." Witch began playing with one of the curls in her hair as she tried to think of a proper response. "Really nice of you actually..."
The spirits stood there lost about how to handle this revelation, looking among each other before turning their gazes to their own chosen duelists. It was a topic no one had really brought up since the trip to the library. The notion of defending their duelists had always been a priority, yet having heard that some of Fubuki's deck had been destroyed. Not the cards, but the 'spirit' attached to each card. 'That' had raised an alarm among all the spirits in each deck wondering where such power came from.
"Even Ancient Fairy was horrified by the news," Tutu admitted looking among her fellows. "Whatever this power is, where ever it came from even 'she' doesn't know anything about it."
"And here our Duelists stand trying to protect us," Dancer turned her gaze towards Asuka, before looking at the other Duelists. "Despite being powerless humans, they're thinking of us this whole time..."