Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: …. Oh gods... having to write a 'romance' based cross tag duel... Are there even CARDS that allow for that?
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"Duel Spirits? You mean like Dark Magician and Blue Eyes?" Jounouchi called out curious, as the group began splitting off into their pairs.
"Uh, yeah! I'm surprised you know!" Was a sentence called out in variations from tunnels in response. Conveying surprise that from a group who had, until then, only known Aki to have any real knowledge about the Spirits.
"Sure! They're human after all! Well, Dark Magician is, Blue eyes used to be, but now she's been a dragon so long well.." There was a pause as though a shrug happened. "But yeah, there are two types of Duel Spirits, humans who become Duel Spirits and Duel Spirits that naturally evolve. Yugi even went and... Well I shouldn't talk, I must sound crazy huh? Been here breathing the fumes and all..." Jounouchi commented as his voice broke down into coughing.
"Hey... since you know of Duel Spirits... have you heard anything about a way to … well 'destroy' them?" Junko asked as Isao lead the way.
"Oh... that... Yeah, it dates back to when Yugi left." Jounouchi called out, "Simply put, its a delete button. See, remember that not all Duel Spirits are evolved, Yugi brought all the tablets that housed human souls to the world he made. What that ability is supposed to do is kill off the 'Duel Spirit' form so that the human soul gets released to the afterlife proper. But its not meant to be used on evolved Spirits cuz well... There's no human soul connected to it, before Yugi left there 'were' no Spirits beyond the human ones soo.." Jounouchi's voice died out into a rasp, but his insight was pretty interesting.
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"I think I see," Aki noted as she sat there, a thoughtful expression on her face as she studied Cyber Phoenix. Now that it was done reciting what the Cybers had just heard. "So years ago, Yugi created the Duel Spirit world for those human souls, but because he's somewhere else the Duel Spirit world has tailed along after him. So right now, none of you spirits should be as self aware and personable as you are, save that you're placement outside of time. And this thing... this 'ability' to 'kill duel spirits' wasn't created out of maliciousness, but as a means to help the trapped humans move on.."
"Wow..." Witch held her wand in her hands and found her attention fixed on its jeweled top. "Well I guess that means whoever started killing duel spirits either didn't know or didn't care about what they were doing..."
"It is impressive, granted Aki's power is exceptional, but that he managed to create a world... What type of person 'is' Yugi?" Phoenix asked as it waddled over to Aki's stone seat. Certainly an adorable waddle given his stately tone of voice. In fact Aki began associating Phoenix 'as' a 'he' the more the Cyber spoke. He even sounded like someone's reserved grandfather!
/ The Volcano /
"Oh... so either someone tried to kill Brothers' duel spirits intentionally or they accidentally assumed they were living souls and tried to force them to move on." Asuka commented as she walked after Ryo.
"You think it might have been accidental?" Ryo asked, glancing over his shoulder once as he ducked under a jutting rock in the ceiling of their tunnel.
"Well, I'm thinking, if Fubuki's deck had active spirits like ours, whoever might have mistaken them for living spirits." Asuka theorized aloud, "since their world isn't really 'old', maybe they thought the duel spirits were human and trying to do the right thing..."
"Still means that a number of Fubuki's Duel Spirits got murdered," Ryo pointed out. "But if they've stopped using whatever it is they used..."
"And it still doesn't explain why Fubuki never came home," Asuka finished with a soft huff. "Well I guess I can't blame him, part of it seems to have been my fault after all. Though if he could send his cards home, why not drop a line... I can't help but think that's too easy, too clean, that whoever just 'accidentally' killed Duel Spirits."
"Agreed," Ryo gave only that one word, but his mind was ever busy. 'She's right, its too clean and easy to say an accident. Fubuki wouldn't be gone this long if that had been the case, so it had to have been outright murder. Fubuki have you been trying to track a murderer? Or did the Murderer capture you, now you're working for them to stay alive?' It was the most feasible answer that the Cyber Dragon duelist could think of.
It was also the most frightening for Ryo.
Fubuki was a good duelist, a fun challenge that Ryo appreciated, but he was also not very aggressive. Laid back, friendly, social, he was the one who introduced Ryo and Yusuke back when they were a group to others. He never really turned on the aggressive personality until someone was being harmed or bullied. So it had to be for someone that he was willing to go all out for, but if not for Asuka than who?
"Asuka, perhaps this is a question late in the asking, but how well do you know Fubuki's friends 'outside' of school? Was there anyone you can think of that would encourage him to run off like this?" Ryo asked as he moved further into the tunnel.
"You know his whole friends list Ryo, there wasn't anyone else. I thought about that for years, but the family has been safe even the extended one. The girls that he would, I guess 'entertain' is a word, were safe and no one had any threats against them." Asuka recited quietly as she watched the shadowed white back of Ryo's clothes. "I can't believe that he can see Duel Spirits like Judai and Aki... I wish he had told me, maybe it would have helped Aki back then to have him around."
"Hmm? Oh?" Ryo gazed down tunnel, noting the numerous holes and the distant flash of light from the other two parties.
"Well, yes, Aki had no control over her powers when she was little. I remember how dangerous it was to duel her. But if Fubuki could see Duel Spirits, why didn't he help her? He could have! In fact he 'should' have... if he's going to flirt all the time the least he could do was help!"
Asuka's voice kept shifting between the confident duelist Ryo had watched become to the same kid he grew up knowing. The little sister trying to keep her adored, yet sadly flippant, older brother on track. It was endearing and it was a voice that he was fairly confident would be the constant that Fubuki was going to enjoy. A verbal 'welcome home' if he ever got one. "I don't think he can see Duel Spirits to be perfectly honest Asuka. You described him with a mask, and honestly I think that might be it."
"Hmm? Really?"
"Well, think of spell cards in the game, there are equip spells among them that I think the mask that you described might be a part of. Clearly its magical, since I've gone through every equip spell card ever created and nothing fit that description. Somehow he got his hands on an actual magical artifact and 'that' is what gave him his ability." Ryo explained as his foot sank down dangerously into the ground. Instantly stopping his progress as he slowly retracted his foot. "Careful..."
"Oh!" Asuka stepped back to give Ryo more room to work with, while tightening her hand on the back of his coat.
"And he's still wearing it, Yusei didn't see Fubuki's 'face' he saw a guy wearing that mask and the outfit you last recall seeing Fubuki wearing. He might be enslaved, having left to deal with someone who was able to activate the mask and kept him prisoner ever since." Ryo explained while he began to toe the ground before each step. "He wouldn't have been able to help Aki, in fact it might have been just as dangerous for her to be friends with the two of you. A magical item used to see Duel Spirits is one thing, a person who can see unaided?"
"You have a point there, I... I hadn't thought of that. But what could they be doing with someone with Aki's talents? Even if Fubuki is being given that ability via some magical item, its not like we've heard of some major shake up in the world." She pointed out as she glimpsed again the movement of another cellphone.
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Momoe had her fingers holding onto the back of Kazu's coat as they walked. "Our clothes is getting so dirty..." she sighed as she watched the shifting of the dirt and whatever drift through the air.
"No one told you to wear white," Kazu pointed out as he continued to walk ahead. "Though what he said was interesting... that some Duel Spirits were human originally. I wonder how that happened?"
"Looking to become one?" Momoe teased lightly as she reassigned her focus towards the illusive rope. If the dust was filtering 'this' much, maybe it buried the rope? "Maybe Djinn would like a playmate..."
"Yeah right, no but it's amazing what we've heard so far. A guy, a normal average God Tier duelist managed to create a 'world' where spirits live. Here I thought what Aki and Judai could do was unique to the modern world. You know, like a type of human evolution, now I'm beginning to think the rest of the world was having some insane types of fun and we missed out." Kazu explained with regret in his voice as he continued investigating.
"I don't know, on the one hand all those sexy, sexy guys, on the other hand, well look at the game. We're not just talking happy spirit beings that hang out with us, we're talking spell cards, trap cards. Imagine a trap hole?" Momoe pointed out, amazingly pragmatic once she got past all the 'sexy sexy guys' comment. "It would be nice to think we've evolved past the part where that type of abuse could happen. But..."
Kazu thought of some of the more lethal traps, guns behind doors, people suddenly going into mass hysteria, tears into other dimensions. Shuddering he sighed and nodded, "point taken, probably was why a world had to be created. Though the spells couldn't have been spirits right? So where did spells come from? Who would want a hovering fireball that follows them everywhere?"
"Yeah, like I can imagine the Dark Magician as a human that became a Duel Spirit, ever since Yugi disappeared he went missing as well." Momoe pointed out thinking back upon her hours of researching Yugi's signature Duel Monster. "It was weird how a guy who had no background or past beyond looking 'exactly' like a living version of Dark Magician, could just disappear again. Like he was present long enough to present a new series of cards along with Oracle Palladium Mahaado then poof! No previous school records, or family or anything. Just 'Hi I am a nice Egyptian Sex God' then POOF..."
Kazu had stopped walking and turned to listen to her going on about the monster in question, having crossed his arms with one hand still raised to give her a below spotlight. "Maybe because he realized women like you existed and hid for his own safety?" He suggested in the most passive voice he could manage.
Without showing that she heard the implied statement she carried on stubbornly, "Egypt owes the world an explanation on how he and Malik could come from there. I never even 'considered' that blond was an option until I saw those photos! And so gorgeous! I mean Dark Magician wears robes, but you let him step a leg out from his tunic robe thing. Or pay attention to his arms and not his hands."
"I wonder if you realize its 'still' considered sexual harassment regardless if the person in question is a real living person or a Duel Spirit." Kazu deadpanned as he stood there feeling his nerve fray rapidly.
"Its not rape if he enjoys it!" Momoe fairly sang out only to get smacked upside the head with enough force to send her bowing forward.
"That is the excuse rapists use! Where is your reset button Momoe?!" He demanded as he stood there fairly ready to pop her again.
"I am terribly sorry, I don't know what possessed me to go that out of control. Rape is not something to joke about and I need to rededicate myself to controlling my pleasure of the male form..." Momoe recited as though she had been smacked and forced to say it thousands of times before.
Because she had, though it was Junko who did the smacking normally.
/ speaking of Junko /
"I wonder how a person becomes a Duel Spirit..." Junko thought aloud before sighing, "though I'm sure Momoe is driving Kazu up the wall with that. People with secret sexy Duel Spirits..." she shook her head with a soft, tired sigh. "You know, it occurs to me, that when we bring Fubuki back... he's been gone too long to be in the same grade as Ryo. Its going to be weird having Asuka's older brother in the same grade with us."
"Mmmhmmm..."
"I mean if he can see Duel Spirits, I suppose he and Judai will get along, and maybe get Judai to leave Aki alone."
"Mmmmhmmm."
"Sooo... You ok Isao?" Junko asked as she stopped trying to move forward, and instead turned to check on Isao with a concerned expression on her face.
He kept glancing around at the walls around them with the light from his cellphone giving him an unnatural expression of constant alarm. His shoulders were pulled in and he seemed to be trying to make himself as small as possible. "You know... I always thought," he began when he was distracted by the reflected light of the other pairs. "That if you could survive an elevator, you didn't have to worry about claustrophobia."
"Uh oh..." Junkos' lips began twitching sympathetically into a small smile.
"I mean... there's holes everywhere... so its not wall to wall... But then this thing could fall on us any second..."
Junko nodded before giving him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, "want me to lead instead? Or would you rather we went back outside?"
"Well, it would leave you alone wouldn't it? It wouldn't be right to leave you traveling through all this by yourself." Isao pointed out as he began to rub his arms, he glanced about anxiously before trying to get himself together. "I feel bad for Ryo, he's going to have to graduate this year alone, even with Fubuki back. I'm sure he wanted to graduate with a friend."
"Yeah, but at least he won't be going out into the world wondering whatever happened to Fubuki. I wonder if he'll have time to hang out with us..." Junko pondered aloud, "I know he wants to move into professional dueling, and I don't see why he can't."
"But professional means moving away," Isao finished nervously as they slowly resumed progress through the tunnel. "It means going to where the tournaments are, and doing well enough to earn a sponsor at best. At worst, its just scraping by until one is good enough."
"Yeah..." Junko sighed, "I wonder what Sho will do once his brother is gone."
"Judai is going somewhere?" Isao asked with a tight voiced attempt at humor as he walked on.
"Ugh don't remind me, Sho might as well not even be Ryo's little brother with the way he fawns over Judai." Junko grumbled while trying to fathom Asuka's dedication to the guy. Especially when compared to the connection between Yusei and Aki. "I don't know how the school will feel about Yusei not being a student. But I think the pair could take over as the top dueling couple in the school, once Ryo graduates. I mean they pretty much 'are' a couple where Asuka is just friends with Ryo."
Junko paused, closing her eyes in the already mostly dark cave as she thought about 'that' duel. Asuka would need to find a new partner if she wanted to hold the title, and as much as Junko didn't want to pull a Momoe. The mental image of Asuka and Aki dueling for that position with their potential partners 'was' hot.