Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"Then one day he tells you 'I have to go save the world now. Be back later.' And everyone you know who can do these incredible things. I mean every single one of them. Leave."
His voice echoed in their own hearts and minds as they heard the grief and pain that transcended a broken leg. "You wait for them to come back, thinking you can hold your own. You've learned to summon after all, and you've done some pretty impressive stuff with them around! So how hard can it be to protect the world with what little you know? But over time it starts to bleed away, the thrill doesn't return. Everyday is just the same as yesterday, stuck in a rut that you can't escape and your friends never come back."
"Then Zero Reverse happens, and you rush to gramps old game shop hoping the friends you have there are safe. Only a part of the city you've grown up in has been cut off and shoved away, like it was some stinking cancer. Over the years almost all my friends have disappeared. If they were directly connected to Ancient Egypt they're gone. Honda has his life, Anzu lives in New York, but that's it. Mai and Valon were never seen again and Mokuba is so, damn, broken."
Jounouchi rambled on in the light of the phones lost in thought. Just a tired old man who had been beaten down by the world trying to save a kid and getting a broken leg in the process.
"This wouldn't have happened if Money Bags was still here you know. The moment Reverse happened he would have just pulled that cut off piece of land and stitched it back."
"I don't think, even with his wealth, Lord Kaiba could do something like that..." Momoe noted softly. Her voice serving to pull Jounouchi back from the dark depths of his thoughts as he glanced back up at her.
"You'd think that..." He smiled sadly before gesturing towards the tunnel they had revealed. "But I guess that's a story for another time, so do you want to see if you can get Fubuki? Even if he's not here, maybe there's something that you can find that will help you? Cuz once this volcano goes down, I don't think the Chinese government is going to let us dig a hole where we need to go."
"You have a point sir. Also Aki will be coming soon enough so she can stay and keep Mr. Jounouchi company until we come back..." Asuka thought aloud.
A one track mindedness that caused the girls to share a concerned look. Far be it for them to defy the Queen, but Jounouchi had a broken leg. They couldn't afford to just leave him here... Could they?
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"Honestly as bad as that split sounds, I'd rather have a medic..." Aki commented as she tucked herself into the large one piece.
"Here, wear this." Witch had appeared once more with a folded outfit in her hands and a stern expression on her face.
"What's this?" Aki asked as she accepted the folded outfit and pinched the shoulders to let the rest of it drop.
"Everyone keeps talking about how dirty it is in there! I want you to be as clean as possible so I.. uh I..."
"Stole..." Aki filled in deadpan style, when Witch gave a quick, desperation borne of guilt, retort.
"Borrowed."
"'Borrowed'," Aki amended with a half smile, "someones' work clothes... And where did you get this?"
The aforementioned 'this' brought to mind Jack's riding suit, all white and long for someone his height. The only reason she didn't think it was his was the pockets, they were distended from extended use carrying something clearly. There were also smudges of paint now that she had the whole thing unfolded, maybe an artists' smock of sorts? "Looks big enough for Jack to wear..." Aki commented as she began climbing into the overly long thing.
Witch, for her part, kept as straight a face as she could since... it was Jacks'. Not his riding gear sure, but she had found it. Stashed away in a room with paint cans of a surprising array of colors in the same way that an artist kept their studios no less.. It was an interesting aspect of the two boys that Witch was slowly learning about. Yusei was all about building with his hands a skill that she found some begrudging respect for. But Jack had a hobby that really confounded and impressed Witch. Yusei's near silent genius was unsurprising, Jack's explosive personality coupled with painting.
She hadn't realized she spent over an hour watching him creating images on sheets of paper using spray cans until he finished. Watching those horribly smelly cans spew out colors only for him to craft images had been mesmerizing. It had taken time as she watched a white page got painted black then layered with colors. Time before she realized he was painting a city skyline at dusk... 'Is that this city? Is he painting it?' she had wondered as he masterfully scraped shapes that became towers...
"There are LP restorative spell cards and spirits, but are there any among us?" Tutu asked looking about thoughtfully at the small group.
"No, no, I was being rhetorical really, I can do this. You can float along while carrying Mr. Jounouchi after all. Once we're out of there the guys can hold him with none the wiser about how we got him out," Aki replied, assuring the group as she hobbled along. The covers for the feet were large, again meant for a man coupled with Aki's heels and the long everything. She felt clumsy and a part of her rebelled at how stupid she must have looked wearing it.
She was a senators' daughter with the power to destroy cities on her own and here she was. Laboring in a man's work clothes meant for someone much taller than herself. The baggy clothes were growing hot by the moment as she labored along. With her platform shoes literally taken off and tucked into the large pockets of the outfit so she wouldn't kill herself walking. The host of Spirits floated along ready to enter the volcano with her. But instead of a dignified lady she looked...
'Oh be quiet Aki, Mr. Jounouchi needs help and this is a minor thing. Witch is just trying to look after you after all.. Just like the rest of your deck, only without the over kill destroy all mentality and I should appreciate that.'
Aki's first true steps into the volcano were painfully unimpressive, mundane actually. The walls were brittle even she could see that, the holes were grayed out spaces as what light it was getting from the outside passed through. Despite it getting late outside deepening the shadows all around. Not that it mattered really, for a little extra power and Witch became visible to the naked eye and more importantly. Her wand.
The crystal bloomed into life with light manifesting as petals of a beautiful white rose that revealed the tunnel before her. Pock marked with holes, dirt and rocks all around her... "I think I know now what walking into an ant hill feels like..." Aki commented as she looked about.
Trailing her were the spirits who looked about with a casual interest, with Dancer looking for the rope that the others used. Cyber Phoenix waddled along, peeking over the edges of holes that he came across with stoic silence.
"That story he told was interesting," Benten commented as she walked along her eyes following what remained of the footsteps the others had created.
"I'm not going to get over how our world is both so young and so old, or how we came to be..." Blader agreed while Djinn strode in her flames warming the crystalline light from Witchs' wand. "Does this mean that we evolved from the will of multiple people who used our cards...?"
"Which I guess means that whoever created our cards are the ones who created us," Tutu theorized quietly.
"Like a painting, someone painted an image, made it into a card, then the card got mass produced. From there people got attached to our image and gave us life. Each of us unique in some small way that made us our own person for our partner," Witch followed up, thinking back on the paintings that Jack had been making.
"Or a lot of seeds since a good deal of people would have seen our cards. Only a strong willed person could finalize the process allowing us the agency we now have," Phoenix added thoughtfully.
"I may not have a partner among Gods' friends, but at the same time. The notion that Kaiba 'could' have mended the land sounds plausible. Jounouchi mentioned 'gods' after all, plural. My feathers are all fluffed up to find out what happened that day they left." Cyber Harpy glided along, and indeed her downy fluff seemed a little more poof than normal.
"Its strange because of how Black Rose Dragon came from so far away in time... I mean where did she and the other dragons hang out before the Duel Spirit World was created?" Aki added thoughtfully in agreement. 'Where 'did' they stay? If the dragons are part of ourselves... where did their personalities manifest from? Stardust seems so laid back and that's not how Yusei is for a start.'
"We could ask Ancient Fairy when we're done here, she should know 'and' she's connected to little Ruka!" Tutu pointed out with a bit of cheer in her voice.
"Yes, but first, Jounouchi," Dancer agreed as she waved the group over to where the rope rested on the ground. "I believe we have our directions."
"I suppose this is why Panther is at the library. He's been waiting for Jounouchis' friends to come back since they can probably see him." Witch theorized as she floated along next to Benten.
"But why so gloomy?" Benten asked recalling the somber, almost defeated air of the warrior. But her question only earned a disinterested shrug from Witch.
"Cats. Who can ever understand them? Maybe some catnip would lighten him up?"
Meanwhile Aki struggled to lift up the rope up, with the cartoonishly large gloves. She could feel the course interior of the gloves and though she struggled she couldn't bend her individual fingers. In the back of her mind she could hear a seal's barking cries as it clapped its fins together for some fish.
"Maybe Jounouchi would be happy to know that Blue Eyes White Dragon is still at KaibaCorp?" Witch suggested as she floated up beside Aki. "I mean she doesn't look like what's on the cards, but she's there."
"Oh? But wouldn't that mean their decks are here as well?" Aki asked as she walked along using the light from Witchs' wand. Resigned to the fact she couldn't pick up the rope she instead opted to follow it.
"You'd think. I'd love to meet the original Dark Magician, but nope, just the one Blue Eyes is here." Witch reported with a small sigh, "and given what Jounouchi said it explains more about why she's sooo..."
"But I have never seen the original Blue Eyes," Phoenix squawked in surprise as he glided up to waddle beside Witch.
"I don't think anyone would, she's staying right on top of Kaiba Corp. Like any dragon hording a treasure so I doubt she's coming back to the Duel Spirit World. I didn't see her until I went to visit Yusei and there she was on top of the building." Witch recounted now that the topic came up of duelists from Jounouchis' time.
"But why isn't she with Kaiba?" Tutu asked, thoughtfully as she drifted behind Aki while looking at the other spirits.
"No clue, can't speak 'dragon' and too afraid to find out that she might have gone Duel Spirit omnivore to be honest," Witch confessed. Earning a few chuckles regarding her plant association and dragons with their food requirements... but hey..
"But I thought you could talk to Black Rose Dragon..." Dancer asked turning to glance at the witch in confusion.
"Sure, but its because I've been around her so long I just know what she's saying. Its not like we've had to do a lot of talking you know. More often than not I was being dispatched to look after Aki and that was that. But I guess it would be easier to say I learned her body language, I mean she 'is' a rose so plants unite." Witch explained trying not to squirm at being put on the spot, after all she 'had' willingly passed herself off as being able to talk to Black Rose. And thankfully the dragon had not said anything to the contrary so maybe the dragon didn't mind.
"But if that's the case why is Ancient Fairy the ruler? She's a dragon, how can anyone understand what she's saying?" Aki asked as she pushed through the thick layer of dust on the floor.
"I just assumed she learned to project her thoughts in a way that we can understand," Blader spoke up thoughtfully. "After all dragons don't have a mouth really meant for talking if you think about it..."
"Her name tells you why. She's a 'fairy' dragon, so like fairies she can talk to others, I'm a rose themed dragon so only plants can understand me. Some dragons are just that lucky," a new voice rumbled out of the darkness. A voice that Aki didn't expect at all, as Black Rose Dragon spoke in a voice more calm than she had heard ever.
"Black Rose!" Aki exclaimed as she turned to look for the source of the dragons' voice.
"The Crimson Dragon gave us our agency of thought... For better or worse." The last part was hissed out in a sharp bitter tone. "During our battles against the Earthbound Gods, the Crimson Dragon bestowed the title of ruler of the Duel Spirit world to Fairy. But there was only time to give her the ability to talk to Fairies. At the end of the slaughter the Earthbound captured her and Crimson wasn't able to free up her ability to communicate to the rest of us," Black Rose grumbled.
"But... wait so what about the rest of you? Why can you talk to me for example," Aki asked as the other spirits waited patiently on her.
"Because we're not supposed to be with you again. We were given more than the normal spirit, reflecting more of your personalities. So we would 'have an easier time dealing with new warriors who would be tasked with saving the world'." Black Rose explained, but as she seemingly recited something she had been told before, she began giggling. A sharp cackling sound that burst out into a high pitched, sharp laugh. As though she had remembered something hysterical funny, or so deeply tragic she couldn't cry so she laughed.
"Rose?" Aki asked while Witch flew up beside her, while the others cowered a bit behind them.
They understood the roar to be a type of laugh. But the light that Witch was holding was trembling, a sign of fear that they didn't like seeing.
The viper shaped head of the dragon lashed out low enough so Aki could see the dragon staring directly at her. The light shown just barely through the dragons' head showing the ruthless madness in the Black Rose Dragons' red and pink colored eyes.
"We should have let them all DIE! Let the Earthbound SLAUGHTER EVERYONE and picked up the pieces afterwards! Let the rivers run red with their blood and drank from it as we laid low those obnoxious wanna be gods!"
"Rose, calm down..." there was no force in Aki's voice as she spoke, the notion that 'this' was what she 'gave' Black Rose? This madness was her parting gift to an aspect of herself? Thoughts of Asuka and her brother, of Jounouchi waiting below were shoved out of her mind, as she faced this incarnation of her own internal instability.
"Don't you ever wonder why Fairy was sacrificed at the end of the battle? Yet she doesn't have the sanctuary ability and Stardust does?" Black Rose asked, turning her head so she could get even closer to Aki. "It didn't start off like that, it was a shield of protection, he didn't dive into death to save others from impending doom."
"N-no... I just I never gave it any thought really..." Aki admitted meekly as Witch nervously began edging forward between Aki and Rose.
"Because the 'reward' those filthy bastards gave for saving their miserable hides was DEATH!" Rose growled into a shriek. "HE WAS SUCH A GRAND OFFERING TO THE GODS!"
"Rosy, Rosy, Rosy... calm down... shhh calm down..."
The light from Witches wand hid the motes that announced the presence of Stardust, but his voice, soft and soothing was clear. They could see Stardust begin to materialize in the same way as she had, pushing his head under her neck to force her head to curve. All the while whispering for her to calm down, that it was ok.
"THEY KILLED HIM! THEY CUT OUT HIS HEART AND GAVE HIM TO DEATH! THOSE BASTARDS! THOSE B-A-S-T-A-R-D-S!"