Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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The condo was quiet, the twins were at school leaving Yusei with a stack of newly finished appliances that he had repaired. The last one sat in front of him, a toaster that had the the cord ripped out. Banged up by the family pet who had gotten tangled in said cord and desperate to free itself. Replacing the cord, putting back together the mess of an interior and working to restore the casing had been remarkably easy.
One in a series of tasks that was supposed to leave him focused on a task until the twins could return. The ticket rested beside the toaster on its left, the list of all its damages written out, with Yusei's tool box resting on his right beside his seat. His ride was equally fine tuned and if he touched it again it would probably explode. Skipping lunch, having decided that there was just 'too much work' for him to bother eating.
He should have ate.
Repairs were done, the kids were still at school and he still had thoughts of Aki death waiting in the line of his thoughts. He sat there at the table looking through each of the appliances he had fixed. Looking for a mistake, a nick or scratch he had overlooked, only to be disappointed by his own perfectionist obsession. A distraction from the world.
"Remember me as you saw me in the elevator..."
He couldn't remember anymore of the dream than that. If nothing else existed for him to be distracted by. Nothing else he could fix, repair or restore, at least he had that sentence he could puzzle through. 'Why would remembering you from the elevator be important, Yugi?' he thought as he stared at the wall before him. The children had managed to avoid broadcasting to the school that Yugi had signed their books. There were old magazines and photo's of Yugi back from the 90's, even after Zero Reverse. So it wasn't difficult to pull up a picture and think of that. Yet Yugi had cited the 'elevator'...
And Tenjoin wanted to take Jounouchi's deck back to Kaiba.
At least that's what Rua told him over dinner. The older kids had closed ranks around the twins for Aki. Looking after Ruka given her heart, but at the same time Tenjoin was trying to settle back into school life. Or perhaps because of the mask he could see spirits and that made him more interested in keeping with the twins company. So it was easier for them to swap stories about the elevator.
Yusei remembered how Yugi looked standing in the corner of the elevator while supposedly signing those autograph books. Or whatever he had been doing to make 'that' whole thing happen. That the Original King willingly signed those books, granted in an indirect manner... That he helped them reach Kaiba for Carly.
'But I'd never put stock into prayers, what God could forgive me the sins of my father? Mass murder really?' Yusei thought unable to come up with a proper 'prayer'. Martha had taught them prayers as part of his upbringing. 'What God could forgive me?'
"Well you know, sincerely asking is always a good start. You should try it more often," Yugi suggested casually, sending Yusei nearly over the table in shock. The teen jumped to his feet in alarm, whirling about to find the source of the voice. Finding himself staring at Yugi's back while the duelist stood in the living room looking around. His unique hair hung down just below his shoulder blades, looking the same as he did in the elevator. Save he was now sporting a long black coat, both hands in pockets and for all intents and purpose. Solid as a rock in presence.
"How..." Yusei began confused, while Yugi turned to look over at the sliding glass doors that lead to the outside.
"I've never been here, my counterpart has been though," Yugi continued before turning his head to glance at Yusei. "You forgot huh? But you still pulled off what I told you to do." Yugi shrugged as he turned to face Yusei fully, hands in pockets and black tank top under the coat. "See praying to me, only gets 'our' attention, fixating on one of us in particular, personalizes it. If you slacked off, any one of my counterparts could have answered."
"Any one..." Yusei repeated slowly as his mind shifted from craving distraction to wondering if he should have been happy with what he was stuck with before.
"Yeah, happened here in fact. Rua called to 'us'. So my counterpart who was already visiting this reality? She answered. Told us about what happened here, too," Yugi answered with a slight grimace. Shaking his head he glanced about the table, taking in the stacks of appliances and smiled slightly. 'I see some of Seto's influence in you, he'd probably like you if he woke up.'
'Did he just say his counterpart is a 'girl'?!' Yusei wondered as he stood there.. and how 'did' one politely ask 'that' question. Yet the thoughts screeched to a halt as a horrifying bit of information stored in his mind pushed its way to the front. That Yugi had been 'here' before, having been called by Rua. "Why would Rua call anyone here..." Yusei's voice felt dead, heavy with an unseen noose around his neck, choking the air from him.
Yugi look at Yusei, those eyes as hard as the stones that made up the amethyst color of his eyes. Never had Yusei felt so judged, that gaze pierced as though searching his soul for something, and for what felt an eternity, Yugi was silent. But whatever he found seemed to pass the test, as Yugi's expression finally softened.
"Rua was attacked when he was five years old, my counterpart said that when she arrived, that sliding door had been shattered inward." Yugi tilted his head needlessly to give direction to said door. "It had been raining, and Rua's eyes had been stabbed open by the shards of glass from the impact of whatever move broke it. His face was wet with rain and blood, and while we, all my counterparts, are fine with violence. Children can be a deal breaker for some."
Yusei felt his stomach twist at the recounting, his hands clenched on instinct as a cold slipped past the thick riding leathers he wore.
"Do you want to sit down?" Yugis' voice was soft, a gentle offer that was rejected with a harsh shake of the head.
"Rua isn't blind though. You've seen him," Yusei argued as the thick strip of sandpaper formally called his tongue flapped about in his mouth.
Yugi nodded, "with eyes she made. Rua was a great duelist for his age, but he was a child, alone and scared. He had been at the door when it shattered so the sudden blindness sent him over the edge in panic. He couldn't see her even if he had eyes. She healed him, but the damage was done, his sight was restored in time to see Life Stream 'kill' and that did the kid no favors." Yugi continued pausing long enough to give Yusei time to process the information, then he resumed.
"The damage was substantial, he had drawn on his Mark, as the original bearer of the Tail, yes, the mark 'you' received. Then having murdered using its power rejected it so soundly in a recoil my counterpart..." Yugi shrugged finally. "For simplicity she removed his Mark for his own health and sealed a great deal of his natural talent. Its temporary, lasting until he can handle the responsibilities that it comes with."
Yusei slumped back down into his chair, though it meant facing to the side instead of directly at Yugi. His mind having gone from craving distraction about Aki to drowning in horror at what happened to Rua. "Then... how did I end up with the Tail. If the Marks and the Dragons were assigned to us from before birth..."
"No, not before, after I saw all of you in your previous lives. When I saw 'you', I knew you had what it took to be my successor. That you had it in you to look after this world for me during my absence. At that time, the Crimson dragon was merely a fraction of my power, the Head just naturally came to you. But as each of you died be it natural or not, I retracted the head from you, I felt that being my successor 'and' the leader of the Dragons would be more than you could handle. So I willed the head to find a new leader, a new person to lead the dragons to protect this world from mystical type threats."
Confused and conflicted, Yusei looked up at Yugi unsure of how to handle 'that' bit of information. 'So I wasn't supposed to be involved at all?' "Ok, so Rua's attack had the Tail just come to me... But if his eyes were cut out of his head... How can he see now?"
Yugi rested his head against a fist, an embarrassed grin formed on his lips while his eyes swept the floor for a moment. "I still have trouble saying it, I mean, it sounds so grandiose and arrogant. Seto saying it, I think anyone would just assume its his egocentric bravado.. Me... well I was never about that.." Yugi sighed then seeming to gather the nerve shrugged. "You've been told I'm sure by Ruka and Aki so there's no reason for me to say it again. I just use games as the most toned down method of doing what comes naturally to me."
"You're 'what'?!" Yusei asked dumbfounded and wondering if he fell asleep at the table.
Only to have Yugi give a sympathetic shrug, "I know right? I never saw myself as that, and granted even 'that' over the top title isn't complete. All it means is that I create or destroy stuff. Had it been Seto that night and under the right circumstance he would have been able to heal Rua directly. That's 'his' thing, mend, repair, restoration, heal. My counterpart, like myself and the others, well we can circumvent that. We can create healing agents, that night she essentially activated Rain of Mercy and made it a physical affect."
'Yugi is the God of the Duel Spirit World', it was a sentence that hissed in the back of Yusei's mind. Suspiciously sounding like Black Rose Dragon, but it hadn't just been by her, Aki and Ruka had reported much the same thing. The creation myth of the Duel Spirit world was that 'Yugi' created it. He created a world, a god of creation. But not just 'a' god, 'the' God...
"Are we going to just stand here and stare at each other now?" Yugi asked, slowly shifting from foot to foot waiting for a response from Yusei.
Like he didn't just carpet bomb the whole condo with the information he had given... "You just said you're a 'God' what do you expect as a reaction?"
"Its a start... all my best friends tend to be a little more spectacular about the news as I recall," Yugi answered with a small encouraging grin, unshaken by Yusei's sharp tone.
"Don't you remember your best friends' name?"
"Yeah, my best friend's name was Jounouchi, Katsuya. But my counterparts span the globe, I have counterparts of every race on the planet, male or female. So I have tons of 'best friends'. When I use plural terms its just that I'm referring to a great number of counterparts. I don't get to the nitty gritty unless I need to be exact," Yugi explained calmly. A logic that worked well with Yusei's own way of thinking and helping him ease back a bit. Only to remember that word. Was.
"When did he die in your reality?" Yusei asked, unsure if he should bring up 'his' Jounouchi's death. But the question earned him a pained look as Yugi shook his head slightly and shrugged.
"I don't know. When..." Yugi stood there for a moment, apparently trying to settle his attempt at explaining. "I was put in a situation where I had to face a powerful demonic being. In order to fight him, I had to marshal all my strength and take a number of people with me. I fought. I won. But when I tried to return, it was the same as getting lost in a hot air balloon. I was so high in the air I couldn't find my way back, all I saw were a multitude of streams, each reflecting a different timeline. That's why you couldn't ride the elevator with me. It lead 'there'..." Yugi began before pulling out his deck and shuffling the cards absentmindedly.
"I ended up landing and being confronted by all these counterparts in similar boats. Some made the trip before I did in my time, others showed up after. Not all rivers have a 'Yugi' that drifted out, there are as many where we stayed contained in our own timeline. But we don't..." Yugi's eyes became lonesome as he stared at a random landscape picture hanging on the wall. "We don't know where 'home' is anymore. We dip into reality after reality trying to find the one that resonates. We had left a means to reach us after we departed with someone who stayed behind. In my case I left it with Mokuba, but for whatever reason he doesn't use it. I've checked realities, where he has moved on, sold the company and found happiness despite everything. Others where..." Yugi paused before gathering his nerve. "There's a grave to a twelve year old little boy who should never have made to hurt that badly."
Yugi's voice trembled as he spoke and he was silent for a bit, regaining whatever calm he needed to keep his voice steady. "Sometimes, Mokuba uses it at the end of his life and my counterparts are finally called home. Others its generations later, the game has changed the world is vastly different, but they go home. For those of us yet uncalled, we just hang out, dropping into realities where there's no 'us' to keep an eye on things to the best of our ability. Mostly looking after everyone we knew, the versions on that reality. So I don't know if 'my' Jounouchi is dead, but I know yours is and who knows if this is my reality."
Yusei sat there, the feeling of being painfully small compared to the standing duelist. Being excluded from his own timeline? How many variations of things had he seen? People he knew and cared about dying? Was there a Yugi who watched Zero Reverse? "Sorry, I..." Somehow looking at calling to Yugi to distract from his own pain felt selfish and childish.
"Its fine, I got used to it after a time," Yugi replied.
"So you can see the future?" Yusei asked as his mind followed down the usual logic patterns it often did. 'If Yugi lives outside of time itself, that everything to him is a river. Couldn't he just walk to a particular point, see what happens and come back?'
"Not in the way you'd probably think. We've had variations of that question asked of course, but its not really a simple answer. I can't just find my timeline and go back to the moment when I left for example. After all, my point of exile produced multiple versions of me that are outside of time. When I'm called back, I can't just pinpoint the river and trace it back. It would be unfair to the one who calls me home to be told 'I don't want to live here, I'm going to live in this other possibility'." Yugi explained already seeing the possible questions that Yusei would have.
"But you can see the future events..." Yusei repeated and earned a smirk from Yugi that made him frown.
"Sure, I've seen all of them but I won't tell you anything. I'll tell you past events of your time line, but I won't tell you the possible futures," Yugi leaned comfortably back, hovering in the air in mimicry of a chair as he waited for Yusei to speak.
"Why. If you could save someone's life why wouldn't you?" Yusei asked as he thought about Zero Reverse. As the thought of all the lives that could be saved from such information began to stack up in his thoughts.
"Because you stop living your life that's why." Yugi stated with a shrug. "Some people with bad news give up, let it happen and wallow in their own bad luck. Others strive to turn it around and make a better outcome. Your life is made up of choices, you make a choice and that choice results in an event. If I stop you and tell you what each event is, can you say you're living your life? Are you learning anything? Standing on your own at all?" Yugi asked, lightly waving his deck in his off hand while resting his head on his other hand. "Then there's the mess of 'what makes you so special Yusei'? Why should I 'only' tell you the future events and no one else?" Yugi shrugged and began looking at his deck.
"Its like children playing with dolls. Have you ever watched them? They put the dolls at the table in clothes they pick, act out whole conversations through the dolls. Does that make those dolls people? If not why? What would make the living any different than those dolls if I spent all my time giving people a running commentary of what's about to happen?" Yugi asked as he pulled out card after card and casually looked them over.
"Can you at least tell me what negative impact, if there is any, the events that hurt Rua had on Ruka?" Yusei asked, deciding to go on the safer topic of the twins.
"Well," Yugi began only to change his mind, "ok one. Its not really an impact though, once Rua lost the Tail, Ruka's been trying to give a piece of her own Mark to him. Reestablish their balance as it was before. But the restrictions on him mean he can't accept it so it just rebounds on to her. Why?"
'What more of the claw could she possibly give Rua though?' Yusei wondered for a moment, "would it affect her heart in a negative fashion?"
"No, she's trying to give the Heart part of her claw to him. Which is why you don't see it on her arm," Yugi explained with a small frown forming on his face. "Why?"
"She has a heart condition, given what you said about Rua I'm just..."
Yugi cut Yusei off with a shake of his head, confusion crossing Yugi's features for the first time since he arrived. "What heart condition? Ruka's heart is perfectly healthy. Always has been."