Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
The silence was subtle. Starting in the back as the kids continued moving forward towards the exit. It washed over the hallways, sound rippling through only when a teacher left a room with the sliding of doors. Sharp clicks of shoes, quiet chatter that would occasionally grow still at the sight of him. Other teachers passed him by without breaking stride in their conversations with their fellows. The shadows were starting to creep along through the windows when the door that led to detention slid open.
Ruka was booking it out with Rua by her side, causing the pair to half crash half scrap out of the room. Tumbling forward they scrambled to right themselves before turning down the hallway towards the same path the other students had taken. Only to comically see Yusei at the same time, and the dismay upon their faces was quite obvious. Which seemed amusing to Yusei as though the thought of him being some stern judge of rules had been established.
Downcast the pair walked up to him, and for all of that Yusei still couldn't get why.
"Sorry. We didn't mean for you to have to come and get us," Ruka began embarrassment clear in her voice.
"Its not our fault!" Rua began while Yusei could only shake his head in amusement as he looked down at them.
"I'm not angry. I already planned to come and get the two of you on my way back," Yusei explained, earning a strangely understanding nod from the pair.
"Yeah the King said he sent you home without warning so we weren't surprised that your D-Wheel was still at home." Rua explained, his answer filling one of the blanks that Yusei had about what happened after he was removed from the condo.
"Oh..."
Ruka nodded quietly with a faint quirk of the lips for a smile, "he woke us up and explained about the pills. And that he kind of accidentally forgot to take them off you before he sent you..."
'He explained? But what exactly 'did' he explain?' Yusei wondered, yet somehow Rua seemed no worse for the information.
"Its ok Big Brother!" Rua began, misreading Yusei's continued silence. "Its just a twin thing, and so long as the meds help her, then its fine."
"'Twin thing?'" Yusei repeated while Ruka nodded in answer.
"He said it was natural for one to want to share things with their twin, even powers. That eventually it will settle down and I won't need the medicine." She beamed up at Yusei, contentment on her face as taken on blind faith that she wouldn't need the meds forever.
'Its... what he said but... I can't help but feel he omitted things to the twins. But if he managed to avoid discussing that night. I guess I can't complain about it," Yusei thought as he tilted his head to indicate that they were leaving.
"So Tenpei and Bob explained some of what happened. Mind filling me in?" Yusei finally asked and watched as the pairs' heads dipped down again.
"It was sudden, my arm itched as though I was sensing Big Sisters' presence. But that didn't make sense.. I kind of blurted out for Kuribon to check the school and uh..." Ruka began as her young shoulders drooped in guilt.
"We're not exactly Senators' daughter status so we can't just disrupt things and get away with it like Big Sister can..." Rua finished out. "Didn't help that it was the Vice Principle who heard us too..."
Rua's voice sank low, enough that Yusei almost didn't hear it at all, while Ruka nodded with quiet disappointment.
"Our grades aren't good enough to him, so my outburst ummm..." Ruka added, but Yusei merely nodded.
"Its fine, I understand. Let's just go home," Yusei replied, cutting off their depressed apologies. 'Somehow it feels a bit empty, like they're not telling me something. Maybe because we're still in school and there's still teachers around?'
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ On the roof of the Neo Domino school \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
The roof of the school was not intended for anyone to go up there. Once upon a time sure, there were the occasional industrious, some might even say, thief-ish types who would sneak their way up there. But the original roof had long since been removed and instead was just another floor in the building now. The newer roof was much better gated to keep students from going there.
Not that the lone figure standing there was going to let any silly little gate get in his way. He stood at the edge of the roof, watching as the twins left with another figure that he didn't recognize. The trio was too far for him to see easily, but the color of the twins bright hair stood out against the ground. So the third person, wearing clearly not school colors, couldn't be a student.
He sighed to himself as regret filled his chest, so he turned his back on the pair and looked to the sky. "Please oh God who created the Duel Spirit world out of compassion. Please hear my prayer, I need your guidance to correct a terrible wrong."
An anxious, shake consumed him as the enormity of what he was doing washed over him. Calling upon the God of the Duel Spirit world hadn't worked since the Ancient Fairy Dragon was captured. Once she had been sealed away, He had stopped manifesting. Yet now she had returned and though it was natural for her 'alone' to call him forth... He could only hope that God would appear. For which there had been no limit to his elation when the golden light of the deity manifested before him.
"So this is how parenting feels, but its nice to be able to talk to people more often," Yugi commented while the rest of him faded in. "And you would be..."
"Fujiwara, Yusuke," the teen offered quickly, earning a raised, and amused, eyebrow from the King of Games. "Thank you for blessing me with your presence."
Yugi stood there, his lips quirked in an almost humoring manner, "Few people remember that I can be called, so tell me, what's on your mind 'Little Yu'."
Yusuke stood there and despite the gentle golden glow he could perceive, there was a fear in his heart. Yugi was not someone who could be fooled, and somehow Yusuke feared that just by calling forth the God he had overstepped some sacred boundary. 'Maybe I should have found a way to get my request through to the Ancient Fairy and from she to Him?' "I ask to know the past. Since the future is ever fluid and subject to change, I'd like to know what would have happened if, in the past, certain things were changed."
'I wish Yusei had that much foresight,' Yugi thought to himself, "such things as?"
"Where would Fubuki be right now if Ms. Izayoi didn't accompany the group to the volcano."
"In those realities he's still there. For the most part his close circle never knew about the portals or the methods to try to rescue him, so life would have carried on the same as before. In fact in one of those realities the school is on an island and the events took place decades ago." Yugi answered with a shrug. "I can say that by now Fubuki would be completely under the Darkness' control. His minor acts of rebellion were about to be smothered out of him."
Yusuke closed his eyes against that golden light as guilt consumed him. "There are a pair of twins, they felt their big sisters' presence in the school. I couldn't help them, I am hurting people and I feel terrible."
"Knowing the ramification of your actions towards others is to be commended. Little Fubuki has been a victim of his situation because of you, all this time."
Yusuke's head bowed in intense shame despite what he just was told being, in essence, a compliment. 'Nothing like being called out by God...' "I... Dear God could you please protect this school? I can't, they can eject me from the school if I directly meddle, but you! But if it would be-,"
Yusuke's voice was cut off as he felt a hand rest upon the top of his head. "You know the rules, I set forth when I created the world for you. If you want me to effect this world directly, you need to provide something in response. I'm not going to simply stand here and look after things while you go about your own business." Yugi replied, though the touch didn't bear any pressure of discipline or annoyance.
"I need a way to help Ms. Izayoi's friends, once I have figured out a way I swear I will do my utmost to ensure..." Yusuke began when Yugi cut him off with a friendly ruffling of his wavy hair.
"Keep your eyes peeled, I'm sure there will be opportunities for you over the coming days," Yugi's hand pulled away from the Yusuke's head. "So what happened in school today?"
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Nearing the Twins complex\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
"You guys could just live with us," Rua pointed out looking up at Yusei as they walked through the early evening darkness. From one street light to another while the edge of the horizon was a deep red hue. "Why rent a place when we can share!"
Yusei could only shake his head in amusement at the boys' plea. There was the obvious reasons he wanted them to stay. There was no reason for Jack to move in, since he was living with his girlfriend. So that left Yusei and Crow among the teens, but while it was the logical safe solution to protect the twins. Yusei couldn't shake the memory of earlier that day, how his mood coupled with his mark was enough to call down Security.
Even with the bridge in place, there was going to be a long while before the rest of Neo Domino would be able to readily accept a marked person. Yet it was also a problem that brought a frown to his face. Leaving the twins alone, even if they allowed for the Duel Spirits to stick around as unseen guardians. It made renting an apartment feel superficial, since at the least they would be rotating on who would be staying with the twins on what days.
Sure Crows' brood could live with Martha but... "We both have D-Wheels that would need to be stored and maintained. And while its not my intention to let you two live without an adult of some type..." 'Why the hell couldn't their parents have the decency to live with them? Where were they that night when Rua got attacked?'
In his gloved hand he felt a small hand slide inside, given that Rua was on his right, he wrapped his fingers around Ruka's hand with his left. "Do you believe in the King, Yusei?" Her voice was soft, pensive, with a thoughtfulness that made it hard to believe she was a child.
'But she wasn't originally... She was my elder he said, both these kids were my elder...' Yusei thought as he looked down at her. "The King? You mean Yugi? Believe about what?" He asked, as the small dread that he would say something that countered what Yugi told the twins would happen. That he might be caught revealing a lie and expected to explain everything.
"I asked Ancient Fairy Dragon about Black Rose Dragon, if any of the spirits had seen Big Sisters' spirits around. She sent out for a report among the different branches of the Duel Spirit world, but no one saw any of her spirits. There 'are' spirits, different witches and plants but none are Big Sisters'."
Rua stopped walking at the same instant that Ruka did, both looking at the ground in this shared awkward silence. Leaving Yusei with no room to really ask anything, she started by asking about Yugi, so what was she getting at now? Yusei knelt down in front of her while Rua sought a similar connection and grabbed onto Yusei's sleeve.
"When the King woke us up last night, I asked him if Big Sister was really dead. He said 'if she's dead then I guess you won't see her at school tomorrow.'..." She looked up at Yusei with tear tracks running down her face. "The King looked so kind, so reassuring, I mean I get that he can't answer directly since its not fair. I wanted to believe he was saying she would be at school, but do you think he was only saying that to make us feel better?"
"Cuz that sounds pretty mean, if it wasn't going to happen," Rua added as he wiped the tears from his own eyes with the sleeve of his school uniform.
Yusei reached out and pulled the pair into his arms and held them the way Martha had taught him growing up. The question hung unanswered as he tried to find the answer in himself, was Yugis' answer intended to gently deflect them to the reality they didn't want to accept yet. Or was he hinting at something he was not allowing himself the liberty to say to start with?
Yusei gave them time to get themselves together, his toes started to grow numb in his boots as he stayed knelt. But before it became agonizing, or he could fathom a method to discreetly adjust his foot, the twins pulled back from him. By then the sky was completely dark, with only the night lights of the city to illuminate the darkness above. The trio continued their walk along, the twins with their school uniforms and backpacks on their backs.
'If my wallet was on me, I could just take them somewhere for dinner. I didn't leave anything out for dinner tonight and we ate the last of the left overs last night.' Yusei thought as the pair walked along side him. "Any suggestions on what we should have tonight? Since I clearly have not had the chance to ready anything for us."
"Pizza?" Ruka replied.
"Pizza!" Rua was far more into that idea, and once again the twins had reinforced their twinness by that answer.
'Was hoping for some cup noodles being the justified plan...' "You know a pizza place?" Yusei asked, holding out hope that the pizza would not be a feasible plan...
The twins exchanged glances with each other as the realization that this 'could happen' suddenly dawned on them. With mounting, and shared, enthusiasm they looked up at Yusei and while they weren't stereo surround sounding him like a pair of speakers. They clearly had not just an idea, but a plan, the resources listed that would make the plan work, and an estimated time of delivery with cost included.
While beneath his cool, albeit jaded veneer of experienced in the rough side of life, there was a small part in the back of Yusei's mind whispering. Rather fairly screaming 'this is what parents go through, your kids WILL BE THIS!' Made all the more depressing as he wanted to ask if it wasn't the least bit weird. Not wanting cup noodles. Wasn't cup noodles like the most perfect thing Japan had in food?
But if this was the result in asking for suggestions, well it was two to one and unless Crow moved in there was no real tie. More over the twins were now ecstatic to have the chance to order pizza. Thus releasing their innocent grasps on Yusei's hands before running down the sidewalk in a rush to get that order ready. As they started to disappear into the darkness Yusei could only think to himself, 'note to self. Never leave dinner options up to the twins.'
He shook his head and finally picked up his own steps, shaking out the last of the numbness out of his toes as he did so. Yusei jogged after the pair, into the darkness before they went overboard on toppings. While a black car slipped out from the road across from him, forcing Yusei to pause and wait. It was the lone car on the road, but once it passed and the lights changed, Yusei finished crossing the road. But the twins were out of sight completely, while he could see the condo buildings' front easily.
His arm wasn't reacting so the twins were safe enough to allow him to slow his steps back down to a normal walk. 'They won't just take my money, they're responsible enough for that... Might need time to find the number and everything actually.' He distracted himself with, though he felt a slight tug in corners of his mouth. Even if he wasn't actively thinking on it, the back of his mind began running probabilities that started to surface to his mind. Black cars, that shape weren't something he regularly saw since living in Neo Domino.
Brushing it off as 'he was new to the area' didn't feel right either and that bothered him the most. Black cars were something he saw around Aki, her father owned one and even higher ranked people seemed to have them. So twice in one day shouldn't have felt out of place...
'Twice in one day, going slow enough so that I can get a good look at it, while at the same time looking almost the same. I didn't get a positive look on the one that just passed, but the lines I could see match I feel. But...' And while Yusei was not a man given to superstition...