Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: The Judgement of the World

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Five in the morning and it was quiet in the hospital.

Aki and her parents had gone home, the twins had been roused and sent home via Carly with strict instructions to go to bed. The corridors were mostly empty, only a lone nurse prepping his station to get ready for the morning rounds. False dawn was slowly cranking up the light outside the window with a few scattered dots of artificial lights began to come on. Neo Domino was starting to wake up, morning was on the way.

Jack and Crow sat in upholstered chairs that felt too course with their sleek smooth wooden armrests. Steam rising up from their coffees that they had been given while the trio sat in a silence that felt deeper than the hospital. Senator Izayoi had left them with some yen to buy food from the hospital cafeteria or the vending machines. But the hunger in their stomachs was nothing they were strangers to, so they sat instead. Sipping coffee and sparing glances at Yusei who was staring outside at the world with an intense gaze.

The hospital room was multiple stories up, so it gave a good view of Neo Domino to a degree. But if Yusei was looking for anything in particular? Well the pair didn't know where to even start to guess what. They were far and away more invested in how Yusei was out of his riding jacket and that bright white strip of tape across his elbow.

"You know I can call you when I find out the results." Yusei finally commented, breaking the stalemate silence that had overtaken all of them.

"Shut up... Why didn't you tell us that Yugi dropped a hint like that?" Crow asked, the hurt and betrayal weighted into his voice.

"I didn't think it was important, just an example to make a point about our conversation," Yusei replied, regret and resignation in his tone. "You should try talking to him, it might remind you that he's the 'King of Games' for a reason." A snort of self directed contempt escaped him, "and he thinks I could work as his 'heir'..."

"Well its clear that Yugi's hands are tied where ever he is. Which leaves us with Isao, now what the hell are we going to do about that bastard?" Jack asked before taking another sip of his slowly cooling coffee.

They had spoken of course, discussing things they dared not mention around Aki and her family. Sure Aki and the twins had the Marks and a right to know things... But Aki was in shock, the twins exhausted and Yusei was holding out some faint hope that there would be time. Enough to talk and figure out what was going on. But out of all of them only Aki had any faint clue about Divine, so it left the three guys spinning their wheels.

Meanwhile they waited while small vials of Yusei's blood was being taken off to an internal lab to be checked. An act that defied how the guys lived their lives a short year ago. Magic? Psychic duelists? Kings of Games who were actual Gods?

'I just wanted Stardust Dragon and my D-Wheel back...' Yusei thought as he watched the sky slowly slide into a more brighter shade of blue. His arm was a bit numb where the needle had drawn his blood. His concern made every moment that felt off from his normal trigger alarm bells. Standing was a bit of a dizzy inducing affair, so he kept sitting to keep the guys calm. 'But if they poisoned me, I can't imagine they would use something that could be readily found in a hospital. If I knew that I had opposition that had access to Duel Spirits who could report such things. No... no I would use something not readily available.'

Yugi's words hung over Yusei's head, since figuring out the message hadn't equate solving the problem.

'If he wants Aki to destroy the world... He has to kill me, but in a way that would make her lash out at everyone around her.. No, now she has a target... but we only can do so much to hide Aki's power from the world.'

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Izayoi Manor: 6:12am \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

"Lady Aki? You have a guest?" The maid called out in uncertainty from the other side of Aki's door as she softly knocked on the wooden door.

The sound barely roused Aki from her seat as she tilted her head just enough to give her right ear to the door. For a moment she pondered answering, after all the only 'guests' she could get were the guys, or her friends from school. But she was going to have to leave her room eventually to go to school to start with. Perhaps going to school with the gang would help...

"I'm coming," she finally answered as she pushed herself to her feet. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror before leaving her room to where a guest would be taken. Walking to the living room was swallowed up in her over fixation on every little thing. Trying to take comfort that she was safe and home, not being used as a weapon against innocent people.

Ami opened the door, bowing as Aki walked past her so she didn't see Aki's expression of shock. Of all the people she expected to be a 'guest', an out right 'Duel Spirit' was not on her long list of possibilities, forget the short list. But sitting awkwardly on the couch, his wings spread out enough that they were taking up the whole couch. Was an angel.

With wavy, long blond hair and immaculate white feathered wings he wore this bright blue tunic with white billowing pants. For a moment Aki could only stare, since she was well aware of 'what' she was looking at. But the presentation of his wings and how they were reacting to the environment implied he was 'physically' here, not just spiritually here..

"Is everything well my Lady?" Ami asked from the doorway, with Aki blocking part of her view.

"Yes, everything's fine you can go," Aki replied, barely gathering enough of her wits to sound normal.

"They see a human, I hypnotized them to see that... I do that a lot, I haven't done it to you... But we need to talk.." the stranger said the moment the door closed.

Aki was alarmed as she turned around, Witch of the Black Rose materializing in response to Aki's emotions. Her wand was already out and glowing, just in case.

"And you are?" Aki began her voice suspicious as she began to walk over to the other couch.

"My name is 'Honest' and as you can tell, I'm a Duel Spirit," Honest answered with a faint, yet kind smile. "My partner... His name is Fujiwara, Yusuke, and that is the name I go by here in the human world. I have been trying to rescue him for years, however with the intrusion of Divine and his followers I had been driven from the school. Normally I keep the students and staff under a subtle hypnosis, so they see me as Yusuke. However; I believe we both understand why I am hesitant to do such a thing to you." He explained with a small twist of the lips, a subtle way to implicate her past.

"Ok, yes well thank you for your consideration. Is that why you came here?" Aki asked as she sat down, amazed that if this Fujiwara wasn't at school, or around. Where was Honest getting the power to manifest fully into the human world at all?

"Yes, mostly, I figured that the moment you arrive at school you're going to hmm. Its going to be loud... I felt it would be better to take this chance and have a private conversation now." Honest admitted with a slight apologetic shrug.

"Alright, so you want our help? I mean I don't know how you're here without your partner, so are you also looking for help rescuing him?" Aki asked, professionalism hiding her fatigue at such a callous request when she just got home. Yet it was Honest's darkened expression as he shook his head that got her stance to slowly shift. 'He doesn't want help?' she thought as she thoughtlessly pulled Witch out of the air and down to sit down next to Aki on her left.

"I've learned my lesson, no, if anyone is going to rescue him its going to be me. No, rather I just wanted you to know why everyone will call 'me' Fujiwara when you in fact see a Duel Spirit." Honest explained patiently, "I've already hypnotized everyone else, its your... state that is why I am unwilling to do it to you."

Aki gave a tight smile that was meant to show appreciation, and in truth she did. But that didn't take the bitter sting out of that truth, 'So physically powerful yet so mentally fragile am I?' "I appreciate your consideration... but you said you 'learned your lesson? How so?"

"It was my fault that Tenjoin, Fubuki had been gone so long. I revealed the truth to him alone and he agreed to help me save Yusuke..." Honest explained turning to look away from Aki in sadness as he shifted his gaze to the small table that sat before their mutual couches.

Remembering where they found Asuka's older brother brought to mind another person they found... Perhaps he realized where her thoughts turned despite not looking at her. Or perhaps it was another mental power he had...

"Not only was I unable to bring back Yusuke, Fubuki was lost to the very same force that stole Yusuke from me.. And an innocent person died as well.. We encountered Mr. Jounouchi on our way, I had never met a human who didn't have Psychic powers yet knew about us back then. His Spirits were amazing, they spoke of God, and how their Partner was friends with God. So I agreed that he could come with us..."

Honest stopped talking, leaving Witch to look between the two with an anxious expression on her doll face. As hard as it was to talk to Aki, after letting her partner down, hearing yet another Duel Spirit who failed their partner... 'I don't want to feel better knowing I'm not alone. But... I have a bad feeling about this.'

"You can manifest in the human world, why didn't you just tell someone he was there?" Witch finally asked, her brows furrowed as she thought back to the time in the volcano. The story that Red Eyes Black Dragon gave them.

Honest blinked as he stared down at the table, it was a standard table, four legs, a top, it had been carved with flowing lines around it. Lines that rolled with the glimmer of tears as he remembered that day. "I tried. But we were on Chinese soil, he would have been arrested or worse had I recruited someone around there. There 'are' no civilians in the area, its all monitored by the military and grabbing a random soldier... No, it would have been too complicated. So I tried to return to the school, if I could just force Ryo to go with my suggestion. I could lead him to the portal, but while I was gone Isao had replaced me. Suddenly no one remembered my presence in the school. In their minds the moments I shared in my guise with them was replaced by Isao."

"I was terrified by then, I'm not powerful. I could not reach God and Mr. Jounouchi was in his situation because I brought him there. I can't bear the thought of another innocent being subjected to my failures. I thought to go to KaibaCorp, to let Lord Kaiba know what happened, but the Blue Eyes that protects the building drove me off. There was no one else that I knew of that could make the trip and defend themselves. So I returned to the volcano and I stayed with Mr. Jounouchi until the end."

The women looked at the ground as they heard the retelling, clearly Honest had no one to confess this to. Given that, it felt wrong to interrupt or question him when he clearly needed this off his chest.

"I brought food and water, I wanted to wait until the pain had faded enough so that I could carry him out.. But Yusuke found me, accused me of betraying him as everyone else had and walled me off from helping Mr. Jounouchi." Honest straightened himself in his seat before reciting what must have been part of that conversation.

"I can find anyone the Darkness touches. Get any further involved with me and I'll kill all of them."

Honest broke down into tears at that his head falling into his hands, those angelic locks falling past his hands and hiding his face even further. "Yusuke has always been a good kid. He's not like this, he lost his parents and I did what I could... Been trying to do what I can. But I can't fight this Darkness that consumed him. People think I'm some grandiose angel but I'm just a fairy... Just a stupid, weak, fairy..."

Witch of the Black Rose felt tears roll down her face, her vision becoming blurred as the guilt she had carried was given an outside voice as well. Even now she had trouble trying to say anything to Aki, fearing the moment Aki turned on her. For all of Witchs' bravado, when Aki had needed her most...

"I finally gained enough strength that God heard and answered my prayers though," Honest continued after taking a deep breath. "He has agreed to shield the school from others like Isao so the students will be safe from his ilk. But even with that, you would still see the truth of my existence..."

And once more they were back on the topic of why Honest was there.

"It was you? Crow mentioned throwing hand grenades last night only to remember this morning that he didn't 'have' any..." Aki realized as the questions that planted seeds in the early morning blossomed. "You're not just able to make people see you physically as someone else, you can make people believe objects are real when they're not."

Honest looked at her, puzzled by the barely restrained excitement that was held in her voice. Not in that 'oh I have a reason to be distracted from my current situation' way... there was something in her eyes.

"I appreciate that you are taking the time to explain this to me, and I'll remember to refer to you strictly as 'Fujiwara' when we're at school. But tell me, can you suppress things with your hypnosis?"

The train of thought that Honest had been riding crashed into the next station, as he realized what she was asking and what brought about her sudden change. He took a deep breath before preparing to explain the complicated world of hypnosis to the victim of extensive abuse.

"No.. That's not how it works. I can make myself appear like Yusuke to people because people are preconditioned to not see things as they really are. An actor is not the character they play, but people convince themselves they are. Hypnosis can do that, I just convince people that I'm playing the role of Yusuke. Crow 'would' throw hand grenades so I can convince him he has them on him to use. What you're talking about... is not like those examples."

He watched Aki give a silent 'oh' before enthusiasm left her posture, motivating Honest to get up from his seat. Walking over with the tips of his wings brushing the table, the fairy knelt down before Aki. "If a stranger came up to you on the street and brandished a knife. Would you stand there and passively let him kill you?"

Aki blinked confused even as she shook her head, "no, of course not."

"Well that destructive side of you is also half of the instinct to flee or fight when confronted by danger. I can remove the wall between that side of you and yourself, but all of that is just as much a part of you as a whole." He patted her knee gently before continuing. "You don't need my help to deal with that side of yourself, you just need to figure out who you are."

"Who I am? The witch is..." Aki began when Honest shook his head, bringing up a finger to cover his lips.

"What the both of you need, is to self reflect. Stop looking at your ability as a curse or only useful as a parlor trick. Treat it like the game, a tool that can be used to help you gain victory over adversity." Honest blinked, his gaze turning inward even as he glanced up and saw the clock. "Ryo and Fubuki will be meeting up to walk to school. I need to be there as part of the routine, I'll see you when you get there." He apologized before he faded from Aki's sight, leaving her sitting there with Witch.

"I know how he feels. I feel the same way, even though you didn't hurt anyone you're miserable with how you were used. But I opted to stay silent..." Witch began when Aki lifted up the Spirit and put her on Aki's lap.

"You were trying to do right by all of us. I'm not angry at you Witch, you're a good, true companion and I'm glad daddy got me your card when he did." Aki replied hugging her poor Spirit. The moxy and strength that Witch had exuded had been so subdued Aki had felt more lonely since she got home. But at least now her Spirit was talking again, which meant that maybe Aki could start by repairing Witch's broken confidence, maybe they both needed to fix their confidences.