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

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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'Hmm well Father has a meeting in the afternoon tomorrow.' The younger Kaiba thought as he discreetly looked over his itinerary while the duel went on. 'Being at school, I'm not required to attend. That would justify why the twins and Izayoi would be sent to me to look after at work...' "Hmm ok, I can get you in to see my Father tomorrow after school, is that too soon for Ms. Izayoi?" He turned to look at Rua politely.

The younger boy shook his head before turning his attention back to the duel in question. "Hey, how many of these have you watched?" Rua asked generally curious.

Ryu blinked in mild amusement before shrugging, "Fairly all of them, although I admit, there has never been such a..." he pondered for a good word to describe 'this', "Feisty duel before."

Rua leaned over and quietly eyed the other students in front of him before he finally opted to ask... "Ne, Captain, umm it's normal to feel bad for Captain Tenjoin, right? Cuz..."

"Oh very normal. I'd be offended if you were that apathetic to her plight..." He glanced at Rua and saw that confused expression on the kid's face. "I'd be upset if you didn't care about her situation." He translated as he rued his life that would put him in a situation where he would learn such advanced words. Rua wasn't a bad kid, and he probably would have found himself a part of the twins social circle given their riches and friendly nature. Had he not also been a Kaiba...

'I wonder what uncle Jounouchi's dragon wants to tell Father though. I mean, sure Father doesn't talk like he was close to uncle. Father might want to pretend like they don't matter much to him anymore. But I know he cares...' Ryu thought to himself, as he processed the news that uncle Jounouchi's Red Eyes Black Dragon wanted to talk to his Father. Especially given how he had also wanted to talk to the deck that his Uncle Yugi had left for his Father.

'It can't be just coincidence can it? I mean what are the chances?' Ryu thought even as a cheeky voice in the back of his mind pointed out. 'Uncle Jounouchi was a gambler duelist, this could have been his last bit of luck!'

All around him the students were busy oohing an ahhing the presence of the Turbo Duel King all over again. Much the same way they did the first day he arrived in fact. The prior year no one paid attention, and Ryu himself had spent a good portion of the duel working off in a corner of the gym. Now everyone was paying attention to the duel, and he could hear the whispers and squeals of delight from his fellow students.

Judai apparently could sense the same thing that Izayoi and Little Ruka could, but he was indiscreet and rather airhead in his treatment of others. Wanting the 'full' experience regardless of the circumstances. He had a small group of friends, the younger brother of the current Emperor of the school being one of them.

So Judai, himself, was rather interesting, he had moved to Neo Domino this year, and his prior school... Well he had something of the same past as Uncle Ryou. Friends collapsing into comas when he was smaller, and was noted for talking about being able to see duel spirits when he was younger. But unlike Izayoi who had caught the attention of Divine, Judai never showed the ability to bring that power out and affect the world.

In fact, the 'biggest' thing about Judai, Yuki that Ryu knew about was that the guy was one of the winners who got one of his duel monster cards sent to space.

Space in the sense that Ryu had decided it was necessary to look after his Father extra hard when he heard about 'that'.

"Daddy? What convinced you to send cards to 'space'?" the child asked looking up at his father who had been working at his desk for quite a while.

His father turned from the computer he had been working on to look down at his child. The normal serious expression he wore softened into something amused and gentle as he leaned down to pick up his son. "A flight of fancy, or maybe a moment of madness," he answered with a shrug. "Sometimes the company needs a random wild idea to help stir up the creative flow of ideas..." he explained, "otherwise the mind and body becomes a computer and creativity starts to die. Given that we make stuff for 'children' and to inspire creativity, its important to not be stiffened by routine."

'Its funny how he doesn't say anything romantically charged from what I can tell. But he sure is getting Fudo upset.' Ryu thought to himself before causally looking over at Rua. "Has Judai, to your knowledge, ever said anything flirtatious 'to' Izayoi?"

"Hmm?" Rua tilted his head to the side as he thought about it, "no. But Captain Tenjoin clearly is interested and he keeps ignoring her for Big Sister?" He offered unsure.

'…. Then there should be no reason for Fudo to get upset.. Unless he has a crush and hasn't been able to spit it out...' Ryu thought while mentally shaking his head at the thought. 'I worry about growing up now...'

"You know Captain Judai uses that Elemental Heroes deck and he has a fondness for the fusion style of dueling. But he sure doesn't know how to use his strengths," Rua noted as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Oh?" Ryu asked, half listening, but well, for a guy who was using a lot of fusions he wasn't really trying to blend his style or deck with Tenjoin. But of course it was 'Izayoi' he wanted the attention of more.

"Yeah, what type of hero ignores a person in distress? And his actions sure have distressed Captain Tenjoin," Rua pointed out, a point that got Ryu to give him the rest of his attention. "And he's not trying to blend his style with her. She's trying, he's not, I mean, I bet the only reason his deck works at 'all' is because he can talk to the spirits in them."

"True, that's what he's doing," Ruka agreed between her conversation with Patty.

"See?" Rua sighed. "He literally let Captain lose all her HP because he wasted all his chances trying to swap duel partners..."

"Rua, what do you think Tenjoin's strengths and weaknesses are in a duel like this?" Ryu asked, curious now about the kids' awareness.

"Well for starters she's not paying attention, she wants Captain's attention, but he's just not going to give that. Then there's the fact that its Big Sister and Big Brother that she's dueling against, who aren't really dating, but Big Brother clearly is paying attention to Big Sister. He's even mad about how Captain Judai is treating Captain Tenjoin." Rua was quiet for a moment, observing how Stardust was on the field, but none of the big Spirits that could be called were.

"Its a sloppy duel really, Big Sister isn't even 'using' her normal strategies, Big Brother is just ending this as fast as he can. While Captain Tenjoin could at least protect herself and have more life points if she didn't sacrifice CyberBlader to protect Captain Judai..." Rua's face twisted in displeasure as he studied the field better. "I don't like this duel at all, it feels..."

"Sad..." Ruka answered and the pair nodded. "There's nothing romantic about it and everyone looks negative... even Captain Judai seems to have finally got the idea that he's messed up."

Asuka was keeping a professional straight face, but the astute would notice the struggle she was having holding it. Glancing at her Judai seemed to see her for the 'first time', looking about and asking if she was ok. Even over the speakers he sounded trite and concerned.

Ryu glanced about and noticed that seemed to be the state of everyone that he could see. It looked like this would be more gossip rather than a romantic take. This was the first time the twins even saw a duel like this and they picked up how wrong it was. Despite being in the lowest tier of graded students they were quite observant. 'They didn't score high enough to be in the more advance classes, but they're clearly not stupid. I guess we need to work on how we place kids in school..' Then Ryu quietly reminded himself that 'he' was one of those 'kids in school'. Meaning that he didn't have any involvement in politics..

"CyberTutu would have worked well with Big Brother's strategy the first time they swapped," Ruka noted, her twin nodding.

"But Big Brother doesn't want Captain near Big Sister... Actually, I think she would work pretty well with others given that she's used to working with her brother. Maybe that's it? She and Big Brother know how to work with others because of their family life?" Rua theorized as he sat there.

"It would stand to reason, some people have a natural talent to work with others, while others learn only because of family. Uncle Yugi was an only teenager, but his deck was not just special to him, it was structured to be strong in strategies to accommodate anyone he dueled along side. A way to make anyone feel that he had always been by their side..." Ryu recalled earning the twins and their friends' instant attention.

"Gee Lord Yugi sounds so cool! I bet he could win any duel even with the way the game has changed," Bob sighed.

"Yeah, even Turbo Dueling, though he'd have to get a license for that," Tenpai agreed before pushing his glasses back on his face. "Maybe he's the reason Turbo Dueling was created? There were those rumors that he used to duel on motorcycles after all."

'I heard about those rumors... but while they're true he 'did'. Outside of the twins I don't think they would understand... Or maybe they could...? I mean they know Little Ruka and Ms. Izayoi, so they would probably grasp what those duels 'really' were...' "I don't know, I heard he was a huge risk taker, but he wouldn't want people to follow in his foot steps. So how he would feel about Turbo Dueling..." Ryu explained with a faint shrug. "I suppose because it can be managed via a computer system he wouldn't mind."

"Everyone, I think the duel is over..." Patty announced, her voice subdued while causing the others to turn and look over at the duel.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ after school at Carly's apartment \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

The condo was quiet, and given that it was adult free, it was easier to have any group gathering there than someplace else. But it felt a lot more like a court room with the way Yusei sat there, arms folded and staring at everyone else in the room. That being Crow, with the twins, who were sitting and trying to quietly eat some popcorn while watching him.

There was a host of things that the trio wanted to ask, Crow wanting a bit more leeway for asking 'adult' questions. But the twins were there and that meant child friendly questions.

"That was such an agony. Even if he bothered to ask if Asuka was ok after the match, that was publicly humiliating..." Aki groaned, she sat hunched over on the couch a pillow on her lap that she was using to hide her face in. "Oh and tomorrow will be fine to see the Kaibas. It wouldn't do to make Red Eyes wait longer than he already has."

"So think Sis will move on from this Judai person?" Crow asked before shoving more popcorn in his mouth.

"One can only hope," Aki's muffled voice replied before she finally pushed herself up into a sitting position. "I know that what I did was underhanded and sneaky Yusei, I just didn't know how to ask you... Given the nature of the duel..."

"Aki that was..." Yusei shut his eyes for a moment and tried to find the words... but they kept drifting just out of reach. "What are we?"

Aki blinked in surprise while the twins and Crow slowed down on their snacking to hear. But maybe it was still too loud as Yusei turned to look at the trio and sighed before motioning to the elevator. "Out."

"We live here!" Rua protested, while Witch grabbed a nice tasty warm bit of popcorn for herself.

"And you can spend time with Crow and get to know your fellow Dragons," Yusei replied smartly.

Ruka got up from her seat and made her way without any objection, with Crow and finally Rua following her. Even Rua's ponytail looked disheartened but he didn't protest any further.

"And take all the duel spirits with you," Yusei added.

Ruka rounded on her heel with a protest now forming on her face. "But Big Brother!"

"You're not the boss of me!" Witch began only to be shot down by Aki.

"However; I am."

"And that's why we're here." Crow explained standing in the doorway of Carly's apartment.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ KaibaCorp: Kaiba, Ryu's office the next day \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

The office hadn't changed since the last time the twins had visited the place, though this time they took the normal elevator up. No spirits of maybe dead maybe not, former Duel Kings who were actually Gods helping them. Just Aki in her school uniform, with the twins bracketing her with politely inquisitive expressions.

At least on the surface visual level that's what was going on, while on another level. One visible only to Aki and Ruka, there were several more presences in the office. Witch and Kuribon, with Red Eyes Black Dragon also in the office. As curled and coiled as he needed to be to fit in the room whole, because he wasn't shrinking himself down.

He didn't have eyes like BlackRose or Stardust, with their pupils and iris' visible. His were the painted swath of red that lacked any detail. With a face that made it hard to tell just what he was looking at unless he turned his beak nose in a particular direction. The head was moving though, occasionally glancing up at the ceiling before looking about the office. He looked more like a giant black doberman, sleek attentive and focused.

"They didn't want Mokuba to turn out like Kaiba... Even after Yugi and the others left," Red Eyes said. The words were random, unexpected and more introspective. In fact it was hard to tell if he was talking to the two girls who could 'hear' him, speaking to the other spirits, who couldn't understand him, or just himself.

While Ryu himself had changed out of his school uniform and into his business attire, a business suit of somber grays that muted the fact that this was a kid.

"So you're probably wondering about the deck I mentioned," Ryu finally began after all the traditional Japanese pleasantries were done. The deck was removed from his desk drawer and held up for the trio to see. "Its not an old deck per say, the story I was told was that it was given to my Father to call the others back. It has never worked for him obviously as Uncle Kaiba and Uncle Yugi have not returned, nor have the others... But recently there have been incidents I've experienced that can only have come from the deck. Or so I believe."

It was a typical deck for the game, nothing that stood out on from the start for people like himself or for Rua. But he watched the ladies in his office, for they were the ones with the 'sight', and he caught them glancing from time to time to something in the office. 'It must be difficult to have friends that no one else can see. Wanting to see what they're doing but that only makes them look insane to the unaware...' He thought to himself.

Clearly there had been self discipline to endure school, or perhaps the spirits just were instructed. His Uncle Malik had spoken of the Duel Spirits in greater length than most of the others. Confided about the 'Duel Spirit World' that his Uncle Yugi had created for the Spirits to live safely on away from exploitative people. It was something his Father never scoffed as fairy tales, which alone told Ryu that the stories were true... But perhaps the secret to what happened was in this deck. It was the one meant to 'call them home' after all... So why hadn't it worked?

"I see," Aki acknowledged while Ruka stood up from her seat.

"May I touch the deck?" She asked as she approached the grand wooden desk, peering over his things to get a better look at it.

Ryu, for his part, nodded and picking up the deck he got out of his seat and walked around to hand it to her. She took the deck into her left hand, and then holding it out on her flattened palm she rested her right hand over it. He watched as her eyes closed, even while Ryu noted amused in how Rua tried to keep her out of this. Yet here his twin was.

"It feels like a warm bed. Like I'm curled up on a chill morning wrapped up warm in a thick comfortable blanket..." She began slowly, her voice almost dream like in quality. Behind closed eyelids he could see she was trying to 'look around' at the vision the deck gave her.