Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Minutes stretched on until Ruka shook her head and looked down at the deck in her hands. She turned to look up at Aki, her expression one at a loss. "I sense no spirits here, but there 'is' something here... I don't understand entirely myself."
"I don't see anything besides Witch, Kuribon and Red Eyes Black Dragon. Maybe Blue Eyes might have some insight... Since its one of the oldest dragons in a sense..."
"Well what about Uncle Yugi, Little Rua said that you've spoken to him..." Ryu inquired, though the idea of talking or being in the presence of his Uncles' cherished dragon caused his heart to skip a beat in excitement.
"Well we don't know if he's 'ours', he's implied enough that he could be from another reality so whatever he has to say may not be meant for this reality..." Ruka pointed out. "Blue Eyes might be able to help, she's younger than our dragons by roughly two thousand years. But she 'is' the dragon that was connected to the elder Lord Kaiba and was part of a set. She may be able to reach 'our' Lord Yugi and group..."
"I mean its a solid idea, she's always been aware and a being. I'm just a hatchling compared to her," Red Eyes agreed as he turned his head and elevated it so his beaky nose wasn't sharing the same air space as Ryu. 'The kid grew.'
"Not that what you're saying isn't odd," Aki amended as she looked at the deck. It lacked a spirit and she was about to reach for the cards themselves only to recall at the last moment that this was still a person's 'deck'. "Would it be ok if we looked at the cards first?"
Ryu blinked a little confused before he gave a slight shrug. "Why not, I mean Father has given up on it. Even if I were to try to use it, I mean I don't have any real experience. So its probably for the best I let someone who can give me pointers look it over."
Ruka handed the deck over to Aki, who turned it over so she could study the cards themselves. "So what do you know about your Uncles? From what the others told you?" Rua asked as he began swinging his feet as he sat in his chair.
"Um... Just that he's a God of Creation and Destruction, and my Uncle is a God of Restoration, stuff like that." Ryu answered, and watched as every pair of eyes went wide with what appeared to be a mixture of disbelief and horror. The air conditioning kicked in silently with only its cool, manufactured breeze ghosting over all of them. While he stared at three pairs of blue screens of death expressions that were staring at him.
"I... I mean I knew he created our 'world'..." Witch began slowly, with that level of knowledge probably the only reason why she wasn't as shut down. "But 'creation' of what exactly? And what is a 'God of Restoration'?"
"She... she has a good question... When you say Lord Yugi is a 'God of Creation and Destruction' or that Lord Kaiba is a 'God of Restoration' what... do those titles mean?" Ruka asked, shaken and alarmed.
"It is... a little much isn't it," Ryu slowly began with a slight expression of embarrassment.
"Well, we know that Lord Yugi is the God who created the Duel Spirit world, and that he's the Master of the Crimson Dragon..." Aki explained feeling a bit knocked off course. 'Is this what people feel when they learn about my power and get nervous?' she found herself pondering, given how small and helpless she felt compared to such titles.
"Well Uncle's title is just that, its a catch all umbrella term really. Basically he can fix or restore anything that's been damaged. He can fix a broken toy or a body that has been damaged to the point of death. He even brought Uncle Yugi back from the dead once. So Uncle Yugi creates or destroys stuff, and Uncle Kaiba fixes things." Ryu explained, even if the people in the room looked shocked, he felt this weight lift from his shoulders and chest.
Finally able to talk to people who were just as lost and confused as him. But didn't think he lost his mind, was something of a great relief as he stood there. Unable to talk about such matters with anyone outside of his family. His extended family were all in on the great conspiracy of what happened on that day. But now Ryu had found help! "But isn't it strange for Uncle Yugi to be in whatever state he's in with other hims?"
"Well, I mean..." Rua scratched the back of his head before Ruka nodded and picked up his sentence.
"They seemingly experienced the same event or very similar from what we've heard. I mean even if we could compel him to come here, the most he could probably give is a rough estimation of what happened." Ruka explained politely before her gaze thoughtfully landed back to Red Eyes. "But maybe... Excuse me, Red Eyes, do you know what happened that day?"
The dragon looked down at her before giving a slight rustle of his wings as a shrug. "I was there yes, but I wasn't fully awaken. We were the first sets of spirits created, Spirits like Blue Eyes above and Dark Magician were from sacred tablets. So they were already aware, but for spirits like myself? No, we were barely functioning."
Red Eyes lifted his head up and gazed out the window of Ryu's office thoughtfully. The city stretched on a great distance. Further than it did back in those days, "a demon, bits of humanity had called upon a demon that had significance to Yugi. So Yugi and the others left to deal with said demon, but that deck. Yugi created it to use as a beacon. Its meant to help guide them back to this world." Red Eyes tucked down so he could scratch at the tip of his beaky snout.
"Jounouchi later would say, that something was wrong, that the deck wasn't calling them back. But Yugi didn't make defective things so no one could understand why the group stayed gone. Then years later when I was more aware, that big whirling thing blew up, and Mai and Valon disappeared. They were minding the Game Shop that Yugi grew up in. No one heard from them after the boom so we could only figure the pair died in the blast..."
"How many times have we tried to use the deck, but the cards aren't lining up." Jounouchi growled. On the table before them the deck laid spread, so simple a stack of cards with their wood soft brown back and the images hidden. "How the hell do we make this thing work? Make it bring Yugi and the others back?!"
Flipped face up, the cards were lined up in a particular order that he could see when he leaned over the others. "The deck is built to make the required series of plays in a combo... But they're not..."
They sat around a large dinner table, Jounouchi, Honda, Anzu, Ryuji, Mai, Valon, Malik, and Mokuba. All that was left of the original group once the battle had ended. Mai had been the one to speak, she was leaning against the table and her hand was outstretched to touch the edges of the cards that had been left behind. The light shimmered on the silver coil bracelet she wore, with the blue eyes unseen. Meaning that at least the Blue Eyes White Dragons weren't reacting to a threat. Or the presence of the deck either.
"Maybe they can't come back yet? Maybe they're still fighting and it just appears calm because they pushed Ugly back?" Honda suggested, as he shrugged in his comfy brown coat while he leaned back in his seat.
"How much longer though?" Mokuba asked as he got up and tried to reach the deck that was out of his grasp. "Its been two 'years' and they haven't come back yet! I want to see my Big Brother! I want everyone back again!"
Valon's lips flattened into a thin line of sympathy, "we know that kid. But we're just lowly mortals right? We can't tell Gods what to do or tell them how to set their own timetables..."
"And Yugi showed us he can change a deck at will, so if its not working, it means its him saying 'no'..." Jounouchi added his shoulders slumped with a defeated air.
"This deck is supposed to perform a certain combo action. But you can't force it to happen, they tried. Not shuffling, top decking, and its clearly not enough to just have the deck either because no one is here..." Red Eyes explained.
"So Lord Yugi, entrusted the deck to be used as a signal for him, but its magically locked, there's a requirement not being met." Aki tried, her tone thoughtful as she tried to wrap her mind around such a set up. 'If merely dueling is not enough what 'is' enough? Its like a puzzle...'
A puzzle...
"So about these experiences that you believe are coming from the deck?" Aki asked, her hands closing gently over the cards.
"I've had dreams recently about a poison that spread through out the world killing everything. So when Fudo got poisoned... I felt it had to be connected," Ryu explained as he walked over and held out his hands for the deck.
Shaken Aki handed over the deck without question while Ryu flipped through the cards, freeing her to turn her gaze to the twins. Both looked surprised with Red Eyes sticking his beak between them. Sending Ruka into a double take before back peddling away in response, Rua looking hurt for all of a moment until he saw her gaze wasn't on him.
"Here, 'Spiria, the Seeress," he held up a card for the others, the twins moving in as the trio took a moment to look it over. A vivid aqua blue skin woman with white wings wearing a dark blue and lavender gown was present on the card. Beyond that it held the five stars, the name, the color indicating it was a monster card and the space for the text below it, yet it lacked the text, even the attack and defense points were missing.
"What does the card do?" Rua asked as he looked down at it. "Where's its abilities listed?"
Ryu answered with a slight shrug, as much at a loss as his classmates. "No card is listed with text. Spiria is a single edition, no other card of her exists, but even the cards that 'are' in regular circulation don't have text. Uncle Yugi made these cards himself, willed them into existence to be like this."
That... was strange.
"I always figured it was because a deck of 40 cards was a bit much to recall all at once. That maybe he knew what he wanted in the deck but didn't have time to recall the exact wording for each." Ryu explained as the others examined the card before handing it back to him. He looked the card over quietly before looking at the others as he slipped it back into the deck. "I know this card is bound to Isis, Uncle Maliks' older sister. There are others like that, one of a kind and connected," he shrugged again in defeat before returning to his desk. Needing to see how long until his father was back from his meeting.
Aki thought of the stories Yusei told about what Yugi did. About the Yugi who had restored Rua's sight that horrible night, and put into place a new door. How Yugi had been mailing those figurines to Carly, 'is he doing it to send a message in each reality? Are all of these things just messages in bottles to be called back?'
"God is known for his love of games and puzzles..." Witch noted with a soft purring from the Kuribon at her side. "But I have to say I feel bad for Ryu, cuz God plays on a level us lowly beings can never reach."
"Don't say that Witch," Ruka argued as she moved back to her seat. "He wouldn't give a puzzle with no solution to the people he cared about. He had to know that they could resolve the puzzle without him."
"But it 'is' taking a long time..." Rua pointed out as he moved to Ryu's desk and looked down at the deck again. "And its not like we can just ask the Lord Yugi who shows up when Big Brother gets his attention. That would be cheating...if they even know, I mean they could have various methods spanning multiple time lines..."
"The meeting is ending," Ryu warned. "I didn't tell him about the deck so once again, please don't ask him about it. We're here simply because Ms. Izayoi had a message to pass along and you both came to keep her company..."
"Oh! Sure thing!" Rua replied while Ryu took the deck and tucked it away in a drawer of his desk. 'It must be rough, if they can't figure it out how to call Lord Yugi back, how many further generations would it take until they came back?'
Rua's mind tried to think on that only to cringe against the idea.
"Father will come here to have this meeting, so we should be in another conversation for him to walk in. So it doesn't look like we were hiding anything," Ryu explained politely as he got comfy behind his desk.
Thus the group went about and soon found themselves talking about Carly's model making for the music box. It was talking about the process of making a model by hand versus using a 3D printer that the office door opened. Mokuba stepped into the room, his gaze going from his son at his desk, to around the room. Slightly nodding at Aki before his gaze fell upon the twins with an expression that noted he 'did' recall them.
Ryu stood up to greet his father properly as did Aki, with the twins standing up in Aki's wake. The act alone earning a raised eyebrow from Mokuba who walked over to the remaining open seat and settled down. Unknowingly right across from Red Eyes as he had to cross the whole room to the seat. "I was told you wished to speak with me?" It was his first remark once they finished the official pleasantries that social ranks required given Aki's status.
"Ahh, yes sir," Aki began her head slightly bowed before she turned to look over at Red Eyes. "Well rather, 'he' would rather speak to you...Red Eyes Black Dragon. If I may allow him to be visible, even though I would have to translate what he's saying," Aki began.
"Its uncle Jounouchis'..." Ryu added quietly, catching sight of his fathers' lips thinning out in response. He saw his father's shoulders tense up as though aware of what he was about to hear.
Of course though he was aware, he already had been notified about Jounouchi's death. The only people who would want to speak with him about Jounouchi was either the younger sister, or one of Jounouchis' deck spirits. Given that Izayoi was here, the answer was pretty clear to him. "I'm aware I can't 'speak dragon' as we would say. So I'll thank you now for standing as interpreter for this meeting Ms. Izayoi."
"Of course," she replied as Red Eyes himself worked to get himself into a better position to face Mokuba.
"So Jounouchi wanted you to know he had wanted to stick around until Yugi got back..." Red Eyes began, pausing to let Aki translate for him. Aki's power granting Red Eyes presence as he began to visually manifest in the room.
Through Aki, they learned about the day that Jounouchi died. How the Darkness stole into the heart of a young man and the young man's Duel Spirit had been trying to save his partner. He spoke about the trip through the portals to the volcano and how the possessed Yusuke captured Fubuki and used him. Describing how Yugi's absence was resulting in a good deal of infighting with the spirits residing in the Yami zones of the Duel Spirit world.
"Now that Ancient Fairy has returned there 'should' be some restored peace there, but she didn't return fast enough. Maybe... maybe there was no way to stop it from happening, our world is still too young to survive without Yugis' guidance. So Jounouchi wants me to stay with Little Fubuki, he felt that the kid and his friends might be able to call back their friend. And I've got to admit I kind of like the kid myself. He grew on me," Red Eyes explained as the sun began to disappear causing Kuribon to flick on the lights to the room with the tip of her tail. Outside the window the approaching evening cast increasingly longer shadows across the city.
Making the whole talk of 'Darkness' more on point, as though it heard its name and was approaching to eavesdrop.
"So why hasn't the Crimson Dragon shown any interest in this?" Aki asked looking down at her long glove that hid that very mark on her. "Shouldn't this threat be something we're meant to take care of?"
"Big brother wouldn't throw a small group of teenagers against every threat. I think he would have already played the field enough to put who he wants into place as needed. That was more his style," Mokuba explained patiently...