Wow you guys are really quiet. Either that or you thought my story was really terrible and didn't have the heart to tell me. I honestly don't know since only one person left a review.
Moving on from gloomy topics, it's time to kick things off with Yuya before getting back to Ruri next chapter. This chapter takes place on the same day as Leo's anniversary celebration so enjoy the show. It's a little heavy on the expositions but it should be an interesting read.
I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V, the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game or any related products as they are the property of Konami and their affiliates.
: :
: :
Chapter 2: Hidden Valley of the Odd-Eyes
Somewhere along the border of the kingdom of Egypt, also known as the bloody middle of nowhere lays a hidden valley. Deep in the inter-spirit zone and practically invisible from the air due to dense forest and peculiar weather, this place is known by precious few. The lush and fairly dangerous flora of the valley however is completely unremarkable compared to the valleys primary residents: A herd of over a hundred Odd-Eyes Dragons.
Over the course of history Eyes dragons have always proven as pivotal as they are powerful. The Blue-eyes, Red-eyes, Galaxy-eyes and Odd-eyes are also famous for only signing a single summoning contract at any given point in time. Well, the first three were famous, Odd-eyes were incredibly illusive and considered a myth by all but the most fervent dragon scholars and learned kings. For you see, the odd-eyes had only ever signed one contract and so the entire herd belonged to a single boy who watched them while siting atop a very large rock. He sat there, dressed in common red cotton clothes throwing bits of food to his own personal dragon Odd-eyes Pendulum Dragon and the only unique dragon in the entire herd. Yuya Sakaki watched the herd grazing just like he did day after day for at least the last seven years.
As one might have guessed, Yuya was bored out of his mind. He couldn't leave, oh no, he was much too important to leave for he was the prophesised Prince of Pendulum, the one who brought balance. Instead he was supposed to just stew here in the middle of nowhere until the time was right, the stars align and the seas part or whatever other reason Stargazer invented. Yuya hated the stupid title, it was because of those three words that some foreign king had placed an enormous bounty on his head and sent soldiers to kill him. It was because of those three words that his mother and father had been forced to entrust him to two spirits that had whisked him away to this place. He hadn't seen his parents or any of the performapal spirits contracted to his father that he had made friends with since. Most importantly, being essentially a dragon farmer with no one to talk to was so bloody BORING!
Someone then decided to cover his eyes, "Guess Who?"
"Hello Grace," sighed Yuya in a depressed done.
"What's the matter," Grace asked in concern as Yuya budged up to make room for her to sit.
"Oh, the usual. The dragons are self sufficient so I have nothing to do, I've got no one to talk to so I'm unbearably lonely and there's so much out there I want to see and do but I can't because I'm not allowed to leave the Valley," Yuya huffed.
Grace pouted, "I come see you at least twice a moon so you can't say that you have no friends to talk to."
Yuya waved his hand dismissively, "That's only because I'm the only guy within 10 miles of your village. If the Amazons had another settlement within reach then I'm sure you and your sister wouldn't bother visiting."
"THAT'S not true," Grace immediately blurted.
"In fact, if your tribe leaders weren't scared shitless of my caretakers Stargazer and Timegazer Magician despite their lack of power then I'd probably be strapped to one of those shared mattresses in your village," Yuya continued absentmindedly.
"That only happened when we first met, I wouldn't do that to you now," mumbled Grace with a blush on her face.
She then decided to glomp him to break him out of his funk. As mentioned already, Gloria was an Amazoness pseudo-spirit, which meant she was dressed in typical amazoness attire so most men would have killed to be in Yuya's position. However to this significance was lost on the dragon prince as she was one of only five individuals in his life capable of speaking English so he just considered her behaviour normal.
"Grace, I appreciate the gesture but please stop that before-" Yuya tried to say.
Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon then took the expected opportunity (and lack of presently available food) to stick it's snout under Yuya and flip him and Grace up to tumble down it's neck and onto it's back. Thank Slither it had a riding harness because the plate armour scales on its' back were fairly pointy. Before either of them could untangle themselves, Odd-eyes took off down the valley.
"So how have things been for you?" Yuya asked more animatedly once he managed to grab a hold of Odd-eyes' horns to stop it from running through a waterfall or a giant thorn bush.
"Training and politics I guess," shrugged Grace as she watched some of the Odd-Eyes dragons look up from their grazing as they passed. Omnivorous (and therefore fairly docile) dragons were really such a rare sight, even before King Leo killed off most of the less aggressive breeds.
"People are still campaigning to mum that we should challenge the Kaiba Core in retribution for that jerk killing grandma a few years ago," Grace continued, "Since mum is the leader of the village she wants Gloria and I to get stronger quickly in case something happens to her. Ooh and my pet tiger evolved, did I tell you about that the last time I visited."
"No, no you didn't," shuddered Yuya as he remembered the annoying overprotective fur ball that had once tried to rip his arm off before Odd-eyes kindly reminded it that dragons breathed fire, "Anyway, I know I've probably asked before but why exactly did Seto Kaiba of all people attack the Amazoness village?"
"Well you know that Kaiba's group is essentially the biggest mercenary guild in the world. At one point we raided a convoy his subordinates were hired to guard so he personally came to our village to set an example. He levelled half the place with a single Blue-Eyes White Dragon before retrieving the stolen goods," explained Grace with a shudder.
"Master Sakaki, it is time for your lessons," called the white clad Stargazer Magician from off to the side, which caused Odd-eyes to screech to a halt and the young amazoness to pout.
"Do I have too," Yuya whined, "It's not as if teaching me math and English will actually help me when since I'm never going to be allowed to leave this place. You guys won't even give me any novels to read for enjoyment."
"I would have thought you would have derived great enjoyment from being taught the fundamentals of summoning," Stargazer replied formally.
"Yay, I can teleport an Odd-Eyes Dragon from one side of the river to the other and then get stomped on for interrupting its' nap," deadpanned the dragon tamer, "Can you at least teach me one of the specialised summoning methods besides basic, advanced and pendulum."
"We can't teach you how to fusion, synchro or xyz summon when you don't have one of those spirits to summon," quipped Stargazer, "Now come along, your . . . friend can stay if she so wishes but Timegazer intends on testing you so she mustn't interrupt."
"Oh goody," Yuya deadpanned as he and Grace hopped off Odd-eyes and followed Stargazer towards the small log house that he and the other three sentient spirits in the valley lived in.
Once they were inside, Yuya went to the small 'classroom' that had been set aside for his studies and sat down at the small desk opposite Timegazer Magician. Unlike his prim and proper counterpart, Timegazer was more laid back with his feet up on the 'teachers' desk and his hands behind his head.
"Yo, how's going. I see your girlfriend came to visit again," greeted the black clad magician.
Yuya just face palmed as Grace blushed, "For the last time, we are just friends. Can I just get on with the test."
"I've said it once and I'm more then happy to say it again: your as thick as a Giant Soldier of Stone," smirked Timegazer behind his bandana/scarf, "Today I want you to tell me the history of pendulum force and then we'll cover some basic rules when dealing with spirits, you cool with that?"
Yuya gave one last sigh of defeat before beginning his sermon, "Pendulum force is a form of perpetual energy that comes from the fifth dimension or pendulum dimension. Spirits that can tap into and harness this power are referred to as pendulum type spirits and usually get respecced during the first time they tap into it. Respeccing or retraining as it is sometimes called, is the process where a spirit doesn't typically get any stronger but develops a new effect significant enough to change its' outward form. This process can be gradual or very sudden in the case of imbuing pendulum energy.
Spirits through which the pendulum force flows are bestowed with a type of immortality were their essence is preserved and their body's are repaired or reconstructed after death. Summoners who can perform a pendulum summon can call forth spirits at a much faster rate than the once every ten minutes threshold that is a persons limit for normal summoning. It is still limited by the five spirit capacity threshold that affects all summoners (A/N: Link summoners incorporate an extra slot for the extra monster zone but Yuya has never heard of link summoning).
The pendulum force was first discovered during the qliphort incident and was fully researched and documented by Vector Pendulum and Master Peace. The former kept his knowledge secret and used it to create an army of un-killable monsters to take over the world while the later shared his knowledge with others to liberate the world from the former. In its' original state, the pendulum force and the fifth dimension from which it originates was governed by Astrograph Sorcerer and Chronograph Sorcerer at the heart of the dimension and ruled over by the four supreme kings: the Supreme Black King, the Supreme Blazing King, the Supreme Violet King and the Supreme White King. (Alternatively referred to as Supreme King 'colour' Dragon or their full English or Japanese translated names.)
Ten years ago, for unknown reasons, a prodigious summoner named Zarc became the first and only known human to enter the pendulum dimension and transcended the boundaries between human and spirit to become a full spirit. The four supreme kings recognised and acknowledged his power, appointing him the fifth king: Supreme King Dragon Zarc. When King Leo of Arcia discovered this, he was outraged that a human had obtained that much power, especially one against whom he held a grudge. Although neither you nor Stargazer have ever told me what exactly that grudge is."
Timegazer gave a weak chuckle as Stargazer glared at him, "Well, I only mentioned that bit by accident. It wasn't particularly relevant to your lessons or what you will have to do in future so we decided that you didn't need to know that information. It's fairly sensitive to those involved and blurting it out will only get you in trouble with certain parties. Please continue, your doing a marvellous job."
Yuya grumbled about being kept in the dark before taking a deep breath and continuing, "Right, so King Leo then created the artificial spirit Master Spirit Tech Force – Pendulum Ruler and successfully sent it into the fifth dimension along with its' weaker prototypes. Through them Leo used trickery to seal Zarc in an eternal prison and cast the two sorcerers out of the fifth dimension. No one knows what happened to them but since they were irregular extra dimensional spirits they probably died. The four remaining supreme kings went into hiding and Master Spirit Tech Force – Pendulum Ruler, controlled by Leo is now the sole and very biased individual able to decide which spirits do or don't get to access the pendulum force.
Shortly after these events some prophet announced that I was the Prince of Pendulum along with three other boys who you claim to be my cousins. The prophecy ruined my life because it was in direct conflict with another prophecy and said that the dragon princes, me in particular, would bring balance back to the world and that I would free the pendulum force so that it could flow freely through the world again. As a result King Leo sent an army to track down the boy with the special aura even though he did not know my name or appearance so my parents were eventually forced to hand me over to you two. Also because of the title I have, I and any spirits I contract with can bypass the permission lock that Master Spirit Tech Force – Pendulum Ruler has enforced."
Yuya stopped and let out a sigh of relief as Timegazer gave him a casual solo applause, "Well done boy, it's good to see we haven't wasted our time drumming that information into that resilient head of yours. Now for the pop quiz on spirits 101. What's the significance of a spirit or pseudo-spirits true name?"
"A true name grants others power over the spirit in question, hence why most spirits go by aliases or titles like Dark Magician or Engraver of the Mark," answered Yuya, "It's not to the degree of slavery and accidental remarks won't force the spirit to take action but deliberately invoking a spirits true name will hinder their actions if they're trying to go against you. However once a spirit reaches a certain level of power and or fame, the process reverses and the spirit gains power every time someone says their name. This applies to spirits like Slither, Obelisk and Trishula before it got corrupted."
"Good, next question: Give an example of an evolution, which is permanent and a temporary shift," said Timegazer.
"Every time Master Peace was imbued with the power of his allies he underwent a temporary shift into a fusion, synchro or xyz spirit for the duration of the battle. I suppose an ordinary Red eyes evolving into a Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon would count for the other one," shrugged Yuya.
"Correct," Timegazer exclaimed, "A pseudo-spirit is a human that became part spirit either through some accident or as an attempt to gain more power. As such most humanoid spirits can be identified as pseudo spirits. However there is another way for a pseudo-spirit to come into existence, what might that be?"
Yuya gave an exasperated sigh, "A pseudo-spirit can also be the child of a human and a spirit or pseudo-spirit."
"Bingo, name the five plague lords and the three viruses they have so far unleashed upon the world," asked Timegazer.
"Uh, I don't know that one," Yuya replied.
"That shows you need to study more," quipped Timegazer as he threw a piece of chalk at Yuya's head, "If you don't know then improvise and tell me what you do remember."
"Ok, ok, no need to hit me," Yuya shouted back, "Lets see, most of them were pretty old spirits dating back several centuries at least. Most of them were demons but I remember their leader was a dragon named Diabolos. He was purified and recruited by the Lightray faction to try and repent for what he'd done. With his help the good guys managed to kill two others while the two newly appointed plague lords escaped.
That all happened before I was born but I do know that when King Leo tried to kill Diabolos roughly ten years ago, his Lightray companions came to his defence. So King Leo labelled the Lightray faction as evil traitors to humanity and wiped all of them out. That's all I remember but why'd you even bring that up? It's not like those defeated demons are going to be allowed to rise again after their forces were eradicated."
Timegazer chuckled, "Yes, why indeed. That's a surprising amount of knowledge for a group whose names you cant even remember."
"Gloria told me that saying a demons name brings bad luck so I never tried to learn them," Yuya deadpanned, "now don't change the topic, why ask a history question that's no longer relevant?"
The black magician pondered a moment before answering, "There are whispers that some of the dragons that Leo Akaba killed may soon return. Forces long dormant are moving unseen with renewed fervour. Rumours, nothing more but considering the Dragon Rulers continually reincarnate you'd be a fool to ignore them. While many may have been friendly towards humans before their deaths, I dread to think what grudges they may hold against those that killed their kin should they indeed return."
"Be that as it may," Stargazer cut in, "I think that will be enough lessons for today. I do not feel that it is appropriate to be telling Yuya these things as he won't be participating in them, will he Timegazer."
The man behind the desk shrugged, "The kids got to know sooner or later. We can't keep protecting him from the world forever. His time is coming, you know that as much as I do."
Stargazer clenched his fists, "I'm not going to allow those sods to turn another person into a sacrificial pawn so they don't have to clean up their own mess!"
"Hey wait a minute," Yuya interrupted before Timegazer could respond, "You guys never leave the valley, how on earth do have you heard rumours from the outside world. Do you have a communication device. Can I send a message to my parents? Don't ignore me dammit!"
"Leave Yuya," ordered Timegazer sternly.
"You will be practicing your world magic Sky Iris tomorrow so make sure you rest up and don't eat anything funny again. We will NOT be discussing this topic again. Is that clear?" added Stargazer.
"Yes," growled Yuya in frustration before storming out of the room.
Grace scowled at both the spellcasters before hurrying after Yuya with a worried look.
Outside Yuya kicked a tree in anger, "Arrgh, I hate this!"
"It's okay Yuya, you can talk to me," said Grace behind him as she began to rub his back soothingly, "I know that things can be . . . difficult at times but it will get better I promise."
"I just . . . want something to happen," Yuya grumbled, "something to brake this endless monotony. You know my dad is, or was last time I saw him, the royal entertainer in Atem's court. There was always so much happening and people were laughing and I never ran out of things to do or friends to make. I miss him and mum and Silver Claw and Slight Hand Magician and everybody else. When I was little there was so much I wanted to do with my life. To see the ocean and desserts, explore ancient ruins and try new foods."
The young Amazon hugged Yuya from behind, "You'll get to do all those things, I'll make sure of it so please, smile for me. I really miss your smile."
Yuya chuckled and finally managed a small grin, "Thanks for being here, I really appreciate it. And I'm sorry, I know it isn't fair on you to be so grumpy when you came all the way just to see me. So . . . thanks again for putting up with me."
Grace tried to ignore her glowing cheeks. He really was too cute when he smiled.
: :
: :
Back in the cabin while Yuya was talking to Grace.
Once they were alone Timegazer fixed his eyes on Stargazer Magician, "We've had this conversation before. The boy won't let us keep him in the well forever and humanity won't survive the coming year without him."
"Then maybe humanity should just accept the end they've written themselves into. They don't deserve to have someone like Yuya bail them out," Stargazer argued, "War and suffering is all that destiny will bring him, how could he possibly be happy with a life like that."
"You make it sound like he's happy now," Timegazer countered, "If Yuya doesn't like the destiny that awaits him then he will just have to get strong enough to change it. It's not as if no ones done it before. Our little dragon tamer can't stand solitude, he needs the crowds and the hustle and bustle of cities. Yuya needs the freedom to explore and express himself however he chooses. We're practically killing him by hiding him here."
"So you're just going to let history repeat itself," snapped Stargazer indignantly, "We already tried to bring things to an equilibrium where everyone could be happy and the world rejected it. Complete Chaos or absolute Order, those are the only two states the world will accept."
"And with every dragon that King Leo kills, the thinner the buffer between those two sides gets. The Monarchs continue to subjugate settlement after settlement while humans abuse and treat spirits like tools. The Elemental Lords are doing a splendid job of maintaining the ecosystem but without the Dragon Rulers they can't keep it up forever," lectured Timegazer, " You might be worried about history repeating itself but things are different now. We'll be supporting him for starters and Yuya's not some lovesick lad just trying to save the girl he loves. Yuya wants a world were everyone can smile and get along and will pursue it with or without a prophecy. Dragons are the neutral equaliser between the angelic and demonic factions and the pendulum force brings balance to the three extra dimensional summoning types. Yuya's main spirit has both of those traits and is an Odd-Eyes to boot. Yuya will succeed were Zarc failed. King Jaden and Atem have practically bent over backwards to ensure we have everything we need to ensure that he succeeds."
"We'll see Timegazer, we'll see," said Stargazer.
