Chapter 3

CHAOTIA

Verity

I was bored. That was all there was to it. Nothing was happening here.

Of course, that means that I was going to run into trouble eventually, being a half-breed psychic orphan. Nobody trusted me.

Suddenly, the world started spinning!

When I opened my eyes again, nothing was the same – I was in a room with lots of finery, and there was barely any aura of magic anywhere!

Okay…where am I?

Then I noticed I was on the floor…and someone else was in the room.

"Hello, Verity."

I startled into a crouch. I couldn't help it; see, what made me a half-breed was that my father was a fox-demon. I got a great deal from him: eyes, ears, teeth, fur, claws and tail…plus a few reflexes.

Although once I was on all fours and looking at the person, I wasn't surprised that she knew my name. "Kisara?"

"Sorry about your sudden change in location, but I need you here on Earth. See…at the risk of sounding cliché, the universe is in trouble, and you're one of the few – no, one of the only – who can save it."

My ears pointed downward nearly of their own accord. "Me?"

"I know this is overwhelming for you. If I could handle things on my own, I would, but…I have some slight difficulties right now and more on the way that interfere with saving the world." She sighed. "The problem is a curse inside a teacher at a Duel Academy – no," she stopped me before I could protest about duels, "these duels are with cards. That doesn't make them any less dangerous, though, because even though it's a game there is still a great deal of magic laced throughout. I need to get you enrolled in the school so that you can keep watch on things and learn what you can before the curse manifests in a way that can be defeated."

I twitched my nose. "Lady Kisara, there's something you're not mentioning." I don't know how I knew that; maybe there was something in the exact way she smelled, maybe it was something in her voice.

She sighed again. "The teacher in question is my brother."

I stared. I couldn't remember ever hearing that Kisara Maygo had a brother!

Kisara shook her head. "It's Kisara Kaiba now, and Maximar isn't common knowledge anyway. He was locked up in solitary confinement when he was ten, and I'm relatively sure he had to live through me to stay sane. He's my twin, but the only true resemblance between us is that we're both tall, slender and have the same facial structure. He's just about as drastically different from any world as you are."

Oh.

"I'm going to take you to see a friend of mine. He's going to help you get a deck together so that you can properly study." She stood up, motioning for me to do the same, and started for a door. "First, though, we need to get you some Earth clothing and a Duel Disc."

Duel Disc? "Um…no shoes – my feet can't handle shoes. It's my toe claws, you see, and my feet are tough enough anyway..."

Kisara didn't give me any shoes. Instead I was fitted out with jeans – which needed some tailoring to allow for my tail – a blue shirt – with short sleeves that left me uncomfortably aware of the fur on top of my arms – and a chunk of metal on my right arm that Kisara told me was a Duel Disc. "People set cards on these devices and if it's a monster, then the creature appears in front of them. It's just an illusion…normally."

"Normally?"

"If enough magic is charged through the card, the monster becomes real. At any rate, the illusions are real enough to where when they do battle, they can generate real wind." She pushed something on the Disc and it opened up into almost more of a wing! Then she started pointing to specific places and continuing with her instruction, sending more basics into my mind. "When dueling, you set monsters on top of the disc face up: straight up and down for attack mode and sideways for defense mode. Spells and traps go in these slots below the monster card zones, and activating them involves pushing these buttons. And this," she pushed a button and made an extra slot open up, "is your field spell zone. This puts out an illusion that changes the look of the entire room or the whole area you're dueling in. This spot right over your wrist is where your deck is stored, where you see your life point count," I sensed she meant that only a certain number of points were allowed in the game and dropping to zero was game over, "and your card graveyard. Once you've used a card, you send it in there for the remainder of the game, unless you use a card that can let you choose cards from your graveyard."

I was starting to catch on. "That's where destroyed monsters go, too, right?"

"Right – destroyed or sacrificed monsters go to the graveyard as well."

Then she got me into a machine – a helicopter, she told me – and we set off to a new location. "Normally I'd teleport," she confided, and I could see the spark of near-mischief that she'd had when she was near my age, "but Pegasus says that I interfere with his business when I show up without warning. He knows I'm coming with a new duelist, so there's no problem there."

"Pegasus?"

"Maximillian Pegasus, discoverer of the Duel Monsters card game as it was centuries ago and creator of the card game as it is today." Then Kisara whispered into my big pointed ear, "Don't tell him I called him that: it'll make him insufferable."

I couldn't help it – I giggled.

The helicopter landed on top of one of the tall buildings, and I saw out the window that someone was standing there waiting for us. He was wearing a suit, but he was probably only about my age and bore strong resemblance to a koala without actually having fur. Surely this couldn't be –

"Chumley!" Kisara was out first, with me following right after. "Is Pegasus here?"

"Yeah, he's here. He's getting a room set up filled with cards for the…new duelist…to choose from." He kept stealing glances at me. I hid my left arm behind my back, dropped my ears and tail, and tried for a smile that didn't show teeth.

"All right, lead us to him!"

We went down a couple of floors and found ourselves in a room filled with cards all laid out face down on tables. And just finishing the arrangement was a tall man with long white hair.

He turned as we entered. "Why, Kisara darling! I was wondering when you'd get here!"

She rolled her eyes with a smile. Apparently, he was always like this. "Pegasus, Verity; Verity, Pegasus. I'll wait outside." And that was her exit, leaving me standing there feeling abnormal.

For about a minute, we just stood there looking at each other. It wasn't long before I dropped my own gaze, staring at my unusual feet instead. I did note that he wore his hair hanging over his left eye, completely hiding it.

Pegasus

I must admit, I wasn't sure what Kisara hoped to get out of this girl. Still, I sized her up.

Setting aside the clothes, which Kisara had clearly picked out while trying to remember what young people normally wore around here, I took note of her differences.

For starters, her feet; she wasn't wearing any type of shoe, and for good reason, as her claw-like toenails and furry uppers would make them rather uncomfortable for her. Her ankles were also furry, and I had no reason to doubt that her fur extended farther up her legs than that.

And her tail bore a strong resemblance to a fox's tail, possibly a little sleeker than that, and constantly in slow motion back and forth like a pendulum.

Her hands had claw fingernails that matched those on her feet, and the backs of her hands were slightly furry, but the majority of her fur in that area was on the backs of her arms.

As for her ears…they were tilted down and back, a typical animal's gesture of fear or possibly sadness. A careful probe told me that she was positive I thought she was a freak, since she got that reaction from everyone back at home. Personally, though I didn't share the opinion, I could see why; especially when one wasn't truly expecting a person's ears to have a base that spanned the distance between eyebrow and nose, very fine fur and a sharply-pointed reach that was probably almost the same length as her hand.

She did have a pretty face, though. Again, one would be surprised about her golden eyes, but I saw no reason to hold any of her appearance against her.

All of this I noted in a single minute, and then I extended my hand to her. "Well, I'm sure this is all very confusing for you, darling Verity, but I know you can manage to adjust."

Her ears came up as she lifted her head again to look at me, disbelief running across her face.

"Oh, come on now, I've seen far worse creatures that looked far more human than you do. I have no problems with holding your hand."

After a moment's hesitation, she took my hand and I started leading her around the room. "Now, the way this is going to work is, you are not going to choose these cards: the cards will choose you. Whatever cards call out to you, those are going to be your deck. When you find a card, flip it over and keep going. A deck is forty cards."

Almost as soon as I said "call," Verity's ears twitched. Then she closed her eyes, slowed almost to a stop, and continued twitching her ears.

I released her hand and watched her as she walked around the room on her own, her ears twitching and holding her left hand over the tables. Just as I was starting to wonder if she was going to touch any of them…

…Her hand dropped and flipped over a card.

As she continued on, I approached and took a look at which card had called to her.

Yokaivulpes. That is a tricky card to use… I watched her more closely as she flipped over other cards, instead using my probing to see what she was choosing. Gold Fox of the Desert, Scarlet Fox, Vixen of the Hunt…Somehow I get the feeling that she's not going to be too happy with what's calling to her.

Then she flipped card number forty and opened her eyes. "What did I pick?"

I wandered around the room collecting the cards and briefly wishing I had kinesis. "Nearly every monster that chose you was a fox card."

"What?" She sounded somewhere between indignant and despairing.

I figured as much. She despises herself, and these cards will serve as a reminder of how she's different. "Verity, darling…do you think I chose my Toon cards? Or that Kisara chose to have nearly all Light-type monsters? Whether you like them or not, these cards are meant for you. And when it comes down to it, since they chose you, they will be able to help you as you are learning how to duel." I extended the deck out to her.

Verity

I wasn't interested in where this was going. Still…

"Well…" I looked at the deck and sighed. "Okay…I guess I can get used to being a pack leader." And with that, I took the cards from Pegasus and shoved them into my Duel Disc. (Kisara told me she wasn't giving me a card holster until I had cards for them. I think that was a tiny lack of forethought, since I'd need the thing to carry the cards.)

"That's the spirit! Now good luck at Duel Academy!"

I grinned at him briefly as I turned to walk out the door again. This is going to be a long term.