Parallel World Fusion
II : Tigre des Flammes
Although equally ultra-modern and glitzy as Sternbild, Neo Domino had somehow managed to keep some futuristic polish about itself; from the abstract-looking Infinity Monument over the Daedalus Bridge, to the surprisingly graceful dragon statues scattered around the city. The long racing courses curved around the heart of downtown Neo Domino, veins of transportation and people flowing with the lifeblood of the city in a way that kept up the tempo of life without it being hectic or forced. Unlike Sternbild, parts of which had been hurriedly built for living and factory space, Neo Domino seemed meticulously planned and built, and it showed in the Greco-Roman marble exterior of the Neo Domino History Museum, so incorrectly named though it currently showed an exhibit on Indian culture.
"It's a little bit morbid, to be honest," Kotetsu commented, staring at the painting of a ten-armed woman bearing various weapons, standing on the back of a tiger to fend off demons.
"'Durga, the Hindu goddess of victory of good over evil,'" Barnaby noted on the plaque next to the painting. "'Durga rides the sacred tiger Dawon, also known as Dewloren, into battle, bearing the trishula which represent various trinities, or guna.' Nothing morbid."
"I mean the next one," Kotetsu pointed to a near-identical ten-armed woman wreathed and garlanded with skulls, draped in intestines, bearing a decapitated head in one arm and dancing on top of a man with her tongue sticking out.
"'Kali, the fierce aspect of Durga, which is associated with Parvati and Shakti,'" Barnaby read out. "'She is the goddess of time, change, and destruction.' I see what you mean."
"Right?" Kotetsu nodded quickly.
"Either this is a testament to the frightfulness of justice, or it's a commentary on downtrodden tigers."
"Buuuuunny," Kotetsu lamented, drawing a deep breath before he flinched and held his nose.
"Isn't that so?" Barnaby needled, turning to consider more of the displays. "What are you doing?"
"No, it's just... something stinks here," Kotetsu mumbled, looking around the stark mausoleum of statuary and its milling viewers, as well as a low hubbub of sound that followed the crowds and their soft gasps at the subject matter.
"Stinks?" Barnaby sniffed experimentally, before clapping a hand over his nose and mouth. "You're right. It stinks."
"Oi!" Kotetsu approached a nearby blue-suited security guard with his back turned. "There's something wrong..."
The security guard collapsed, painting the Carrara marble a bloody red with a wet splat. The crowd stopped, several people gasping at the sight. The security guard twitched, corpsing on the floor, prone on his front as he stumbled back up just as Barnaby got to him. A maggot dropped, twitching before there was a scream and a stampede.
"What the-" Kotetsu gaped as the rotting corpse security guard picked him up and threw him into another display, this one with a man dancing.
"Kotetsu-san!" The dancing statue was barely grazed as Kotetsu was spun about, Barnaby somehow managing to use the momentum to ground them, with Kotetsu in a perfect bridal carry. "Are you alright?"
"Yea- Look out!" The dancing statue fell amidst tinkling glass as another corpsing guard joined them, this time the Hero duo were lugged out of the way by Kotetsu.
Barnaby's ringlets shimmered with NEXT power as he grabbed one of the jagged chakrams from a display and flung it, the honed edge slicing off one arm. A drop stained the marble red, but the corpse made no response or reaction, its gaunt face hollow and empty in its single-minded goal. "Why would they attack you, Kotetsu-san? You don't have much brains."
"You shut up!"
There was a piercing scream, and Kotetsu was already in motion to pull a little girl away from the approaching zombies.
"Seika!" A red-haired woman called out, running towards them.
"Baa-chan!" the girl called back. "Thank you, Uncle!"
"It's alright," Kotetsu assured.
"T- Thank you," the well-dressed woman bowed before her back straightened. "Seika, go out. Help is coming."
"Yes!"
"What are you doing?" Kotetsu asked as the woman put on a large plate-like device onto her left arm. "It's dangerous here, get out!"
One high-jump kick from Barnaby and a flip sent a zombie scattered through a multitude of weapons. The alarms kept ringing, joined now with the overhead sprinklers that started to bite at the bloody prints.
Several javelins were flung out with audible clacks, and more zombies were shambling back up. The woman's device opened to form a plate attachment that shimmered with carmine light. From it she drew a card, holding it aloft before her.
"Wall of Thorns!"
A shimmering translucent barrier appeared between the zombie's thrown punch and the two of them. The same wall radiated light, which slammed into the zombies present. Several of them popped with audible cracks like breaking bone; one imploded, scattering seeds about.
Amidst the corpses slamming into the marble, Barnaby just gaped. "What just happened?"
Purple energy was beginning to crackle, just as Barnaby stopped glowing.
"They're coming back," the woman frowned at the large glass floor-to-ceiling windows of the exhibition hall. "Let's get out."
Kotetsu opened his mouth, but the truly inhuman groan and the scrabbling of fingers killed any words he might have spoken. "Good idea. Ladies first."
She frowned. "I'm the only one who can take them on at present. Go on ahead."
"But, miss, you're-"
"Kotetsu-san!" Barnaby dived to trip up the zombie, but got his leg caught and the Hero was bodily flung into Kotetsu. The wind was knocked out of his lungs, the sprinklers kept spattering water, and Kotetsu had lost his hat somewhere... it was not a good time, Kotetsu reflected as he shielded Barnaby from the rain of spears.
"Black Rose Dragon!"
Thorned black vines snapped out, throwing the zombie away. Powerful and wild as a forest fire, red wings spread. Blearily, still buried and protecting Barnaby, Kotetsu watched as the black and red dragon blew a stream of violet flame to burn the monster to death. And still, even in death, the zombie kept twitching as the glass window behind it shattered with a blast of cold.
"Dark Core." A sphere of black surrounded it and winked out, just as white paws skidded to a stop and the armoured white tiger that possessed those paws gave a low growl.
Its rider dismounted, petting the tiger absently. "It looks like you had most of this under control."
"The Duelist?" the red-haired woman with the dragon demanded.
"Unknown." The dark-haired girl stopped the ministrations on her tiger, glancing down to watch the seeds dissolve into so much air. "We must leave."
"But there are people still trapped here," the red-haired woman pointed, as the dragon began to dig through the wall of spears and drag the two Heroes out. "He's injured! Black Rose Dragon, we must get them out."
Held up in the air, gently swaying, the black vines manipulated Kotetsu and Barnaby out towards the waiting ambulances, all the while under the watching gaze of the dark-haired girl. Kotetsu blinked once, twice, and the tiger huffed at the third time, at which he began to sleep.
Yellow crime scene tape decorated the hall now, technicians swarming all over the place, officers taking reports, collating information to piece together a cohesive picture of the event timeline. Some more technicians in blue onesies were checking on the imploded – and, in one case, roasted – remains.
"There's something!" One of them called, pulling out the wet remains of a card from a corpse, one with a shimmering square box still present. "A card?"
"A card?" was Detective Inspector Ushio's echo, along with the blue-haired girl. "Why?"
"This is the first time I've encountered such things," the girl commented as well. "Skull Servant... a weak card, but in the right combo... any other cards?"
"Erm..." Ushio peered into the evidence bags, setting the wet card back into its own paper evidence bag. "The Wandering Doomed... Ghoul with An Appetite... Graveyard and the Hand of Invitation... Armored Zombie... The 13th Grave... and the seeds that you saw just now was a Pumprincess the Princess of Ghosts, according to the security tapes."
"When Pumprincess is destroyed, it can be set up as a Continuous Spell," the girl commented. "This may be just the beginning, Ushio-keibu. And... the two men?"
"Ah, they're foreigners from Sternbild," Ushio replied, rifling through papers. "Look, missy*, I might be giving you Arcadia people my help, but you still gotta report to me, alright? You might insist on this, but as the Neo Domino Police you're my responsibility."
"Do I look like I would lie to you?" she asked. "The information."
"Ah, Kaburagi T. Kotetsu and Barnaby Brooks Junior," Ushio read out. "Looks like they're TV stars or something. That worldwide Hero TV show? And they have powers, like you guys."
"NEXT and Psychic Duels are different," the girl primly stated. "If people wish to make a display of their powers, they become targets. Then they die."
"Right...I forgot, your mother...Anyway... what do you think?" Ushio asked awkwardly. "About this guy?"
"From the selection of cards... these are cheap." she bluntly replied. "The criminal was probably testing his powers. The DuelDisk usually means that the Psychic Duelist would have a limited range. This way... if we assume that the card was implanted into the corpse, the range would definitely be extended, making a zombie. I'll have to search the database when I get back, but this is more than likely to be a set-up."
"A set-up... got it," Ushio noted down. "What's with the world...?"
"If that is all, we must interview the men," the girl noted.
"You go ahead," Ushio called as she walked off, pulling out his cellphone. "I have a suspicious person to call on."
A few buttons, and Ushio was put through KaibaCorp's switchboard to MIDS. "Hello? It's Detective Inspector Ushio. Is Dr Fudo in?"
"Apologies," the intern sputtered. "Chief just left the place. Some big-shot CEO just flew in from Sternbild and Chief is showing him around. Can I take a message?"
"Ah, it's alright," Ushio reassured, hanging up. "Sternbild, huh? And those two as well... what a coincidence."
"Our interview today is shot," Barnaby's lengthy complaint was ongoing from his perch on an uncomfortable steel-framed hospital chair. "Ms Joubert is going to kill us. The only reason Apollon Media is footing the bill for our round trip is just for this interview."
"It's not our fault! Ouch..." Kotetsu winced from his bed. The two of them were currently in an enclosed ward, accompanied with their very own guards and two boys milling about. It could have been the children's ward, except that neither of them looked sick or injured, and both had one of those devices the dragon-wielding red-haired woman carried.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen," the same woman walked in, now in a doctor's coat, but the same device still on her arm. "Reggie, Glen, it's alright. She's here."
Both boys nodded, walking out of the ward to close the door with finality.
"You work here?!" Kotetsu accused.
"I do," the woman confirmed. "My name is Izayoi Aki, and I'm a doctor here. You are?"
"I'm Tiger. He's Bunny." Kotetsu pointed.
"This isn't Sternbild, old man!" Barnaby drew a deep breath. "I'm sorry for him. He's Kotetsu Kaburagi. My name is Barnaby Brooks Jr. We're both from Sternbild, working for Apollon Media."
"That works out so far," Aki agreed, writing on her clipboard. "All in line with what the Neo Domino Police Department said. Do you have any history of drug allergies?"
"No/Yes," was their simultaneous answer.
"I'm not allergic!" Kotetsu protested.
"Penicillin makes you break out in hives."
"T- That's mild!"
"No, it's not!"
"Well... perhaps I should step in later," Aki stated as she finished writing.
"The rest of our medical records can be gotten through Apollon Media," Barnaby automatically supplied. "It's better than relying on this unreliable old man. I presume that your real purpose is to silence us, is it?"
"Hmm?" Aki looked up, before producing a staff pass with her face clearly printed. "No, I really work here. I'm usually in the paediatric ward, but I help out in A&E emergencies and with cases involving NEXT."
"Because you're a NEXT yourself?" Barnaby demanded.
"It's not exactly clear," Aki absently replied. "I mean people with special abilities in general, be they Noted Entities with Extraordinary Talents or Psychic Duelists."
"Psychic Duelists?" Kotetsu echoed.
"Origami Cyclone mentioned them," Barnaby lectured. "Players of Duel Monsters, who can inflict real damage through a card game. That Black Rose Dragon... might you be the Black Rose Witch, Dr Izayoi?"
Aki just looked at them, golden cat-eyes blank and shadowed. "I have no obligation to inform you."
"I understand," Barnaby backed down, eyeing her sudden twitch towards the device. "But you have not answered the question."
"Oi, she saved us. Be polite," Kotetsu coughed, sensing that the bunny was going mad.
Barnaby scowled, but relaxed from his perch next to Kotetsu's cot. "In what universe does a card game hurt people?"
"I don't know," Aki stated. "My friends don't seem to mind, though. However, I have someone from the authorities who wishes to speak with the both of you. Will you take it?"
"We don't mind." Kotetsu flashed his best smile.
Aki smiled back, though it was a perfunctory gesture as she turned to the door. "I see..."
The temperature dropped as the door opened and she walked in; a dark-haired girl wearing a buttoned long-sleeved shirt, paired with a monochrome plaid pleated skirt and black tights in brown loafers. Her hair itself was worn loose, pinned up only with a barrette on the back for neatness. It was her eyes that were the most arresting feature of her features: old and cold enough to freeze. She was accompanied with a large heavy-set man with dark skin, but the man paled in comparison to her presence.
"Good afternoon," the girl spoke, her voice high-pitched and cold in accented English. "I am Setsuka Shimotsuki, a Psychic Duelist representing the Neo Domino Arcadia Movement. Detective Inspector Ushio has agreed to be the representative of the law in this investigation."
"...a child?" Kotetsu was the first to react.
"We have reason to believe that Kaburagi-san was targeted," Setsuka continued. "Please cooperate with our investigation."
"...someone tried to murder me?" Kotetsu pointed a finger straight into the kitty-goatee. "Really?"
"UTC +0900 fourteen-sixteen hours today, four known NEXT assassins enter Neo Domino City," Setsuka recited with barely a change in expression. "Before that, two days ago, The Sternbild Daily reported the trip of Nathan Seymour to Neo Domino City, accompanied by friends Kotetsu Kaburagi and Barnaby Brooks Junior. Our presence mean that those assassins would usually never come here, since we of the Arcadia Movement watch over all Noted Entities in the area, especially in Neo Domino City and its outlying areas. It's a one-in-three chance between Mr Brooks, Mx Seymour, and yourself; hence the 'reason' instead of a definitive conclusion."
"Me?"
"It could be Nathan or I as well, old man," Barnaby snapped. "It's a one-in-three chance, like she said."
"But... why are you investigating?" Kotetsu turned to the girl. "A child having to involve herself like this, isn't it too stressful? What about school? Children-"
"If it is a question of ability, there are few better suited Psychic Duelists in the whole city," Setsuka stated. "In the whole world, as well. Furthermore, there is an additional angle to the game."
"Then get one who's overage!" Kotetsu shot back.
"None of them are," Setsuka replied.
"Then... Dr Izayoi is a Psychic Duelist as well... right?"
"I..." Aki started. "I... can't."
The cold eyes narrowed. "Dr Izayoi is sworn to the Hippocratic Oath. Furthermore, there is an additional angle-"
Without looking, she reached back and grabbed a hand, eliciting a squeal and a moaning Nathan clutching his hand close to himself. "What's with that?"
"Just nice," Ushio sighed, relieved. "I won't be able to control her much longer, Dr Fudo."
"That sounds strange coming from you, Ushio," Yusei spoke up. "I wasn't even intending to get involved in this. Hello, Setsuka."
"Professor," was the cold reply. "Shall we begin?"
*お嬢さん vs お嬢ちゃん
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