Chapter 3--Visitors and Voices
The thing that struck her most was the greenness. This place was full of life, full of vibrant energy the like of which she had never seen before. It was dark and cold in the place she lived, or rather tried to remain alive. Her "home" was not a place that welcomed life. Death was everywhere, and there were none of these growing things, these...plants. That was what they were called--plants. She had heard the word used once or twice, known its meaning, but to see them for herself...it was another matter entirely. Everywhere she looked in this strange World, things were moving, growing, living with such wanton energy that it was almost frightening after a life of whispers and despair. Even the tree in which she was now perched was a burst of life, its green leaves dappled with sunlight as the warm air tossed its branches playfully. This World was so strange...so happy. It was something she could never have imagined in all her wildest dreams, and she had had many.
She glanced down again at the small group she was observing. After running into the strange person at the building of papers the previous day, she had decided to find out more about him, and had been fortunate enough to find him. This place they were in was strange to her, but everything here was. It was meaningless to her that nearly all the people in this place were young, or that they were all dressed similarly. She had no way of knowing or guessing that this was a school, that the people were students, and that most of them were perfectly normal people leading perfectly normal lives, untroubled by wars in other Worlds.
She did not know that most of them were normal; she did know that at least one was not.
She continued to watch the little group of four, all sitting at a table. She couldn't fathom what they were doing; moving bits of paper around, taking them off stacks and putting them on the table, sometimes moving them from one stack to another. It was as meaningless to her as the building and the people; she had no concept of games, no concept of doing something for fun. There was no such thing as pleasure in her life. Her life was nothing but pain.
If she had to guess, she would say that they were human. She had seen enough different species to narrow it down, but she had no concept of this world's manner of dress or appearance. In her life, every piece of clothing, ever hair and every inch of height, had meaning. Everything she knew about people was based on appearance, and these people's appearances were unlike those she had seen in her own life.
The three humans were sitting on one side of the table, watching two of their number move the pieces of paper around. The only female member of the group seemed strange to her, but only because the human was smiling; people didn't smile without reason in her life. She couldn't understand why any of them should be smiling or happy, as nothing seemed to be going on. The human girl was normal for her World, with large blue eyes and short brown hair, but of course this did not seem normal at all to her. In her life, only important people were allowed to have long hair, so she of course assumed that the human girl must be some kind of underling. In her life, all people were categorized in terms of power and importance; she had no concept of friendship, of alliance for alliance sake.
The second human observer was male, and taller than the girl. He had dark hair, also short, but that was slightly more logical; the fact that it was combed into a peak at the center of his head was just bizarre. She decided to skip over this one for now; he was too strange for her to understand.
The last human was one of the two moving the pieces of paper around. She thought he must be of some importance, because his hair was longer than the other two; it was blond, hanging mop-like around his face. But, to her surprise, he didn't seem to be in charge; none of them were. They were just sitting there, moving the papers, watching, smiling...none of their actions seemed logical. Perhaps looking at the last one would yield some answers.
This was the one she was interested in, the one she had run into. This one was sitting with his back to her, so she couldn't see his face, but she was sure it was the same one; there was no mistaking it. She was sure this one could not be human, mostly because she didn't think he could possibly be the same species as the other three; slaves usually weren't. There were several things that made her think he was a slave. He was much smaller than the others, for one thing; his feet didn't even reach the ground from the bench he was sitting on. In her life, height signified importance; being that small meant you had to be a slave of some sort. Slaves were so malnourished and overworked their growth was nearly always stunted. His clothing only supported her theory; he was wearing a filthy, ragged coat, nearly falling apart. Slaves' clothing was always tattered, because no one cared about a slave's appearance. Yes, he must certainly be a slave...there were only two pieces that didn't fit.
One was the fact that he was moving the pieces of paper around with one of the humans--that wasn't right. Slaves never did things with their masters, and they would never be allowed to sit at the same table, or even in the same room unless they had a task to perform. No slave could be as important as he seemed.
The other problem was his hair. Slaves' hair was always cut short; in fact, hacked off would be a better way to describe it. No master wanted their slaves' hair to get caught in machinery or filthy with the dried blood it would certainly be covered in before long from beatings and whippings. But this one's hair wasn't short at all--in fact, it was more bizarre than all the others put together. How it was possible to have blond/black/red hair growing straight up in the air, attempting some semblance of order by falling into triangular peaks, she had no idea. She did know that despite these discrepancies, she was certain he was some kind of slave.
*****
If Yugi and his friends could have heard her thoughts about them, they probably would have laughed. None of them were slaves or masters or underlings, and they weren't doing anything of dire importance. Their school day was over, and they were playing a game of Duel Monsters. Of course, just because she was wrong about them didn't mean they were ordinary; they were anything but. Tea, Tristan, Joey, and Yugi are four of the very few people in this World who know about the Multiverse.
There is another member of their group, although she cannot see him. This is Yami. Only Yugi and Tea know he is there at all, and only Yugi can hear him; their other friends do not have spirit-sight, and Yami usually doesn't speak aloud when Yugi's friends are around. Yami is the only member of the group who knows that Yugi would win every game if he didn't sometimes lose on purpose; it is very difficult to outdo a Guardian in their area of special ability. Of course, this Guardian didn't even know all of his abilities.
"Okay, Yug, your turn."
"Hmm...I'll play...the Dark Magician."
Yugi picked the top card off his deck without looking at it and put down on the table, face-up.
It was the Dark Magician.
Yugi paused for a moment, then realized that there was no way he could have known what card was on top of his deck without seeing it.
"Whoa--how did I do that?"
Yugi's friends all looked from him to the card on the table uncomprehendingly. They had seen people "psychically" predict their cards, but it had never been anything but a hoax before. How could this be possible?
"Yugi...you can predict cards?"
"No--of course not!"
"But that
card..."
"Try doing it again--maybe it was just a coincidence."
Yugi doubtfully put his hand on top of his deck, then paused. "But I can't predict cards--it's impossible!"
Yugi, you're trying too hard...calm down...after all, what difference does it make? Just guess and you'll be wrong and that'll prove you can't predict cards.
"Yeah...you're right. Okay, I'll give it a try..."
Yugi closed his eyes.
"Spellbinding Circle...then Koumori Dragon...then Mirror Force...then Dark Hole...then Silverfang."
Yugi looked at the five cards on the table. They were the cards he had guessed, in the order he had named them. There was complete silence for a moment.
See? I knew you were trying too hard.
"You knew I could do this the whole time!?"
Well, I guessed. When you knew which card it was, I figured you'd be able to guess the others.
"But...how did I do it?"
Yugi's friends were wondering that too, but they were so shocked they didn't speak. It was among the most bizarre things they had ever seen (at least in their opinion), and they had seen some pretty strange things since their adventures in the Multiverse began.
As they were all wondering at Yugi's new ability, there was a bright light beneath the table they were sitting at, and a small, fanged, purple dragon with bright red eyes and leathery wings appeared.
"Koumori! I told you not to Summon yourself in public!"
The dragon growled and snarled unintelligibly (at least to those who didn't speak Draconic), but Yugi had another way to speak to his monsters.
"Nobody's gonna see me..."
"What if they did? It would be a complete disaster, you have to stop doing that."
"Well you wanted to know how you predicted your cards."
"You know?"
"No. But I know someone who does. Silverfang can tell you...he knows all that kind of stuff..."
"Oh...well, thanks, I guess. And stop appearing like that!"
"Fine...I'll listen next time. Maybe."
The Koumori dragon Desummoned itself. The extreme bizarreness of having a dragon, and a Duel Monster at that, appear and then disappear seemingly randomly finally returned the power of speech to Yugi's friends.
"Yugi, what just happened?"
"Where'd that dragon come from?"
"And...how come you were talking to it?"
Yugi looked up, having completely forgotten that all of this would seem not just strange, but downright crazy to his friends.
"Oh, that was just the Koumori Dragon. I told him not to Summon himself where someone might see him, but he never listens...and I was talking to him because he started talking to me. Lessee...Silverfang, I need to talk to you."
The silver wolf appeared, but this was at least less conspicuous than a dragon. Scratching his ear, Silverfang settled down to explain his master's new ability.
"So you want to know why you were able to predict your cards?"
"Well...it would be nice...."
"All right. You know which cards we are by are magical auras. While the pieces of paper you use to Summon us are not magical in and of themselves, they are capable of channeling magic, and that magic is subtly different for different monster, magic, and trap cards. You can tell which cards are which without looking at them because you can feel that magic. You will only be able to intuit your own cards at first--the ones which are most loyal or best known to you. With practice, you will be able to identify any card."
"Oh...I think I kind of understand now...so it's like caller ID?"
"I have no knowledge of this 'caller ID.'"
"You know, on a telephone...you know who's calling you by their phone number. I know which cards are which by the aura of the thing they Summon...right?"
"That is correct."
"Okay...thanks, Silverfang--you'd better Desummon now..."
The wolf exited as the dragon had before him, leaving Yugi's friends speechless once again. Although they could Summon monsters themselves, having a monster as a friend still seemed strange to them.
I think you scared your friends....
"Why? It's not like there's anything strange about Summoning, they can all do it too."
Yeah, but...they don't really talk to their monsters on a regular basis.
"Oh. Oops."
*****
She couldn't hear what they were saying from her perch, but she could see that the three humans thought the fourth member of their group as strange as she did. Quickly sliding down the trunk of the tree, she began walking toward them. She very much wanted to speak to this one who reminded her so much of the people she knew....