Me: Long… so long… And while most people have summers off to have lots of fun, I've had non-stop music classes which took up every single minute of the day. And when they were finally done, my parents swept me off to China without telling me anything. Just literally "Hey guess what we're going to China!" and then we left. Ugh….
Me: I don't own Zexal… Can't believe I finally got this up! Here's the final chapter of Discarded Memories.
Chapter 20: What This World is Really About
It's dark in here.
It's really dark in here.
It's small, and dark, and I can't get out.
Nobody's coming.
Why would anybody come?
People have better things to do.
I don't really matter.
There are others out there who are a lot more useful and important.
They have people who care about them more.
So its fine.
I don't really mind staying in here and leaving others alone as long as anybody else doesn't break into my world.
It's fine.
I'll just stay here.
It's safe and unchanging and I'll know exactly what comes when it does.
This whole world doesn't even seem real, just some sort of stupid backdrop made to annoy me.
Grey hallways. Grey streets. Grey people. Black and white everything.
I wonder where the color went?
It all disappeared.
Why?
Color only seemed to exist in that cartoon world. A tiny salvation, a tiny patch of bright colors surrounded by black, white and grey.
Yeah, I'll just stay here.
There's a bunch of funny cartoons, sad cartoons, annoying cartoons and happy cartoons. I'll just stay here with them only. I don't need the real world. I don't need it. If I just stay in my dark little place, everything will be safe and nothing bad will happen.
If I just stay alone, everything will be fine. I have no problems. There's nothing wrong with my life right now as it is. I'm fine. I'll be just fine. I'll be just fine in this black and white and boring world.
So why…
"I'm home!" The girl yelled, walking into her black and white bedroom lazily. It wasn't like anyone was gonna answer anyways.
"Um, hi!" She looked up to see Tsukumo Yuma and Astral in her room, shining brightly with colors, and stared. Her mouth dropped. What? What? What?
"I'm Yuma Tsukumo. Do you know where this is? Sorry if I'm intruding or anything, but I just found myself here!" Yuma said.
The girl continued staring.
"So, if you could help me figure out what's going on, I'll be on my way!"
The girl finally opened her mouth. "Oh….. what the heck is going on."
When did it happen? At some point, color started coming back. It was so gradual, I never noticed it. But it stemmed from him, from Yuma, who never stopped yelling and being happy and excited and… not giving up with that Kattobingu of his. And from Astral and Kotori and Shark and Kaito, who never really cared about how pathetic I was.
I guess it was the Kattobingu. But it's not like that would work here. This is the black and white real world, not the colourful cartoon world.
"Sure I could! If I Kattobingu—"
"You don't get it do you!" She yelled. "This isn't your world where anything is possible when you hope for it! This is our world! It's mean and it tears you down and nothing good happens from it! Don't try so hard on something you don't know how to do."
"You never know until you try."
"Nothing comes from hoping." She said. "You just get your dreams crushed on the way of trying when you realize there's no good coming from it."
Yuma stared at her. "Do you really think that way?"
Of course I think that way. That's just how things are. Things don't change. You can't just change things by coming, by bringing a little color in. You're colourful because you're from a cartoon. When you go back to your world, the color will go back too. And then things will go back to the way they were before, with the black and the white and the grey and everything will be normal again and good riddance! I'm not used to so much color emitting off of just five people, or four people and Astral. My world is black and white, your world has colors, there's a difference. You can't just barge in here and mess up everything I know!
You can't just barge into this world and mess everything up! You can't just barge into my world and bring color back into it! It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way!
You can't just barge in and make me like living again, just because you guys are there!
It doesn't work that way!
"Number 99, Negative Force of Hate's effect! By removing an overlay unit, it gains 100 attack points for every card still in my deck! There are 15 left, so it gains 1500 attack points!" Sarah yelled. "It has 4000 attack points, and you only have 100 life points left! You can't do anything! Number 99 attacks Number 39, Aspiring Emperor Hope!"
"I activate Gentlemander's effect from my hand! When you call an attack, I summon him in defense mode and redirect the attack to him instead!" Yuma yelled, holding out the card as a pink reptile dressed in a black suit jumped out in front. The giant black dragon blasted it apart in one breath, the impact sending Yuma and Astral backwards. Sarah gritted her teeth.
"Hope was targeted for an attack so he's destroyed!" She yelled, the monster burst apart as soon as the words left her mouth. "And now you guys have nothing! I'll set one card facedown and end my turn…"
Yuma pushed himself off of the ground slowly. "Yuma. At this rate, we will lose." Astral said, his body beginning to fade in and out.
"Yeah… But… what do we do?" Yuma said, breathing heavily.
"We keep trying." Astral replied, and Yuma nodded.
"My turn, draw!" He yelled, looking at the card. This wasn't what he needed right now! "I set one monster and end my turn." The card appeared on his field, which would do him some defense for now until he figured something out.
"Draw!" Sarah said. "Number 99 attacks your facedown monster!" The giant dragon blasted apart the card with a dark beam, a swarm of tomatoes roasting into nothing. "I summon Toon Goblin Attack Squad in defense mode and end my turn." She said grudgingly.
"Draw!" Yuma said. "I set another monster facedown."
Sarah fumed. "It's pointless to defend! Hurry up and give up!"
"I'll find a way to win! You'll see!" Yuma yelled back.
"Shut up! Shut up already about that! You can't change what happens! You can't just automatically turn things around miraculously! Miracles don't happen! Hope doesn't happen! Change doesn't happen!" Yuma was such an idiot. He was such an idiot. With so much lifepoints against him and only a 100 left for him, there's no way the duel could turn in his favour. Nothing would change. Nothing would change, and they would all leave when Yuma lost, and her life would return to normal. Her normal black and white life where nothing special or weird that she couldn't understand would happen!
It started raining. It was raining and the rain bothered her cause everything looked blurry now and what was she supposed to do with stupid blurry vision in the middle of a stupid duel with stupid Yuma. "I told you before and I'm telling you again! Your ridiculous Kattobingu doesn't work here! Trying doesn't get you anywhere! Nothing will change from trying! Things are just gonna stay their stupid way, and there isn't anything you can do about! You can't just change what goes on here! You can't just try and think everything will be fine, it won't! Trying hard won't and never will get people anywhere in real life! It doesn't work that way!"
"Really? Is that really what you think?!" Yuma yelled back.
"Of course, cause that's what it is! Trying won't get people anywhere actually! You just get a little lucky and things work! You get unlucky and everything falls down on you! Trying doesn't do anything except hurt you back when you fail! Your Kattobingu won't work no matter how many times you yell it! Grow up, Yuma! I'm telling you this for your own good! That stupid childish thought of trying isn't going to do anything good!"
"...Are you sure? You say it's for my good, but," Yuma said, his eyes filled with, not anger, but sadness, concern, and pity? "aren't you really just trying to convince yourself that?"
Sarah froze. The dark aura vanished instantly. "W-What are you saying?" Her voice shook as she stared at him with wide eyes. It started raining harder. "That's so stupid! Why on earth would I-"
"You're crying."
...What? All the sudden, the world came into focus. It wasn't raining. No, the reason the place looked so blurry and dark was because water was in her eyes. But it wasn't raining anywhere else. There was water streaming down her face, but not anywhere else. Why? It wasn't possible to have rain clouds that small and focused over her, and this wasn't a TV cartoon, storm clouds didn't appear over the heads of upset people. That meant... No. No, that was stupid. That was ridiculous. No way YUMA could actually be right about something like this! That would be so silly! Yeah it would! There had to be a logical reason for why her face was wet without her knowing.
"That's... so silly Yuma... W-Why would I cry...? I'm not sad, I don't have anything to cry about," she reached up her hand to her face slowly, "see, you're just imagining things like you always do. I can't..." Her hand touched the bottom of her eye, feeling the water drip down the sides of her face, coming from her wide eyes, "be... cry...ing..."
Her voice cracked. The tears began dripping onto the ground.
"You're not a bad person. You just keep trying to convince yourself that things are alright the way they already are when you actually don't like it. It's hard and frustrating and lonely though, isn't it. But don't worry, it gets better." He smiled. "I can understand. So instead of hiding, why don't you try again? Just because you messed up once is no reason to quit forever. Get up and try again. Change isn't bad. You'll get stronger. And things will change for the better!"
"That's... Impo—"
"That word is stupid!" Yuma yelled. "I know I'm immature, and reckless, and I'm slow when it comes to things, but I always try my best, and look where I am! I'm surrounded by my friends who'll support me no matter what! That irreplaceable bond is something that makes us all stronger!"
Sarah opened her mouth slowly.
"SHUT UP!" Force shouted, attracting everyone's attention. He glared at Yuma, his face twisted in anger. "SHUT UP ALREADY! Don't you DARE say stuff like that when you don't know anything!"
"W-What?" Yuma stuttered as Force screamed at him.
"Number 99, attack his facedown monster!" Once again the giant dragon blasted apart Yuma's facedown monster, Ganbara Knight. "I summon Toon Cannon Soldier in defense mode, set one facedown, and end my turn!"
Yuma blinked. "Why do that?"
"He's upset, Yuma." Astral replied.
"Well, yeah. I can see that. But even if he was that angry, why go defense?"
Astral's eyes softened slightly. "I do not know. Some people just grow into duel habits."
Duel habits? "Now's not the time Yuma." He stopped and looked at Astral. "She was right about one thing. Defending endlessly isn't going to get us anywhere."
"It's all we can do. Draw!" Yuma said, looking at the new card. Still not something he could use to turn things around, but it would do for now. "I summon Hihihi Hero in defense mode!" A small superhero, dressed in bright blue and orange appeared onto his side of the field. "When he's summoned, I banish one card from my graveyard to draw one!" He drew another card, immediately setting it. "I set it and end my turn."
"I set Toon Gemini Elf in defense mode. Number 99 attacks!"
"I activate my trap, Bye Bye Damage! The attack's negated, and you take double what I would have taken!"
Sarah blinked. "What?" She whispered as the dragon's blast was directed right back at her, blasting her back.
Yuma: 100
Sarah: 7800
"H-How did you draw Bye Bye Damage right there?!" She yelled.
"By believing!" Yuma yelled back. "By still hoping!" He didn't give her another chance to reply. At this point, it was going to be easier to show her than keep trying with words.
Words were never his thing anyways.
"Draw! This is the third card you gave me!" He said. "I play Cup of Ace! Now I flip a coin, and if it's heads, I draw two cards! If it's tails, you draw two! Let's go!"
A huge quarter appeared in the middle of the field, and flipped into the air in a huge arc, falling back onto the ground with a clatter. It spun around in circles, finally falling down onto its side.
"Heads! I draw two cards!" Yuma yelled, drawing two cards. He froze. "These cards are…"
He looked at Shingetsu in the crowd, who met his eye and understood immediately. They both nodded, and Yuma smiled.
"If you say only a miracle can get me out of this, then I'll just cause one then!" Yuma yelled. "I summon V Salamander!" A flaming salamander with four heads appeared onto his field. "When I summon V Salamander, I bring back Hope from the graveyard! Revive, Number 39!"
"W-What?" Sarah stared as the huge, glowing warrior of gold and white rose up once again. It seemed to be chasing away the shadows the Number on her field was bringing.
"I activate Rank Up Magic, Limited Barian's Force!" Yuma yelled, holding the card in the air, red light emanating off of it.
"L-Limited Barian's Force?" She whispered. Was she afraid? Was she actually afraid? She couldn't remember the last time she had been afraid. After that huge blank period, she was actually afraid? What was she afraid of, though?
"This card targets one Rank 4 Xyz monster on my field, and evolves it into a Chaos Xyz Monster that's one Rank higher!" He yelled. "I use Aspiring Emperor Hope to rebuild the Overlay Network! Chaos Xyz Change! Come forth, Chaos Number 39!
Hope dissolved apart, resealing into a haunting, red sword, which glowed as it was changed through the power of the Barian. "Crimson Conqueror, who unifies the Chaos! Release the Eternal Seal now, and with a flash, sweep away the darkness!" A dark red, glowing new form of Hope now stood up straight, sleeker and ready for battle as it swung its sword. "Chaos Number 39, Aspiring Emperor Hope Ray V!"
"H-Hope transformed." Kotori said, staring.
"Yuma, why do you have Barian's Force?!" Yuma paused to look at Astral, who looked at him with confusion. Oh, whoops. That's what he forgot…
"A-Ah, well, I picked it up after Gilag!" He laughed a bit, before turning back to the duel. "Well, let's worry about that later, anyways. V Salamander equips itself to Hope Ray V!" The monster flew up, transforming into new armour and sword for the warrior.
"Watch my miracle!" He yelled. "V Salamander's skill! By removing an xyz material from Hope Ray V, I destroy all of your monsters and you take damage equal to all their attack points!"
"W-Wha…"
"By removing the top three cards of my deck, Number 99's sent back to the extra deck!" Force yelled suddenly, the dragon returning to a beam and flying back into Sarah's deck case. She watched as her remaining monsters were blasted apart by the fierce fire sent from Hope Ray V's sword, coming towards her next.
Yuma: 100
Sarah: 2200
"Hope Ray V direct attacks!"
My god did this ending seem cheesy. It was always like this in anime. The hero gets in a problem, struggles, nearly is defeated, then through a miracle or through their own brains or through help from friends or etc, they solved it and somehow prevailed. It was always predictable. It would always happen in those tv shows. It was always satisfying to watch, but still, it was a bit cheesy. And was it actually happening to her? How cheesy. How very cheesy.
How very like Yuma.
Yuma: 100
Sarah: 0
Yuma breathed heavily. "I won." He said, letting it sink in. "I won!"
"Yuma won!" Kotori and Shingetsu cheered together. "He won! He won!" Shingetsu and Yuma looked at each other, and Shingetsu gave a thumbs up.
"The power of Limit Barian's Force… interesting…" Astral said. He looked at Sarah who had fallen over and was lying on the ground unconscious. She rubbed her head and groaned as she began to sit up.
"Oh man… is this what hangover's feel like? I'm too young to be drinking… Did someone sneak something in my soda?" Sarah mumbled, pushing herself up. She looked around, and blinked. "Um, okay? What happened here?"
"Looks like your plan, whatever it was, is ruined!" Yuma yelled happily at them. Sarah blinked again. What?
Behind her, Vector laughed, and she jumped and crawled away as best as she could. That guy was damn creepy. Before any of them could react, Vector's giant hand shot out.
"YUMA-KUN!" Yuma stared as Shingetsu got grabbed when he jumped in front of him.
"I'll be taking this now. Come get him if you can!" Vector laughed maniacally as Shingetsu squirmed in his grip, trying to break free. A portal formed behind him, and Vector and Shingetsu began disappearing into it. Yuma screamed, then began running after him, trying to reach them. Force looked at him one more time, before sighing and dissolving into the portal, which disappeared just before Yuma reached them.
"Shingetsu! Shingetsu! Shingetsu!" He yelled at the empty air in desperation. Kotori held her mouth, and both Kaito and Shark were staring in shock. What? What was happening? This was a weird dream, right?
"Kaito! Did you find a way to get back to our world? How about the Barian world? We need to save Shingetsu!" Yuma yelled, running up to Kaito desperately. What was happening?
Oh. Shingetsu had already disappeared into the portal with Vector and Force. No. No no no. No not again. No no no no
"NO!" They all turned to see One, who had just burst onto the roof, panting heavily. No. It was too late, wasn't it. Not again. Please not again. How many times had this already happened? Please not again, not again.
"One?" Kotori said in surprise.
"O-One?" Yuma stared, then ran up to him. "One! You know how to get to Shingetsu's, right? Can you help us? Please!"
There was that same desperation in Yuma's eyes that he had seen a hundred times over in his own and everyone else's.
You know what's going to happen if you help him right now.
But it's not like he was able to say no to Yuma anyways. Not with that look in his eyes.
"I… can help…" He said slowly, very uncomfortable with the situation. "But…"
"But what?"
One opened his mouth, then paused. "Nothing." He muttered. "I guess it's a good thing I managed to sneak into your deck case, otherwise I wouldn't have made it here. Take out my card from your deck case."
"You're in my deck?" Yuma opened up his deck case, then took out the flashing card of Number 1. Oh, when did that get there?
"Yeah, pass it over please." One took his card back, then took a deep breath. His body began flashing along with the card. A swirling yellow portal began forming behind him. "Hurry then, this won't keep open forever." He breathed heavily. This really was a bad idea.
"Where is this portal going?" Astral asked.
"To your world." Hopefully….
"It's taking us home?" Kotori said hopefully.
"Yeah." Probably…
"Wait." They all looked at Sarah, who just managed to stand up. "Wait wait wait. You're leaving? Now? Just like that?"
"We found a way back to our world. Of course we're going then." Shark said, walking over. "Plus Yuma has to save that friend of his."
"The portal's not going to last forever you guys." One said, breathing heavily.
"Okay then, let's go." Yuma said, but Sarah grabbed his arm.
"NO! NO! It doesn't work like that! It doesn't freaking work like that!" Sarah screamed.
"You'll be fine. Everything will be fine!"
"You can't just leave after all that! After all that stuff I had to go through, after all the stuff you guys messed up in my life, you can't just leave! It doesn't work that way!"
Yuma smiled sadly. "Here." He took her hand, putting something in it. "We're friends. We'll always be there for you, even when it doesn't seem like it."
"Sarah, you're really strong!" Kotori said, smiling at her. "Don't worry. Everything will get better."
"Don't get sappy now. You've got your whole life ahead of you. Don't let something like this get you down." Shark said.
"Find a life that doesn't involve us in it. It's your life, not ours." Kaito said.
"Have fun!" Yuma gave her a big grin. "Remember to Kattobingu!"
"Goodbye Sarah Walker." Astral said. "And thank you."
And one by one, they stepped into the portal. The swirling, bright colorful lights blended together, bright lights she would have never realized existed if it wasn't for that stupid idiot Yuma who busted into her life like that. It distorting space around it as it grew smaller and smaller, disappearing right before her wet eyes.
-linebreak-
"Fun! Fun!" Anne said as she and Sarah walked up the large staircase to their room. She immediately jumped onto the bed, lying down and laughing. "Can we go again?"
Sarah looked at her with dark eyes. "Oh, you mean the card shop?" She sat down on the bed next to her, patting her little sister's head. "I dunno."
"Where Yu? Where Ko? Where Shark and Kai and blue person? When coming home?" Anne asked, and Sarah froze.
"They're going home right now… not to here though, to their real home." She replied.
"Visit! Visit!" Anne began jumping on the bed again. "Visit fun!"
"We can't visit them. They can't visit us." Sarah replied quietly. "We'll never see them again."
"Aww…" Anne sat down, upset. She looked around the room again, her eyes lighting up. "Yu! Ko!"
"What about them?"
"There!"
"Huh?" Sarah looked at her. "What are you talking abo—" She froze, looking at her bedside drawer. On it was a picture frame with a picture in it, one that was not there before. Sarah crawled across the bed to it, grabbing it and staring at the picture.
Staring back at her was a picture of her, Yuma, and Kotori yelling at each other, smiling, with Kaito and Shark sighing in the background. Astral was watching them with an amused expression behind them, with Anne clapping happily. It was that Saturday when they all crept up on her doing her usual Saturday morning cartoons. One look made it obvious how much fun they were having, and how happy they were. She couldn't remember the last time she had laughed so hard with others. How did a picture… end up here…
"Look! Yuma and Ko and Shark and Kai and Blue!"
"Yeah." Sarah began to smile.
"Look! Sis!" Anne pointed at her in the picture with her small hand. "Smiling! You're happy!"
"Yeah." Tears began streaming down her face, as she tried to wipe them away. They weren't stopping. Why weren't they stopping? Tears were streaming down her face and she was wiping them away but they weren't stopping, they just kept coming. Why couldn't they stop?
She opened up the hand with the something Yuma had given her, still not knowing what it was. In her hand was the winning prize card, Number 5, a card she had never seen before, and a piece of paper. There were four badly drawn people, and what was probably Astral on it, surrounding the word 'Kattobingu'.
"Kattobingu daze!" Anne said happily.
"Yeah." Sarah cried. "Yeah. Kattobingu daze. Yeah."
And on that day, Anne never saw her sister cry harder than she was right now.
-linebreak-
"Yuma, why would you give her that Number?" Astral asked as they floated through the portal. Yuma shrugged.
"She just seemed so lonely and desperate. Why not?"
"Yuma, it's very likely we'll never see her again."
"I'll work something out. If we Kattobingu, everything will be fine!" Yuma said. "Now let's go save Shingetsu."
One looked back at them. "Um, Yuma, about that…" Yuma blinked.
"Yeah, what is it?"
One paused. "Nothing."
You're leading them right where Vector wants.
"I know. Please let this time be different." One whispered, light blinding the portal as they were sent off to the next world.
Me: Well, I finally got this finished…. Finally… My god thank you all for being so patient with me! So so so sorry for taking so long! I love you all!
Me: And a special thanks to Ying-Yang Yoh, prowlingcat, Number96Lover123, decode9, Light-Sakura, LuvLuvLuvAnime, Aristomacho, BlackMistLover12, Maxxotic1, Yami Chaos And Kaito, Raven Obscura Escuridao, Zeladious, Soul Rider, AKA99, K.I.T.T. RIDER, mysterydude123, Animecartoonlover36, eclipse2012, Matt, Anime Wrestling Writer, Ariette5, Bookworm210, SonicFan12, YugiohPokemon28, trc20331, ronin warriors fanatic, Eunice Pacheco, Sonic-Yugioh-Zexal-Fangirl, The Keeper of Worlds, and Breana! My god I just wanna hug you all and squeeze the life out of you! (NO NOT REALLY STAY ALIVE FOREVER I WOULD GRANT YOU ALL IMMORTALITY IF I COULD)
Hihihi Hero
Effect Monster / LIGHT / Warrior
ATK: 600 / DEF: 500
Level 3
When this monster is successfully summoned to your side of the field, banish one card in your graveyard. If you do, draw one card.
Number 99: Negative Force of Hate
Xyz Monster / DARK / Dragon
ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2000
5 Level 4 Monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz material from this card. This monster gets 100 ATK points for each card still in your deck. If this monster would be destroyed, remove from play the top three cards of your deck, then send this card back to the Extra Deck.
(Dualism of Mirrors / petit milady / My Tradition of doing Kareoke just outta happiness!)
Shinyuu ni saisho kara nareru wake ja nai
Sore mo REAL
Shinken na BATTLE no naka de mitsukeru
Mou hitotsu no jibun
Kattou kara no kakusei wa
CHANCE no TURN! tsukamu! DRAW!
DUEL! DUALISM!
Togisumashiau CARD
Unmei no aite wa kokoro, utsusu kagami
Moshimo "TIE" no mama de
Taoretara doro darake de tataeaou
Maku wa kitte otosareta
Kokokara futari no TURN
Onaji mono mite ita nda
Tsumaranai GAME ni shinai tame ni
Sou dayo, chigau sou ja nai, to
Tatakai nagara shinka suru
DUEL! DUALISM!
Uneridasu HARMONY
Shoubu wa "UNISON" tamashii ga ugoita
Ima wa yomikirenai,
Te no uchi no azayakasa ni waraeba ii
DUEL! DEAREST!
Togisumashiau CARD
Unmei no aite wa kokoro, utsusu kagami
Itsuka "TIE" no mama de
Taoretara doro darake de tataeaou
Me: The final instalment of "The Strongest Numbers!", coming some time hopefully soon! Despite high school and everything, I'm gonna motivate myself to get that done, since you guys really deserve it, somehow sticking with me for so long! Bye, for hopefully not long!