Chapter 3
Morning soon came, the sun shone brightly down upon the streets. Busses, taxi's and cars passed down the roads, and pedestrians waited impatiently for their lights to change so they could hurry on towards their destinations.
"Kim come on, we're not even late this time." Jounouchi protested as Kim walked a little faster than normal to school. Ever since Jounouchi had become friends with Yugi, he had agreed to walk with Kim to and from school as the two lived a few blocks away from each other. Sometimes they stopped to walk with Anzu and Yugi, but on this morning it was just the two of them.
"I know, but...I don't know, I guess I just have a feeling we should get there early today." Kim said as she tightened her hold on her bag.
"Aw what's the rush? usually I try to prolong my torture."
the girl smiled a little up at him, he said some of the funniest things, but then she thought a lot of his words were funny.
"I just do ok?"
Jounouchi sighed but grudgingly picked up his pace. It wasn't long before the two made it to Domino High school. Kim's feeling of getting there early seem to prove her right, just as the two arrived, a paramedic was slamming the doors to an ambulence shut and the vehicle rolled away from the school.
"Wow, I wonder what happened." Kim voiced as she watched it drive down the street and disappear around a corner.
"Well only one way to know, we just ask around." Jounouchi said shrugging, but looking excited that somebody had to be taken away in an ambulance.
Kim was about to stop one of the dispersing students, when,
"Kim! Jounouchi!"
the two turned to see Honda rushing to the two, "Did you hear about Karita?"
"Karita?" Kim asked blinking,
"yeah, according to some, a student saw Karita collapsed on the ground, they alerted the principal who then called an ambulance right away."
"well what happened to him?" Jounouchi asked, and Honda shrugged
"beats me, the student just said that Karita was passed out with a look of terror on his face. There was a pulse though."
"what a shame." Jounouchi sighed and Kim elbowed him
"you can't really mean that can you?" she asked staring up at him, before Jounouchi could respond he was interrupted with their names being called again.
"Anzu, Yugi," he greeted "morning."
"I suppose you don't know what happened around here do you?" Anzu asked gesturing to the still large crowd of students, discussing Karita's mysterious passing out.
Honda filled her in on what he had heard and she pursed her lips.
"Well that's weird." she said finally when Honda had finished talking. "but maybe he just had a stroke or something."
"maybe..." Kim said thoughtfully, the five stood around discussing possibilities before the bell rang out and they had to hurry to class.
As Kim was settling into her chair, she looked beside Jounouchi where an empty desk sat, just yesterday it had finally been filled by another student.
"hey, where do you suppose Bakura is?" Jounouchi asked her, "you don't think he's still upset about the rumors and Karita from yesterday do you?"
"I don't know." Kim murmured "Maybe,"
"Well, we should all go pay him a visit." the blonde said smiling
"do you really think we should?"
"Well why not?" he asked and she hesitated before giving a reluctant nod,
"alright then," she agreed slowly,
"Well, this is the apartment." Jounouchi mused as the group came to an apartment complex. It looked to be a comfortable enough builidng. "Bakura must be down in the dumps, but luckily he's our friend! We'll play games with him until we prove that those other coma's are just coincidences!" the blonde declared.
Anzu, Yugi, and Honda all nodded in enthusiasm, Kim felt herself nodding as well, however she really wondered if it was seriously just a coincidence that Bakura's other friends would fall into a coma? That seemed really unlikely.
However curiosity got the better of her and so she followed her friends up the stairs, until the reached room 601.
"Well this is his room." Kim said pointing to the name tag "his name is on it."
Since Yugi was closest to the doorbell, he was the one who rang it. After a few moments they heard footsteps and the door knob turned, revealing a confused Ryou.
"hello?" he asked tentatively
"hey there!" the group greeted cheerfully.
"We've come to play games with you!" Yugi said smiling at Bakura,
the boy's eyes widened as panic crossed his feautures.
"n-no you guys, you better get out..." he gave a cough before shaking his head "get out of the hall and come on in,"
"Don't mind if I do!" Jounouchi said cheerfully, walking in and removing his shoes. Anzu, Yugi, Honda and Kim followed him, removing their shoes as well and setting them to the side.
"Bakura...are you ok?" Kim asked, talking about the Karita incident. Bakura turned to her and just smiled,
"yeah, I'm fine." he told her and she managed to smile back at him, although she noticed there was just something a little off about her new classmate, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"Apparently Karita was found unconcious this morning." Anzu said. "he's at the hospital in a coma."
"is that so?" Bakura asked, looking mildly amused,
"Tch, he totally deserved it." Honda said shaking his head "that man is out to get any student."
Bakura was about to say something but he noticed Kim staring at him and he gave a small frown, turning his face away from her.
"Who cares about Karita right? Let's play some games!" Jounouchi urged and Bakura turned to him (still making sure his face was turned slightly from Kim)
"Well I had a feeling you guys might come over, so I prepared a game for you." he said, his tone a little shy but friendly. He led them to a door and opened it, showing off a rather big board and shelves of figurines.
"Wow!" they all exclaimed
"you've got some collection." Yugi said, going to the shelf and looking at some of the miniatures.
"Thank you, I've been making them for quite some time now." Bakura smiled sheepishly before going over and grabbing one. "This one was for you Kim."
he approached her, handing her the miniature and setting it into her hand, hoping to get her distracted so she wouldn't stare at him.
Kim blinked in surprise and stared at the miniature, it looked a lot like her, although he left her glasses off, which was alright by her.
"Thank you." she said politely staring back up at him, and he just gave her a smile
"Sure." he said and then grabbed a few more "I hope you don't mind, but I just went ahead and made some for all of you, you can accesorize them later when we play"
"wow this is really cool, thanks Bakura!" Anzu said happily, looking at her miniature.
"Now I really want to play!" Jounouchi said in excitement and Bakura smiled,
"well alright," he agreed and showed them the gaming board he had set up.
Bakura's board was rather large, complete with forests, plenty of playing space, a castle, and a village as well.
"are you ready to go?" Bakura asked and the friends each responded with an enthusiastic "yes" accompanied with nods. "Ok, then I'll go ahead and explain the rules."
"The players are all split onto two sides, the Dark Master and the Adventurers. The Dark Master controls the monsters and evil creatures that lurk throughout monster world. His role is to stop the adventuerers by playing them to the best of his ability. The adventuerers work as a team. Each person chooses their characters race, class, and ability scores. They work together to beat the dark master."
"I'll be the dark master, my role is to find and destroy all of the adventuerers. You guys need to find the boss monster and defeat him in order to win."
"It sounds so simple." Honda said scratching the back of his head
"well the rules are simple. The game itself is hard." Kim said and Bakura nodded in agreement.
"To role play this game, you must take on your character. By getting inside the characters mind and acting out your part, the players can enter an imaginary world. It's the original virtual reality. That is the true beauty of this game." Bakura explained, a smile crossing his features. Yet as he smiled at them all Kim couldn't help but feel there was a little more behind that than usual. Before she could really dwell on it too much she was broken apart as Jounouchi told Honda to be a pixie fairy, Honda didn't seem to take it lightly.
Confused she glanced at the sheets of papers her friends were holding and realized she was holding a sheet too, she must've taken it subconciously.
The paper had a data table on it, the options "Human, Elf, Half Elf, Hobbit, Pixie-Fairy, Dwarf, and Birdtail" was written in one column.
Kim recognized what was going on, they were supposed to choose their race and class.
She sat there for a moment pondering what she wanted to be, vaguely she could hear Yugi say something about being half elf and Jounouchi being a warrior.
Slowly she wrote down her desired class and race and was handed some dice to roll her ability.
"alright let's see it." Bakura said and they all handed him their papers and he nodded in approval.
Yugi was a half-elf beast tamer, Anzu had chosen to be an elf magician, Jounouchi was a human warrior, and Honda a human magic gunsman. Kim had opted as an elf enchanter.
Within minutes Bakura had entered all of their data into his computer and finally he told them to put their characters on the start button.
"Alright, let the adventure begin!"
"huh...I don't see a single enemy monster on the board." Jounouchi said,
"that's one of the facets of the game, you don't know where the monsters are hiding, they will appear only by the actions of the adventuerers or by random chance." Bakura explained with a smile.
"Man, we don't know anything about this world." Honda grumbled.
"Kim's played before though." Jounouchi said looking over at her and she shrugged.
"Every Dark Master is different." she said "and so is every world, Bakura has a better world developed than any game I've ever played."
"Man some help you are."
"Well why don't we try the village?" Anzu suggested, "you go to a town for information right?"
"Alright, that's a good choice." Bakura agreed "You each take five turns to get there." Bakura lifted the model of the town and there was a little pub with a bunch of figures inside of it. Jounouchi grinned.
'Hey old man," Jounouchi said to the elderly man figure behind the counter, "as you can see, we're highly skilled adventurers. Anyway for us to make some dough?"
"You start with money?" Honda asked.
"At those words, the villager sends a glance your way and sighs as he speaks."
"If money could solve our problems, I would give you all that I've got. But before you could claim your reward, you'd be dead."
"With that, the old man move away from the bar."
"Hey, hold on there, old timer. Sounds like you got a story. We're all ears!" Honda sweatdropped.
"He's really into this."
"Hearing those words, the old man opens his mouth and says in a heavy tone"
"Until a few years ago, village was peaceful. However, Lord Zorc assassinated the king and changed the castle into a den of evil."
Anzu moved her figurine forward "who is Lord Zorc?" she asked.
"Nobody is really sure. Few have actually laid eyes upon him and lived. They say he is a monster of darkness. Others say he is a wicked magician who controls the monsters that have appeared in our once peaceful land. But nobody knows for certain what he really is, if he's human or something else.
"Many villagers have fallen prey to his army of monsters. A few have attempted to stop this evil being, but all have failed and perished."
"WHAT?" Jounouchi yelled, causing Kim and Honda to jump at his sudden passion."They can't get away with that! Awright, dude. We'll take of Zorc for you! So let's see some gold pieces. Hand em over."
"Dude!" Honda protested, Kim however found herself starting to giggle at Jounouchi.
"this really brings out your bad side." she said.
"Hey Yugi, did you notice that little figure really sounds like an old man is talking?" Anzu pointed out.
"Yeah."
"Is there a speaker in there?" she asked.
"Well, all characters other than the adventurers are acted out by the Dark Master, so I guess Bakura's just throwing his voice."
"Hear me adventurers before you start on your journey you should talk to that man in the corner. He can tell you the safest route to Zorc's castle." The old man figurine advised. The group looked at a lone man in a corner next to the bar.
"Uh…ok." Kim said guiding her figurine over.
"Hey." Jounouchi said the figure turned.
Jounouchi and Honda burst out laughing,
"Check out this figure!" Jounouchi called to the others.
"He looks just like Karita from Gym," Honda pointed out in fits of laughter.
"Jounouchi!" a voice called out.
"Huh? Did someone say my name?" Jounouchi asked looking at Honda and Kim
"No, you did right Kim?" Honda asked,
"Uh…no." Kim said a little startled. The figure sounded genuinely afraid.
"Save me! He-Bakura changed me into a figure!" the figure cried out.
"Did that figure just talk to us like that?" Anzu asked looking really confused.
"As if!" Jounouchi replied, before anybody could really ponder on it, the figure spoke again.
"Z-Zorc castle is to the north outside of the village, but stay out of the forest it's full of monsters." The figure that looked like Karita finally said to them.
"Okay! Now we know our mission, we head for Zorc Castle!" Kim said
"Let's roll! Don't stop for anything!" Jounouchi said competively
"Alright you've just entered an area where there's a danger of a random encounter. From now on there's a judgment roll every turn to determine if monsters will appear." Bakura explained then he opened his hand, showing some oddly shaped dice "With these ten-sided dice."
"I've never seen dice like that before." Honda said.
"The area you're in right now has a monster encounter rate of %30. The roll is done with two ten sided dice, the white die is the ones column, the red die is the tens column so you get a number between zero and ninety nine. If the outcome is from 31-99 you've avoided meeting any monsters. I make the roll." Bakura announced then tossed the dice.
They clacked on the table before the red stopped at 2 and the white stopped at one.
"The judgment roll is twenty one. That's lower than 30, that means a monster appears." Bakura explained. "A level three goblin," a monster burst out of the ground.
"We found a monster!" Jounouchi said with a grin.
"All of the battles are decided with these ten sided dice. With a percentile roll, now you go first Kim." Bakura said handing her the dice,
"Ok." Kim said and picked up the dice before dropping it onto the table.
13
"Based on the enchanters level, speed, and weapon I calculate that the enchantress's spell penetrates the Goblin." Bakura said "The goblin goes down."
"Whoo hoo!" Jounouchi cheered.
"Way to go Kim!" Yugi cried. Kim smiled modestly
"The closer you roll to a double zero causes more damage. But on the other hand, if you throw a fumble, a ninety nine you have to take a penalty." Bakura told them
"What sort of penalty?" Kim asked him Bakura gave her a lopsided smile.
"We'll save that for later Kim." He replied. Despite the tone being friendly, there was just something about it that made Kim's skin run cold.
"Alright moving on."
"The adventurers continue on their quest. Suddenly you stop as up ahead you see someone lying across your path." Bakura narrated. "Without coming closer, you can't tell much about the figure lying before you. Is he alive? Is he dead? You can find out…or you can move on without him. What do you do?"
"I feel sorry for him, let's help," Anzu said, Kim shrugged
"It could be a trap." She said,
"Leave it to me," Jounouchi said "I'll poke him with my sword"
"The warrior prods the strange person with his sword, oh he moves slightly, it appears to be a young man."
"Whew." Anzu and Honda breathed.
"he looks at you and seems very afraid"
"Hey we're not your enemies, nothing to be scared of." Jounouchi promised.
"Please, help me. A monster attacked me in the forest and stole my treasure." The young man begged.
"TREASURE?"
"I was on my way to give it to the hero of the village, that treasure is a holy sword! It is the only thing that can defeat Zorc." The miniature pleaded.
"That sword can defeat Zorc?"
"Please I beg you, get back the treasure!" their new encounter begged.
"Do you respond to the young man's request?"
"The villager said to stay away from the forest." Anzu started
"But treasure."
"It seems too simple for there to be a sword to defeat Zorc." Yugi mused.
"Remember Bakura controls all the characters that aren't us." Kim reminded them,
"That's true, he could be an ally or…something else." Yugi supposed.
"Alright, take us to the forest."
"Thank you very much, I shall come with you,"
"Ok, so you heed the young man's plea. But the forest's green trees rise above you. This side of the forest has an eighty percent chance of encountering a monster." Bakura said looking at his laptop.
"Eighty percent?"
"Judgment roll." Bakura announced throwing the dice. 5. "Bad luck for you, the closer the number is to 00 the stronger the monsters."
"Our turn Bakura," Kim replied heatedly feeling her competiveness kicking in,
"I want to roll!" Jounouchi said. Kim nodded and handed him the ten sided dice which he shook and threw, he got an 82
"Bad luck, Jounouchi needed to roll a 30 or lower, not only does he miss, he stumbles and falls." Bakura told them, Jounouchi's miniature fell and the human Jounouchi sweatdropped.
"That sucks," Honda said "Lemme take this one!" he took the dice and rolled.
21
"Very good hit." Bakura praised
"One monster down!" Honda said excitedly.
"Now my turn." Yugi said taking the dice. He rolled a 25
"The beast tamer can use his magical hands to make a enemy into an ally." Bakura reminded Yugi "Your chances are high,"
"Ok, then I choose you." Yugi pointed to a vicious looking monster.
The hands grew bigger and captivated the monster massaging and squishing it then POOF, the once vicious creature was now a cute and adorable ally.
"The evil has disappeared from Poki, now he is our ally." Yugi said excitedly.
"There are still three monsters left." Bakura pointed to the creatures.
"I'll take it from here!" Anzu exclaimed.
"GO Anzu." Kim encouraged. Anzu took a deep breath and rolled the dice. 00
"That's amazing, you get super critical, with your ability and strength and level you are able to blow them all away." Bakura said. Anzu's miniature waved her wand and the three creatures exploded.
"Wow!"
"WAY to go Anzu!"
"So that's what a super critical can do!
"Hahaha!" a voice said behind them. The adventurers turned. "So you are the five heroes who defy me. You have entered the forest of the dead and this will be your grave!"
"What's this? The young man's form is growing." Bakura said with a satisfied grin. "He changes and grows before your eyes and becomes nothing else but…Zorc himself."
The young man's miniature twisted and formed until it towered over them, it was ugly and beastlike.
"Before you die, theres one thing you should know. There is no sword in this world that can beat me. HAhahaha!"
"The players completely deceived are caught with their defenses down, therefore Zorc gets the first attack." Bakura read off as he took the dice and proceeded to roll.
The adventurers watched anxiously until the dice stopped rolling.
00
"Super critical, Zorc's shadow powers assault the players…and his target is you Anzu!" Bakura cried pointing his finger at the brown haired girl, "MIND DOLL!"
Anzu's eyes widened and then went blank before she slumped onto the table like a ragdoll.
"Anzu!" Yugi cried. Bakura smirked triumphantly. Kim shook her friend,
"She's out cold,"
"Maybe she fainted from so much excitement?" Honda suggested.
"Anzu! Hey!" she called. Then her heart seemed to freeze as she remembered Bakura's words to her not even ten minutes ago. "The closer you roll to a double zero causes more damage. But on the other hand, if you throw a fumble, a ninety nine you have to take a penalty." Bakura told them
What sort of penalty could Bakura come up with?
"Bakura? What did you do to Anzu?" Yugi asked shocked and Bakura quirked an eyebrow.
"Me? I'm just the Dark Master, I followed the rules to keep the game going. But...just so you know, the game you're playing right now, is the ultimate in Role Playing."
"Ultimate?" everybody cried.
"I did tell you, in order to play this game correctly, you must become the character yourself." Bakura suddenly gave them a mischievious smirk "But don't worry about Anzu...she's still alive. In Monster World."
there was a tiny shriek and the four remaining friends looked down in shock as Anzu screamed.
"that was definitely Anzu's voice!" Yugi cried.
"The player's fate is determined by the dice, when Zorc hits you with his supercritical hits, or you roll a 99 the power of darkness traps the player's soul."
"Power of Darkness?" Kim asked in a whisper.
"In order to retrieve a soul you must defeat the Dark Master Zorc!" Bakura finished as his eyes were clouded with madness.
"you're nuts!" she cried, yet even as she said it, she couldn't believe her own words. He was so certain, so confident in his words. And given her experience two weeks ago...she knew that there was a certain magic that played in this world.
"I don't think so." he said calmly "now, shall we continue?"
"I'll do it! Die Zorc die!" Jounouchi yelled throwing the dice, his result was 99 and Jounouchi swore.
"Ahem, it wasn't your turn to attack." Bakura said a little angrily "Not only was your roll absolutely the worst, your gaming manners are awful,"
"What?" Jounouchi asked outraged.
"Let me make you an example when you roll the dice without the Game Master's permission and break the rules of the game." Bakura said darkly pointing his finger at the blonde. Jounouchi's eyes widened before they went lifeless, his whole body seized up and then slumped down on the table, below Jounouchi's figure twitched before it gave out a cry of shock.
"Jounouchi" Anzu called out "Not you too!"
"Anzu!" was all Jounouchi could say. He was at loss for words
"Jounouchi!" Both Yugi and Kim called; Honda shook the lifeless body of Jounouchi then shook his head.
"Now. I believe it was the magic gunsmans turn." Bakura said leaning his head into his hands.
"Just watch I'll get a supercritical." Honda said determinedly picking up the dice with a shaking hand,
"There's one more thing, you may be frozen in fear during your attack, I'll have to calculate your courage, if you roll less than 70% then you conquer fear and the magic gunman can continue." Bakura said typing on his laptop.
"I'm not afraid of you! And I'll prove it by rolling a supercritical!" Honda reassured him,
"You can't help it; you might become a figure yourself. But…if you roll the dice in fear you'll never get a good result."
"Shut up! I'm shaking with anger!" Honda retorted angrily
"That's for the dice to say." Was all Bakura replied, his lips twitching into a smug smile.
"You can do it Honda!" Yugi encouraged. After a few moments Honda threw the dice. 99.
"99! This is ridiculous! I'm not afraid of Zorc!" Honda cried. Bakura chuckled
"The dice don't lie. Punishment game!"
Honda's eyes widened before he fell to the table just like the other three.
"Honda!" Anzu shouted on the board, Kim and Yugi bent down to peer over the game,
"Damn it, believe me…I wasn't afraid." Honda muttered angrily.
"No Honda!" Yugi called, and then he glared and turned to Bakura.
"Next is Yugi's turn." Bakura said enjoying this sight.
"Yugi." Kim started. Yugi's usual kind eyes hardened
"What's wrong? Are you scared too? Bakura taunted. Yugi looked down at his three friends then glanced at Kim.
"Yugi please,"
"Come on Yugi!"
"Now Yugi." Bakura instructed. Yugi kept glancing around his friends before finally speaking.
"Bakura, before I roll…make me into a miniature too." Yugi demanded. Both Kim and Bakura blinked before their jaws dropped at the same time.
"Wh-What?" Bakura asked hardly daring to believe what he just heard.
"I want to fight along with my friends." Yugi said determinedly.
"Yugi, it would be easy to grant this wish but you'd leave Kim to play the game for you."
"I want to be with my friends." Yugi repeated even more determinedly. Bakura smiled,
"Remember if Kim loses then it's game over and you'll be trapped forever." He told him, "This is your last chance out."
"Hurry and do it!" Yugi cried.
"Yugi are you sure about this? You're the best gamer we have." Kim said, Yugi looked at her and gave her a tight smile
"You'll be fine. I promise." He said.
"Very well I'll grant your wish." Bakura said, "Soul body transfer!" then he pointed his finger at Yugi. Yugi's body went stiff then fell limply.
Bakura laughed as he now had four of his victims where he wanted them, Kim looked down at the figures that were her friends.
"Come on Kim!" Jounouchi cheered.
"This game will be over soon." Bakura reassured her, tilting his head to the side and she scowled at him.
"No way Bakura!" was all she managed to say feeling a lump in her throat. She reached over for the dice and tried to control her thumping heart, judging by the look on Bakura's face, she could've sworn he could hear her heart hammer against her chest painfully.
Kim felt slightly insulted and angry that Bakura seemed to think without Yugi, and her playing alone against him, that he would have an easy win. However the feelings of anger started to diminish as she realized, just how right he was. She wasn't that great of a gamer, she liked games but she didn't have the passion Yugi had. Could she really succeed in beating Bakura in this game? The stakes were so high, and she just didn't want to let all of her friends down. Not to mention be trapped like that!
"Don't worry, you won't fight alone." Yugi shouted up at her.
"What do you mean?" Kim asked, her question was soon answered as beside her, Yugi picked himself up and sat up in a sitting position.
"I believe we were in the middle of a game?" he said smirking at Bakura.
"What?" Bakura shouted disbelievingly. Yugi was clearly in his miniature down on the board with the rest, but he was up and moving right beside her.
"Let's continue the game. I roll for the magic gunman." Yugi said throwing the dice. "03 hit!"
The magic gunman Honda attacked, blowing a whole in Zorc's left hand.
"See I told you, with friends on my side I'm not afraid." Honda said smugly, Bakura looked on in disbelief, before something like recognition passed along his face.
"I see now." he said quietly. "I know who you are now."
"Don't worry guys, your lives are in my hands and starting now so is Zorc's." Yugi said confidently.
This was so long!
Sorry for the lack of update, I've just been busy with work and such, and I'm just too exhausted anymore. But I finally got a chapter done so this makes me happy!
I get to explain a litle more in the next chapter, so stay tuned, hopefully I'll have it up within the time frame I want it up.
Until next chapter
~DSSM