Aoi: Hey Guys!
Akai: What the hell took you so long! Its been over a month!
Aoi: um…. Well I got distracted… you see there was this double rainbow and-
Akai: no. I-I don't even want to know anymore
Eiko looked back at Leud. She couldn't see his face, just an evil grin that peeked out from under his hood. Eiko gritted her teeth; she never thought that she would see Leud again. Nor had she ever wanted to ever since their duel so long ago…. But she couldn't back down. Both of them knew that.
"I don't know what this 'anti-deck' thing is, but you're on!" Eiko yelled.
Leud just chuckled. "Ah, so naive. I was once like that…. But then I grew up and faced life straight in the eye."
"Can we just get this over with?" Eiko asked, pulling out her deck. "I kind of have some things I need to do."
Leud grimaced. "Joke while you may, Miss Tsubaki. But believe me, soon you shall see the awesome power of this deck. Then I shall finally have revenge! And I'll have pleased my master." Leud placed a duel disk on the hard ground and slid it across to Eiko. Eiko quickly placed the disk on her wrist. She looked at Leud determinedly; he grinned back.
"Let's duel!" they said at once. And then the game began.
It was ten turns into the game and it wasn't looking good. Eiko was down to 1800 life points while Leud still had 2500.
Eiko quickly drew a card. "I play, 'Swords of Revealing Light'!" she said quickly. Four green swords surrounded Leud, preventing him from attacking.
"Going on the defense, eh, Miss Tsubaki?" he asked menacingly. "Good move, but it wont last long."
Eiko gritted her teeth. "I also place 'Pixie Knight' in defense mode and end my turn."
"Very well," Leud said. He quickly drew his card and grinned. "Looks like its your lucky day, Miss Tsubaki, for I summon, 'Dark Armed Dragon' to the field!" a dark mechanical-looking dragon appeared on the field. "Unfortunately I cannot attack, so I end my turn."
'That thing has 2800 attack points,' Eiko thought. She looked at her hand. 'I don't have anything that can beat that right now.'
"Oh, Miss Tsubaki," Leud called. "It's your move. Or are you forfeiting?"
"Never!" Eiko yelled as she drew her card, 'Shinning Abyss.' "I summon 'Shining Abyss' in defense mode!"
Leud frowned. 'If this keeps up I'll have to figure out a new strategy, even if I have a more powerful monster on the field it's rendered absolutely nothing with a wall of defense.' He thought to himself. Lued then drew his card.
"I summon 'Vampire Lady' in attack mode! Then I end my turn." Leud smiled, "Your 'Life Force Swords' won't last much longer, Miss Tsubaki. I would come up with a strategy quickly."
Eiko looked at her deck desperately. 'Please give me something I can use. Anything!' she pleaded. Eiko then drew her card. It was familiar yet strange, with a picture of a girl wearing a dark skirt and long blood red top. She wore a headdress that covered her eyes and hair that reminded her of Yugi's Osiris card. A long red tail with a black undertone could be seen as well. Eiko looked up at the name inscribed on the card. 'Osiris Girl' could be read in gold letters. Eiko's eyes widened, it was the card that was sent to her... the one that she was advised not to use.
"Problem, Miss Tsubaki?" Leud asked.
Eiko looked back at him. 'This might be my only chance to win,' she thought. She wasn't sure how many attack points the card had but considering it took three monsters to summon it was easy to assume that it was a high power monster.
Eiko stood there, thinking what to do.
I myself do not even want you to use them in a duel…
He said if we lost …. We would enter limbo…
I want you safe…
Those words rang in her heads like bells… slowly urging her to give in and play the card. Seto wanted her safe…. She didn't want to die or go wherever those people who had lost were sent to. She had to do it; there was no way around it. Eiko looked at her hand, all she needed to do was summon 'Mystical Elf' and play the card 'Sudden Attack' and all of this would be over. As she was about to call out her commands, another thought rang through her head:
I trust you, Miss Tsubaki.
Eiko grinned. "I summon, 'Mystical Elf'! In defense mode!" she called. A blue-skinned elf appeared on the field. "I then sacrifice all my monsters in order to summon, 'Osiris Girl!'"
"Ha!" Leud clacked. "There's no such thing!"
"You wanna bet?" Eiko said triumphantly. She placed the card on her duel disk. The girl drawn on the card appeared, and a stern look could be seen on her face.
Lued had a look of shock on his face. "W-what is that-"
"Now I play the card, 'Sudden Attack'! It's over, Leud!"
Osiris Girl raised her hands to the sky; lightning seemed to be forming around her fingertips. The area around the dueling field became dark and murky, like the deepest depths of an unexplored ocean. The lightning around Osiris Girl's hands spread, and it began striking the ground near Eiko. She quickly moved out of the way to dodge one of the incoming strikes.
'W-what the?' she thought. Out of nowhere, a strike of lightning struck her duel disk. "Argh!" Eiko cried out in pain. She looked up at her monster, her hand was now pointing towards Leud. Eiko then realized that she had never called out an attack.
She stared Leud down, "I don't ever want to see you again!" she yelled. "'Osiris Girl', attack 'Vampire Lady'!" Eiko yelled.
A stream of lightning struck the monster, causing it to disintegrate into millions of pieces. Lued watched in horror as his life points dropped down to zero. Eiko looked up at her monster, by now it should have disappeared since the game was over. But it still stood in front of her; not moving an inch. She looked to the other side of the field; Lued's 'Dark Armed Dragon' had disappeared from sight. Eiko looked down at her duel disk. 'What's up with this thing?' She wondered to herself.
"ARGH!" Eiko yelled in pain, her needs buckled and she quickly fell to the hard ground. She managed to get up onto her knees, her hands clenched as she tried to figure out where the pain was coming from. A pair of feet came into view. Eiko looked up quickly, andOsiris Girl looked down on her menacingly.
"You have opened the door to your demise." It said to her in a familiar voice.
"…Red?" Eiko managed to say through the pain. She yelled again as another wave of agony spread across her body. She fell to the ground once again, her eyesight dimming.
When she looked up again, Osiris Girl was gone. Across the alley she could see Leud hunched over on the ground. Eiko struggled to get back on her feet. She quickly took her deck out of the duel disk and snapped it off her arm. Her eyes widened as she saw what looked like burn marks on her arm where the duel disk was once fastened. She dropped the disk onto the ground and inspected her wounds. She placed her hand onto her arm only to recoil back in pain.
'H-how did this…' she through to herself.
"Miss Tsubaki!" a voice yelled. Eiko looked up. She recognized one of the security guards fro Kaiba corp. He quickly ran up to her, huffing and puffing. "I'm sorry, Miss Tsubaki…. I don't know what happened!"
"I-its ok," Eiko said, not quite sure what he was talking about. The guard quickly noticed her arm.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine," Eiko said quickly, pulling her arm close to her.
"Let me take a look, you might need medical attention." He said, getting closer.
"I said I'm fine!" she yelled at the man. He stepped closer to her.
"Miss Tsubaki, I'm just trying to-"
"Get away!" she yelled pushing him away with her good arm. She quickly ran in the other direction towards her apartment.
"Miss Tsubaki!" the man called after her.
Eiko quickly ran into her apartment and slammed the door. She wasn't satisfied until she heard the clicking noise of the locks. She backed away slowly from the door and looked at her arm. Burn marks…. They looked like burn marks. 'But where…' Eiko then remembered the lightning strike during the duel. She shook her head quickly as if she were trying to get the thought out of her head. 'There's no way. It's not possible.'
She looked around her barren apartment. She walked into the kitchen to see a note left from Red and Blue.
"Eiko," the note began. "We went out to get some groceries. We might take a while so just eat whatever you can find in the fridge. From, Aoi and Akai."
"Oh, and don't let Kaiba in." Eiko quickly recognized Red's handwriting. She sighed, Eiko when into the bathroom to get some bandages. She wrapped them carefully around her wounded arm. When she was done she looked over her handiwork.
'Not bad if I do say so myself,' she thought, smiling. She peered her head out of the bathroom to check to see that the apartment was still empty. She then walked into her room and changed into a long sleeved shirt to cover her bandages. After she had pulled the shirt over her head, she pulled out her deck. She searched through its contents for the three cards. Once she found them she gave them each a hard look.
No attack points, no defense points, and no explanation. Eiko wanted to rip them up into a million pieces, but she couldn't bring herself to do it…. She sighed and went into her closet. In the far back of it was a safe. It wasn't her safe, per-say, but the man who had sold her the apartment said that everyone in the building had one installed in the back of their closet like her. "Never thought I'd use this," she mumbled aloud. She quickly turned the knob of the metal door. It creaked as it swung open. Eiko took one last look at the cards before she placed them in the safe.
'Out of sight, out of mind.' Eiko recited to herself. She crawled out of the closet and dusted her jeans off. Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
"Coming!" she called. Eiko walked through the apartment towards the door. She was shocked to see PK standing in the doorway. "PK?" Eiko said.
"Are you alright, Miss Tsubaki?" she asked. "One of our guards found you, and he said you ran off in quite a hurry," she explained. Eiko straightened herself up, trying to remain calm.
"I-I was just a bit startled by the whole thing. I really wasn't expecting Leud to be there," Eiko said.
PK nodded. "Yes, that was very strange," PK admitted. "Are either Red or Blue here?" she asked, peering into the apartment.
"No, they went out," Eiko said.
"Ah, I see." PK said. "Well, I should be going. Still have a lot of work to do," she explained as she turned to leave.
"Ah, goodnight PK!" Eiko said waving as PK walked through the halls. "Oh, and PK," Eiko said.
PK turned to face her. "Yes?" she asked.
"Could you…. not tell Seto about this?" she said.
PK looked at her strangely. "He's so busy, I wouldn't want him to worry…" she explained.
PK was quiet. "Don't worry Miss Tsubaki. My lips are sealed." She said, and then walked away.
"Leud? Leud was here?" Seto asked. PK stood in front of her boss, her arms placed behind her.
"Yes sir, about an hour ago." PK explained.
"What the hell was he doing here?" Seto said in an angered tone. PK walked up to his desk where she placed a vanilla envelope.
"I believe these will give you all the information you need."
Seto opened up the envelope. A stack of photos were placed inside. He pulled them out to see Eiko dueling with Leud. Seto gritted his teeth.
"Where the hell was security?" Seto asked.
"We had a man patrolling the area, but he was knocked out."
Seto gave PK a look. "What the hell happened? And where is Eiko?"
"Safe. Last time I saw her, she was in her apartment. As for Leud; we found him unconscious. He's in the hospital now, doctors said he's in a coma."
Seto was quiet. "I want more guards around the perimeter. And send some over to Eiko's apartment and my house. The last thing I need now is to find out that Mokuba's been kidnapped." Seto said sternly.
PK nodded and turned to leave. She had her hand on the doorknob when she turned back to her boss. "I think Eiko is hiding something," she said suddenly.
Seto sighed. "And what makes you think that?" he asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. PK told him about how she had requested her not to tell him about Leud.
"We've known about Ward Sharier for months now. We probably should have expected something like Leud would show up."
Seto still wasn't convinced. "Eiko freaks out easily," he said, turning his chair towards the Domino Skyline. "I'm not surprised that she would make a big deal out of this."
PK was quiet. "Was she wearing a long sleeved shirt when you last saw her?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
Seto turned back to her. "No. Why?"
"For some reason when I saw her, she changed her shirt. And…" PK said, her voice trailing slightly.
"And what?" Seto said, getting annoyed.
"Part of the tape… is missing," PK explained.
"What?" Seto said, confused. PK walked over to his desk.
She pointed to one of the pictures. "We where able to get these shots thanks to the security cameras installed around the premises. But for some reason, we were not able to receive the feed for about fifteen minutes. We still don't know how Eiko won the duel against Leud."
Seto looked at the pictures intensely. He didn't speak for a long time.
"Sir?" PK said after a few minutes.
"I want that security. Now."
PK nodded and left the room. Seto leaned back into his chair. He switched the intercom on.
"Akina?" he said.
"What is it, Sir?" she asked.
"Am I busy tomorrow?"
The other end of the line was quiet. Suddenly the door to Seto's office opened and Akina walked in casually.
"Define busy?" she asked.
"Any meetings?" He asked.
Akina shook her head.
"Good, I'm going to have to skip some work tomorrow. But I should be back around noon." Akina nodded. "By the way, why are you in here?" he asked.
"Oh, right!" Akina said. She then walked behind Kaiba's desk and kicked him in the shin.
"Ow! What the hell! Why did you kick me?" Seto asked, gritting his teeth.
"Eiko told me to." Akina said simply. She then walked out of the office.
Aoi: DUN. DUN. DAAAAAAAA~
Akai: the squiggly...It burns...
Aoi: Alternate title to this chapter, 'Jesus, It Took Me Long Enough *Smokes Cigarette*'