Chapter 29: Realization of loss
"Toby… please… remember me…" were the last words the Arcadia woman spoke when she acted. My vision was blurred again due to the tears in my eyes. I felt hands on my cheeks again, soon feeling what were also unmistakably lips pressing against my own. Amongst other screams, I also heard a roar, saw a… dragon dive towards me, and I was engulfed in crimson flames. I could suddenly see new memories entering my mind. A thought had also entered my mind that I had always had these memories, I just forgot them somehow.
Memories that were streaming into me included, to name a few, celebrating Misty's birthday with her, viewing the excellent grades on my report card, with distinctions in Practical Spell Card Dueling (only really marked down on Equip Spell Cards) and Practical Trap Card Dueling, Misty congratulating me on the discovery of my Psychic Powers, Misty celebrating my birthday with me, me meeting up with the woman I had just Dueled and asking for advice on how to become like her.
How could I have forgotten her? I looked up to her. I idolized her. I actually dreamed of being with her, even if just as a friend! As the crimson flames passed over me, I was also rejuvenated, but I was left speechless and horrified: I had just tried to drain the powers of someone who was once my idol, Akiza Izayoi, the very same person who now had her lips pressed firmly against mine.
As soon as she broke away, the crimson fires stopped burning and revealed the world around us once more. "A…ki…za," I found myself whispering, almost unable to speak.
"What happened to you, Toby?" she asked, wiping away both her tears and mine.
"So… sorry. Please… forgive me… I thought… you… an enemy."
"It was that monster you summoned during your Duel," a voice spoke to me. Looking up, I saw a large blue, fairy-like Dragon. "That spirit is one of the most dangerous beings ever born."
"What… do you mean?"
"That spirit used people in the past. She entered the souls of humans, although it is unknown why she does so, but her hosts have been led to commit serious crimes. I could sense during your battle that she had taken your mind, and was inflaming your emotions of hatred towards those that harmed you."
"This spirit, what is she… capable of?"
"Illusions, trickery and manipulation of powers from an outside force. She is known to grant her hosts an aura that, instead of destroying life, drains it and adds it to their own, and through this aura is able to control what they see and to an extent, guide how they react. In that way, they become vessels for her actions. Although, I could sense with you, the control wasn't complete."
"How so?"
"I could sense a powerful presence fighting off her control, enough that her powers were weakened enough for her to be destroyed and you freed. The only thing capable of standing up to her is a God, however."
"That must mean… Uria. Does this mean I'm free now?"
"Yes. Normally, if her aura is destroyed, she merely retreats into the subconscious until the time is right for circumstances to provoke the host again. However, if she were to be destroyed in battle, cut off from her aura, her connections with the host are severed entirely."
"Those sons of bitches!" Yuina shouted out. "Toby, Rebecca, do either of you remember a Black Card being used during any of your torture periods in the Void?"
I tried, but all I could remember was pain. My eyes were closed at the times, so I didn't see anything. Rebecca, however, relayed that now, somehow, she remembered a Black Card being inserted into the machinery when she was tortured. She also recalled seeing a Black Card in the machine when I was tortured and I first went insane.
"What's a Black Card?" I asked.
"Here! This is the same one that was in the machine when I got to your torture chamber that day." Rebecca spoke in a rare, bitter mood, throwing me a card. It was colored in the borders like a normal Duel Monsters Spell Card, but the illustration was black… completely black. It also featured a name 'The Black Card', with the effect of 'Shuffle your opponent's Deck, call the card type of the top card (Monster, Spell, Trap) and reveal it. If you call it right, return this card to your hand instead of sending it to the Graveyard. Banish the card revealed by this effect.' If I was reading the effect right… if, say, the Deck represented the memories that I had…
"So, my memories were erased?"
"Yes. That was probably why the girl recognized you, but you failed to recognize her. I still can't believe I didn't realize sooner that the Black Card was the source of our forgetfulness. Although, you say you found yourself waking from a nightmare that year?"
"Yes. I think that… spirit… or whatever it was blocked out the pain. As the pain reached its peak, I woke up in that illusory world."
"I'm guessing, then, that they tried to use the Black Card to make you forget something, but the spirit instead used its power to make you forget about the Void and convince you that you were at home, hence why you thought we were a dream and why that illusion was broken when we destroyed your Field Spell. Although one other thing I noticed was that the machinery had exploded by the time I got there, so I'm guessing that she also used the energy for torturing you to instead blow the equipment up right in their faces."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So I had been manipulated, and now I was free? Akiza was still on her knees right in front of me. I couldn't help myself; somehow finding some strength, I pulled her into a hug and tears started flowing again. I was finding all of this far too much to take in; having my memory blocked, being manipulated by an apparently malevolent spirit and almost severely harming the woman I admired. I felt a hand rest on the back of my head, but from there, I didn't know what to do.
"What in the world happened, Toby?" Akiza asked me again.
"It was terrible! The tests, the tortures, those black corridors! Now, I find my memories were stolen? Please understand that I don't want to talk about it all right now. Tell me though, did anyone here hear from Sayer about where he sent me?"
"The first time was half a year ago, when he was tricked by a friend of mine into confessing where he had taken you. Apparently, you were 'shipped off with the other failures' to a secret location, the coordinates of which were ever-changing to the extent that not even he knew. By the way, I was told to deliver a message: Your big sister loves you."
"Thanks, Akiza. Just wondering, have there been any strange crash-landings recently?"
"Today, there was a satellite that rammed into the outskirts of Neo Domino City, why?"
"That satellite was where those that Sayer called 'Failures' were sent. My companions and I only found out that it was a space station about half a year ago, and I think we were the only ones among the prisoners to find out. It was terrible there, I'm so glad we are out of that horrible, horrible place!"
"Ummm… Toby, was it? I think I see something glowing on your left hand," the boy spoke up. Looking there, I was quite surprised. There was indeed writing there, and it was glowing a red color.
"It's kanji," I spoke
"What does it say?"
"It looks like kanji for 'Flame'."
"It's strange that you don't notice things until a while later," Yuina spoke again. I could see there was a yellow glow emanating from her left hand. "Apparently, I've also got kanji, though mine is saying 'Light'. Come to think of it, I think I saw it manifest when we stepped out of the Void"
"I've somehow got glowing kanji as well," Rebecca noted from just inside the Café entrance, her left hand giving off a blue glow. "Mine says 'Oni' though. Wait a sec… maybe those cards have something to do with it."
I knew what she meant, and while still hugging Akiza, I extracted Uria, Lord of Searing Flames from my Deck (which had apparently turned back to normal along with my Duel Disk). The card seemed to be glowing the same red color as the kanji on my hand, and Yuina was experiencing something similar with Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, along with Rebecca and Raviel, Lord of Phantasms.
"Those cards, the Three Sacred Beasts, have chosen you. Those marks are proof of that," the blue fairy-like dragon spoke again. "Those three cards, the Sacred Beasts, have each been looking for a host to bond with for a very long time. Many people have come and gone, and begged for their power, but these wishes would be granted at high prices. They were sealed underneath the ground, but they could escape in the hands of someone who could truly master their powers without them causing destruction. You three, marked with their marks, are those chosen Duelists, with the power to use them at no cost to the worlds, as you seek them not for your personal gain."
"Who are you?" I had to ask.
"I am Ancient Fairy Dragon. I have to leave now, but I advise you to be careful: the wheels of a much greater struggle are in motion. You need to act soon if you are going to stop it."
With that, the Dragon disappeared. "Anyway, I'm Akiza Izayoi, formerly known as the Black Rose. Who are the rest of you?" Akiza asked.
"Rebecca Scarlet, also known as the Succubus."
"You can just call me Carnivore. I save my true name for people who deserve to hear it. Oh, and I think Toby was close to getting a Duel Title as well," Yuina informed.
"What?" I asked
"Benevolent Magician, or just 'Magician' for short."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"You win by damaging enemies, yet with the prisoners who gave you that title, you haven't launched one single attack."
"How can you win a Duel without launching attacks?" the teal-haired boy asked. "Oh, I'm Leo, by the way."
"From what I've seen of him, he's built his true Deck to use as few monsters as possible. In my opinion, it's actually an art; using mostly, if not only, Spell and Trap Cards, he's given quite a number of Duelists a run for their money."
"Impossible. You can't win with only Spell and Trap Cards and no monsters."
"Says who? It can be done. The two of us have seen that."
"Maybe I can Duel him some-"
"But we have bigger problems now. That Dragon fire, or whatever it was, caught us in its blast and broke the Black Card's hold over us. I don't, however, feel comfortable with leaving the rest of the Void under the Black Card's influence. I don't care who stands in my way, I'm breaking that spell!"
End note: The naming of the Black Card was one thing I struggled with. I wanted something that, while giving the impression that it would blank out memories, didn't explicitly state that it would block out those memories. Aside from that, the name 'The Black Card' sounded fittingly ominous, which is why I went with it in the end.