Boss Rush
XXVI: Pollinosis
Somehow, Adrian continued to remain silent as Marguerite led them back to the forest where they entered first. Setsuka's gown and crown shimmered back to her black uniform, and Ryuusei and Adrian got back their own clothings.
The silence lasted until the Firewing Pegasus and Clausolas had taken flight. "Hey, do you conduct diplomacy by murder every time?"
"Sometimes it's by blackmail, coercion, and outright war," Setsuka swiftly answered. "Ryuusei has only just become a ruler, though. He is unfamiliar to the ways."
"It was necessary," Adrian agreed. "But... life is..."
"She forfeit it knowing that the king must choose," Hiita growled, her torch-staff blazing. "Either we will die, or she will die, and then we will die. For Winter is still a rival court, violent, vicious, and merciless."
Ryuusei and Adrian stiffened as they regarded the Duel Spirit. "Isn't that...?"
"It is a fact," Setsuka plainly answered. "The real insult was where she mentioned that Winter would collapse under my rule. That is plainly questioning my ability to rule well."
"That's just wrong," Adrian hissed. "No one should have to kill anyone, especially for such a reason."
Setsuka smiled. It hardly seemed nice. "Your spirit attendant has murdered in her own name for more inane reasons. Have you not, Lady Vennominaga?"
The reply was never heard as the portal opened.
Stepping through worlds was like moving from the equator into a solid freezer, Ryuusei realised. Doubtless the temperature difference was because Setsuka opened the gate this time.
"Naga?" Adrian was asking.
In the half-darkness when dawn approaches and night changes into day, the ghost of Vennominaga looked indistinct. Indeed... we snakes are proud creatures, and an insult paid will be returned is predator and prey, remember.
"I don't understand them," Adrian admitted. "I mean, you guys don't even look that powerful."
"It is just as well, then, that they do not understand you," Setsuka answered, as all three of them watched the sunrise. "Do you still wish to explore the twelve dimensions?"
"Hell yes!" Adrian nodded fervently. "I'd do anything to do so!"
No! Ryuusei heard the snake deity scream.
"Really?" Setsuka gave a small, secretive smile as she produced a blue jewel the size of half her palm. "This jewel will grant you the power to transverse dimensions."
"Cool!" Adrian whistled as he accepted it.
"Now, you are in debt to me," Setsuka smiled, and her eyes glittered, not blue, not green, but pure, empty white. "By all means, let us reassure you."
His left palm slammed on the nearest rock. Adrian watched, startled, as his other hand rifled through his belt to pull out a Swiss Army knife with blade out, gripped in his right hand, slasher style. In a panic, he tried to hold back his hand, to drop the knife, but obviously his arms were running on automatic, like they were someone else's. "Wait!" he shouted.
She regarded him, cold and distant and interested.
Ryuusei stared as Adrian slammed the knife down onto the back of his own hand, hard. The steel bit cleanly through the meat between thumb and forefinger, pinning him there. Blood started oozing out of the wound. A whimper slipped out of him as he tried to pull the steel away, to get it out of his hand, but the right arm simply twisted, wrenching the letter opener counter-clockwise.
Setsuka, the Winter Queen withdrew the knife with a sharp, decisive gesture, and dangled it before an ashen-faced Adrian, his blood gleaming on it where the knife dangled in a handkerchief. "Were you not bound to me, I would have no such power over you. You have knowledge of the ancient worlds, Adrian Rodriguez. Now you will have knowledge of the supernatural. A shame that you were not wise enough. For the power to transverse dimensions, you would give me anything. Even your life."
"Shimotsuki!" Ryuusei shouted. "That's-"
"That is the power of debt," Setsuka distantly, coolly, answered. "This is the power we hold as rulers. Perhaps, he could've been more intelligent. How sad that his life is no longer his."
With that parting note, she left as quickly as a winter breeze, leaving an ashen-faced Ryuusei and Adrian cradling an injured hand.
"Shit!" Adrian hissed as the alcohol hit his skin.
"Bear with it," Ryuusei murmured as he tended to the wound clumsily. "Adrian-san..."
The shadow of Vennominaga appeared, looking distinctly displeased. You have risked much for a relatively simple power, my dear.
"Naga, what did she mean?" Adrian asked.
Anything in exchange for the power to travel worlds. That includes your life. She can do anything to you now, perhaps even kill you, if she desires.
"But... why did Shimotsuki do that?" Ryuusei pointed out.
Queen Maeve has been known to be arbitrarily cruel. She is powerful, and she can grant wishes, but the price is always high for he who wishes. Merciless was the Winter Queen I knew then. You have questioned her power; be glad that the fate of Tytannial did not befall you.
"What about me?" Ryuusei spoke up, a note of offence in his voice.
Queen Titania was warmer, but not of a better court. She has made bargains, and while she is not so quick to punish as her counterpart, her fury was something great and terrible indeed. Your memories as the monarch of Summer has not sunk in; you still retain that human instinct with your fellow mortals. Either way, we must trade something quickly. From what I recall of Maeve, my dear, you may have a long time, you may have a day. But you will never escape so long as the contract exists.
Adrian's body suddenly stiffened as he began walking out of the room. "H- Help me..."
Ryuusei followed the staggering Adrian towards the edge of the island, where Setsuka awaited.
"What now?" Adrian scowled.
"We will have a Duel," Setsuka looked undisturbed, calm, cool even under Adrian's sharp gaze. "If you win, your contract shall be released. If I win, I shall state my price. With that settled, now will you Duel? Our medals will also be placed on the line."
"With that sort of offer, who wouldn't!" Adrian snapped.
Be careful, my dear. Things are never so simple with the rulers...
"Duel!"
Adrian: LP 8000
Setsuka: LP 8000
"I'll start, draw!" Adrian called. "I'll set a monster and a card. Turn end."
"Draw," Setsuka consulted the cards in hand. "I activate the Spell, Magic Triangle of the Ice Barrier, revealing Prior, Defender and Dance Princess of the Ice Barrier to destroy the set monster before I special summon Dance Princess of the Ice Barrier [1700/900] from my hand."
Ryuusei frowned as a young woman with light purple hair tied up in pigtails and wearing an outfit made of blue-purple cloth bearing the snowflake insignia, wielding two large snowflake-like shields in her hands appeared and took a combat stance.
"With that, I shall activate my normal summon to summon the tuner monster, Defender of the Ice Barrier [200/1600]," Setsuka continued tonelessly. "Activating the effect of Dance Princess, I reveal Prior of the Ice Barrier to bounce your set card. Tuning, level four Princess to level three Defender. Winter sweeps the land as the epilogue begins. Its icy clutches upon the earth make themselves apparent. Synchro summon! Ice spear of the one-eyed, Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier!"
Glittering in the faint sunlight, the two-headed icy dragon arose. It was large and serpentine, large crystalline wings and front and back claws that looked like it was made from ice itself glowing with orange and blue. Its beak-like maw opened with a roar on the field [2500/1700].
"Now special summoning Prior of the Ice Barrier [1000/400] to the field by his own effect," Setsuka declared. "I tribute Prior to special summon Dance Princess once more. Dance Princess, Gungnir, direct attack! Ice Target! Dance of the Blizzard!"
Adrian: LP 8000 → LP 3800
Setsuka: LP 8000
Adrian staggered back, clutching his body where the monsters had hit. "If this was a lower life point format, I'd have lost... as it is, being hit with this much damage hurts..."
"Shimotsuki!" Ryuusei yelled. "Stop! This is in bad taste!"
"You have not even discovered the responsibility you hold," Setsuka countered, still cold. "The sheer power that a ruler commands is as Voltanis had said."
"I never asked for it!" Ryuusei defended.
"And do you think I did?" Setsuka countered. "Listen. Do you know why you need to witness this, Fudo Ryuusei? You must be cautious in the use of your power. My power will repel spirits, I have no problems using it. However, yours will do the exact opposite, you will attract spirits. And those who cannot attack you will attack those around you. Better that you are pained now, and take steps, than later when it is too late and you watch, impotent and incapable of protecting your friends. Do you understand me?"
"That..." Ryuusei was taken aback.
"I'll set a card, turn end," Setsuka declared.
"Draw!" Adrian scowled. "One of the God-Killing Spears..."
"God-Killing Spears?" Ryuusei asked.
"Shimotsuki Setsuka is one of the pro world's infamous legends," Adrian confessed. "At a young age, already the head of the Arcadia Movement and a genius in Duel Monsters. There are three dragons that has become her signature pieces... Brionac, Gungnir, Trishula. When there are upstarts who try to challenge her, and one of them appear, it's said that the defeat is so crushing that they lose all ambition of fighting Shimotsuki Setsuka ever again. Who knows how many have fallen to those three monsters..."
"It's your turn," Setsuka lightly murmured.
"Draw!" Adrian declared. "Dammit, my pride as a pro is on the line! I'll summon Venom Snake [1200/600] to the field. I set two cards, before I play the Field Spell, Venom Swamp! Now, I use Venom Snake's ability to add a Venom Counter onto Gungnir at the cost of it not attacking this turn. I end my turn, Venom Swap adds a Venom Counter to each of your monsters, who lose five hundred attack per Counter [1700/900 → 1200/900] [2500/1700 → 1500/1700]. Turn end."
"Draw," Setsuka murmured. "I activate the Spell, Surface, to special summon Prior once more. Activating the effect of Gungnir, I discard a card to destroy one card on the field, and obviously my target is Venom Swamp!"
"What!" Adrian glared in retaliation as the swamp vanished [1500/1700 → 2500/1700] [1200/900 → 1700/900].
"The effectiveness of the venom of the swamp is only effective within the swamp itself," Setsuka distantly noted. "By offering Prior as a tribute, I special summon General Grunard of the Ice Barrier."
"At once, my queen!" the heavily armoured general boomed as he took a combat stance [2800/1000]. This earned many stares from Adrian and Ryuusei.
"Trap activate, Trap Stun," Setsuka smirked at Adrian's stricken look. "Dance Princess, attack the Snake. Grunard, Gungnir, direct attack!"
Adrian: LP 3800 → LP 0
Setsuka: LP 8000
"Excellent work," Setsuka nodded. The general saluted before he disappeared. "I win. I get to name my prize, and you have no choice but to pay."
Adrian glared, defiance evident.
"I could take Vennominaga from you," Setsuka considered openly as Adrian began to pale. "You will have no choice. Then if I told you to tear her card, burns the pieces, and scatter it to the four winds, you would still have no choice. This is why the rulers are powerful, Adrian Rodriguez. Learn caution save you fall into unwise deals once more."
Adrian swallowed. "I- I understand."
"Excellent," Setsuka reached for the three medals that hung by Adrian's bandanna, unpicking them with swift ease. "This is my payment. Our bargain is concluded, so mote it be."
Adrian stared, his lips parting as Setsuka walked away with the medals in hand. "That's it? That would have saved me a lot of trouble earlier if you've just warned me."
Setsuka stopped moving. "I know your type. You will bite off more than you can handle in your rush, so does fire rule your temperament. Pain and struggle will temper that wilfulness somewhat. If you are beginning on a venture, this incident will always be on your mind, as you recall how one unwise word may end up with bodily harm self-inflicted, or worse. Summer's policy has always to be openly kind, to the exclusion of danger. Winter's policy is to be cruel to be kind. Of course, some take those lessons to the grave with them... be thankful that you are not one of them."
Adrian clutched at the bandaged left hand as Setsuka walked away. "...I think I get why Shinamori hates her. In a battle, she attacks both mentally and spiritually, even without doing anything..."
"Honey~!"
Jimmy Cook was greeted with a kick that just stopped short of him. "I told you to stop with that embarrassing nickname."
"I missed you!" Jimmy continued as he enveloped her in a hug. "How was your Duel? Did you win? What am I talking about, you won, right?"
"And you, James?"
"Yeah, well, I really went all out on the others..." Jimmy laughed. "I got your present, thanks!"
Far off in the distance, Adrian gaped. "There's someone who actually goes for her?"
"-.- why do you make that sound offensive, Adrian-san..."
"Ryuusei!" Chase yelled. "Where did you go?"
"Ah, sorry," Ryuusei nodded as the black-haired young man ran over. "Adrian-san got injured."
"That looks bad!" Chase frowned. "What happened?"
"Shimotsuki Setsuka made me stab my hand with a Swiss Army knife," Adrian admitted.
"... that almost sounds believable," Chase nodded at the sight of Setsuka and Jimmy. "That love-bird was being irritatingly loud, running around for two whole days... so, how was it?"
"The negotiations were finished," Ryuusei sighed. "Now we have to devise a way to keep both occupied by a series of games."
"Oh?" Chase mused. "Then, Kisara arrived today and there's one more guy on this island."
"Who?" Ryuusei asked.
"Natashi Kiyomi," Chase listed. "I heard from Youkai that the guy is bad news, so I checked. Old money, serious at that, and very educated from East Academia."
"So, why is such an educated person targeting the Arcadia Movement?" Chase questioned. "You'd think that guy would have the common sense to stay far away..."
"What's going on?" Adrian blinked.
"About that..." Ryuusei began explaining about the 'seeds', the battle and Marguerite's role in the whole thing.
Adrian was rubbing into his brow when Ryuusei and Chase's occasional help had set the context. "You just... gave away powers like that? Seriously?"
The shadow of Marguerite appeared. "I was desperate. It did not matter to me if mortal-kind would live or die unless it were the one who holds Titania's soul."
"From what I know, power corrupts," Adrian nodded. "So, you just... distributed powers like that... that's ridiculous. So this guy is after something, right?"
"Something about power to reach beyond worlds," Ryuusei answered. "I think he's just after knowledge and power. But, to go to such an extent... you get the feeling it's personal."
It was a summer high noon, which meant that it was cool under the tree Kiyomi had chosen for a small lunch of sandwiches and a drink. Barely had he gone halfway through when a bolt of light hit him, merely an inch off his leg. It was admirable aim, considering how that she had done it with merely a pin. "Tenjouin Michiru. Are you picking a fight?"
She flopped by the shade next to his own. "No, just a warning. Truce for now?"
Kiyomi glanced at his lunch. "Truce now, and half an hour after we leave."
"Done," she crossed her legs, pulling out her own packet of sandwiches. "What are you doing here?"
Kiyomi was no fool. This was the woman who had taken down Kisaragi, after all. "Duelling. Same as you, I suppose."
She gave him a flat look that conveyed the unspoken question.
Kiyomi motioned to his sandwich. "Lunch first. I have to eat before anything can happen."
"..." the black-uniformed student glanced sideways at him before shaking her head. "I don't get you. There are people better than you, whole organisations, who have fallen before the Arcadia Movement."
Kiyomi gave a bitter laugh. "It's... complicated. I made a deal with Marguerite for power. I traded my life, my fortune, for power enough to take down the Shimotsuki or die trying. Do you know what happens if I can't?"
"No. You'd die?" she guessed.
Kiyomi gave a bitter laugh. "No. I'd wish I had, but no. For one thing, Marguerite will call in the debt."
"Power," she guessed. "She'd take it back."
"With interest," Kiyomi nodded. "Even with Dyrnwyn and Fragarach, I don't think I can fight against the Witch of the Time Flower. And, with Fudo Ryuusei... well, I'm looking at a horrible fate."
"Have you ever thought about making deals?" the girl lightly questioned. "You are not the only one who made a deal with Marguerite as well."
"Claíomh Solais, I know," Kiyomi groaned. "But you... sided... with Winter..." he trailed off. "How?"
"I like it. I'm myself."
"Aren't Winter people supposed to be all icy and cold?" Kiyomi puzzled. "And how did you escape the Witch anyway?"
"Winter is not always dark and cold," came the answer. "You can learn something in the darkness."
Kiyomi shook his head. "Why are you here?"
"The question is, why are you?" she countered.
"Ordered here," Kiyomi shrugged. "If it helps with it... did she ever tell you about games?"
"Games? Well, we play Duel Monsters with each other... there's a lot of games in the Movement, for some reason..."
"What kind?" Kiyomi asked, deceptively calm.
"Chess, checkers, poker... oh, right, there was this huge wooden box with funny figurines... I was wondering about that, but we wouldn't play that game. She said that the loser would lose something important."
"Raijinhai," Kiyomi realised. "That game... that game took my father's mind from him."
"A game?" she posed.
"In this world there is power that surpasses human knowledge that controls the fate of the world," Kiyomi mumbled. "Games that possess such power exist. Games that must not be carelessly handled by people... Raijinhai is a game based on probability and tactics as well as reading your opponent's thinking."
Kiyomi sighed. "That game... Diana Hunter played it against my father. When it was over... he lost. He lost his mind... it's that game, and that woman's power... if I can get that game, if, just maybe, I can grasp it, or perhaps more... I can reach that legendary power, maybe I can find the elusive knowledge and power of darkness."
"Is that so?" the slightly lilting voice murmured. "We shall see, Natashi Kiyomi."
Kiyomi froze, before in a split second he had escaped to put three metres between her and him. "S- S- Shimotsuki S- Setsuka..."
"It is surprising, that it is very easy to confuse between Michiru and I," Setsuka nodded. "What a surprise, Natashi Kiyomi."
"Y- Y- You spied on me," Kiyomi accused.
"I? Hardly," Setsuka crossed her arms. "I have never answered that I was Tenjouin Michiru. Likewise, I have never done anything to assure you of it. You merely led to your own conclusions. So I know now that your aim was my Raijinhai board. Are you so desperate for power that you would risk certain death, Natashi Kiyomi? Surely you should have remained at home with the vegetable you call a father now."
"You have no idea what it's like, being the second son," Kiyomi retaliated. "I will bring you down, Shimotsuki Setsuka. For all the crimes of your bloodline, you have so many enemies. I will take you down!"
Blue fire erupted around as Kiyomi rushed, or tried to rush before the flames leapt for him instead.
Setsuka drew herself up, her face shining with a sudden terrible beauty. She lifted her right hand, ring finger and thumb both bent, and murmured something in a liquid, alien tongue. Sudden blue light gathered around her fingers, and the temperature dropped by about forty degrees. She spoke again, and flicked her wrist, sending glowing motes of azure flickering towards him. In the wake of the lazuline conflagration, bits of frost began to gather on his eyelashes and eyebrows.
"Truce, for now and half an hour after," Setsuka mused at the downed Kiyomi. "You broke truce first."
"T- This is the cost...?" Kiyomi groaned.
"People never realise the consequences of breaking their word," Setsuka murmured quietly. "Now as one of power, suffer the consequences. You are bound by neither birthright nor bargain to me, and so I cannot order you to die. Just as well, you are still too valuable to me to die just yet."
Kiyomi struggled, before stilling to laugh. "I didn't come alone, you know."
Setsuka's eyes widened before she leapt back as slashes streaked the ground. "You're..."
"Shimotsuki Setsuka," Kevin Dunames stood to block Kiyomi. "I can here just last night, when I heard about the mischief you're up to. People like you who use the powers they're born with to cause misery and death should be stopped. And I will stop you."
"Meddler," she hissed. "You should never have involved yourself in these affairs. You have no concept of what is at stake. In defending him, you may as well have ruined us all."
"Not us all, only you," Kevin answered. "Setsuka... I knew Diana Hunter. Something is wrong about her. She has protected those destructive souls granted power by no more than an accident of fate, who abuse it for their own ends. How many have been dead or tormented into madness by them, and those like them? Setsuka, we can still turn it around. You can still make up for the mistakes you made in following your mother."
Don't you dare," Setsuka retaliated. "You're incapable of reconciling that hatred of yours. How does it feel, to know that the woman you planned to arrest is now not only a lauded saviour, but also the wife of one of the most important men of Neo Domino? Mother mentioned it, in her papers, you played that game with her. You lost something important to you, didn't you?"
"You did?" Kiyomi stared at the older teacher.
"...yes," Kevin admitted. "I lost my strength. For ten years I was laid low, until I could finally resume normal life."
A cold smile appeared, complimenting her already icy eyes. "Do you know the trick behind Raijinhai? Raijinhai may be a game with a long history of nearly three millennia, but it gives no power to control or manipulate. The real trick is the one chain that people can wield; words."
"Words...?" Kiyomi gaped.
"Language is a complicated thing, it has many forms," Setsuka laughed. "The life form consists of many different kinds of ties. The natural patterns. The flow of time. The shell that is labelled the body. The soul that is labelled the conscience. This is the lock that all life forms share. But there is a certain kind of lock that can only be used on humans, is words."
"That's it?" Kiyomi demanded. "Then... my father's madness... everything..."
"Words, once it has left your mouth, it cannot be uncalled," Setsuka answered. "It cannot be nullified. People don't understand how strongly they're tied down because of it. But they continue to use that lock. Words are something living and sometimes, it can even tie down a person's life."
Setsuka shook her head. "My mother never cheated, nor were there any words. Neither did she have a supernatural power for reading minds; she merely read the probabilities and strategies. It becomes easier to read if the opponent's thinking was limited, which is what she did. All her opponents could do was decide based on her words."
Kevin staggered back. "So, the Raijinhai game... but I lost something. My strength..."
"Those words she used were merely employed to get into the crevices of people's hearts," the Winter Queen mockingly answered. "Confused by those words, when they lose the game they lose something. They lose to the weakness in their own heart. It was a good strategy, augmented by smoke and mirrors. So distracted were they that never did they figure out that it was mere human instinct, and they call it magic. Foolish meddler. How does it feel to know that your very weakness of your heart brought you low?"
Kevin screamed, before charging.
Setsuka spoke.
Cerulean flames sprung to life, and parts of Dunames were scorched over, the skin where they touched turning blue, then purple, then black, spreading like a stop-motion enhanced film of gangrene. A quiet snarl slipped from Kevin's lips, his body trembling with the effort to continue towards Setsuka. He shuddered and took another step forward.
She lifted her other hand, her index finger extended while the others curled, and a sudden wind whipped past, cold enough to steal breath. The wind whipped madly around Kevin, making his coat flap out. Bits of white frost started forming on his eyelashes and eyebrows. His expression, now anguished as well as full of rage, faltered, and his advance halted again.
Setsuka's cold eyes turned on Kiyomi, who stood stunned. She gave a small smile. "Run."
Kiyomi ran.
Having taken care of one, she turned to the other, smiling at the older man. "Foolish meddler... what shall I do with you?"
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