Boss Rush

Please check out my newest crossover work, Ancient Sunshine while waiting for the next installment! -LLS

Enjoy!

XXXVII: Karma Cut

"Come oooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnn..."

Rick Larson winced, and made a game attempt to ignore the whining Duellist as he frog-marched several other Duellists of the North American Arcadia Movement to Customs and Excise.

"Five people," he told the officers. "Here for the Stygian Dirge."

"Participants?" the officer asked.

"Yep," Rick sighed. "Damn Waller, sending me to babysit-"

"I predict that you shall have an ulcer by today," an albino boy murmured.

"Shut up, Aquila," Rick countered with practised ease as he handed over the relevant documents to the amused officer.

"But I wanna I wanna I wanna-!"

"Rose, thank you for silencing Anna," Rick loudly called as the voice cut off and he took back the stamped documents. "You got a good look? Thank you."

The officer at the counter merely shook his head as he took over the rest of the group and began stamping. "Americans..."

"Everyone present?" Rick called, scowling as he began to attract whispers even in the arrival lounge, with people pointing at his scowl and commenting on what a good costume it was to a certain animé character, and wasn't it a pity that he didn't have the signature big cleaver?

From a corner, Anna Shiloh scowled at him. "Meanie Kurosaki cosplayer."

"Shut up, you," Rick pointed.

"Hey, dude! So, when are we going to the building?" A blond-haired blue-eyed surfer, complete with Hawaiian floral print called.

"I predict that the Cold Queen will not receive us well," the short bespectacled albino man mumbled quietly.

"Anna, please don't debase yourself in the middle of the Neo Domino International Airport. Again." Rose Gonzalez groaned, wrapping a shawl around herself.

Rick groaned in relief as they entered the arrival lounge and made for the outside world. "Finally... Justin, when did you say that your team's third wheeler was coming?"

"Oh, he should've been here..." the albino obligingly scanned the crowd. "His stalker is here, so he's here."

Rick followed his line of sight to an attractive busty blonde dressed in seventies disco clothings, then his eyes jumped to the brown-haired man standing near the blonde. "There he is! Lancaster, get your ass here!"

"My ass is perfectly fine, Kurosaki!" the other man countered, grinning good-naturedly as the other psychics greeted him.

"My name is Rick Larson, not Kurosaki! Get it straight!"

"Well, who told you to cosplay?"

"I was born like this before Kurosaki was ever created! Get a life!"

By the sidelines, Rose could only groan as Anna began to interrupt the argument once more and the crowd was beginning to stare at them. "All of you, shut up!"

Speeding down the Daedalus highway, Adrian clung on for dear life behind Satoshi. "Man, gracias for putting my D-Wheel with the mechanic's. Who're we going to, anyway?"

"House of Cards Garage," Satoshi grunted as he navigated the long and treacherous bridge highway between the cars peeling back and forth between the city and Satellite. "Nice lady there. She can bend steel bars with her bare hands."

"Nice," Adrian muttered before both Duellists were distracted by a sudden cold that swept the route. "Is that...?"

"What?" Satoshi blinked. "Blazeus didn't feel anything."

"Naga?" Adrian muttered, clinging shotgun as Satoshi accelerated.

A ghost of the reptilian creature arose. There is power in the night. There is terror in the darkness.

The note of sadistic glee in her proclamation underlined to Adrian that, despite what he wished to think, Vennominaga was very much what she was – a being of violence, deceit and desire. "Please, summarise that in a way that this human of yours can identify with."

There are Duel Monsters on a hunt, the goddess clarified.

Both D-Wheelers swallowed as the cold increased as they parked outside the garage, which seemed more wrecked than ever. Lightning split the darkening skies and thunder rumbled as there was a loud scream, not of fear but of rage.

Something vaguely resembling a praying mantis crashed through. Its front claws curved into serrated edges like a praying mantis, but built like a pick-axe rather than a curved blade. Many red, bulbous eyes blinked simultaneously in its set insectoid face, and its skin was cut and bruised in places that resembled bruises, patches of purple against green. It moved like a praying mantis, looming again as it perched on four spindly legs and its claws scratched the tar and dirt before the monster beheld the two D-Wheelers.

Adrian dismounted cautiously as from within the garage proper exited a woman. She was built like a Valkyrie in a black sports vest, jeans and thick-soled boots. Her straight brown hair hung loose from a coffee-coloured scrunchie and her hands wielded a pair of gleaming gauntlets that she proceeded to swing at the nearest monster, something that vaguely resembled a large purple blob with arms and head.

"If you can see them, do please help out," the woman was disarmingly calm as she made short work of the cringing monster.

Adrian gaped for a second longer before he dived for his DuelDisk. "I summon Reptilianne Scylla!"

Just in time, the raging monster clawed out as the purple blob-monster recovered, lashing out as the woman, who staggered back, crying out before charging again. Both Reptile and human ganged up, kicking the monster which gave a loud, low moan and shattered as a gout of flame hit it.

Satoshi was panting hard as flames erupted before dying. "You okay, Miyagi?"

"Quite," the woman affirmed. "Thank you for the help." She looked at Adrian. "Who are you?"

"Adrian Rodriguez," Adrian replied. "What was that?"

She groaned. "Miyagi Avalon. I own the garage. I was about to ask you the same thing."

"You didn't know?" Satoshi interrupted, staring at her.

"It was... waving and being generally hostile," Avalon dismissed, wincing as she leaned against the wall. "Hardly inclined to introduce itself."

"Looked like a Duel Spirit," Satoshi considered. "I'd know a Shadow Ghoul anywhere."

"I guessed the same thing," Avalon chuckled. "Well, then, you're here to collect the D-Wheel? Ryuu-chan made so many improvements on it, you know. It's over there."

"Thanks," Adrian nodded as he moved towards the indicated covered lump, pulling off the sheet to reveal a curved dark-green D-Wheel based on the Yusei Go, made to resemble a green cobra. "How much do I owe?"

"The standard storage and maintenance fee," Avalon shrugged as Adrian tapped the password into the D-Wheel and watched it start up. "The full list of modifications is attached. We've deducted our fee from your account, just take it."

Adrian whistled at a single glance of the list. "You have a really talented mechanic here."

"Ryuu-chan? Oh yes," Avalon sighed, wincing.

"Why did those monsters attack here?" Satoshi prompted her.

Avalon looked sad as her left eye gleamed with a single, green rune. "I don't know. Looks like I won't make it for the Stygian Dirge, though... could you do me a favour, Shinamori-san?"

"What?" Satoshi stared as she fumbled to the desk nearby, rummaging in a drawer for an envelope.

"It was... a very good time we had together," Avalon sighed as she took two cards and placed them inside, along with a note. "But it couldn't last. Take this."

Satoshi accepted the envelope and the note that she handed him with ginger reverence. It was cold and implacable, as if his own fiery power from Blazeus could not drown it. "What is it?"

Avalon just smiled as her left eyes glowed brighter. A tear began to drip from her left eye, where the rune of the thorn glowed. "Thor and Loki. Bring it to Ishihara Takeshi, make sure it gets into his hands. The directions are in the note with the address. I cannot fight, not like this, so but I will tell someone who can. Go."

"You're hurt!" Adrian blurted as Avalon staggered against the desk.

"I'll call a hospital," Avalon snapped, suddenly terrifying both men. "Go."

"Okay, okay," Satoshi sighed, raising both hands. "You're sure you don't need help?"

"Quite," Avalon shrugged as she reached for the desk phone and began dialling. "No bleeding, no breaks, however I shall be in the hospital. I suspect the Shadow Ghoul did something to my leg."

A low, mournful howl echoed from far away.

"Those monsters came for those cards," Avalon murmured as the dial tone continued to ring. "Get them to Takeshi, he'll know what to do."

"O- Okay," Satoshi nodded. "Viper, you done? We're going to get these away. Miyagi, we'll come see you in Puzzle Hospital, okay? Bye."

"Right," Adrian scowled as the D-Wheels quickly hit the road, followed by a horde of shadowy monsters that floated behind, advancing ever forward. "She going to be okay?"

"She'll be just fine," Satoshi answered sardonically. "At least, I hope, but she didn't look like she could've fought off monsters."

"They're coming for us," Adrian panted as he sped up on his D-Wheel. "And what the hell did they do to this thing? I'm never going to another mechanic, you hear me?"

"Oh, that's Fudo Ryuusei's work," Satoshi absently replied.

Adrian almost threw himself off the D-Wheel in shock. "No? Really?"

"Yes. Really."

"I just got my D-Wheel worked on by a Fudo," Adrian sighed in admiration as his D-Wheel sped ahead of the monster horde flying and running for him. "And at the market price. I think I'm in love."

Satoshi gave a small bark as tyres screeched and blue-white flames raged where they touched, supernaturally strong. Heat glanced off them as the monsters screamed, backing away and disappearing back into darkness. No one saw them; Neo Domino had curiously little people so close to the highway itself except for the motor shops.

Satoshi gave a victorious chuckle. "C'mon, Viper. Let's get the cards to Ishihara."

"Damn Shimotsuki," Kiyomi was still complaining as he followed the Ishihara into the apartment.

"You're lucky we could get you out on such short notice," Kaname replied as Takeshi and Alexianna began to set out the raw foods and Kaname got out the rice-bin. "And that Shimotsuki-san decided to drop the charges so early. Otherwise who knows how long you'd spend in juvi."

"I... well, why did you save me-" Kiyomi paused as the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Takeshi walked out of the door.

Kiyomi looked from Takeshi to Kaname. "It's kind of dangerous, right? That guy, leaving two girls alone with a stranger?"

Kaname snorted as Alexianna began to giggle. "We're both psychics. And we're still armed."

"Point," Kiyomi slowly nodded as Kaname brandished the rice scoop, a long-handled wooden thing that looked solid enough to brain someone.

"Shit!" the ejaculation plus the sound of cracking plaster was enough to have all three of them run out of the kitchen to see Takeshi at the open door. He was facing a tall flame-haired man and a tall Hispanic-looking man, both in Riding outfits. A tell-tale crater was on the wall next to Takeshi as the Aesir Duelist ripped open a brown envelope and read the note inside, biting his bottom lip.

"Takeshi?" Alexianna murmured blankly.

"Takeshi, what's wrong?" Kaname demanded.

"T- They're out of commission," Takeshi choked. "Ava-san, Abel... both of them.."

In his hands, the faces of Thor and Loki, Lords of the Aesir, looked positively grim in portent.

"D- D- Damn you, Rei..." Chase swore as his teeth chattered in what felt like sub-zero temperatures, even though he had barely spent five minutes in it. "W- W- What did y- you do t- to my r- room...?"

Enough talk, Duelist. Come, I sense her by the horizon.

"Are you insane- Oi!" Chase coughed as the temperature plummeted further. "Bastard, I'll tear up your card, I swear- I'll get my jacket first! Now stop already!"

The black-haired Duelist sighed in relief as the room temperature began to normalise itself again and he sat up to reach for the dark blue blazer hanging beside his bed. "Damn you, where's the fire?"

Follow my directions, and we shall get there.

"Well, sorry, but the last time you tried to immolate me-"

You do not want to fight with me. Not here, with the young life next door and your partner here.

Chase scowled as he sneaked out, past Youkai kipping out on the couch-bed and his keys and wallet and Duel equipment with him. "Where's the fire?" he murmured softly.

Rei sounded gleeful as he spoke the next words. The fight is escalating, at last.

"Chase? Where are you going?"

Chase paused to look at Rex, fitted in a glossy black leather jacket and boots and clearly prepared to go out. "You too?"

"Can't sleep," the Atlas scion muttered. "Mother's taking a nap, Reina just fell asleep, and now I think I hear dragons."

"Dragons?" Chase sceptically echoed. "Which ones?"

"No idea. Red Demon's Dragon is with Father, they're overseas," Rex answered in confusion. "So, which dragon was talking about the fight escalating?"

"Mine," Chase pointed to a seemingly empty spot of wall in the apartment foyer.

"...why do I think it's something to do with Ryuusei?"

"I think so too. Shall we?"

"Let's."

As two D-Wheels hit the road, a pair of crimson eyes blinked as a lithe form dived down from an open window.

The roar of both D-Wheels drowned out all conversation until Rex and Chase managed to reach the main street. "Where'd you think he is?" Chase asked the more perceptive of them.

"Arcadia Movement," Rex snorted. "Even if he's not there, Shimotsuki will be. And if she's there, she'll know where he is."

"Don't think so," Chase muttered as he glanced up.

Rex followed him to stare at the bird swooping down from above. "Oi, why are you flying, bastard!"

"It's fun!" Youkai countered.

Erika was backing away from the flaming dumpster that had been an accidental victim of her DuelDisk. "W- What's happening... I don't understand... Kyothys!"

Easy, child. We are simply returning a favour.

"H- He's dead," Erika's eyes were wide as the smell of cooking meat tickled her nose. "He's..."

We had an agreement, child. I would lend you my power to find the one responsible for your brother's state. Even if he is dead, the fact remains that we must finish the agreement. The flames leapt, almost in agreement. We shall proceed.

"N- No..." Erika stepped back, trying to take off her DuelDisk.

Too late, child... too late...

You again, Kyothys?

Orange flames gave way to black, the pitch-dark conflagration gathering form as the phoenix considered the malevolent dragon behind the dark-haired Chase.

"Move, lady!" the boy yelled to Erika, who quickly got out of what would be ground zero.

Kyothys... the dragon rumbled. What a surprise that you are here.

Dreigoon... I didn't expect that you would hound me even in this realm of convergence, the monstrous spirit pronounced haughtily. The Hound of Winter comes once more, does he?

So says the one called the Fowl of Summer, the dragon cackled. You served Titania because I chose to side with Maeve's ambition. Petty, aren't you?

Insolent fool! The bird raged. You dare-?

I dare, Kyothys, the dragon laughed. Come at me, then, as we have fought since the beginning of the Wars.

Heh, this time I'll be sure to put you away for eternity. The phoenix spread its wings. Come, child. 'Tis the time to handle the one who struck the soul of thy brother in blood.

"H- He's the one who did that to Ryuuga?" Erika point at the black-haired boy. "B- But-!"

Your aura... I see, the boy, my previous host, was your brother, Dreigoon laughed. He was of no use to me once he lost to the Aesir, without will or power. A pitiful existence that merited nothing even in death.

"You take that back!" Erika raged as golden flames began to tear across the darkness of the wide alley they were in.

As the boy shielded himself, the dragon huffed, and the aura around them flashed with a cerulean fire, the air thickening. That flame lashed out against the gold, and the two clashed in a shower of emerald energy, cancelling one another out.

Twilight has always meant more than just time to call the children in from playing outside. Fading light always means more than just the end of day. The night was when terrible things emerge from their sleep and seek soft flesh and hot blood; when unseen beings with no regard for what our people have built and no place in what we have deemed the natural order look in at our world from outside, and think dark and alien thoughts.

And sometimes, just sometimes, they do things.

"Normally, the energy needed to breach the barrier between worlds is huge," was the start of the explanation Setsuka had chosen to grant. "Or so it would seem. The fact is, that the barriers between worlds are flexible, but powerful. It can be done is imagining something akin to the phospholipid bilayer of the cell surface membrane-"

"Setsuka," Ryuusei patiently interrupted as Koichi looked more lost. "Simpler terms, rather than words to confuse Yamamoto-san."

Setsuka huffed. "Usually, the human and Duel spirit worlds remain separate, connected only by the simplest of interfaces and generally isolated. But, in this world, there is an inexplicable power that controls the fate of the world. The two worlds are connected; how, when, and why I don't know, but this connection exists."

"Right..." both men looked slightly comprehending.

"However, the line is constantly being breached," Setsuka continued. "Spirits who look down on humanity, who prey in the night we who cannot walk sideways like them, who feed upon we who fear the darkness, they break through and enter this world whether by sheer force or invitation. It makes the threat much less, since a threat that cannot be effective is almost no threat... as least, it used to be."

"What do you mean?" Ryuusei asked.

Setsuka held up a hand. "The target of the bet is to seize control of the sovereignty of the Naturia Forest. Because there are very few ways by which spirits can enter the human world, it means that we, as rulers, become the main pieces that compete. Please note that there is no clause that said that the acquisition of sovereignty need be voluntary. Tsugare could easily be enslaved by the spirits, robbed of all free will if I did nothing and acted merely as the Winter Queen. In the acquisition of sovereignty, there is also no rules that bar collateral damage; hence, Yamamoto-san could have been killed very easily, and justice is evaded in the course of the games."

Koichi choked in shock as Ryuusei gasped. "That's horrible... how can they do that?"

"For the same reason numerous atrocities are committed in the first place," was the arch reply. "Because they can. In a war, the most immediate casualties is the people at the very battlefield itself. Previously, the war was fought on the borders of Winter and Summer, so the immediate casualties were the citizens of Winter and Summer itself. Now it has ended, but that was only in the Gensokyo. Imagine, if you will, if the war was to migrate here, the fighting were to continue, under the guise of a sick game that plays with the lives of people who were never involved in the first place."

Internally, Ryuusei considered that the option of backing away from a cold Setsuka was a very good idea. "I... couldn't I have done anything?"

"You are ignorant, but kind," Setsuka continued. "You would have taken Tsugare in. You would have exposed him to Summer, and then, the hook is struck... perhaps, Tsugare would choose to run away from a world that cannot see past his looks to the pained soul within. The same would have happened if he came to me as one would the Winter Queen. Pain is something horrible that we all live with, but pain is the natural order of the universe. Pain makes us grow up, makes us human. Father never understood this..."

"What?"

"We would have given him relief, freedom from the hurting that had ruled the destiny of his life... at the cost of forgetting to be human," Setsuka shook her head. "Forgetting what it means to stand up again after falling."

"I couldn't have done that!" Ryuusei burst out.

Setsuka's hand landed on the desk, her expression blank, and the lack of anything was made even more poignant. "No, not without his choice. And it is so easy to choose to forget, to stop hurting. It would turn him into another monster, but a happy monster. So I cast it, I made him forget, I arranged events to make him choose to remain with the Movement, under my nominal protection but also protected from Winter's machinations. Oberon upped the ante when he sent that assassin to handle Yamamoto-san. I couldn't have told you, Ryuusei, because otherwise Summer would have had to thwart the Winter Queen. Even if you chose not to, it is the way our fates had been made."

Ryuusei shivered, a warm pulse from about him bringing clarity from the very soul of the past Queen. "And you couldn't tell Yamamoto-san, because he would have become involved in the wars, and then he would have been killed."

"I apologise," Setsuka murmured. "I had anticipated that you would demand an audience earlier. If I were coerced to tell, it would have been impossible for Yamamoto-san to be dragged into this cold war."

Ryuusei frowned. "But, isn't it better for both sides to stop fighting?"

"Technically they are not fighting," Setsuka murmured, sarcastic once more. "After all, it is... a bet. What the leaders were doing behind our backs would qualify as match-fixing. No matter the collateral damage."

"...it was never about winning against Tsugare-san, but rather pitting the rulers of both against each other," Ryuusei muttered. "They want to make sure that we fight each other, whether over Tsugare-san, or by something like the Stygian Dirge."

Setsuka's eyes narrowed before they widened. "...Of course. I never thought about it."

"About what?" Koichi sighed. "Of course, I have no idea what's going on."

"We exist in opposition," Setsuka clarified. "Tell me, what has Misawa Tsugare becoming a target managed to accomplish?"

"Erm... you controlling him?" Koichi hazarded. "Misawa-kun getting concerned? Him calling in... Ryuusei." Clarity dawned. "Both of you confronting each other. And odd stuff happening, like Duel spirit assassins after me. But mostly you guys confronting each other."

"Winter and Summer gathering to do battle," Ryuusei breathed as Marguerite's scent crackled about him, like flames burning sweet-smelling petals in a heady miasma that seemed to deter Setsuka's cold and darkness. Beside him, the spirit hummed in reluctant agreement.

"Each wield vast power, power to rival the fates and lesser gods," Setsuka nodded. "But we cancel each other flawlessly. And in the end, the board will be evenly divided. The lesser pieces will emerge and do battle to decide the balance. The knight, the lords and ladies, and the leaders of the very tribes we are allied with."

"The war will continue," Ryuusei swallowed. "But in Neo Domino City, where the treaties can't touch it. And all they have to do... is make us fight, with all our power."

"The Stygian Dirge will be the centre-point of our gamble," Setsuka called up a list of all teams, circling Night Sky and Black Knights. "Sooner or later, someone will begin to sabotage the teams besides Night Sky and Black Knights, to ensure that either ruler of Winter or Summer wins, and with it the gamble. The other teams are all champions of a faction allied to either Winter or Summer, hence there shall be an intense struggle to eliminate the rest of the factions. I imagine that there shall be attacks from monsters-"

Both rulers' eyes met, an unspoken message communicated.

"-quite soon," she finished, meaning clear in every note of her words. "You know what we must do."

Ryuusei closed his eyes, the old memories telling him in echoes of the past, what needed to be done. "One soul, is called by the light..."

"What?" Koichi sat up at the ritualistic pronunciation, something in the simple words ringing true. "What was that?"

"Another will be guided by the darkness..." Setsuka murmured, each note building on its precedent.

"Together, the power of chaos sweep the land," both finished, as warmth and cold began to exist in the same space, muggy heat and diamond-dust cold in the same space as the shadows and light played across the desk and the room and the very air itself.

And then, when the powers that be had died down at last, and the last flicker of light vanished, a quiet voice spoke.

"Hail Summer and Winter, monarchs regnant of the Courts, from this faithful retainer of the rulers of light and darkness."

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