Skin

by Usagi Squared

Jonouchi Katsuya will always look out for his friends, no matter how weird things get. That means he will keep on fighting, whether facing maniacs with freaky powers, monsters from a childrens game, or the fact Kaiba's a girl. Wait, what? Warnings inside

89. Chapter 88

The End of the World

---

Finding a television had been the last thing she expected to do in the middle of the desert wastes. Since they'd been left there they had found nothing but sand and the occasional rock after all, and the fact was that if she hand't just about tripped over the damn thing she wouldn't have spotted it half buried as it was... Of course, with everything else happening she probably shouldn't have been surprised to find it there, but it was still strange. More strange however was what was on the screen, something that she noticed shortly after digging a majority of it out from the dirt. "Ah... That's Katsuya-nii," Mokuba shouted, the boy stopping down beside his sister to stare at the screen. "And his opponent..."

"Oka," Seto growled flatly, having a fairly good idea which one of the former board members would pick 'Judgeman' as their 'face'. "Tch... That Noa... What do you want," she spat, turning her head up to the air, gesturing back to the television as it silently progressed through the duel in 'hell'. "Showing me this... What could you possibly hope to get out of it," the woman cried. "Why not just tell me what you want with me, my body, my company... With anything," she raged, "So that you can just be done with it!"

There was no answer, save blowing wind over a desert and a momentary look of confusion and worry from her brother. Damn it... Damn it! The woman grit her teeth, looking out at the desert as Mokuba continued to watch the screen behind them in silence. What Noa wanted... What if 'this' was it she asked herself, scowl vanishing to a slight frown. To simply screw with her head, get under her skin... To watch and revel in the reaction he received as a response... 'This is the wrong memory', the girl had said. She'd burrowed through scene after scene with no care in the world up until her 'death', and it was still apparently the 'wrong one'.

But if it was such an important memory... Then why didn't she recall it? She could recall almost every point in her life with ease, but why not this one? "Ah- Nee-sama," Mokuba abruptly shouted, the woman turning back as her brother moved aside to make room. "On the screen! Look!" The screen..?

Pale coloured hair on an eerily familiar face came into view, the woman tensing as the screen flashed. "Gh- Noa," she hissed, eyes wide as she stared. Mokuba slowly raised the dial on the machine's volume control, the computerized boy's voice coming over the air as the siblings stared in uneasy silence.

'If you wish to surpass the head of Kaiba-Corp, to reach your goals,' the boy was snarling to Oka, the demonic 'judgeman' quite clearly caught between fear and rage, 'Then you need to defeat those beneath that person as well! If you can't face this boy in a fair battle,' he continued seriously, 'Then what hope could you possibly have against Seto?' Surpass...

With a tone like that it almost seemed 'personal'... "So he wants to completely surpass me does he," she muttered, narrowing her eyes as the conversation and moves both continued on the screen. But who, she thought with narrowed eyes. Who could possibly instigate that sort of competitive streak, there was no one in any circle of relations she had that-

No.

There was one.

But that person was dead, long dead the woman reminded herself, and it would otherwise be impossible for a corpse to influence the living. She certainly wasn't the sort to believe in ghosts after all (though as of late she'd been tempted it seemed) ...So how was this happening then? And who was this boy, she asked herself testily, watching as Jonouchi finishing his final move on the screen. A final gamble, a 50/50 bluff bet, making a decision between two cards... "Hn! A fool's strategy," she muttered, Mokuba smiling somewhat from the side. A completely worthless thing to put faith in...

So of course he'd win using it, blasting the demon of a lawyer across a sanded plain to stain the ground red. Again the woman shook her head, before standing from the television to look past it as it crackled. "...Nee-sama," Mokuba asked from behind her, looking to the woman as she stared out at the desert. "Do you think... Do you think they'll be alright," he asked, Seto not even glancing back.

They? As in everyone? ...Eh... She wasn't going to bother vouching for the three she hadn't seen, but she supposed she could at least assure her brother of the others. "Hn. Yugi's too naive for his own good, Anzu can't fight in a dangerous situation worth hell, and the mutt is a complete moron," she began, brow twitching somewhat as her brother sighed almost knowingly. "But that 'mutt' is also on my security team," the woman continued with a slightly calmer tone, sliding down the side of a sand dune before turning back, "So I would expect him to at least get himself and the others out safely enough. Does that answer your question?"

Her only response, of course, was a chuckled sigh as her brother followed behind, along with a smile.

---

She knew from the start where she was, she supposed. Just north of Kyoto, at the Elementary Graduation field trip... Visiting Japan's largest lake, 'Biwa-ko'. At lake Biwa, there were paddle boats shaped like swans, with room for two; as part of the trip, everyone would get to take a boat out for a few hours... Which was why she had stood at the side of the lake that day, before getting paired up with a boy from a separate class at the school. 'You'll both be going to Omiya Middle, won't you,' they'd said, dividing each of the graduating classes first into groups of middle schools and then into pairs of two. 'You're the only two who haven't chosen partners; go on,' the teachers continued almost persistently, the boy beside her scowling, 'Take the last boat now, and have some fun! Don't waste the money your parents gave for this trip!

'

At that time, she didn't know much of 'Ryuzaki Keiichi', not outside of rumors at least. And even though it was only two and a half years ago, watching it now brought the memory back quite clearly enough to know that if she'd known more she would have likely already been friends so to speak. She didn't have many friends back then after all; though she'd been living in Asahi since she was about seven, she had been diagnosed with 'Retintis Pigmentosa' that year... They'd gone to the doctor because she couldn't see in the dark any more, and thought that perhaps some sort of virus was going around...

But they went in only to realize that she had an accelerated form of a hereditary disease. She'd gotten rather frantic she remembered with a slight laugh, cutting it with a wince as she sat along the lake shore to watch her memories 'play'. While most would have decades she had years... And she had wanted to find out all she could, solve the problem before it was too late, before she couldn't see anything again..!

Maybe that was why her friends left. Because of all the endless studying and research and classwork. Or maybe it was because they didn't like seeing her like that, quiet and depressed as she had gotten after receiving the news. Either way, all of them had chosen to go to separate schools to leave her alone, and everyone else had picked partners by that point on that day. Everyone but him.

Most people did not like Keiichi back then, at least most at the school she found. To the teachers, he was a 'lazy menace' and a 'disgrace', letting his hair go long and un-cut, managing to skip school right on the 'surprise examination' dates... All while still receiving top marks in the class and grade both. To the students he was a prick, plain and simple; the kid who spent the first ten minutes of class looking up the assignments on the board before completing them and then using the rest of the time to busy himself with his deck of cards. A 'know it all' and a 'show off'... And his attitude didn't help at all, given that approaching him tended to receive a snark and an insult before he shuffled off.

So of course, they'd ended up bickering in the boat within minutes, despite neither of them objecting too much further on the partnership after the mention of the field-trip's cost. They'd paddled off, fighting over which way to go and what they were going to see... And then the boat had gotten stuck; a jammed paddle, leaving them stranded in the lake while her temper had been raised from its usual locked box. 'Great,' she'd muttered childishly, pouting in the boat. 'I'm stuck with you...'

'Oh wow,' Keiichi snorted, semi-long hair tied back for the moment. 'That's REALLY polite of you miss 'mousy'. Aren't you supposed to be the quietest kid in your class?'

To this she had little to say, instead turning away with a snort. 'Jerk.'

'Pansy.'

'Moron.'

'Ahou.'

Shizuka, rather, the 'young' Shizuka turned around, a fairly Katsuya-like grin on her face. '...Bakaaaaa~'

'Gh- Why you-!' Keiichi had of course lunged at her in response to that comment, moving to push her over board. In the end, she'd been the one to push him over, toppling in after him and getting themselves picked up to be taken somewhere dry. Toweled up and waiting to warm up until the teachers came back... They weren't 'really' friends, not after that of course... And the fact was, the most conversation they had after that was finding out that one liked dinosaurs and that the other was not nearly as enthused on the subject.

In the end, when they ended up in the same class at Omiya, she supposed they paid more attention to each other. 'Ryuzaki-kun,' she could remember shouting months after the first year began, walking along the shore of the lake as it melted into the outside view of her classroom. 'Exams are in two weeks,' she'd told him, a small arm band reading 'iinchou' on her shoulder. 'How can you not study!'

'...By... Not... Studying,' he'd offered, leaning back on his chair with a shrug.

The girl had merely scowled, growing somewhat red-faced as other classmates witness the 'two-faced class rep' in action. 'OOOGH! You MORON!' -smack!-

'OW!' The chair toppled back into place, Keiichi rubbing his head with a grown. 'Sheesh! What the hell, Shizka-san!'

'DO YOUR HOMEWORK FOR ONCE!'

Hahaha... Shizuka shook her head as she watched the two younger selves bicker, holding her head as she laughed. Haha... Yea... That about summed up their relationship in those times, she told herself. The only one not calling her 'class rep', or 'kawai-san'... The only one occasionally stopping by her desk to annoy her for 'no particular reason' when she was feeling particularly depressed about her failing vision... Not that she'd ever told him that. But when did it change she asked herself, a slight wind blowing around her as she stared. When did all of this change, when did they 'really' consider themselves friends..? 'Maybe... That day,' she thought, the wind suddenly blowing as it came to the end of the school year. Grade 7... She was in grade seven, or at least would be for another few days. The marks for the final exams had been posted, along with the new class lists... They were in the same class again... But that wasn't what they were talking about. 'Top of the class again... Really,' she'd muttered, looking to Keiichi in disdain. 'How can you get those kinds of marks without lifting a finger!'

'Heh! It's called 'I'm smart',' he'd responded, looking up from a book he was reading as he leaned against the wall. 'Deal with it.'

She almost shook her head and simply left after that... But she found herself looking at the book instead, staring at it. The cover was what had caught her attention. It wasn't from their library, and she didn't think she'd seen it anywhere... 'Paleontology,' she'd asked, after finding out the book's topic. 'I didn't know you were actually going after that career seriously Ryuzaki-kun...'

The boy had merely shrugged, turning a page. 'Eh,' he muttered in excuse, 'You never cared enough to ask...'

'Gh- Because all you ever do is play with cards,' Shizuka had shouted back, bringing down a pile of papers on the boy's head. -smack!-

'ITEI! Damn it Shizka-chan,' he growled, rubbing his head. 'How can someone so quiet be so violent!'

'I don't know, you just manage to bring out that sort of thing! Honestly!' Ah... Shizuka blinked, staring at the memory for a moment in silence. That was when...

After that day, she'd let him call her that, using the 'chan' honorific. Soon after, she started calling him 'Keichi-kun' instead of 'Ryuzaki-kun', even occasionally asking about his duel monsters cards when he began running about for the tournaments in the area. Maybe it was then that they were really 'friends', even if they kept fighting over every little thing. She got to meet his aunt that year after all, and traveled with the boy for his semi-final match in Okinawa later that fall, curtesy of that woman.

'Tamae-ba' as she was told to call her worked in the USA at the moment it had seemed. Digging fossils and making notes, a fact that came about when she'd given Keiichi some pack of foreign DVD's to watch in his spare time. She was Keiichi's role model she supposed, given the look on the boy's face when they'd met. And they'd gotten along well... It was something that made her regret not being able to introduce him to her brother back then when it was easy rather than the way it had come out now... But Tamae-ba had taken her nephew on a vacation for the month that summer, so she'd found herself keeping silent. And then... After that summer, when she'd seen her brother again...

'Hey,' he'd shouted from the door, her younger self curled up on her bed upstairs. 'Hey,' he repeated worriedly, 'Is Shizka-chan in there? She never showed up for school,' Keiichi continued, 'I've got her homework... She sick?' No. No she wasn't, her mother had told the boy, Keiichi dropping his bag in shocked silence.

She was just too blind for the glasses to let her focus properly any more. She never told anyone how the 'blindness' worked. They'd assumed it was a matter of nearsighted or farsightedness that was beyond technology's control, and even with what her mother had said, most would assume. It would figure then... That he'd known for a while though... That when he came up the stairs after being let in, worriedly calling her name... '...Keichi-kun,' she'd asked, turning toward him and squinting.

'...It's too far now, isn't it?'

Tears ran down Shizuka's face as she recalled that day, that afternoon that was left in a frightened silence. Keiichi had asked if he could stop by the next day, or even stay on the couch... He skipped school, pulling her out of the house with the carefree excuse 'I can catch up easily; come on, lets do something fun! You can still see, even if it's just a little... So lets take advantage of that, alright?'

She'd agreed in the end; the teachers would have just sent her home with vision as bad as this, and Keiichi was known for skipping his classes as it was. When they got to his idea of 'fun' however, even near complete blindness didn't prevent her from recognizing the place. 'Keiichi-kun... This is a museum...'

'Hahaha... Well...' The boy coughed, shrugging with a slight smirk. 'I didn't know what else to do... But hey, there's more than bones in there and-'

'Okay,' she'd decided, pulling her friend toward the entrance before allowing him to lead the rest of the way. 'Let's go!' It was fun that day... She didn't really understand her friend's interest in all those bones, or in the painted pictures of 'artists renditions', but she supposed that it was fun nonetheless. The size of some of the monsters that walked the earth... The stories that Keiichi told for each one... 'And some of these became birds,' she shouted incredulously at one point, her friend grinning in response.

'Haha! Yea! Crazy, isn't it,' he'd asked, before explaining away what ever stand they were at. One dinosaur did this, another did that... Somehow, it turned into a giant comparison chart, matching his cards to the fossils he so loved.

'But mammoths aren't-'

'They're still fossils right?' Well she supposed that made sense...

'But then why are there dragons in your deck!'

Keiichi had gotten rather tense at that moment, snatching the Red-Eyes he'd been showing her back. 'Hey! Dragons are cool too you know; I don't have to just use dinosaurs,' he protested, the Shizuka of that time blinking.

'But-'

'You said it yourself,' he laughed, pocketing his deck. 'I'm too predictable. A dragon in a dinosaur deck makes sense with that in mind right? For a predictable guy like me.'

'...'

But he wasn't predictable she shouted mentally, he was far from it! He was the one who despite all appearances was probably smarter than anyone else she knew, yet still played with dinosaur toys when no one was looking! T-Rex and Stegosaurus walking around the desk at home while she worked on homework... The memory seemed unstable, and yet as she grit her teeth she could still hear the boy speaking to himself perfectly well. ' 'We will rule over all this land, and we will thrive,'' the stegosaurus was telling the T-Rex. ''And we will call it-'' He'd paused, looking up for a moment before continuing. '...Uh... 'THIS LAND.' 'Really,'' he had the T-Rex respond, lowering his voice comically, ''I think we should call it your grave- Raaa-raaa-raaa~' 'Auuuughh~ Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!' 'WAHAHAHA-Raaaa!' 'Ahhhh! Nooooo~' '

It made studying rather difficult, when the one reading your books was playing with toys. '...Keichi-kun... What are you doing?'

'Uhhhhh...' Keiichi in question turned, looking decidedly red now that she could properly see what his reaction was. 'Quoting... Firefly?'

'...What?'

'I'll just duck out now,' he'd said quickly, vanishing just as the memory collapsed into ruin. Why...

Why was she seeing all of this again..? Shizuka frowned as clouds began to cloak the skies, eyes growing misty as she sniffed. These memories... Why were they playing in a 'video game'? That was what this was right? She looked over herself, shivering slightly as a breeze passed. She looked almost like the belly-dancers in video games, or some other stereotypically 'middle eastern' woman. Harem pants, a tight fitting 'bra'... In her hands she held two staves, each topped with a small 'head' of sorts, but despite their size it was clear the staves were meant for magic. 'Blue Mage', her class was called. Able to learn from the opponent and counter with similar amounts of damage... Though she'd really expected more clothing she told herself, peering at her reflection on the lake a moment before finding herself in the museum again.

It was the same day she'd just seen, the day they'd skipped together... By this point they weren't so much looking at dinosaurs as they were fossils, but her 'guide' had seemed eager enough nonetheless. 'This one here,' Keiichi was saying, her little speck of vision staring up at an enormous skeleton, 'Is called 'Elasmotherium', which means 'Thin Plate Beast'. It was one of the giant rhinos that lived millions of years ago,' he explained calmly, gesturing over the bones with a smile. 'See how the spine is curved? This guy had a 'hump' of sorts in addition to that huge horn, which caused that curve.'

Huge horn? 'H-Hehh... Everything about it is huge,' she'd shouted in protest, 'The horn alone is two meters long..!'

Keiichi laughed of course, given the slight panic in his friend's voice. 'Hahaha! Yep! A lot of things were 'bigger' back then... In the end,' he explained further, 'Smaller helps out more these days though; it means there's more food to go around. Besides,' she could hear her friend mutter, a snort coming from behind as the memory faded.

'Could you imagine what it would be like if these things were still around today?'

"Pffffrf..." Something pawed at the ground behind her, a hard and rock-like surface pushing against her back as the blood drained out of her face. "Prrrrfff..."

"A-Ahhhhhh..." Something told her she didn't want to turn around right now...

"Prrrfff... RNNFFFFf..."

At all.

---

There were a number of ways this day could have gone much better, Ryuuji told himself as he ducked behind another wall, examining the butterfly swords in his hands. Laboured breathing echoed slightly through the darkened room of what he'd come to realize was a temple of sorts, and as the shadows that filled the halls passed by the door he slumped to the ground. Snarls were echoing behind him... Footsteps pounding, scales sliding by the rice-paper doors... "Hah... Hah... Hah... ...Hahhhh..."

What was this place, he asked himself once again, loosely holding a dagger in his hand as he swallowed. This 'virtual world'... This temple filled with monsters he'd designed for the games he created. 'Let's play a game,' the voice called out as he'd fallen in the darkness, finding himself stripped of almost everything, including his headband and hair elastic. 'You're going to be placed in a dungeon with one other person.' He'd interrupted at that point.

'What is this? What do you want with me?' These shouts had persisted as panels swirled around him, his slightly long hair 'floating' somewhat in the dark.

The boy, however, ignored him, and continued to explain. 'This person will not be with you right away, and neither of you will know the other's location,' he explained, ordering the teen to pick his 'class' and 'armor'. 'Your task,' Noa stated darkly as he fell to the ground with those choices made, 'Is to find this person...

Before your nightmares DO.'

Another shudder passed through his body as those last words echoed through his memories, hands holding his head in the silence of the room. Those monsters out there... Demons and shades from myths of old, from tales long past that he'd delved into while forced to study the histories of the ancient world. Manticore and Chimera, Basalisk and Ondine... It was probably only the oldest of folklore, the 'truth in the myth' that kept him alive, thanks to how much went into those monsters...

He'd known to run from the Basalisk as it looked at him, because while the eyes were indeed a sight to behold it was their breath that killed their victims, and the powerful venom released with the slightest of cuts. He'd known to run from the sound of a trumpet for that was the sound of a Manticore's growl, and as a beast with ten rows of teeth in a head larger than his own he would stand little chance. The Chimera he knew, did not have three heads; it had one, and while the monster's back was turned he fled, the fires it spewed too much for him to handle. As for the Ondine...

That was another matter entirely, and he was sorely glad that he'd been in a kitchen with access to a drain at the time, because slicing a woman made of water into submission was a messy business. Not to say he'd done that one on purpose... The fact was, as much a 'game' as this was, he didn't trust this 'Noa' to give him a chance... And against the monsters of myth, he didn't plan to take too many risks. Silence filled the air now. Ryuuji stood hesitantly by the wall as he peered out the door, squinting into the darkness in attempt to look for any other monsters. In the darkness of the hall there was nothing to be seen. Nothing but slowly floating flames to light the way, with anything outside the windows of the traditionally styled Japanese building revealing a starry sky and the occasional tree. Nothing was there... Just wood and paper screens.

It was safe for now. He could rest. "Hah... Thank god," the teen laughed, shaking his head as the daggers in his hands vanished into smoke. "For a moment," he laughed nervously, "I thought I'd be-"

"Hsssssssssssttthhhhhh..." Um... What was that..? Ryuuji slowly turned around, squinting in the darkness as a hissing noise came through the air. Daggers appeared in his hands again, a sure sign of an attack... His barefeet moved slowly backward, and as he squinted he thought he saw something move. "Ssssssssthhhhhhh..." Something... Some kind of snake...

Red eyes began to glow from the dark, the teen slowly walking back out of the room with horror as he realized just how large the source was. "Ooooh shit..." Horns... There were horns on this thing's head, and as he turned to run he knew of only one thing that could possibly be. "SHIIIIIITT!"

"SSSSTHHRREEAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" A thundering crack came through the air as the horned serpent struck the wall he'd stood against moments before, Ryuuji rushing down the hall with wide eyes. Angered snarls escaped behind him crunching wood swallowed before the monster continued its charge. Not good, he told himself as the serpent slid across the floors, daggers seemingly multiplying in his hands as he came to a ledge. Not good AT ALL..!

"Gh- Dance of Daggers," the teen shouted, tossing a wave of somehow replenishing knives toward the beast as he leaped backward in a somewhat spinning motion. Somehow, his reflexes were acting on their own, moving to suit the few bits of clothing his armor left him with. As the snake before him screeched in rage his hands fell back to grab a support beam behind him before he even knew it was there after all, his vest flapping in the air as he moved. He flipped backward on his hands, legs over his head and back again before he gained enough momentum to push off to the other side of what had been a gap between two balconies. And with that... "Hah... Hah... Hihh..." Ryuuji looked back at the snake, watching as it turned from the flurry of knives before screeching with rage.

"SSTTTHHHHHHHREEEEEEEEE!" With ease the serpent followed his path Ryuuji turning into another run with a shout as the beast continued to shed the knives embedded in its skull. "REEEEEEEEEEE!"

Crap crap crap crap crap! "Gh- When he said nightmares," he shouted in panic, hopping another barrier only for the serpent to devour it behind him, "I didn't think he meant greek monsters..!" The snake merely continued to hiss and snarl behind him, coiling on itself as it shot down the hallway after him. What kind of place was this anyways? A Japanese temple, filled with anything from ramen stands to school desks... He'd never been in a place like- "GH!"

"OW!" A short crack came out as he turned the corner, rubbing his head as whatever he hit bounced back. Ryuuji bit his lip, shaking his head and turning to the 'whatever' in question only to stare. This...

"H-Honda," he shouted with surprise, the teen in question blinking as he stood as well.

"Otogi..!" His friend grinned, belt of bullet magazines on his shoulder gleaming somewhat from the worn and thread-bared vest and shirt he had. "Hah..! You're here too... I'd almost thought that Noa prick was lying to me!" A smirk came over the teen's face, Honda crossing his pistol wielding arms and shaking his head. "Heh- nice clothes," he commented as he looked over the leather-clad teen before him, "Really- Gh! Wh-"

"We can talk about un-wanted clothing later," Ryuuji muttered, a loud screech coming over the air from behind him, "For now just run!"

"Run," the teen asked, "Why are we-

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSTH!" Red eyes and green scales turned the corner, massive fangs visible to both boys as their eyes widened

"HOLY FUCK!" Honda hurriedly picked up the pace as he caught sight of the snake, pulling his friend down a separate hall as he picked up speed. "HAAAAAHH! What the hell is THAT!"

"Cerastes, man-eating serpent from Greece," Ryuuji shouted in response, "Now just RUN!"

"SHHREEEEEEEEETH!"

"Man-eating- Damn it," the teen snarled, taking aim behind him as the snake snarled, "The clowns were enough!"

"You were fighting clowns," he asked incredulously, before ducking in reaction to a series of bangs.

"REEEEEEEEESSSTTTTHHH!"

"Rather not talk about it," Honda muttered loudly, before ducking down another hall and pulling his friend into it. It was a tight fit, to say the least, but as Ryuuji found himself at the dead end his friend merely re-loaded his weapons. The serpent out of the hall snarled with rage while the boys stared... While they hid in a hall that its head could never hope to squeeze into. "Hah... That should work..." For now at least he added mentally, saying nothing for the moment. "Now... Help me figure out this thing's weakness," he continued, looking back at his friend as Ryuuji shook his head.

"It doesn't have one," he said seriously, sounds of snarling and chipped wood coming through the air in the meantime. "The Cerastes simply 'was'; kill or be killed, no special weaknesses." Though it seemed his daggers served to only annoy the beast...

Honda appeared to groan at the lack of a weakpoint nonetheless, holding his head in his hands as the revolvers hung from his fingers. "Augggghh... Damn it," he cursed under his breath, "That's no good... These things don't do squat unless it's working at an advantage..."

He turned, eyebrows raised in slight surprise. They did... Nothing? "Seriously? Even my knives do something," he muttered, shaking his head as Honda looked up.

"You have knives? I don't even see a sheath on those 'pants'," he snorted, "Where the hell are you hiding-"

Ryuuji brought up a hand, a pair daggers misting into existence as he frowned. "They're right here, dumbass; I took the dancer's class."

This... Only seemed to further irritate the conversation. "Pbtt... Dancer," Honda snorted, the sounds and rumblings of the snake outside the hall momentarily ignored for the sake of conversation. "What, do you mesmerize them with your 'moves'?" Of for fucks-

"You know what, shut up; at least I get a speed bonus! What about you," he argued, the gun-wielding teen staring blankly in response. "'Gunman'? What's that supposed to do?"

The teen appeared to continue staring, before crossing his arms with a shrug. "Well... I don't know about you but... Being able to see that thing from a distance would have been helpful," he countered, pointing to the still raging cerastes as he chuckled. "So all in all, between eagle vision and girl pants, I'm pretty happy right now... Khnhnhnha!"

Ooooh, just go ahead and laugh... Ryuuji scowled, crossing his arms as he turned away. "Hn! Least I don't look like a firefly reject," he muttered, Honda raising his eyebrows.

"Firefly?"

"...Cowboys in space," he said plainly. "Just..."

Honda rolled his eyes, holstering his pistols to cross his arms. "Hn! I might like like a 'cow boy'," he muttered with a smirk, "But at least I don't look like a stripper."

"Wha-" What the- "I don't look like a stripper," he snarled, fists clenched.

"U-huh. Prove it."

"There are plenty of normal people who walk shirtless in vests," he hissed, receiving another set of rolled eyes before looking at the snake. "And are we going to do something about that thing any time soon?"

His friend turned, crossing his arms before giving a somewhat nonchalant shrug. "Welll... I would do something," he admitted, "But you said there were no weaknesses. So no. No, we're pretty stuck."

"Huh." Well wasn't that lovely. Ryuuji sighed, slumping into a seat and shaking his head. Trapped in a tiny closet in a temple... "Well... Looks like we're going to be here for a while then..."

"Yeeeeep," Honda responded, stretching out. "A loooong while..."

"Where the hell is this anyways," he muttered, looking up at the ceiling as he frowned. "Noa said these would be memories, but I've never been in a place like this..."

Honda snorted, shaking his head. "Hah! Funny... I got the same thing. He tell you some crap about saving someone from your own nightmares too?"

As a matter of fact... "Yes actually... He didn't exactly tell me I'd be facing these though," he muttered, narrowing his eyes.

"SSSSTHHHHREEEE! SSSSSSTTTTTHHHHH!" Hnn...

The two glanced back at the thing, frowning. "Yea... Didn't exactly tell me what I'd be doing either," said Honda, the teen turning back to his friend. "Monsters all you got stuck with then?

Ryuuji nodded, face somewhat blank. "Yea; though a few seemed familiar now that I think about it, or at least the humanoid ones..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "Why, what's your point?"

"Hn... I don't know whether to call you lucky or not," his friend muttered. "I didn't end up running after monsters for a pretty decent while... Got stuck in some twisted recording of my memories instead."

His memories..? "What do you mean?"

"Remember when I told you what happened to my parents," he asked, Ryuuji nodding slowly as he recalled the awkward evening that resulted in. "...I just got to see it happen again," he whispered, shaking his head. "I mean... Even watching them at the hospital would have been better, but watching some truck cut them off with no warning while waving 'good-bye' from the street? Did I really need that kind of crap?"

Ryuuji stared, unsure of just what to say. He didn't know how many people knew about Honda's parents. They knew Honda lived with his sister... But as far as he recalled, no one asked why... "...Honda... Are you..."

The teen shrugged, looking decidedly detached from everything. "I just had to wonder, if I was the only one Noa was fucking with," he muttered, shaking his head. "Guess I am... But what kind of moron runs into a truck," he snarled, "I mean, come on!"

"...You alright?"

"I'm fine! Just... Haven't thought about this for a while," he muttered, shaking his head. "Mom and dad... They both managed to live just long enough for Ane to reach 'guardian' age before their organs failed... I can still remember the few weeks after even, thanks to that stupid 'video'... You know, thinking back, I think I might have met Mokuba..." Ah..?

"Mokuba," he repeated, the teen nodding as he frowned.

"Yea; not at the cemetery of course, though there was some kid there that looked like him, but at a park a little while after... Thinking back it probably wasn't him though," he added, shaking his head. "Said he was waiting for his sister."

"Ah... I see. ...Did you know you mother that well," he ended up saying after a moment, turning away awkwardly.

"...Kinda. Not really I guess," he muttered, staring off. "Parents were workaholics according to Ane... Hell, the night of the crash they'd been called in for Christmas. She... She was pretty pissed, needless to say..."

Oh... "...Sorry..."

"Don't worry about it... Not upset, just pissed. Brat's got no right screwing with my head like that... Even when it's just shit like this," he added, jabbing a thumb in the still snarling snake's direction. "...Tch... You sure this thing doesn't have a weakness," Honda asked, fingering his pistols with a scowl.

"Pretty sure; my daggers didn't even phase it," he added, shaking his head. "Granted, this is the first fight I've actually bothered taking initiative in," Ryuuji muttered. "The only reason I took down the ondine was because the door was blocked..."

"The first-" His friend snorted, pulling himself up. "Sheesh! Well no wonder you didn't do anything, you're probably still 'level one'! Damn... I'm not taking advice from you, you suck at this!"

"W-What! What the hell! I take caution and I 'suck'?"

Honda pulled out a gun, clicking the safety off in a single swift movement as he aimed it toward the Cerastes. "Hn! Whatever... Even if it doesn't do anything, I could use something to shoot right now... What harm can come from this," he called out, pulling the safety down with a sneer. "I don't know about elemental advantages, but this thing has to at least break down for cold steel! Quarter Shot," he shouted, voice drowned out by the sound of the gun. Rather than the standard bullet however a burst of light fired forward, forming from it a cannon-ball that blasted through with and before the sound of the blast. The sphere broke through the snake's hide with ease, and in a cut cry it collapsed to the ground, brain matter and blood scattering the ground. "Hah! Alright," Honda cheered, Ryuuji merely staring at the snake somewhat blankly as his friend climbed over the corpse. "That was easy!"

"Hah... It was..." The teen winced somewhat, dimly hearing a shout in the back of his mind before pushing it back. "...You know... I didn't expect something with the history it has to fall so quickly..."

His friend shrugged, shaking his head. "Hey, not like there's anything much to monsters when you're in a video game..." Well... If you were playing something built around that action yes, but normally there was more of a strate- "So... We've gotten to this point now," Honda continued with a smirk. "Where to next?"

Hnn... "Given that this location is apparently formed by your mind," the teen muttered as he looked around the hall, "I'd guess that's up to you," he muttered. "From what I can tell only the monsters are from my head..."

"Yea, about that," Honda cut in, "What exactly was with those... Some of them were pretty fucked up!"

Gee thanks. "I designed them," he said dryly, crossing his arms with a growl. For the D-D-D game actually... But besides all of that... "What about this place," Ryuuji asked as he frowned. "Just what does this place have to do with you?"

Honda frowned, shaking his head. "Not actually sure; I think I came here for a field trip," the teen trailed off, "Or maybe... ...Oh!" He blinked, before his face went somewhat blank. "This place... This is the temple from the middle school grad. I didn't really remember much of it."

Middle school- "That was less than two years ago," he muttered incredulously, "How did you forget something like that..?"

The teen scowled, narrowing his eyes. "Oh shut up alright? I skipped most of the trip to run around with Jonouchi... Besides! At least you don't see me asking about what a bunch of clown screw-ups are doing in your head!"

Ryuuji winced somewhat at that, looking away. Clowns... He had a fairly good idea... "Gh... You just asked now," he muttered, not looking back as he began to walk away from the snake's corpse. Not that he was answering the 'whys' anyways. "Now... We should probably get moving," he told his friend, glancing back as Honda nodded.

"I guess so..." The teen sighed, spinning his guns on his fingers as he walked along his friend. "I don't think I'll be able to really figure out a way out that easily though," he muttered, shaking his head. "I mean, I've been wandering for hours with no luck, and most of the doors just brought memories really." The doors eh?

Well, given that he'd been running through hallway after hallway, he supposed that made sense. "Hnnn... Something tells me the building's halls are set in a loop," the teen thought aloud, narrowing his eyes. "It's a good way to keep a player busy," he explained, "But most people realize something is wrong before too long."

Honda frowned, the spinning on his fingers stopping as he sighed. Apparently the stealth insult was acknowledged but not addressed. "Right... Not going there." Of course he wasn't. "...Hey, Otogi," he muttered, glancing at the teen as they walked down the oddly sparse hallway. "You think the others are in here?"

The others... He shrugged, shaking his head. "Well... I'd like to think so at least," he said with a frown. "We were all knocked out after all," he continued, "So I'd think we're all in this somehow..."

"Then... That means..." The teen seemed to brighten somewhat, running ahead with a somewhat red face as Otogi stared. "S-Shizuka," he shouted, holstering the guns as he cupped his hands. "HEYYYY! SHIZUKAAAA, WHERE ARE YOU!"

"Gh- H-Honda," Ryuuji shouted, running after his friend with wide eyes. "Honda, what the hell do you think you're doing," he hissed, easily catching up to the teen.

"Looking for Shizuka, what else," he growled, before turning back. "SHIZUKAA- Glk!"

Honda's mouth was quickly covered, a 'sshht!' sound coming through the air as Ryuuji scowled. "Gh- Are you dense," he spat, receiving a glare from the teen for his efforts. "You're going to attract monsters... Not to mention get us both killed! Just find a door so we can leave!"

The teen scowled, shaking his head as he forced his friend's hand from his mouth. "Gh- Not before I find Shizuka; she could be in trouble for all we know!"

"WE'RE in trouble," Ryuuji countered, pointing to himself. "We die if we lose, we don't have time to risk getting caught! We don't even know if Shizuka is in this tem-"

"Grrrrrrrnnn..." Low growls came over the air, the two slowly turning as a shadow fell over the hall. It spread across the floor like some approaching blanket storm, some great storm cloud and as glowing eyes appeared from the darkness, they could see around them enormous and shifting orb. Within the sphere could be seen a sort of skeleton, some corpse... A griffin, with wide spread wings of rotted feathers and decaying flesh to coat the rest of its bones. "Greeeeeeeee..." Low growling continued to come through the air, the creature approaching at a snail's pace as it shifted into a serpentine like figure. "GREAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEE..."

The two teens swallowed, eyes wide as they slowly backed away from the beast. "Otogi," Honda whispered, taking aim at the demon with both guns. "Please tell me this thing has a weakness..." W-Weakness? He couldn't even think... All there was was... Fear...

Oh god... Fear was filling his every being as he looked at the creature, and as Honda's words registered he slowly shook his head. "This... You can't fight this one," he muttered fearfully, continuing to shuffle back with a choke before grabbing the teen's arm. "You need to run," he forced out, Honda glancing at him with wide eyes. "Run," he repeated, shaking his head in an uncharacteristic panic. "RU-"

"GRAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEE!" Shadows lashed from the sphere and naga-like demon, Ryuuji and Honda both ducking under as gunfire hit the air. The monster seemed to change its form back to the rotted griffin, covering itself with thick armor as it continued to screech. "GREEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Gh..." Bullet after bullet passed through the beast, Honda falling over himself as he attempted to run. "Nothing..!"

"I told you, don't attack it," Ryuuji shouted, pulling the teen away. "You can't kill this thing!"

"And how would you know," Honda countered, "You said the same thing about the cerastes!"

"That's because it didn't have a weakness," he continued, looking back with horror filled eyes as the shadows effortlessly followed at a speed to seemingly match their own. "It was just a monster, just an oversized snake with horns... But this..."

"REAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEE!" Metal clacked and wood burned, and all they could see for their efforts was darkness. Honda turned the corner with choked breaths, but nonetheless they continued to run as it followed.

"'This'? What do you mean 'this'," the teen was shouting, "What the hell does 'But this' mean!"

"It means that it's not even alive," Ryuuji roared, grabbing Honda's arm and pulling him across a narrow gap with minor difficulty. The shadows only briefly paused at this obstacle however, the teen pulling his friend up from the edge before they continued their run. "Gh- It's just an 'entity'," he explained, hopping a fallen wood beam on what was a rather ruined side of the temple, "It's darkness itself!"

Honda choked, momentarily freezing as he clambered and stumbled over the same obstacle to run after his friend. "Darkness- What the hell are you talking about!"

"It's 'ZU'," he shouted hurriedly, breaking into a panic driven sweat as they turned the corner to a seemingly endless hall. "It's the embodiment of evil itself," he screamed, "One of three 'powers' depicted in ancient times... This isn't even it's real name," Ryuuji pressed, glancing back only to shudder with fear as he locked eyes with the beast for a brief moment. "The letters were almost completely eradicated..! 'Zu' is all anyone can get from it!"

"So this is the embodiment of... You've got an embodiment of EVIL in your HEAD," Honda roared, finding himself kicking off from a nearby ledge to keep moving as he fired a series of pointlessly wasted bullets at the beast. The monster again snarled, lashing out as its target ducked and ran. "What the hell! What's wrong with you!"

"Besides the fact that it's not the real Zu, this isn't not just MY head, REMEMBER," the teen countered, ducking under another wooden beam as the shadow chasing them began to warp the scenery around them. "This is just as much mine as yours, so how do I know this isn't a representation from YOUR head?"

"I'm pretty damn sure I don't have a thing called 'ZU' in my head," Honda snarled, again releasing another barrage of bullets toward the beast as the room shook. "Damn it... TRIPLE BARRAGE," he roared, a small crater forming across the sphere and body of the beast as before the bullet holes filled in. "AGGGH! FUCK!"

"Honda... We need to get out of here," Ryuuji shouted, tossing a dagger forward for a foot hold on the now tipping wall. "This building was from your head," he continued from his hold, "Think of something!"

"Gh-" The teen looked back at the monster they were still somehow running from, the beast resembling some demonic giant lined with bone. "I'm thinking," he shouted back, kicking off whatever rubble he could as his partner did literal backflips around him to hold the lead. "But it's a little hard with this 'Zu' thing chasing us around!"

"Well then think harder," Ryuuji shouted, looking back with a scowl.

"Think harder! What kind of argument is that!"

"The best you're getting," he responded, Honda balking as a result.

"WHAT?"

"GAAAAEEEEEEEEE... SREAAEEEEEEEE!"

The two teens looked back as the hall tipped to a complete 90 degrees, Honda barely catching himself on Ryuuji's legs as the teen gripped one of his wall embedded daggers. The grip was strained... Suffice to say holding on was difficult, but as they both looked down Honda quickly turned his attentions back to pointless defense. "Gh- Any ideas yet," he shouted up, firing more useless bullets to the beast before tapping another magazine from his holder.

"You're asking me," shouted Ryuuji incredulously, "After what I just said?"

"Well, I thought I'd give it a try at least!"

A try... Yes, let's give defeating 'darkness' a try, that would always work! Nonetheless he bit his lip, watching as the hall seemed to lengthen before them as the demon crawled upward. "Gh... Well even if we could find a door in this loop," Ryuuji responded with a swallow, "We're hanging onto the floor right now..! Any doors will be impossible to enter from this position!"

"Damn it... There has to be some... Ah..!" Honda tensed, his look of fear shifting completely as he looked upward. "OTOGI," the teen abruptly shouted, his friend looking down in response. "Let go of the knife!"

Let go of the- "WHAT!"

"Let go of the knife," he repeated, "I've got an idea!"

Ryuuji stared down incredulously, shaking his head as shadows wrapped about the walls at their sides. 'Zu' might not have been able to reach them, but his magic could... And in moments all that was left was a pillar of 'light' separating their path from darkness. They had little time... "Are you completely insane!" This wasn't going to work..!

"Just do it," Honda roared.

"No!" No way in hell!

"DO IT!"

"I said N- OW, FUCK!" A gunshot rang through the air, Ryuuji's hand falling from the dagger as he gripped his hand. Bleeding... He'd shot his- ...Crap. "Ac- Ah... AHHH! H-HONDA, YOU ASSHOLE," he wailed, the wound in his hand healing over as he looked to the teen. "WHAT THE HELL!"

"Just shut up and head toward the light," he shouted back, diving forward as the demon screeched below.

"WHAT LIGHT?"

"THIS ONE," the teen responded as he came within range of the demon. "SOLAR BULLET!" In a single instant light blinded their vision. The bullet that fired from Honda's twin pistols combined blasted directly through the darkness ahead, traveling further and further down the hall until it reached the corner. Even then however, it continued onward, seeping into the wood before them. Cracks burst from the wall, debris and dust flew forward... "Get ready to land," Honda shouted, managing to right himself somewhat in the air as he fell. "Because if I'm right, this might hurt..!" La-

"Gh-" Ryuuji's hand caught at the wall as they passed it, the demon behind them giving an enraged shriek followed by the sound of crumbling. The sounds continued, his vision faltered... And all at once the world righted itself, sending the disoriented teens into a confused mess. Honda flew forward to grab the wall of what looked to be an outer balcony, yelping as he narrowly avoided toppling over the edge. He himself fell down to gravity's effects from the side of the wall, gripping it tightly as he attempted to get over what just happened. "That... What the hell was that," he shouted, watching his friend climb back onto the wall with a rasping laugh.

"Ahaha... Hahaha... Man... I don't know," Honda laughed, wiping his eyes with a grin, "But if Kaiba ever gets that game working sign me up... Holy shit... Yugi and Jonouchi's stories got nothing on this..!"

Gh... Was he serious..? Ryuuji shook his head with wide eyes as he recovered, rubbing his neck for a moment before walking forward. "Hahhh... I'm not even going to address that," he muttered, leaning against the wall with a frown. "How the hell you could enjoy something like that is beyond me... I don't even know where you got the idea to run through Zu before it healed..!"

"Hahh... You and me both," his friend laughed, blood draining somewhat from Ryuuji's already white face. "Now... Where are we," Honda muttered, looking around the area.

Ryuuji frowned, turning to look over the wooden wall somewhat blankly in regards to the comment. Trees... Both tropical and deciduous... The occasional temple, skyscraper and mountain, along with a lake and a plain... "Going by first impressions," he decided with a frown, "Something that looks like a mix between Okinawa and... Probably the Hokkaido region..." Just a guess of course, but given that there was no other place you could possibly get an empty field in this country...

"So we're in Hokkaido and Okinawa," his friend said.

"Yes."

"...On a floating temple from Kyoto," Honda added.

"Yea, a floating te- What kind of fucked up field trips were you going on," he barked incredulously, Honda jumping back with a shout.

"Gh- It's not all from my head," he protested, "I've never even been to Okinawa!"

"Well neither have I, so then how are we-"

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

The two teens jumped, turning toward the sound of a young woman's scream as it came over the air. "T-That... Who was that," Ryuuji muttered, scanning the fields below the 'ground line' of the temple they were on. "I don't see any-"

"Shizuka," Honda shouted, pulling himself onto the castle wall with wide eyes as he stared seemingly at nothing. The eyes appeared almost metallic in hue at the moment, glowing with an eerie light as what was likely his class ability kicked in. "...She's... She's being chased by some kind of rhino-dinosaur thing..!"

"Ah... She's getting chased by a-" a what! The teen cut himself short as a small dot became visible in the distance, slowly growing clearer as it tore toward them at an angle. A cloud of dust... And as they slowly tore toward the lake he paled. "Ah- you're right!"

"SHIZUKAAAAA," his friend shouted, Ryuuji wincing in response as he plugged his ears. "SHIZUKAAAAA!"

"Gh- She can't hear you, dumbass! Your eye-sight's better than a damn falcon's," he spat in annoyance, "She's too far away for that!"

Honda grit his teeth at the comment, edging toward the side of the temple as he reached for his guns. "Gh... Looks like she chose a white mage class," he muttered under his breath. "Nothing but staffs and accented white... She's screwed..! OIII! SHIZUKA," he shouted again, ignoring his friend's wincing. "SHIZUKAAAAA!"

"Did you listen to a word I said!"

"Damn it..! Stay here," the teen responded, Ryuuji balking as Honda bolted down the side of the wall. "I'm going after this thing!"

What what wha- "Wh- What the hell..! Honda, this thing is floating above the ground! Hon-" He winced as gunshots pierced through the air, Honda pushing off the wall to shoot at and grab the bladed ears of the rhino while Shizuka stopped to stare. And of course, right beside where he'd run... "...Damn it Honda, there's a rope ladder right here! ...Ahhhhhh..." He shook his head, hopping over the side and using the rungs as footholds to run down the 'cliff' before expertly flying down the ladder before the force of his feet screwed up the run. "What ever... Hey, Shizuka," he called out, the girl turning as he hopped from the last few rungs to run over. "Shizuka come on, over here," he continued, holding out a hand and pulling his friend away from the raging monster Honda was dealing with. "It's not safe..!"

"A-Ah... Otogi-han," she shouted with surprise, broken staffs still clenched in her hands as he pulled her away. "You..."

"Honda can handle the dinosaur," he said plainly, taking the girl behind a few trees as the dinosaur in question attempted to throw off its captor. "For now though, are you alright?"

Shizuka nodded, a look of relief quite clearly across her face even as gunfire and a surprised shout came over the air. "Hah... Thanks to you two," she said with a smile, bowing politely. "I have to thank you, Otogi-han..."

Ah... Ah... A splash sound came through the air, followed by coughing as the teen laughed. "It... It's not a problem," he coughed, rubbing the back of his head as he blushed. "Right, Honda," he called out, the gunman pulling himself from the lake at the side to shake himself dry. "Not a problem right?"

"Gh..." The teen shook out his guns, sliding them back into the holster as the dinosaur corpse at the lake-side began to mist away. "You're lucky I don't shoot you," he growled, blowing the remaining water from his face as he scowled. "You didn't think I could use help?"

"Ahh... You looked like you could handle it," he muttered honestly, shrugging.

Shizuka laughed somewhat nervously, watching as the two glared at each other. "I... You don't need to argue," she laughed, rubbing her head. "Really, it's fine... No harm done right..?"

"That's right," Ryuuji added with a grin, crossing his arms somewhat smugly. "Everything's fine here!"

"Otogi," his friend 'warned', approaching with a look of absolute murder on his face. "I... Am going... To murder you..."

"Really," Shizuka continued quietly, "Please don't fight..."

"Ohhh, we weren't fighting," Honda muttered, looking at his soaked and seemingly useless guns in disdain before looking back to the teen. "Just talking..."

"I'm not that stupid," Shizuka muttered almost dryly.

"Trust me, if it was arguing you'd know," Ryuuji responded with a shrug. "There'd be more yelling, and then Honda's sister would come in to tell him off for it."

As Honda grew even more red with the comment their 'rescued' friend scowled, narrowing her eyes. "Seriously... Stop..."

"Yeaaaa well... Now that I think about it," the taller of the boys muttered, "It isn't as though the knives would have done much... What with this being a dinosaur, something that needs a little more 'kick' and 'power'!"

"Guys," Shizuka warned, growing tense from the side.

'Kick and power'... It was on. "Ohhh, alright... And this is coming from the one whose bullets only work when they're 'effective', otherwise nothing happens right?"

"GUYS..."

"Hah! At least I have a real class," Honda snorted with a laugh, "What are you supposed to do, dance around your opponent until they're dizzy? Or blind them with rings maybe?"

"Hnngg... STONE CHARGE," came an abrupt shout, a wave of energy passing through the area.

A sudden stiffness struck Ryuuji's body, the teen tensing and freezing in place as the same occurred to his friend. It was as though they'd been turned to stone and yet... "Gh- What..!"

"A-Ahh! S-Shizuka," Honda wheezed, managing to look to the side with a gasp. "What are you-"

"Hahh... I'm sorry," the girl said abruptly, bowing as she flushed nervously. "But you just wouldn't stop, I had to do something! The petrification should last a few more minutes," she explained further, rubbing her arms, "I just didn't want you to keep fighting like this..!"

"Eh... S-Sorry," the teen coughed. "Sorry..."

"But Shizuka," Ryuuji rasped, finding it rather hard to breath when he couldn't move, "If you could attack," he asked with a wince, "Then why didn't you fight the monster chasing you..?"

"T-That's right... I didn't even know white mages could attack," Honda added, "I thought they were limited to 'white magic'..."

The girl continued to frown, shaking her head with an exasperated sigh. "Hahhhhhh... Honda-han, Otogi-han... I'm a blue mage," she told them, narrowing her eyes. "The attack I used was taken from the monster chasing me, it had no effect on its creator! That's like trying to set fire on fire! Ah, not to be rude of course," she added with a cough, again bowing as the two boys stared. What a switch in personalities... But... Ah...

"So... Blue Mage then," Honda muttered, shaking himself as function returned to his limbs

"So then you adapt attacks from your opponents," he continued, Shizuka nodding as her 'captives' began to move again. Ryuuji flexed his hands, shaking them out with a wince before looking back. "A- Hahh... ...Well," he admitted, "I guess that explains why you were running... I would think you'd have to let it attack you to get something from it..."

Again the girl nodded, biting her lip. "That's right. I did try to take it out physically," she continued, "But... Well..." She held out the pair of broken staves, shaking her head and sighing. "I think I'll have to stick with that 'stone charge' attack for now... Ah- But besides that," Shizuka added, regaining the mousy appearance she held before hand. "How are you both doing? Did you have to fight any other monsters?"

The two shared a look, eyebrows raised. Well... There was the snake... And Zu... "Ahh... Hah! Well... You could say that," Honda coughed, shaking his head.

"We've been running around in that castle up there," Ryuuji added, pointing up and behind Shizuka as the girl followed his gesture to the skies above. "There were lots of monsters inside, and many of them were nigh invincible to say the least of things."

"But it seems to be a lot safer here," Honda continued quickly, acting as though there was nothing wrong about the situation. "We'll probably be fine now," he pressed, looking directly at Shizuka as he said this.

Fine? AhahaHAAAA no. "No... There could be traps anywhere in this place, and the monsters we encountered weren't exactly in plain sight," he muttered, narrowing his eyes as Honda tensed. "I'm pretty sure that's far from 'fine'."

"Gh- Otogi," Honda hissed, turning to the teen with a start. "You..!"

Ryuuji frowned, staring at his friend oddly. "What? You know I'm right..!"

"Yea, but you'll make her nervous," he hissed, Shizuka smiling awkwardly from behind them.

"Erm... I'm... I'm right here you know... And I can hear you," she continued with a wave. "Besides... I'm sure that I'll be fine, and since we're all together it can't be that hard..."

"Ah- That's right," Honda shouted with a grin, looking back to the girl with a somewhat forced looking grin, "So long as you're with us, nothing can go wrong!"

"H-Hey, do you even have proof of that..?" There was no way that was true..!

"Bite your tongue damn it!"

"I'm just saying," he countered, Honda scowling in response, "I think you're being a bit too optimistic about this... You're not exacting any caution at all," Ryuuji warned, "And you might get us in trouble..."

"Gh... You think that eh," he asked, brow twitching somewhat in annoyance.

"H-Hey," Shizuka warned, stepping between the two with a frown. "No fighting!" The two continued to glare at each other, the girl sighing as she moved past them with a frown. "Listen... We have to move on even if there might be traps or monsters, alright? ...Okay?" Her friends both seemed to glare at each other for a few more moments, before eventually looking back as the woman continued. "After all," she said with a slight smile, "We need to stay focused to get- Ah... Ahhh... Ach-!"

"A-ch?" Ryuuji blinked, staring as the girl shook herself.

"Sorry," she said with a polite laugh, flushing somewhat. "Must be a cold..."

"Ah, a cold..? In a virtual wor- Ah..." Honda froze, an odd look coming over his face as his nose twitched. " Worl... Ah... AAH-che!"

"E-Eh! You too," Ryuuji asked with a jump, eyes widening. "I thought this was fake!"

The taller of the group rubbed his nose, shrugging. "Hey, don't ask me... And what's wrong with you, you look like you're seeing ghosts!"

"I don't want a cold, that's why!"

"Ooooh," Honda said with a grin, raising his hands as Shizuka sighed. "So then, if I were to give you this cold..."

"O-O-Oi! Stay away from me," he shouted, backing away. "I don't want-"

"GERMS~," Honda shouted, tackling the teen to the ground. "Germs! Join the sneezing, Otogi!"

"AAAHH, LET ME GO, LET ME GO!"

"Hahah..." The two both froze from what was a decidedly awkward position, turning as their third companion sighed. "Maybe one of the others is talking about us right now," Shizuka laughed, voice somewhat quiet as she looked back. "That's what's supposed to happen when you sneeze after all, hahaha... Nnn..." The smile faded somewhat, the girl turning away to hold her arms. "Hah... I wonder how they're doing... Nihan and the others," she continued, her friends both standing to brush themselves off.

"Ah... That..."

"They're probably in duels by now I would think," Ryuuji muttered, crossing his arms as Honda nodded.

"Yea... Dueling the Big 5..."

Ryuuji watched as Shizuka stared, continuing on with a slight frown. "Right... And with five people, that leaves three of us eight to spare. Kaiba, Yugi, and Jonouchi are likely going to duel someone," he continued, crossing his arms in thought, "But after that there's no telling who they'll pick really..."

"Well, so long as there's some way for me to re-build my deck here, we should be fine," Shizuka said calmly, the others staring in confusion.

"E-Ehhh..?"

"S-Shizuka... You duel," Ryuuji asked, eyes wide as the girl nodded.

"Of course! Keichi taught me while I was recovering... It'll take a bit to recognize the cards by sight rather than name of course," she said with a laugh, rubbing her head, "But other than that I don't think it'll be too hard to adapt the rules to this game... I certainly don't see any duel disks to use after all."

Um... Alright... W-Well then... "That... Makes sense I suppose," he said after a moment, Honda merely nodding in agreement. Not to mention it gave them a bit more of a chance at all this. "Well, until then, I suppose we should just move on right?"

"Y-Yea... We should probably go," Honda began, only to stop the moment he turned around to do that. "Uhhhh..."

The others followed his gaze, staring blankly at what had caught their friend's eye. "It's..."

"What... What the hell is this," Ryuuji muttered, the trio staring with wide eyes at the object that had quite literally appeared from nowhere.

"It's... It's a door... Well, I mean, it looks like a door," Shizuka coughed, "But..."

Honda gave a slight tap with the muzzle of his now dry revolver, giving a shrug as he looked back to the others and replaced the weapon. "Feels like one at least."

"True, but everything feels 'real' here," Ryuuji countered, shaking his head with a frown. "Even if it doesn't look like it, it could still be a trap."

A small bit of silence hovered over the air at that, the others nodding in agreement before Shizuka stepped forward. "I don't know... I think this one is real," she muttered, reaching for the handle as the others tensed.

"Ah- Hold on," Honda shouted, "Don't-"

"AH-!"

And with blinding light the door was opened on its own, the scene before them evaporating into a silver mist as they were blinded...

---

The cavern that they were walking through right now resembled a tunnel of sorts he thought to himself, staff clacking against the ground with each step. It was a tunnel he'd been in before as well, though where to and from it went he could not say. It was a very rugged tunnel though; stalactites and stalagmites both littered the cavern, and as they wandered they could see carvings all along the walls as well... But unlike the carvings of the last memory, which bore no form of writing, he found himself able to read these ones, taking in lines of a story, of a myth. The creation of the world, of darkness and light...

The sorts of stories meant for 'fairytales' as Seto would say. And of course, he still didn't know how or why he could see everything... Hell, he didn't even know what language it was, but the fact was he still recognized it, from rune to strange carved rune.

Even if no one else around him could. "I wonder what they say," Anzu muttered as they walked, passing carvings of monsters and people both in a single path among the texts. "It looks almost like some kind of parade... Or a procession..."

There was a grunt in the back of his mind, Katsuya momentarily freezing before his mental stowaway spoke. "...Please tell her she is far from correct," the ghost growled, Katsuya laughing quietly as the snake did it for him.

"Pretty sure you're wrong," he was whispering, looking at the carvings almost in awe. "These... These are probably a creation myth, with a hell of a lot of worshipers," Ren continued, shaking his head. "...Damn... I've only heard of these from maybe one of the oldest scrolls in the crypts, and even then they were dismissed as 'stories'... How the hell are they here..?"

The later half of the comment was momentarily ignored, the 'other Yugi' turning to Ren with a frown. "...Crypts," the boy asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow as the snake tensed.

"Err... What can I say," he laughed, seemingly hiding in Anzu's hair, "I get around a lot."

The boy continued to stare, blinking a few times. "I thought you were created from Anzu's soul..."

This resulted in a fair bit of silence from the snake, before it managed one of its incredible shoulder-less shrugs with another nervous laugh. "Well... What can I say! I pick up a lot of background noise."

Background noise..? "Er... How does that even work," the woman in question asked, a fair bit of chuckling coming from the back of Katsuya's mind as the blond also frowned.

Oii oi, what was it now..? Was there something he was missing? "Ohhh it's nothing," the spirit chuckled, before fading into silence with a laugh. "Nothing at all..."

Right... He had a feeling that was bullshit, but what ever... The blond shook his head, looking back at the carvings in an attempt to distract himself from the conversation. So many people and monsters... The amount of text had decreased considerably, occasionally mentioning a 'city', along with 'sealed powers'... "Huh... Tha's weird," he muttered, stopping for a moment as he hit the center of the 'trail'. The blond looked from the left to the right, frowning as he looked to the point where the lines of people and monsters met and began to face opposite directions. In the middle... "Th' carvin's are dif'ren' on both sides..."

The others as well stopped, looking to the carvings in silence. "Hnnn... You're right," Yugi said, turning to the side opposite his friend as he stared at what looked to be a six pointed 'star' around some other form. "It looks as though the three God cards are depicted here," he continued as he traced three of the points, "Along with a disk of sorts..."

"A disk," asked Ren, poking his head out from his partner's hair. "Where? Let me see."

The woman carrying him obliged, taking him to rest on Yugi's head as the serpent stared at the wall. "...Do you know something about that too Ren," she asked, the snake nodding an affirmative.

"Yea, easily; that's the sun disk," he explained clearly, turning to the others as he retreated back to his partner's arm. "It represents light and order... And I don't just mean 'Ra's light either. That thing represents all light."

"But if Ra is the Sun," Anzu asked with a frown, "Then how can the disk represent something else..?"

The snake seemed to look at its partner incredulously, before coiling around her wrist with a pout. "I'm... I'm not saying anything," it muttered, shaking his head with wide and stunned eyes. "Nothing at all..."

"Hnn... If tha's th' sun-disk," Katsuya muttered, "Then th's..." Hell, there wasn't anything there, save for 'black'. It was round, like the disk, that was for sure, but all there was... Was this.

"And that's exactly what it is," stated the voice in his mind, sounding almost faded while his friend stared. That's all that there ever had been.

"Darkness," he muttered, the others turning somewhat to stare as he continued to study the carvings. And around it...

A serpent, seated at the top left corner, a 'demon' standing at the right, and some sort of winged beast at the bottom, nigh-identical counter-parts standing at the other three points. Those of importance however, were the three large ones. "'Ziz'," he muttered, a hand tracing over the griffin and moving on, "'Behemoth'," he continued at the demon, "And 'Leviathan'..." The serpent...

"A-Ah..." ...He said that out loud didn't he. "H-Hang on now," 'Ren' choked, eyes wide with complete and utter shock. "You can read that!"

Katsuya tensed, the others staring as he looked back. "U-Uhhh..." Shit. That was all he could think of. Shit.

"Well," Yugi muttered, attempting to cover for the blond, "I suppose it's... Only natural..."

"...How is that natural," Anzu whispered, her friend continuing on despite the obvious confusion.

"Well... This is Jonouchi's head, right," he asked, the others nodding slowly as he went on. "So, while we ourselves can't understand what's written here, wouldn't it make sense for him?"

"Err... Sure pal," Ren laughed, shock still over his face. "But... This is a little more than 'mental languages' here... I mean, this language is older than-"

"Ah... Y-Y' know what, I'm pretty sure Yugi's righ'," Katsuya laughed, shaking his head in an attempt to cut the conversation. "It's prob'ly nothin'..."

Not that Ren was buying it of course... "How the hell is this no-"

"Aaaaah! Hey," the blond shouted, running ahead as he cut the snake off with a grin. "We need t' find th' others! C'mon! Let's go!"

"Ah... R-Right..." Anzu blinked, looking somewhat nervously to Yugi with a frown as they began moving again. "Hey... Yugi," she whispered after a moment, despite being out of audible range, "Do you think Jonouchi is..."

"...I'm sure he'll explain when we're out of this place," he said calmly, the woman at his side still staring at the closed-lip responses she was getting. "We just need to trust him with that..."

Trust him... Right...

Sometimes, he really hated getting flashes of what he shouldn't have overheard.

---

When the light from the door passed, it took a brief moment to remind herself that it wasn't real. That nothing they saw, heard, or felt was actually there, that it was all projections in her unconscious mind. It was helped along of course, by the fact that they'd stood in a field mere moments before... There was nothing in the world that could cause this sort of change in scenery. But even so, a buzzing in the back of her mind continued to ask how much of this was really 'virtual', if any of this couldn't be, just in the slightest way, 'more' than a hallucination. "This... Is this the hangar," Honda was muttering, Otogi shaking his head from beside the teen as they walked in behind Shizuka.

"No... This room is different," he answered, the trio slowly stepping further into the wide and expansive metal building. "I don't even think it's a hangar... Just look!" At this the three examined the area more closely, a false sun shining through windows in the ceiling up above. Bridges of sorts spanned the stories-high ceiling to bridge door to door, and beneath there was nothing but empty space and floors. The floor in question seemed divided, cut almost, with lines spreading across in such away that it looked as though it could come apart any moment. It was just an enormous, empty steel room... So no. This wasn't a hangar.

But even so Shizuka thought to herself, that didn't mean they'd failed right? It didn't mean that they had to look at this as a bad thing, right? "Well, we're out of that field at least," she offered positively, arms crossed behind her back as she smiled to the others. "So we've succeeded at one thing..!"

"Ah... That's right!" Honda grinned, looking back toward the room as he took a few more steps forward. "Now all we need to do is look for the others," he continued, "And-"

"Hnhnhnhnhn..." Um... Who was that..? The three looked up, watching with wide eyes as a figure materialized from a shower of sparks and light amid the sounds of chuckling. The being was enormous, even half formed and more or less shapeless in appearance. As the form was solidified however, they could see that it was made of mostly blackened metal, lined with gold plated rivets in an almost cloth like pattern. They could see green lights, glimmering out from a black screen and mask, and any 'clothes' that the robot wore were simply painted across its body in violet and red. But more importantly was the voice it used, chuckling as it came to tower before them on the floor. "You kept me waiting quite a while," the 'man' laughed, sounding eerily familiar to one of the five who had trapped them there. "I've been waiting for you weaklings to get here for a long time... In fact, I was almost worried," the robot chuckled, lens eyes narrowing in an aperture fashion. "But here you are... So all is well."

This... "...Who are you," Otogi shouted, daggers appearing in his hands the moment the machine appeared before them. "One of the 'Big 5'?"

The robot looked down upon the three, lenses shining with mirth despite the 'hat' on its head shielding them from the sun. "Correct; Ota Soichiro, former Head of Technology and Development at Kaiba Corporation. ...At your... Service," he added with a low and humored tone, giving a mock bow toward the humans before him as they stared.

"You... What do you want with us," Honda roared, his guns both raised in aim should their captor attack. "Trapping us here, and our friends as well... Just what kind of game are you playing," he shouted, only to receive no answer. "You can't even show your face," he snarled, "All you did was send in some kind of machine!"

Shizuka swallowed at the look on the robot's 'face', paling somewhat as it again laughed. Something told her that wasn't the case... "Hehehehehe... As if I would be so cowardly," Ota spat, the windows above darkening to leave the factory lights as their only guide throughout the building. "No... This is the face of my 'Deckmaster'," he called down, "The only body I have to call my own! A form I find reminds me of a time before that accursed 'Kaiba Seto' took command of the company oddly enough," he continued with a nod, "When I managed the Military Factory that you trash now know as 'Alcatraz'..."

"Alcatraz..." Honda and Otogi both traded looks, before looking back up as Shizuka swallowed. "Then, that ruin we saw from the airship..." That ruin was...

"It is exactly what you think," the robot sneered, bearing no visible mouth to show his emotion further than what his 'eyes' revealed. "While under the employ of 'Kaiba Gozaburo', that factory was my domain," he explained lowly, "It was the site of the manufacturing and testing both for any and all large scale devices, missiles, aircraft... Everything! I was ruthless with my work," Ota snarled, "And no matter what the cost, the job was always completed on time and above par. The 'devil's warden' they called me! But they did so with respect," he hissed, clenching his fists as rumbling came through the air. "And then she happened..."

Ah... She? The trio frowned, before jumping as the ground below began to shake. Panels lowered at the center of the room, pulling back to reveal an enormous gap across the floor as the three hurriedly fled as far back into the room as they could. Below the ground immense heat rose upward in the form of steam, molten lava flowing below as the stiffling heat filled the air. On the sides more changes developed however, changes that were now brilliantly lit in the glow of the lava. Railings and walkways became more complex, separating and joining at awkward points that made no sense in how they supported the building. An obstacle course she realized, narrowing her eyes. The railings and support beams had created an obstacle course and 'net' that only someone with a grappling hook, or a rope could hope to scale...

That or someone with wings... Not that she had any obviously. "Gh... This room," Otogi whispered. "It's..."

"It's huge," she found herself muttering, before looking toward the robot with wide eyes. "But... Who... Who was he even talking about that brought this kind of hate..?"

The robot before them snorted, taking a slight fighting stance. "Hn! My problems are for another time, and for a different 'audience'," Ota growled, fists clenched as he shifted in the partial darkness. "For now it's time to fight! And as to my opponent," he continued, pointing an accusing finger forward from where the shadows hid his form, "It will be the one who stepped into my realm first! The woman; Kawai Shizuka!"

K- Her! He... He knew her name! The girl stared up with wide eyes, swallowing somewhat as the others protested. "N-Now, now hold on a second," Honda shouted, stepping forward to gesture to himself with one of the revolvers. "Shizuka doesn't even have any weapons on her," he argued, "You can't expect a fair fight with that! It's not fair... Let me be your opponent!"

"No," Otogi announced, stepping forward as well. "Fight me! Honda doesn't even know how to duel," he pointed out with a frown, "You can hardly call a fight like that as fair as it would be against Shizuka!"

"O-Otogi," Honda hissed, turning on the teen. "What-"

Otogi frowned, looking to his friend with a growl. "Shut up and let me cover for you before you dig yourself a hole as deep as that one," he snarled, pointing to the chasm below.

"Gh- I'm not-"

"AhHAHAHAHAHA! How incredible... Like a family of squirrels all trying to defend each other..." Ota continued to leer at the three from the far end of the room, shaking his head. "Hnhnhnhnhn... Useless... All useless!" he roared, the gatling gun on his arm appearing to shift as he laughed. "No matter which one of you face me after all, the result will be the same! This armor cannot be pierced by any metal in this world, so in the end each of you will be forced to duel me... And in the end, each of you will lose," the robot sneered. "Success... Is simply not an option for you..."

Gh... Shizuka tensed, stepping back somewhat as her friends glared. "Tch... Damn this guy is confident," Honda muttered, holstering his weapons with narrowed eyes. "Figures that he'd only get the guts to face us in a giant robot..."

"Got that right... But we can't just let him pick us off either," his friend added, his own daggers misting out of existence with the distance and 'armor' against his favor. "How about this," he called up to their opponent, crossing his arms. "You fight Honda and I both; our abilities should be enough to balance the field from beginner to novice to 'mediocre' level, and if you win," Otogi continued, ignoring Honda's snarl at 'beginner', "You'll get both bodies, rather than just one... I'm sure your friend 'Noa' could use one after all," he added convincingly, the others swallowing in unease.

The robot seemed to consider this only a moment, stroking its 'chin' in thought. "Hnnn... Tempting. But how about something a little more 'inclusive'," he asked, bringing his hand back down to gesture forward. "We will fight one on three instead; myself against all of you."

"Th... Three," Shizuka repeated quietly, the others growing pale. All three of them would be fighting..!

"Ah... But two bodies should be enough shouldn't it," Otogi argued, eyes wide with protest. "What would a third possibly do for you!"

"Hn! That knowledge is mine and mine alone," Ota snarled, narrowing the lenses with clenched fists. "All you three need to know is that I want all of your bodies... And when you lose," he announced coldly, "That's just what I'll get!" Three... Noa made sense, provided the being was even real, and Ota did as well...

But why would he need three? "The others must have won," Honda muttered, swallowing as the arena seemed to continue to shift and twist in the haunting light of the magma below. "Kaiba, Jonouchi, and Yugi... They must have beaten their opponents," he continued, before jumping back as a panel at his side fell back from the floor. "Gh!"

There was no confirmation on the part of the Big 5 member, but there were no arguments against the fact either. "Scum such as yourselves should be fighting together regardless of reason," Ota was arguing from across them, drawing the thin blade at his side whilst the gatling gun on his arm adjusted and locked into position. "And besides... You should look on the 'bright side'! you can protect yourselves from damage... Why, you should even be grateful for the chance to survive this match longer, and for the chance to ensure you remain together all your lives!"

"Gh... Bastard," growled the boys beside her, Shizuka biting her lip. This... This man...

"You... Don't estimate me," she called up with a swallow, steeling her resolve as her hands glowed somewhat with magic. "I was taught the rules of this game by 'Dinosaur Ryuzaki' after all... 5th place in the Duelist Kingdom and Second Place holder of the Japanese Nationals! Honda-han," she continued, turning to the others, "And Otogi-han... I'll do my best, alright," the girl shouted, eyes set with determination. "We won't lose!"

"A-Ah... S-Shizuka," Otogi muttered, "You can't-"

"But your weapons-"

"We're all as good as disarmed," she pressed, eyes shining in the light from below. "Blades and bullets won't affect him; if anything, as a magic wielder, I have the advantage now... We can only do the best we can in this situation for now!"

"Ah..."

"Hnhnhnhn... Pointless words," Ota chuckled in response, the others turning back with narrowed eyes as they were continually separated by the falling platforms of steel. "Nonetheless, the duel will begin! Pick your cards," he announced, domes of light and screens surrounding each of the three in their vastly spaced locations. "40 monsters, spells, and traps..."

Of course... What else would they choose? "E-Ehhh... ...S-Shizuka," Honda said from the side, the woman momentarily freezing at the variety of images that met her gaze before looking through them to the teen. "Are you sure about this..? I mean... You said yourself that you'd never seen a duel until recently so..."

Ah- "Definitely," she shouted, nodding her head as she smiled. "It's taking a bit to recognize each card since I was blind when I built my deck, but... Well, I'll be alright," the girl pressed, nodding her head. "I just need to plan a little differently; since Keichi and I couldn't play with complete decks using mine, we took out powerful monsters to even the field... Moreover, we revealed our hands to each other, so that I would know what I held..."

The others paled at this, swallowing and trading nervous glances. "Y-You took out-"

The screen around her vanished as she chose her last card, followed by the others own screens when she gave no answer to them. The decks were chosen- "Good," commented the robot before them, adjusting his grip on the shining rapier he held. "You've chosen your cards... In that case, choose your deckmasters," he continued, a somewhat curved screen appearing around each of them. The deckmasters...

Right, she told herself, this was the additional condition of the game... "I pick the Strike Ninja," Otogi shouted shortly after the monsters floated across his screen, tight fitting vest and pants altering themselves to add the golden accessories and red scarves of his monster whilst the screens of light faded around him. The ninja... Able to activate face down cards during any turn and from any player's field, at the cost of 1000 lifepoints her mind told her, before another voice cut through the air.

"As for me, I choose Super Roboyarou," Honda had shouted, his own thread-bared and tanned clothing taking a more futuristic sheen to it as his own vest and 'belt' were replaced with a near knight-worthy breast-plate. Even his weapons were altered by the move, unable to be sheathed as bayonets grew from each revolver. As each 'blade' touched the bottom of the ground, blue tinted armor shimmering oddly in the light. A deckmaster that gained 1000 attack points in battle... And in addition, set a single face down card during that same moment of battle. Useful, that was for sure.

And for hers... The monsters across the screen hovered before her, and as their own abilities came to mind she stared. There were many powerful monsters that would boost her attack, but had little to call as an ability. Then there were weaker ones with exemplary ones, which would cripple her completely. For one with balance... "'Three Eyed Goddess-han," she called out, robes taking a green tinge as an 'eye' gem appeared on her headband. This card would prove handy if she drew the cards for Jean, or even her other fusion monsters she told herself, taking a deep breath as wings replaced her ears. But she would have to be careful, very careful until then, and...

"Shizuka," the others muttered, the girl turning to blink.

"Shizuka," Honda continued, "There was no need for the 'han'..." Well... She turned, sighing somewhat as she shook her head. Whatever! It was just instinct, really!

Across from them the few lights of the 'Robotic Knight' were gleaming with anticipation, tracing the being's location in the darkness as they grew brighter in color. "So you're ready then," he called out, before more whirs and clicks filled the air to send the three off balance. Platforms beneath their feet began to move, taking their place in the bizarre 'obstacle course' in the air as the floor below revealed a complete plain of lava. Railings sprouted from the sides... And as she gripped hers, she found herself looking down with wide and fear filled eyes. "Very well; allow me to explain a few 'rules'," Ota continued, thrusters at the bottom of his feet keeping him in place as the floor beneath him opened as well. "At any given moment," he explained carefully, "You may use your monsters to divert an attack; however," he went on seriously, "You may NOT discuss any strategies, nor can you aid each other further than diversion outside of your turns. There will be no 'rushing' to someone's aid... Not in this battle," he spat, the others nodding with understanding. "We will take our turns in a counter-clockwise fashion, starting from the woman and ending with me... So... Do you understand, 'Kawai-san'..?"

Ah- The girl swallowed, barely catching herself as she continued to look over the platform with a nod. Lava burned from below, swirling in some sort of twisted pumpkin coloured broth... Otogi's 'field' created nothing but a solitary box at the far end, separate from any paths, with Honda's almost as bad thanks to the steep incline to the rafters above...

She was going to be relied on for the offensive then she realized with a jolt, looking toward her opponent with wide eyes. She was going to have to make the first move, even if she didn't have any power to back her up... "Gh... I got it," she shouted nervously, a hand of cards appearing in her mind. This was her only shot...

"Good! DUEL START," the robot roared, pointing toward her as she pondered her options. "It's your move!" Right..!

She still needed a rope to move... Like Otogi, her platform was isolated, bridged only to the wall behind them. But given the more physical nature of this fight she had just the idea, even if it meant opening herself up for attack..! "I summon the devil tamer," she shouted, running forward in an instant before kicking off from the edge of her platform. "Attack mode!"

"A- Shizuka..! What are you doing," Otogi shouted from the side, the girl's monster appearing to catch her in her hand before swinging them both to the support beams above by means of her whip. "That monster's too weak to be in attack mode for no reason," he continued, the tamer's form solidifying from the light that carried her as they charged into the maze of steel and wiring.

She knew that... And ordinarily that would have been a horrible move, but this wasn't for no reason. "STONE CHARGE," the girl roared the moment her target came within range, firing the magic blast downward as her tamer took a slight defensive from behind her. "This battle... It's decided through the fight, not the points right," she shouted down, hands glowing somewhat as Ota looked up from below in hidden rage. "So even if we can't use monsters to fight properly," the girl continued with a swallow, "There's still ourselves right?"

"Well... I guess," Honda shouted out, receiving a rather aggravated 'You GUESS?' from his friend in response. The teen scratched his head, shaking himself with a sigh. "Aaaaah... We'll figure it out," he continued to shout, glancing to their only barely petrified opponent a moment before biting his lip. "Just sit tight until we're ready to go, alright? I don't think your spell is doing much to this guy..."

Well, seeing how her opponent's arm was regaining movement... He was definitely right about that, she thought with a wince. "Got it," she answered, taking a slight crouch in the corner of the maze as her summoned partner. She'd just have to use these spells to stall off any attacks really, she told herself. Or perhaps just get it to attack her so she could learn a new one... (Though at that size, it could be dangerous...)

"I summon Cyber Commander in attack mode," Honda called out, the woman looking down as her thoughts were cut short. Cyber commander..? The woman narrowed her eyes briefly, watching as the 80's styled soldier came to the field in a shower of light. That one... That one was even weaker than hers though she told herself, frowning somewhat. And Otogi seemed to realize that as well, shaking his head in disdain despite the obvious confidence Honda had in the move. Nonetheless, the machine gun the monster wielded could prove handy, she thought to herself, provided they did this properly. After all, Honda was fairly far from the field, which meant he would be difficult to reach. Then again, bullets apparently did 'nothing' so the attack mode wasn't much use...

Otogi shook his head from the far corner of the field, waving his hand as it came to his turn. "I play the 'thirteenth grave' in defense mode," he announced clearly, a sword wielding skeleton appearing at his side with a curt nod whilst the light creating it solidified into darkened shadows. "And that's all!"

"Gh... Otogi, what are you doing," Honda hissed, the teen rolling his eyes at the question. What was he doing?

"What does it look like..?" Well...

In all honesty, something helpful in her opinion! "Good move, Otogi-han," she called out, Honda holding his head with a groan. "We can't just attack outright... So now we have defense, ranged attack, and close attack all ready to go!"

Honda jumped at that, looking up to Shizuka with wide eyes. "Ah- That's not why I'm-"

His protests were cut off, the robot before them chuckling at the sight of his opponent's scramble. "Hnhnhn... HAHAHAHA! So many assumptions," he laughed, shaking his head as he cracked metal knuckles. "I'll show you to make such outrageous guesses! I summon the Giga-Tech Wolf," he announced, Shizuka turning with wide eyes as a light began developing on the beam beside them. "And following that," he continued, he beast solidifying in a threatening crouch across from herself and her monster, "I attack the Shadow Tamer!"

"Gh-! No!"

"GHA-" "GAAAAOOO!"

Shizuka shielded her eyes as the 'wolf' charged, throwing the tamer off the side without even pausing as it attempted to defend her master. Sharp claws pierced her form, throwing her against the wall as she chocked and wheezed under the pressure, dully aware of her menu appearing at the side. "Gh-K! Hng..." That... On the side, from the attack... "Hng... Steel Guard," she called out with a shout, the wolf abruptly thrown back across the room as a shimmering glass dome appeared around her. The girl slowly stood, lightly holding her scratched stomach with gasping breaths as her monster's death took its toll. "Hah... Hah... Hah..." Second spell... The second spell she told herself, a shield...

"Hnhnhnhnhn... Impressive... Care to test its strength," her opponent taunted from below, the woman turning to the side to pale as clicking met her ears. When she'd moved, she'd come quite close to her opponent after all, in order to gain the distance needed to attack. So while the others were far from near and meters below the level of the enormous mecha's attack range, she was far from that fact. She was in the 'critical' zone. "I set a card," Ota announced coldly, "And then activate my deckmaster ability by discarding three machine type cards..." Oh no... The robot took aim, lens eyes narrowing with mirth. "Go... BARRAGE!" Hah..!

The gatling gun on Ota's arm spun in an instant, rapid fire piercing through the girl's body as she stared. She could hear shouts from the others... The clattering of bullets as they bounced off the steel walls... And only then could she hear the sound of the bullets themselves, a feeling of emptiness and stinging pain both rattling her body. But looking down at her bare stomach to see a red and gruesome mess by means of bullet fire, was what made her eyes widen with fear. It was bringing a hand to her form, to the wounds barely made to hold her body in-tact thanks to the shield, that had her eyes watering in horror. "Gh... Hng... Hgaaah..." The pain... If she didn't move much it didn't even hurt, but the pain alone... And the blood... The blood that was covering her hands, her clothes, the ground... "Nggggh... Nnggg..."

"S-SHIZUKA," Honda called up, eyes wide as he coughed for a reason she couldn't identify for the moment. "SHIZUKA," he continued with a somewhat garbled voice, "Hang in there!" Hng... H-Hang... Hang in...

"Shizuka! Are you alright," asked Otogi, his own voice seemingly laced with fear despite the confidence he attempted to instil. "Are you okay?" O... Okay..?

OKAY? Of course she wasn't! Her stomach and chest were filled with holes, she should have been dead..! Her lungs themselves shouldn't have remained in existence, let alone the rest of her body, she should have been a smoking, dismembered mess by now..! "Gh... Nn..." Of course she wasn't alright, she wanted to shout. But instead... Looking back, so were the others. "You... Honda-han, Otogi-han," she whispered in horror, staring at her friend's bloodied and broken forms as they attempted to weakly stand from their own ashen positions.

The two both gave wincing smiles, Otogi being the first to speak despite his leg hanging from his hip by a thread. "Shizuka... Stick to the life-point rules for now," he called up, his friend nodding in response as he examined the blades that had taken most of his attack. "Just until we figure something out, alright?"

The girl continued to stare in silence, before nervously nodding in understanding. "R-Right..." They... They had to win... And then it would be over, everyone would be healed. After all she told herself, the others had been perfectly fine despite their battles right? Then... "...It's my turn then," she choked, drops of blood spilling on the ground as she stumbled forward to grip the railing along the foot's width beam she was on. Defense, she told herself, weakly throwing a hand up as a monster appeared beside her shield in a pillar of light. De... Fense... "...Merciful... Nun..."

"S-Shizuka," Otogi muttered, the girl in question leaning against the wall in pain as the nun turned to her in worry. "Shizuka," he shouted up in panic, "You just summoned the nun in attack mode!"

Shizuka's eyes flew open from their pain induced fatigue, the girl staring toward her nun in horror even as the woman's hands flowed with white magic. "Gh... A... A... But I called defense," she shouted in protest. "I summoned her directly... Directly from the menu," she cried, "She should have been..-"

"Hehehehe... Did you say it out loud," Ota chuckled, the others swallowing in realization as the turn passed.

"Outloud... She can barely speak," Otogi whispered in shock, "But she still has to say it..."

"Gh... BASTARD," Honda roared, gripping the railing at his stand in rage as the guns in his hand hung along it. "I call a re-play! You didn't say anything about this before, nothing!"

"Then perhaps you shouldn't have 'assumed'," the robot sneered, waving the protests off with ease. "As it is," he continued coldly, "All moves are final. Now take yours," he shouted, "Unless you'd prefer to pass!" Gh...

Not good... Shizuka looked down at her injuries, biting her lip as she held her bleeding stomach. The nun beside her was attempting to heal the damage... There wasn't much she could do but form a scar however, and looking at the monster she had to wonder what this meant for her friends. What the others would do in the meantime, when it came to their own injuries. But hang on she noted, frowning as she looked to Honda's corner of the field with those thoughts. The commander was gone... Honda stood calmly and sternly as he hung one of his weapons on the side, but there was nothing else to be seen. So where...

"Block Attack," Honda called out, holding a hand out for the spell to take effect from its wave of light. "And the monster I set in defense mode is-"

"Staying in attack mode," countered their opponent, his face down card shimmering into existence from the panel of glass it was. "Riyoku Field," he announced clearly, "Which means your spell is negated..!"

Negated... Shizuka winced, biting her lip as her friend's attempt to fix her mistake was made useless. "Tch..! Bastard," Honda snarled, narrowing his eyes as both 'spells' vanished from sight. "End turn then," he continued. The teen crossed his arms in agitation, a shadow continuing to move from above as he growled. What... What was that, Shizuka thought to herself, narrowing her eyes as the thing continued to move. That shadow... What was it...

"It's my turn now," shouted Otogi, cutting the girl's thoughts as another pillar of light shimmered at his corner. "I summon another monster, Yaranzo, in defense mode," he stated, Honda again turning on him with a glare.

"Gh... Come on man," he muttered almost desperately, "Help me out here..!"

Otogi however merely frowned, gesturing to his leg before receiving more complaints. "Hah... This is all I can do, idiot... I'm not going on a suicide mission..."

"Well do something damn it!"

"Like what?"

"Gh... SOMETHING!"

Shizuka closed her eyes, shaking her head as the two argued. Really... She told them not to argue... "Ojou-san," stated a calm voice, the girl looking up again as her nun stood above her. "I've done all I can; there is scarring, but there should no longer be any pain." Ah...

The girl looked down at herself, standing up straight with wide eyes at the faint 'craters' across her body and torn clothes. "Ah... T-Thank-"

"Machine King!" Oh no... "Attack the Nun," came a loud shout, Shizuka's eyes widening as she looked behind the woman. Ota's turn... It was Ota's turn she realized with horror, and in the place of the Giga-Tech Wolf stood a silver and red robot with a cannon pointed directly toward them from the far end of the room. A robot whose power increased thanks to its own presence, to the Deckmaster's even...

Whose power was charging now, preparing to blast them into oblivion... "Like HELL," came Honda's shout, the teen pointing forward with a scowl. "Now Commander," he ordered, Otogi's hurried protests drowned out by his friend, "Take the attack!"

In an instant the moving shadow charged, tackling the king from it's narrow beam to force it to grip the railing in desperation. "HAAH!" The sound of a canon came through the air... Looking over the edge, Shizuka winced, watching as Honda's monster fell toward the lava with a singed hole directly through its body, the rest of him catching fire the instant it touched the liquid below. The 'Machine King' however, even after falling from the beam himself...

He survived. Thrusters sent it right back to the beams above, with the robot turning its blue lensed eyes toward her as she shuddered in fear. The robot wouldn't attack any more. It wasn't it's turn, and it was programmed to do only so much. But this... "Gh..." Not good... Her wounds had stopped bleeding and hurting, but as she stood, she knew full well just how much trouble they were in, and just how likely it was that another round was coming. "Honda-han," she called down, watching as the teen bit back a wince. "Why... You.."

"You IDIOT," Otogi roared, looking to his friend with a worried and incensed glare. "I was about to use one of my defense monsters to take that attack! Are you trying to get killed?"

Honda merely snorted, forcing a smirk on his face. "You defend? And just how were you going to do that," he countered, pointing to the above. "Your monsters are still sitting at your side, Shizuka's on the ceiling!"

"Gh... Speed doesn't play into this," Otogi cried in protest, "Both of the monster's are ghosts! Didn't you wonder why I was picking undead monsters?" Ah..? Hang on, this wasn't normal? ...Oh...

Oh that was right... Otogi liked dragons, didn't he, she told herself. So then of course the ghosts would be there for a reason, of course... "Gh... Otogi," Honda growled, gripping his weapons tightly as his face grew red, "It would have been really, REALLY nice to know that before hand..!"

"Well it's not like I could have told you," the teen argued with a sigh, "We aren't allowed to strategize..."

"STILL... You could have just... I don't know, said something, or-"

"My turn isn't over," Ota warned, chuckling echoing through the air with a menacing tone. The trio looked back as the conversation was cut short, listening as a familiar sounds of clicks and whirrs came to the air. "I still have three machine cards in my hand after all. So, after setting this card," he continued with a laugh, the glass panel appearing at his side, "I'll be discarding them! Now... Activating the ability again," he announced, flashes escaping the gatling gun as Shizuka threw her arms up in defense. "BARRAGE!"

AHH- Rapid sounds of gunfire came through the air, Shizuka ducking and crying as her just barely healed wounds were opened by shots from the side. Again the bullets were falling to the ground, and again the blood was spilling... But this time it somehow seemed more painful, as though each one brought them closer to the edge of death no matter how equal the fatality of the move was. But more alarmingly... As the bullets pierced her shield, shattering it into pieces she found herself holding her middle and crying in response to the pain that caught up to her just now. "Ng... NNGGGH... GHAAAAAAHH! AAAAHH!"

"HRAAGH! DAMN IT!"

"RAAAAAGHH!" The others... Honda weakly pulled himself from the railing he was thrown against by the force of the bullets against the weapons used to block it, Otogi forced to sit almost completely motionlessly as Shizuka coughed. "S-Shizuka," Honda called up, wiping blood from his mouth as he looked to the few places the bullets made it through. "Gh... Shizuka!"

The girl fell to a seat against the narrow railing, tears streaming freely down her face. The others... She couldn't let them worry, she couldn't... "I... I'll be fine," she shouted, weakly placing a hand on her Nun monster before gasping in pain. "I... I'll be fine... I just need to recover," she continued, the nun doing all she could as she stumbled back to her feet. "I... I just need time... To recover... Hng..." Her turn, she told herself, a shaking hand pointed forward as her wounds slowly melted into deep and cavernous scars across her abdomen and chest. Her turn... "L-Lady Panther, in defense mode," she forced out, the leopard rising from a shower of pixels to catch her summoner before she fell forward. The girl gasped somewhat for breath as she was pulled upward, holding the monster's arm for support. Hah... This would work... She would be safe now, this would work... "End turn," she called out, breathing haggardly despite her wounds being healed. Gh... Not good... There was even something in her hand that could stop all of this, and yet without the right spell...

Honda bit his lip from below as it came to his turn, before shaking himself off to hold a hand out and make his play. "Tch... I summon Command Angel, in defense mode," he announced, pillars of lava erupting around them as they made their moves.

As the light showered and revealed the young and female warrior the last of their team nodded, holding out a weakened hand to bring about his third shield. "Dark Assailant," Otogi stated for his own turn, the black-op garbed skeleton fading into existence from a series of lights and pixels, "Also defense mode..."

End turn... Ota's lens-eyes seemed to narrow in the dull lighting, the robot shaking his head at the immense wall before him. "Hn! Is that all you can do then," he laughed, the trio frowning in response.

"All we can do..." What did he mean... What did he mean by that..!

"You... This is an entire wall of defense monsters," Otogi shouted through a fit of coughs, narrowing his eyes as he grimaced. "Moreover," the teen argued, "You've been abusing your deckmaster ability from the start; you don't have any monsters to discard," he pointed out, "Which means you can't attack us with that weapon!"

Honda appeared to frown at this, turning toward his friend with a somewhat odd expression on his face. "You... You thought that far ahead," he muttered, the teen not responding as Shizuka smiled from above. Of course...

Of course... This "Tributes... Otogi-han, you've been gathering tributes haven't you," she shouted with wide eyes, leaning over the railing on her 'bridge' as she cheered. "On your next turn, you can summon a high level monster, even if one is destroyed... That's great! That's incredible!"

"Hnhnhnhnhnhn..." More chuckling came over the air, Shizuka turning to frown in response. Well... She... She'd thought it was great anyhow... Obviously someone didn't though. "You're all just too naive for your own good," Ota sneered, shaking his head from across the three. "You've forgotten that I have a card here... A trap at that! Activate Backup Soldier," he announced chillingly, the panel shimmering as his gatling gun began to spin once more in preparation for whatever he had done. "This card brings three monsters back from my grave... But they'll just be used once again, and for exactly what you would expect! I send them back to the graveyard," the robot roared, Shizuka stepping back somewhat as the gun pointed upward. "Again activating my ability! BARRAGE!" Gh-

"Glhk!" The bullets pounded the air with their noise, the steel scattering across her chest and arm as she fell to one knee in shock. Her shield was no longer there to defend her... Whatever held her together now was merely magic, and had it not been for the 'cloak' over her shoulders there would be nothing to hide the bloody mess that was her torso. "Gk... Hng..! Nhhhggg..!" Her body... She couldn't see the others, she was too busy looking down in horror. Everything, everything the bullets pierced through... "N-N... Gk..." She couldn't even scream... She couldn't move, she couldn't speak, she couldn't... "Nh..!"

"Y-You... You monster," Otogi spat, narrowing his eyes as the ghosts before them shook off the bullets they'd caught. "You MONSTER!"

The comment seemed to receive no real response however, Ota merely chuckling in regards to the carnage he'd sown. "Hnhnhnhnhn... I'll take that as a 'compliment'," he sneered, a pair of shimmering panels appearing to the field as Shizuka's monsters hurriedly did what they could about her wounds. "You see, when all this is over, it will no longer apply... Not to me at least. It's now my turn," he stated plainly, his nearest opponent grimacing in pain as the flesh across her body was just barely restored, "And I'll be playing these; first," he began, "Clockwork Night! Turning all monsters presently on the field into machines, while taking 500 of their attack points... Granting each of mine 500," the robot laughed, his 'Machine King' seeming to grow with power at an alarming rate as each monster on the field became coated in metal. The nun's white hands abruptly pulled back half-way through their work, the woman's master staring in horror as she stood. No... Machines couldn't use magic, her nun was...

But then what about her..?

As Shizuka turned to look to her opponent with wide eyes the monster seemed to 'grin', eyes still narrowed with mirth. "Deckmasters are excluded from this of course," he chuckled, watching as his opponent shuddered in fear. "But only yours... I'll still gain the same attack bonus after all. Not that it matters! The Machine King now has 3400 attack points... And combining that with this," he continued, the second panel melting to the air, "The spell 'Short Circuit', I guarantee one of your losses! All monsters are forced into attack position," Ota explained, Shizuka paling in fear as the monsters beside her gained an eerie look in their now glassy eyes, "Unable to defend, or even attack... Unable to divert any move headed toward their comrades! So now," he thundered, the gravity of the situation pressing further and further on the duelists, "Where do you scum think you stand..!" No...

No... No..! "H-H... Hahh... Ahhhhih..." There were shouts behind her as the Machine King rose up, she knew that much. Panicked cries and shouts of anger as their 'weakest link' was targeted, herded toward the crossroads at the bridge with no railing... And as she stepped back she slipped, screaming, falling toward the lava, tears running down her face as the Machine King stared from above... "H-HAAAHH! HAAAAAAAHH! HAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"Command Angel," Honda shouted abruptly, Shizuka's teary eyes catching sight of a blur whilst she fell. "CATCH HER!" Catch..?

As a blast of energy narrowly passed her she could feel strong arms beneath her, a young soldier's face catching her eye. Gunshots... She could hear gunshots as well, but where...

"I'm taking the attack," Honda said coldly, having jumped from the angel's back to stand before the Machine King. There were burn marks over the armor now, where bullets had struck... And as he looked back, he tossed one of the pistols toward them, the 'gun-blade' shifting into a panel of glass before he brought his second one to his defense. "I activate my ability," he shouted with a swallow. "Setting a card face down... ...Otogi," the teen shouted further, Shizuka placed in on a random portion of the bridges as their friend struggled to block the Machine King's angered retaliation. "This is the best I could do... And I'm sorry I didn't think of anything else sooner..."

"Honda," he whispered, staring with wide eyes as their friend forced the Machine King back with the blade. "Honda, what are you-"

"Look after Shizuka before Jonouchi gets here, promise me that, alright," he asked, the robot before him charging his attack. Look after... No...

NO! "HONDA-HAN," she screamed, before the light of the canon obscured their friend's wincing and pained smile from view. "HONDA-HAN!"

There was no arguing... With that the teen closed his eyes, his last gun falling to the lava below as a hole burned through his armor. As fires erupted on his form below, a single hand briefly visible above the 'waves'. "H-HONDA-HAN!"

And in that moment... He was gone.

"HONDA-KUN!"

---

Someone was screaming, he'd realized in an instant. Someone familiar. But it seemed faint... Faint enough that he couldn't tell if it was a vision or a ruse, leaving him silent.

And then he heard it again.

'HONDA-HAAAAN!'

Katsuya tensed as the call became clearer still, head jerking upward with wide eyes. "Hey," he muttered with a swallow, the others stopping behind him as he stared almost blankly to the stalactites before them. "Did you... Did you hear tha'..?"

"Hear..? Hear what," Anzu began, before yet another scream tore through the air.

'HONDA-HAN!' 'HONDA-KUN!' The others tensed as the next screams tore through the air, louder than the last by an incredible feat of volume and clearly despaired in tone. "A-Ah... That... That was Shizuka," the woman realized with a start, looking back down as her friend grew white in regards to the screams. "And then after that..."

"Otogi," Yugi muttered, gritting his teeth as his own eyes widened. "Otogi and Shizuka..."

Then... If they could hear both... "Hey... Don't tell me they're in a fight at the same time," muttered Ren, staring forward with a frown. "Two on One seems great when you hear it, that's true," he hissed, "But there are certain systems that turn that right around... If whoever they're against knows these tricks, they're screwed..." Gh... Maybe so...

But then what did it mean for a larger number? "It's not jus' two," he muttered fearfully, Yugi turning with a slight frown as the blond swallowed. "It's not- We gotta move," he shouted, charging down the tunnel with wide eyes as the feeling of dread he held increased drastically. "I got a bad feeling, we need to find those guys now..!"

"Ah- J-Jonouchi," Anzu protested, nonetheless charging after him as Yugi followed behind them. "Jonouchi," she repeated with wide eyes, "How do you even know where we're going, we've passed at least three forks in the tunnels so far!" He couldn't answer that... Not now...

He couldn't..! "I jus' know," he shouted back, praying that she didn't say anything more. "Trus' me... I just 'know'..! Now c'mon," the blond continued with a shout, "This way! There ain't much time!"

"Not much time? What do you- O-OI! Jonouchi! What are you talking about!" There was no answer as the blond ran, Katsuya gritting his teeth as he charged on. After all...

While he didn't know why, there was going to be a door at the end of this tunnel. And that door would only be open for so long.

---

When people told him that it was impossible to understand a soldier's past, she'd never put much thought into it. Wars from times past weren't much her concern outside of class work and medicinal relevance after all; there was no time to focus on such things when her main focus was exams and tests. Fiction always explained that the trauma of war was too much for most people to bear she found. That in the end it could drive someone insane, into depression, madness, or worse. She'd thought that, if she were ever to experience such a feeling, it would be by some freak accident, a chance occurrence that destroyed anything in it's path.

She hadn't expected to experience it this soon, or at all really. And certainly not in this way. Not in a 'game', a creation of wires and mechanics... In a virtual world where her body survived after nearly being severed by gunfire, where her friend's body could keep living after his leg was in tatters and his chest horrifically shredded. That alone would remain in her nightmares, the sight of Otogi's limp body struggling to hold consciousness at the side while she herself stood with a gruesome mess of a torso. But this scene would affect them far more, that was for sure. "Honda-kun," Otogi repeated, swallowing back a scream as he looked to the spot where his body had fallen to the molten sea below. "He..."

"He's dead," Shizuka whispered, hand on her mouth as tears ran down her cheeks. The girl had been dropped somewhat closer to Otogi's 'spot', and even with the teen's wall of monsters he could see the sheer terror in her eyes. "He's dead," she was repeating in horror, "He sacrificed himself... He sacrificed himself for me, he... Hng...! Gnh..!"

"As I recall," a grating voice from above muttered, Shizuka clutching the railing in tears as she doubled over in shock, "It was your turn 'little girl'..." Her turn... Her turn...

He expected her to fight even now? 'Stand up,' Otogi was shouting, the girl's eyes still wide and unblinking as she cried. 'Stand up, please! We have to fight!' She couldn't... She couldn't, she could see her own heart through the ribcage, see it beat through tattered flesh and crushed ribs... Her stomach had been healed by the Nun, true, but everything else remained, she couldn't..!

'Well,' spoke another voice, the girl dully recognizing it as Ota as she gripped her head and cried, 'What's taking so long now?' She couldn't... She couldn't..!

"Shizuka... Shizuka," her friend shouted, "You need to be strong! Come on!" Strong... Honda had been doing alright, all his moves were done to protect her... Attempting to lure the competition, jumping in the direct path even...

Honda had been strong. And while he might not have been a duelist, he'd at least held himself decently enough when it came to trying to help. And now... "Ng... Nggh..." Now he was dead. She didn't care if it was real or not, she'd watched him fall and burn, and with that his body was good as gone. He was dead. Dead before he'd even reached the lava below, and she'd killed him, if not indirectly. What could she do... What could she do..! 'Shall we pass,' Ota was asking, the robot's male opponent clenching his fists as he turned back to his partner.

"Shizuka... Come on," he shouted, gripping the railing at the side to pull himself up somewhat. "If we win we might get him back, so come on! Stand and FIGHT! PLEASE!" She couldn't though..! She couldn't she couldn't move, even if she wanted, she couldn't... Move... She was... Shaking her head, she couldn't do this, she just couldn't, and- "...Fine," Otogi sighed, looking away in slight understanding. "It's my turn... It's the least I can do... But I won't waste Honda's efforts! First," he announced, tossing a dagger at one of his monsters, as the painted skeleton vanished from sight, "I use the spell Worm Hole to remove my Assailant from play..!" Remove..?

But why would he do that... That barely did a thing... "100 less attack points makes little difference to the King's power," Ota snorted, shaking his head. "If that's all you have, you're about to be sorely disappointed..."

"Who said I was done," the teen asked darkly, his monsters stepping to the side as he held a hand forward. In an instant, the field was coated with a glass sheet, a grid drawing itself over the glass. With a still outstretched hand the entirety of the lava below was trapped, fogging and smoking up the grid until it resembled a black board lined in silver. "This is the field spell 'Dice Dungeon'," Otogi explained, a dark frown on his face. "Where only one monster from each player can fight, and where the winner is decided by the roll of a die. And believe me when I say," the teen continued lowly, "I know a few things about dice... Remember that card I set earlier," he asked, eyes narrowed as their opponent stared to the field in surprise. That card...

Before there could be an answer the robot across the field froze, landing on the glass floor with shaking hands. "Gh... You... You're Otogi Ryuuji aren't you," Ota spat, shaking his head in shock. "To think you were involved in this... Last I heard your family's business went out of work just months ago... Yet you managed to turn your game into reality anyways," he shouted in question, lenses widening considerably with the call.

Otogi nodded, crossing his arms from where he sat. "That's right; shortly after the game fell through, I sent a request to 12 industries to make some way for it to come into reality... I hadn't gotten a response back, and had planned on using them as a surprise to Yugi... But when I saw the cards on the list here, I realized they'd done it; and I'd be a fool to ignore a chance for myself to use my full ability in a match as important as this. Now..." The glass panel at his side burst into a blinding light, Otogi's voice echoing through the air. "I use the set card 'Dimension Dice'," he announced, "Tributing Yaranzo and the 13th Grave to special summon Orgoth the Relentless! But while the attack power difference is still staggering," he continued, the enormous armed monster appearing with a massive sword on the glass field, "I'm going to attack! Activate the effect of the Dice Dungeon," Otogi roared, throwing his hand forward as a die appeared from it. "And roll the die!"

"Tch... Then I suppose I have no choice, now do I," the robot growled, 'tossing' his own die forward as the opponents looked to the board. Both die, increasing in size as they tumbled, clattered across the ground, clacking and bouncing off whatever was in their way before the falling to a stop. "...Damn it... 1," Ota muttered darkly, the Machine King at his side seeming to shrink. "Lose 1000 attack points..."

"And in my case," Otogi said with a smirk, "I rolled six; which means Orgoth's attack doubles! Orgoth," the teen ordered, pointing forward as the blade in his monster's hand shone with power. "Attack the Machine King; DIAMOND BLADE!"

The sounds of the Machine King's destruction riddled the air, eerie light filling it from the lava below as the scrap metal monster was torn cleanly in two. Shizuka was still holding her head, not looking at the field. The bullet wounds riddling her body were still bleeding, even though she should have long bled out, even though the shock alone should have killed her by this point. She was scared... She was so scared... 'This isn't the world I wanted to see,' she whispered to herself, crying as their opponent took his next move. 'This isn't the world I want to live in..!' She didn't want this, nothing of it, nothing..!

Ota was chuckling now... Coming closer and closer, until he stood just meters away from them. "Hehehehehe... HAHAHAHA! It looks like I'll be fighting you from here on out," the robot laughed, reflection shining on the ashen glass beneath them. "I don't have any more monsters to throw at you... All I have," he continued, metal shifting in colour and form as he held out a hand, "Is this; the spell 'Recycling Plant," Ota called out, metal pulling off and up from the scrap that was his Machine King. "Taking one monster from my graveyard and fusing it with myself! And by merging with the Machine King," the robot thundered, growing in size and strength to break through the ceiling and walls. "I gain all of his abilities, and then some! My attack rises by 500 points for each machine on the field... Another five hundred for my spell... And in addition," Ota roared, now resembling an enormous tower sized 'mecha' as it stood beneath a starry night sky, "There still stands to say what the next roll of the dice will do! I ATTACK," he snarled, new cannon arm swung to his side as he threw his other hand forward. "Roll the DICE!"

"Tch... Go then," Otogi shouted, seemingly tossing a dagger forward as a die clattered to the ground in response. From the glass below a single number could be seen, and as Orogth's power diminished the teen winced. "Gh- Shit," he muttered, biting his lip. "One..."

"And as for myself," his opponent sneered, "A five. My attack power is halved... But that matters little for now," he cackled, rising into the air as he took aim with his cannon. "My power still dwarfs yours completely, and with this I can be rid of your troublesome 'dice'! THUNDER BARRAGE," he roared, the blast tearing through the air to crack the field with its heat.

"Nh... NRAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Screams echoed through the air... Shizuka shut her eyes, willing herself not to look as Otogi was struck down by whatever firepower his Orgoth couldn't handle. "GHAAAAAAAAAAA!" Screams and pain, screams and pain, screams... The light was almost blinding, hiding the carnage from view as glass shattered and fell to the molten lava below. Screams... Screams... "GHAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"

Stop it... Someone, please, stop it..! "Hnhnhnhnhn... Looks like you have nothing else to look to for 'hope'," Ota chuckled, shaking his head from where he hovered in the air. "Your life points are at a minimum, both of you... And I now wield a power you could not hope to defeat. You may have invented 'D-D-D'," he continued, Otogi weakly pulling himself to all 'fours' as he struggled to breathe, "And you may be heralded as a prodigy in the field of games and development, but when it comes to matters of war and strategy I won't take you lightly... I will fight until the last breath, and I will show no mercy... Because to get my vengeance," he spat, Shizuka staring in fear as tears rolled down her ash covered face, "It's more than necessary..." No, Shizuka repeated in her mind, listening as laughter continued to shake through the air. No... Someone... Anyone..!

Please, stop this..!

---

The desert they traveled had proved almost completely barren for the past amount of immeasurable time. As Noa had said, there were no living things to be seen, for as far as the eye could see. No 'NPC's, no monsters, no animals... There wasn't even a cactus. Seto and Mokuba had opted to walk rather then run despite the relatively easy to traverse terrain however; for some reason, it seemed that running only made the journey more difficult despite logic pointing to the act making it easier, and it was at least true that with this they could keep track of any landmarks.

Landmarks such as the steel that was beginning to litter the ground, or the remains of weapons and tanks. "This..." Pieces of plastic along with bullet casings, taking the place of rocks and stone cliffs. A few seconds ago, they had been in the Sahara desert.

But now, it was fairly obvious that they were far from the desert. "Ah... Nee-sama," Mokuba shouted, pointing ahead from where he'd run to the top of the scrap-covered sand hill. "Look..!" The woman frowned, moving forward as she peered over the hill with narrowed eyes. A factory stood before them... A number of tall buildings and warehouses, along with a large partially ruined factory, a night sky settling above it as it slowly shrouded the 'city' with fog.

Impossible... Absolutely impossible... "Alcatraz," she muttered, narrowing her eyes as the memory of the place filled the air. As the memory of the hate she'd held for it returned, and as the memory of what she had done to exercise that hate came to mind. She'd been sitting in her new office, just a day or so into her position as CEO over KaibaCorp... Changes were being put into play, no matter what those about the work place said. People were replaced, trained... It was a high cost, but it was well worth it in the end. At that time however, there were still many things to do. And this was one of them. 'Bring in Soichiro Ota,' she could remember saying. There had been something she wanted to do...

Something that needed to be done... Something that intensified and grew to a complete obsession later on she realized. 'I want you to prove your loyalty to myself and this company,' she'd told him with a cold, grating tone when the man had come in, clearly confused despite his polite demeanour. 'I want you to destroy the entirety of the island used to manufacture our large scale machines, as soon as possible and as cleanly as possible.'

Ota, of course, stared in shock. The building had been his pride and joy, something he'd worked to upgrade and control for his entire stay at the company. 'Destroy,' he'd repeated, eyes wide as they met with her own apathetic gaze. 'You want me to destroy my-'

'It's my factory now,' she'd reminded him, leaning back on her chair with a glare. 'Not yours.' There had been no further argument after that, none at all. And as the memory faded she shook her head, realzing that rather than simply 'reminiscing' she'd been shown the entire thing on display. But why... Why was Noa showing them this memory, she thought with a growl. Destroying Alcatraz was something she considered an accomplishment, not a weakness! So why... Why was it- "Tch... Noa... Show yourself already," she snarled, looking up to the sky to receive no answer. Mokuba as well seemed to scowl, before the sound of Ota's voice pulled their attention forward and the scene again melted into a separate image. This day... A fair amount of time later, after final bits of demolition had been completed. After she'd begun school at 'Domino High', after she'd dueled against Yugi for the first time... Needless to say she was worse off than before, and possibly considered demonic by those working for her at that point. It was a similar scene to just before; she sat at her desk, phone in hand... And on the other end, her 'head of technology' spoke.

'It is done,' Ota told her, receiving a slight flash of dull approval in the woman's eyes for his efforts. The expression could not be seen of course; Ota was still on site, staring at the ruins in shock, as though having murdered a close friend or family member. 'Alcatraz is destroyed,' the man had continued stiffly, 'As ordered.'

She could remember the tainted accomplishment she'd had that day... Something that should have furthered her dream was only pulling her back, all for the sake of that 'duel' she had fought without any honor at all. And all through that time she'd never once realized how far gone she was going. 'Good,' she had said bluntly, simultaneously dealing with whatever else work there was to deal with. 'It's official then; starting today,' she had announced, 'The Military Department of this company is fully annulled; we begin development on Solid Vision software now.'

Ota's reaction was almost hesitant really. He'd seen this coming of course, and both himself and a majority of the other board members had only barely hidden their distaste. But now was his final chance. 'And... Me,' he'd asked, 'I will be doing..?'

Absolutely nothing, that was what. 'You can handle the materials for this next project; upon the ruins you have made, I will be building a structure known as the 'Duel Tower',' she'd told him, preparing to hang up the phone. 'Don't argue, and don't complain- listen to every word the engineer says, understand? This tower will be incredibly important in the future.'

'Gh... I...' Stuttering hit the air, Ota unable to completely respond to the unofficial demotion. '...You..!'

'That is all, Ota; good bye.' With that the phone clicked off, the scene vanishing from sight. Yes... That was all...

And as Seto narrowed her eyes, it took a few moments to pull herself from those thoughts in order to follow her brother toward the 'city' the rubble had created.

---

'Shizuka,' a voice was calling, the girl still curled into herself as she cried. She'd been frozen this way since Ota's attack. Starin, just staring. There was nothing... There was nothing she could do any more, nothing at all... 'Shizuka... Take your turn,' the voice continued in the distance, 'It's your turn..!' She hadn't even drawn a card yet... What good would it do, Otogi was going to die now! She was petrified... Useless... 'Shizuka...

"SHIZUKA!" Her friend's shouts rang through the air, accented by Ota's chuckling beneath the night sky. "PLEASE," Otogi roared, eyes wide as his partner stood frozen on her knees. "Don't let Honda's sacrifice be in vain, you need to fight..! Please!" And just what was there to do she asked herself, not answering the teen's calls. She couldn't move, she was in pain... Blood coated her hands, stained her clothes, or rather what was left of them... 'Hurry up,' Ota was snarling, now blue lenses shuttered in annoyance, 'Or are you unable to fight any longer?' And again, the shouts... "STAND UP! Please... Shizuka," Otagi cried, "If you give in it's all over! You need to fight to the end, you need to get up..! Please!" She knew... She knew that... She knew she had to do something, anything...

But as she cried, lips viced between her teeth all she could do was shudder under the scent of her own blood. She was scared... Scared... More than she had ever been in her entire life, more than she could bare. Another way, there was another way her brother would say, but what other way could there be? The chances of drawing the card she needed were nil... One in 30 at the least. She was dead in the water, good as gone, there was NOTHING-

"It looks as though your friend is still unable to fight," Ota chuckled, Shizuka merely holding herself close as her eyes continued to dance with an intense and petrifying fear. "Shall we pass her turn..?" Pass? But then Otogi would-

"No one's passing any turns right now," the teen snarled, looking back to his friend and biting his lip. Otogi... Otogi, he was next... He... "Shizuka... Come on! You can get up..! You've played against Ryuzaki haven't you?" She almost nodded in response to the statement, slowly turning with a swallow. "That's right... And you watched Jonouchi fight outside, against 'Rishid'... Just think," he continued, Shizuka's eyes briefly widening with focus. "Would they have given in, even after this? Would they have let their turn pass over and just 'die'?" They... They would...

No... No. "No," she whispered, slowly standing upright with a swallow despite grievous wounds across her front. "No, they wouldn't... They would never give up," she shouted, eyes wide as she recalled her brother's words from his own duel, swallowing back her fear despite the expression she held giving it away. "Not even if they lost! They wouldn't! I... I'll still fight," she roared, the monsters she'd left on the rafters above nodding with approval. "Until my last breath," the girl announced determinedly, "I'll fight..!"

And at that moment, they heard the door open. "A-Ah... No way," Otogi muttered, an enormous door appearing above them and to their side. "That..."

"Eh..?" What-

"WOAAAHHH shit!" The first to run through hurriedly grabbed the edge of the hall he'd come in from, pulling himself up into the door way with a swallow. The door in question was wide, and at least large enough for a truck to pass through. As to the 'door'... Well, it would probably be more accurate to define the entrance as a 'hole' really'. "Man! What th' hell 's tha'," the tallest of the group muttered, Shizuka squinting through the darkness. That... That voice..!

The girl's eyes widened as they met with blond hair and a red cloak, her brother and two others standing in a door way high above them. Yugi stood behind his friend, dressed in a mix of tanned leather and cloth... Anzu gripped a staff, black cloak falling formlessly over her. But more importantly, at the front... "A-Ahh... KATSUYA-NIHAN!" She turned to face her brother, tears running freely yet again as she sniffed. "Gh... KATSUYA!"

"Oh- AHH! Shizuka," the blond shouted with a grin, before the expression fell completely flat with horror. "Oh my... S-Shizuka..! Shizuka," he screamed, "What happened..! What..!"

"Oh my god they're both soaked in blood," Anzu cried, Otogi in question looking himself over with a wince. "How are they even alive!"

"What the hell's goin' on," Katsuya muttered with a swallow, gripping the 'doorframe' to look for their opponent. "WHAT IS THIS," he snarled, pointing down to his friends as he faced the robot above.

Tears ran down Shizuka's cheeks as a smile continued to sit on her face, despite all shouts her brother was giving. He was here... She didn't care what she looked like right now, or what the situation was... Her brother was here..! He was here..!"So the 'champions' finally arrive," Ota sneered, still higher in position than the others as he gleamed in the night sky. "Hn! You're just in time," he announced, the three in the door jumping back as a sheet of thick glass came across it to lock them in place, "You can watch your friends die!"

"Di- O-OI! Let us outta here," Katsuya snarled, pounding the glass as the others looked down with wide eyes. "C'MON! This isn't fair! They're DYIN', LET ME OUT!"

"Hey... Otogi, Shizuka," Anzu called down, attempting to ignore the injuries for the moment as she scanned the field. "Have you two seen Honda? He fell through the same hole you two did, didn't he," she asked worriedly.

At this the pounding immediately stopped, eerie silence sitting over the air as they stared at each other. "Honda-han..." It was as though they knew the answer already. As though they had come just somewhat later than intended, having been warned of the events. "...Honda-han was..."

"Honda was killed," Otogi finally said, looking to the lava below. "He sacrificed himself for us to keep going... He..."

"No..." Yugi, as he had been since coming in, was silent, eyes staring down in a mix of confusion, horror, and rage both. Anzu as well grew white with shock, falling to her knees as she shook her head. "No way," she was whispering, a snake on her shoulder merely looking down with wide eyes. "It can't... He can't, it's not real..."

"Impossible," Katsuya said with a swallow, voice sounding strained as he looked through the glass with wide eyes. "It... Tha's impossible, he can't... He can' be DEAD," he protested, "He can't-"

"I'm sorry," Shizuka cried, eyes welling with tears as the trauma caught up to her once more. "I'm so sorry... I kept making assumptions about the duel... And in the end," the girl screamed, "He sacrificed himself to protect me..! It's my fault," she continued, holding her arms as she shook in fear. "It's all my fault..! I..."

Katsuya merely stared with worry, a few tears rolling down his own cheeks as the others did the same. "...Shizuka," he whispered, bowing his head for a moment as the grief continued to set in. "Shizuka... I..."

...She couldn't lose this... No matter what... She couldn't lose this..."...Nihan," she said with a swallow, slowly calming her nerves with deep breaths. "There... There's still a chance we can get him back! If we win," she continued, bowing her head, "If I finish this match..."

A small bit of silence was left hanging in the air before the blond nodded, standing back from the glass with an encouraging stare. "Alrigh'... In tha' case, you listen up, got it," he called down, Shizuka swallowing as her brother continued. "So long as yer on tha' field, yer a duelist... So long as y' have cards in yer hand, an' a turn t' take, you keep fightin'! You're my sister... An' I know you can do th's," Katsuya shouted encouragingly, "So don' give in, no matter what, you got it," he finished, the girl nodding in response. "I'll be watchin'... So show me what I know you c'n do!"

"I..." Alright! "I will..! It's MY TURN," she shouted, wind seeming to blast about the half-destroyed factory as she steadied her resolve. This was their last chance, their last move... She couldn't screw this up..! 'Remember,' Otogi was saying from the side, 'Anything Ryuzaki taught you... Remember...' Of course..! And no matter what, she wouldn't fail! "DRAW!" The menu flashed in the back of her mind as the command was given, escaping the 'pass' status it was in as her hand came to mind. Her next card... It was...

...Heh...

... She could remember the day she found this card she thought to herself, eyes momentarily growing dull as scenes not at all unlike what she'd stood in prior the rhino's attack met her eyes. 'Duel monsters,' she'd asked, sitting in the hospital bed after her surgery. It was just around new year's; since the surgery, Keiichi had been visiting far beyond the normal hours allowed, going so far as to fall asleep 'That game you're always playing in class? You want to play duel monsters?'

'Yea,' Keiichi had responded cheerfully, having earlier mentioned bringing in his deck. 'It's a fun game, and I think if you gave it a chance you'd enjoy it... Besides,' he continued with a laugh, 'You need something to do while you're here right?'

'Well... Yes,' she admitted, rubbing her neck, 'But if I can't see the cards...'

'Don't worry,' he'd hurriedly said, rummaging around his bag for something. 'I'll tell you what each one is! We can play with revealed hands, both of us, that way it's fair; you'll know what I have,' he explained, 'And I'll be able to tell you what you have, so you can play each card.'

She could remember giving him a wry smile in response to that. Playing with revealed hands... That was both easier and harder than a normal game she would think. 'I suppose that works... But what am I supposed to do for a de-'

'Here.' A package of foil wrapped packets were placed in her hands at that moment, her fingers fumbling over the covers in the darkness she had yet to be used to. 'I still had a lot of money left from the Nationals, even with the train to Tokyo... So I got you these. I can help you build a deck with them,' he'd told her confidently, 'Just open them up, and we'll see what you get!' And so she had... And throughout the day he'd explained the rules if the game, the points to keep in mind, what one card did, what another did... Some cards were given to him, others put to the side for what he called 'trade ins'...

But there was one card in particular she could remember him talking about. 'Ritual cards,' she'd asked, now at home with the bandages still wrapped about her face that spring.

'Yea; they're like tribute monsters, but a lot harder to use,' he explained between reading descriptions of cards in the packs. 'Most are pretty worth it though, as they tend to have powerful effects as well. The one you got from this pack for example, 'Herald of Perfection',' Keiichi told her, 'Is able to negate the activation of any trap, spell, or effect by discarding a fairy type monster, destroying the card in the process. Of course,' he'd continued with a laugh, rubbing his head somewhat nervously, 'Compared to most ritual monsters, it's not really that powerful... But because of that, it's not as hard to summon either. Each ritual monster has a corresponding spell card you see,' the boy had told her. 'These are called Ritual Spell cards... By using these,' Keiichi carefully explained, 'If you offer up monsters equal to the level of the monster you're summoning, while fulfilling any other requirements, you can get a pretty powerful monster on the field fast, even if certain types of summoning has been blocked. I'm not saying I'd use them of course,' he'd gone on, laughing somewhat nervously as his friend gave him a wry smile. 'But who knows,' the boy pondered, his friend opening another pack to pull out the next card.

'Maybe they'll suit you,'

The 'Herald of Perfection' had been traded in later that week, neither finding much use for the card. But the next pack she opened yielded something else after that, another 'duo' that was rarely found in the same pack. A card she held in her hand. A card that, looking at it now... "Hah... If... If I bring out this monster," she muttered to herself, staring at the ground somewhat. "If I play this..." There was an option for 'Joan', who was more powerful, but it wouldn't be able to defend. If she herself participated in the summon however, and increased her power...

Then maybe... Just maybe... "Shizuka," Otogi was warning from the side, pulling himself up against the railing with a wince as he balanced on his one 'good' leg. "Be careful... If we don't play this right," he continued, "Then we're both dead..!" Right... That was true.

But she had an idea; and she wouldn't fail if she stuck to it! "...My deckmaster, 'Goddess of the Third Eye' allows me to summon fusion monsters without the use of polymerization, by discarding a spell," she began, bringing a bloodied hand to her chest as the menu scrolled in her mind. Around her the others were silent, listening as the girl continued. "However... I have another option, another way to do take this move," she continued with a shout, looking up with an expression not unlike her older brother's. "On the field right now I have two level four monsters... I could sacrifice one to summon the monster I need to fusion summon 'St. Joan'," she explained, her friends and opponent both frowning at the shared strategy, "But instead I'm going to play this! RITUAL SPELL," she roared, hands held out as clouds began to swirl into twisted and grey spirals. "THE END OF THE WORLD!"

The result of the spell was imminent, to put it lightly. Above them the sky took an almost patterned appearance, runes and hexagon-shaped spirals converging through the of the earth were beginning to rise toward the clouds... The ground was crumbling, physics was becoming no more important than a raindrop on the ground, and as the steel platform she stood upon rose she continued to speak."I sacrifice the Merciful Nun," she announced, the monster vanishing into dust from below as the debris joined with the storm, "Along with MYSELF," Shizuka continued, "To summon this monster..! To complete the ritual! Bringing about this... The monster who brings with her the collapse of all, the one with the powers of chaos," she howled, clouds continuing to spin as they wrapped around the girl to hide her from form. "RUIN," Shizuka roared, breaking free of the winds as stones and ruins rose and fell amid the air in a shockwave, "THE QUEEN OF OBLIVION!"

For a moment, just a brief moment, he looked scared. He stared at the sight of the enraged and now vicious young girl and at the apocalyptic ruin resulted and froze, series of stones and steel floating around him almost like a cage. But it was only an instant. For even as the Command Angel Honda left behind gave her an added boost of power, there was still a difference of 2000 points of attack between them, and for that reason he was confident in his success. However, despite this, she didn't feel worried. She wasn't sure why... But she didn't feel worried, now that her body had healed and her summon was complete.

And as the wind continued to howl, she was only barely paying attention to her opponent. "You... Is that all you can do," Ota was laughing, Shizuka now standing on a hovering ruin of stones as her friends clutched whatever bits of land they themselves were on after the destruction of the city. "That isn't nearly enough to defeat me..! Your power is nothing compared to mine... And even if you were to attack me with the spear you wield in your hands now, it would all be useless!" No...

Not yet..! From the side, Yugi was shouting. "Otogi," he called out, "You all have to work together; even the ones who aren't here! Honda left you something, didn't he," he asked, Katsuya nodding from beside the boy.

Otogi blinked, looking to the side where Honda's old and still shining facedown card sat. "That's right," he shouted, steadying himself on the steel platform he was still sitting on. "I haven't used my ability yet..!" Right- that ability... The one that combined with Honda's could very well turn the tides in their favor! "I activate my ability," her friend announced, bringing his hands together with a shout as the panel down below began to glow. "Discarding two cards to use the face down card Honda left for us..! NOW!" One hand motion was made... "Rin." Another, his eyes closed in focus. "Hyou." And another. "Tou." Another, and another... Otogi's hands moved swiftly through each one, eyes appearing to almost glow as the card at the side did the same, his hands blurring whilst they stared. "Sha... Kai... Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen! Activate the spell 'UNITED WE STAND," he announced curtly, the glass card shattering as a flaming energy arose from about him. "For each monster on our side of the field," the teen stated, "Including ourselves... The monster equipped gains 800 attack points! Now, Shizuka," he called out, the fire wrapping around her as she jumped forward with a nod. "GO FOR IT!"

Time to attack..! "H-Hhaa... HAAAHH! Damn it all... Damn it..! This is impossible," Ota roared, as he watched the girl approach from the air, his attacking opponent slamming him into the ground with alarming force in mid shout. The robot collapsed into a crater on the ground, metal limbs broken and awkwardly positioned on the ruins as he continued to snarl. "Gh... This result... How could it be..? It's IMPOSSIBLE..!"

From her position in mid air she fell forward, landing on a cliff just meters from the machine's face. Fog settled in around them, along with a windless air, and with a look of loathing most would consider far unlike her she stared down at the monster before her. No one could see them... It was just fog, thick enough to obscure your vision from a few feet... But she could still see, and so could Ota. "You..." Her wide eyes swam with tears, teeth ground together as she clutched the spear in her right hand. "I can never forgive you," she hissed, "For what you did..."

The machine narrowed the lenses of its eyes, chuckling rumbling from the speakers it had for mouths. "Heh! I would expect nothing less..." Of course he wouldn't. "But... Don't think you'll be getting your friend back so easily," he taunted, Shizuka's face falling deeper into rage as a sliver of fear and confusion slipped in. "You might have beaten me... But I still defeated your friend, in a completely fair match! This was my mistake," he snarled bitterly, "I shouldn't have used my deck master... But that boy's body is still mine!" Wh... What... No... No, that couldn't... "I've got what I wanted... And believe me, we WILL meet again! And when we do, things will really get intersting," he cackled, the girl before him shaking with rage. "HAHAHAHAHA... AHAHAHA... AHAHAHAHAAAA- ck-"

"HRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHNG!" A single slash was all it took to silence that laugh, a raged and miserable cry coming in the same instant. The cut from the spear was sharp, and more than enough to cut through the monster... Dropping her spear to the ground as the metal of the now defeated robot fell limp Shizuka collapsed to her knees, fog sitting around her like a blanket as she cried. It hadn't worked. "Ah... Auuuaaaaaaaa..." It hadn't worked..! "Aaaaaaaaaannnn..." Gone... Gone, gone, gone, he was gone and it was her fault..! "Hnn... Aaa-nn... Nn..." Tears continued to stream down her face, the girl falling forward with her head on her knees even as someone came to hold her from behind. "Nnng... Hnng..."

"Shizuka," Katsuya was saying, pulling her close as she cried, and as events of the duel either reversed or rotted away to leave the ruin she'd created. "Shizuka," he whispered, "It's alrigh'... It's alrigh'..."

"Why isn't he coming back," Otogi was muttering, barely supported between Anzu and Yugi as his wounds healed over, leg slowly and painfully reforming from what little had remained. "Why didn't it work..?"

Because... That was how it worked... That was... "Gone... He's still gone," Shizuka forced out, holding her head in her hands. "Ota... He still got Honda-han's body," she choked, "He still..."

"Gh... That bastard... Damn it NOA," Katsuya roared, turning to the sky as he stood up behind his sister in rage. "STOP SCREWIN' WITH US AN' GIVE 'M BAAAACK! LET US OUTTA HERE AN' LEAVE US ALONE, GIVE 'M BACK!" Noa of course did not appear, nor did his voice echo through the air in response.

But far in the distance, as the lights flickered to life on a screen...

The shouts were nonetheless answered.

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AN: HONDAAAAAAAAA-

Lights? ...It's not what you think! ... Or is it. So in other news, I opted for a super chapter; the average length of chapters has gone up to about 20k for words you see (which used to be standard for a super chapter), so this is actually well within the limits.

The length just seems a little longer since Otogi and Honda just KEEP ON TALKING.

In other news, I just saw Suckerpunch. Go in expecting nothing but explosions and insanity, and you will find yourself pleasantly surprised by what else is there, and going 'that was a good movie'.

Go in expecting exemplary plot/story, and you will HATE IT. So don't. Just go in expecting what it's supposed to be; an over the top action flick. And you will love it. (I know I did.)

It actually inspired me to raise the bar for the action scenes here. It's not very apparent here, as I was already half way through before I saw the movie, but when we get to Seto VS Daimon (which should be next chapter) you'll get to see.

I personally can't wait for that. Now then.

I start work on THURSDAY. (As the snow is gone. YAY) This means the next update will take a VERY long time... It probably won't get out until next week, but really, I can't be too sure. We'll find out when I update I suppose, but the point is, I'm working 5 days a week in this seasonal job until I net a permanent (and less 12 hour day) one.

It could take a while... But whatever, moving on, there's LOTS of art for you below, including a few nice concepts, and a majority of them are actually coloured... So there's a lot to tide you over until we get Seto VS Daimon!

Anonymous Review Responses

Just one today, though this was an oddly quick update...

Hey there Iona! Glad you liked the duel! As to what is yet to come, you'll see~

Yugi's surprised yes, but not so much about Anzu's initiative as the fairly Malik-like look that was on her face when she did… Not to say she wouldn't have done this any ways, but she'd have been notably less crazy-looking. (Again though, you can blame the snake) He should consider himself lucky though, you're very right.

Any ways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'll see you next time!

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Usagi's Manga & Japan Guide/Corner

The section that wonders if it should stick with the robot monkey deal...

Or go with something else..?

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Why call it the 'End of the World'? Because that's the spell. It suits this chapter in a weird way too...

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Similar to how the districts all end in '-ku', lakes all end in 'ko'. Rivers, on the other hand, get 'kawa' or even 'gawa' depending.

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Oh hey, I FINALLY found out something that could cause Shizuka's blindness… 'Retintis Pigmentosa'. The symptoms (in order) are night-blindness, tunnel vision, and then lastly in the most unlucky cases, complete and utter blindness. (In other words, Shizuka's glasses were more to help her focus on crap, rather than help her see.)

Irony? While there's no cure, Japan started an intense study on this disease (hereditary) in 2010. Shortly after, in 2008, OSAKA identified a protein that would possibly lead to treatment. HAHAHA. And, in the same year, they found that gene therapy for the disease works with mice. You know what this means?

It means that Shizuka was technically testing this crap. Yayyyyyy…

Actually no, it just means that the fanfic is ahead of our time in terms of ocular medicine. YEA.

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'Iinchou' technically refers to a 'head doctor', or a 'committee chairman'. Often, this is what others will call the class rep though, and I'm pretty sure that it still has that same definition…

Though they won't be using that term if they're actually friends with them of course. That would be a little impersonal. In any case, the first 'i' uses the kanji for committee, with alternate readings being 'devote', 'leave to', 'entrust to', etc. This is followed by 'in', for 'employee', 'member', or 'the one in charge', until finally we hit 'chou', which means 'leader' (And also long).

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Sooooo I can't find this monster. You know, the one chasing down Shizuka? Which sucks really, all I get is that it's a 'dinosaur'... It is DEFINITELY based on a Rhino though, despite being a dinosaur, hence the rhino fun.

...Actually, I don't even know if there is a monster that corresponds to this thing...

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And yes I just quoted Firefly. I couldn't resist! I'd been having a conversation with a friend, and we ended up coming to the conclusion that Ryuzaki would do something like that.

He'd be horribly bored before he did of course... But he'd do it.

As to how the both (Otogi and Ryuzaki) know about the series (I don't know if that one season ever broadcasted in Japan...), Otogi actually saw it, as he didn't always live in Japan, whereas Ryuzaki got the DVD's from his Aunt.

Aunt isn't american or anything by the way; she's just really good at her job and got a position in the states. Speaking of 'Tamae-ba'...

In my head, she's working on the 'boxes' in California. Basically, a parking lot was being built, and they found this MASSIVE deposit of fossils... So they dug out huge-ass blocks of dirt, leaving them in there, and storing them away. This way, all the fossils can be excavated safely, while the parking lot (now built) can continue becoming... A parking lot.

There were at least twenty boxes I believe, each about the size of a storage container... And I think they got through like... Six.

So they'll be doing this a while.

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Yes guys. Shizuka's dressed like a belly dancer. FANSERVICE HOH!

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The knives that Otogi will ordinarily use are called 'Butterfly Swords', not to be confused with 'butterfly knives'. They're about the size of the forearm, and are pretty much just dual-wielded daggers. Albeit easily hidden, and only sharp on one side (Like a Dao).

These are also the ones he's throwing… And I say 'ordinarily' because if Otogi had attempted to fight with them in his duel, he'd have found kuni knives instead. (That or sai.) …By the way kunai started out as sharpened trowels…

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Funny thing, the basilisk was probably based on the King Cobra; basilisks were said to be killed by weasel musk, and Cobras are often killed by mongooses. More importantly, spitting cobras often shoot venom into prey's eyes, hence the 'killing stare' or 'breath'.

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Ondine are water elementals, said to have beautiful voices. It's said that by marrying and giving birth that they gain a 'soul', giving them the gift of life after death and a mortal life. There's not much else, but they form the basis for the term 'Ondine's Curse', a name for 'Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome'.

It's said that Ondine, after marrying a handsome young man, bore a child and began to age… After this happened, the husband began to lose interest. So of course, when Ondine caught the guy cheating after he vowed faithfulness, she was PISSED…

So she cursed him; 'so long as you are awake you shall have your breath, but should you ever fall asleep then that breath will be taken from you, and you will die!'

CCHS causes patients to lose automatic control over breathing; they have to consciously initiate each breath... So if they fall asleep, they die.

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The snake that Otogi is talking about is called 'Cerastes', a serpent that is so flexible it is said to have no spine at all. Cerastes have either two large ram-horns on their head, or four pairs of smaller ones… And ordinarily, would hide in the sand, waiting for something to come to the horns under the impression that they are food.

You can guess what happens next. Cerastes are thought to be based on the horned viper actually, which… Well, does the same thing. Except it's obviously much smaller. And is conveniently called, in latin, Cerastes cerastes.

This thing wasn't forced on Otogi though; he just picked up way too many greek myths during his dad's lessons on ancient crap. (It helped with monster designs.)

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Ane? But that's not her name! No, but it's the informal term for 'older sister', similar to 'ani' for 'brother'... Ever heard the word 'aniki'? 'Ani' is where it comes from. Any ways, Honda calls his sister Ane, if you've forgotten (Seeing how her last appearance was Christmas..).

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Zu? WRONG. It's actually 'Ziz', who I mentioned in an earlier chapter… But that thing goes by lots of names in this fanfic, and you'll find out why eventually. 'Zu', who was seen as a massive fire breathing eagle (occasionally with a lion's head) actually has another name…

It's sometimes called Anzu. I cannot stop laughing as a result.

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Hey! More notes on real life! More specifically, the famed 'TWITCHY EYE'!

The 'eye twitch' or 'eyebrow twitch' depending can be a sign of emotional instability as it's commonly used for in fiction. However, things like horror and such may or may not result in that; the real trigger?

Copious amounts of STRESS.

Suddenly, Kaiba's constant twitchy-eye in this fanfic makes oddly large amounts of sense...

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Wh- Behemoth and Ziz Usagi? Wasn't the Leviathan enough!

Actually, those two aren't appearing. Not by those names anyways. They already 'exist' in terms of canon antagonists... You just get to guess who's who.

...You have probably figured out that the Leviathan is still Leviathan though. And nooooooo, these things are NOT at the same level as the Gods. Their power balance between themselves and the Gods fluctuates. A lot. Mostly because they kinda rely on negativity in the world.

And there's a hell of a lot more negativity than positivity guys.

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Oh, as to why the guys with weapons are shouting their attacks, it's to activate the magic portion; as you can see after all, the system is a little picky about it. It's even picky when it comes to vocal commands... (Poor Shizuka.)

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Confused about the 'han'? Here's a reminder! Fanfic!Shizuka is from Osaka; the accent there uses 'han' as an honorific rather than 'san'... Arguably, you could say that they've simply passed over the 's' to make the 'h' sound silent.

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Interesting fact; in the anime, Otogi refers to Honda as 'Honda-kun'… And I'm really not sure why. I didn't include it here, as they're still pretty informal with each other (Albeit with it being obvious that Otogi is the more polite.) In fact, the only one he doesn't use honorific with seems to be Yugi… Whereas I'm almost certain he omitted honorifics with those he was close to in the manga. (He uses them with people he doesn't know, which is what most normal people do anyways. Yugi's friends are RUDE.)

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In the anime, Honda told Shizuka that he taught Jonouchi how to duel, and held onto this facade until he lost, in a pathetic attempt to impress the girl who was already perfectly fine with him (Though he was certainly admirable about how he 'died'). He also taught Shizuka a few basic rules (tribute summoning, defence mode and attack mode…)… Throughout the match. Because clearly these things shouldn't be covered before hand. DERP.

Any ways, not only would Ryuzaki debunk any attempts to claim the teacher status, he would obviously have taught those basic rules long ago! Besides; the end of this match went differently anyways! (For the sake of awesome... ...And... Also for the sake of Shizuka getting the last hit.)

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Gatling guns are really great for fast moving targets when the fight itself is fast. Not so much when it's a slow stationary one. This is because with fast moving targets, you need to fire as much as possible to hit the dang thing.

Slow things don't need lots of bullets.

But this is a video game, so Ota doesn't care. It's a good thing those bullets magically shrink though... Otherwise, it would be VERY BAD. See... At normal size, these things can trim hedges, cut trees, some can even CUT A TANK IN HALF. As it is, the trees are felled within TWO SECONDS, and SMOKING afterward!

THEY'RE IN PAIN AND IT'S ALL MY FAULT AAA-AAAAAH.

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And thus the reasoning for screw-ups is revealed; Shizuka treated the game like an RPG instead of a duel, and failed to exact caution when it came to voice-related moves. Ta-daaaah!

Also pain and trauma play into this a lot… A LOT. Remember, Shizuka technically blocked the backlash she should have received from Giga-Tech Wolf; this means that Ota's gatling gun did it instead… Which means that she received more damage from that attack than the others did, without armour. (Granted, Otogi has no armour covering his torso either, but still. Honda has bullet shells! …Wait that's worse.) And while the wounds were 'healed', it was only bare minimum; by the end of it, she was really, really badly scarred, and in intense pain, at least until those wounds and damages disappeared at the end... Not to mention what the later attacks did.

The costume, however, did not disappear so you know; remember? Her ability is to hold onto her deckmaster until she dismisses it for another one!

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Oh, by the way, most bullets are faster than the speed of sound; if you hear the bullet, you're alive... But if it was aimed at you, you've still been hit.

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In the Japanese, the 'Forgiving Maiden' is known as the 'Merciful Nun'. This is why the 'Maiden' looks so weird in the dub; they re-coloured the Nun's habit.

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As a note, Super Roboyarou gained 1000 attack for the battle phase in that scene of the anime. However, the difference in attack power means he would have lost regardless… Even if it wasn't his deckmaster!

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So why didn't Honda just use Command Angel to defend the second time? Well for one, thanks to Ota's spell, she's 500 attack points down and unable to move for any form of battle on her own. (She can be targeted, but she herself cannot target... So basically, they're all 'token' monsters in attack mode. Duelists' worst nightmare methinks.)

For another, that would have killed Honda anyways. At least Super Roboyarou lightens the lifepoint load. …Kinda.

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As per the usual, scenes have been moved around to preserve flow; originally, Kaiba's scenes and Jonouchi's scenes were scattered throughout the two episodes, rather than crammed into one slightly well sized one.

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Originally, Jonouchi and the others offered to help after coming in. But right now, there's a glass wall in the way.

That makes helping difficult. And also, it means Ota doesn't have to say 'you can't'. He just needs to say 'not moving that wall.'

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WHAT. This didn't happen! In the anime, Shizuka fusion summoned Joan as she said she could; also, the card Honda left behind was 'Rare Metal Soul', which only affects fusion monsters... More over, Joan had exactly as much power as Ota did, and they destroyed themselves.

Well, not only would that be a little disappointing in my opinion (Not to say vengeance is healthy but... You know...), but I really... REALLY liked the idea of Shizuka herself attacking.

(Also it's hard to make a knight destroy herself with a gundam without explosions... Which I'm saving for later...)

Any ways, the excuse here is that though there's a difference in power, the theory is that the weaker monster (remember, no one knew what that face down card was!) will still work; basically, if Shizuka summoned Joan, the monster would simply get smushed by Ota. However, by replacing her deckmaster, she's not only healing herself, she's gaining a weapon; which means that as long as she just avoids the attacks aimed at her, she could fight 'out of duel', and actually stand a chance.

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Ruin, by the way, has 2300 attack points, and is level 8. (Goddess was level four, as was the nun.) Adding the 400 point upgrade from Command Angel's effect (All Fairy type monsters gain 400 attack) gives her 2700, still not quite enough to combat the Perfect Machine King. Here's a record of how that guy's points went.

After defeating Orgoth, the halved points Perfect Machine King had returned to normal; (5200) The King gets 500 points per machine monster, and at that time, the only remaining ones on the field other than itself were Lady Panther, the Nun, and Command Angel. (So 2000 of his attack power is from this effect, the remaining 500 from his spell.) After taking only one out (the Nun), this still leaves him with a whopping 4700.

And this is how I can get away with using 'United We Stand', particularly since Shizuka would lose if she simply tied with the Machine King like in the anime. After all… The difference doesn't matter in the face of deckmasters… And after the combined presence of Otogi, Shizuka, Lady Panther, and Command Angel, that's an additional 3200 points; Shizuka's power level was 5900!

She needed it too; the reason why attack power was so important here is that without it, the power of the sword or bullet or whatever metal used wouldn't take effect, it would bounce off. And as for magic, it just wouldn't last long enough! (In other words, this was a barrier breaker.)

Best part? Ironically, had Ota not been using a deckmaster here, he still would have lost; Ruin's effect is that, after destroying a monster, she can attack again.

And of course, this is her continued deck master's effect, though it's VERY effective with it's 'Blue Mage', or 'out of duel' transfer; it means Shizuka can double cast... In other words, send out two spells at once. (So she could create like... A flaming hail storm if she had both 'fire' and 'blizzard' in her repetoire. ... She doesn't.)

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KANJI. They flashed with each hand symbol, and are… Rin Hyou Tou Sha Kai Jin Retsu Zai Zen. In order, they each mean the following: Assistant Soldier Fighting Person All Ranks Split Be Before

Sooo… I'm thinking this is something to do with the fact that it's basically help from another person. Just saying. (Also to look cool.)

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Oh- before anyone gets triangle ideas, Shizuka doesn't feel attracted to Honda. She just cares about him. You know.

Cause they're friends. And also because death sucks.

Mostly because of trauma induced fear and not wanting friends die though. Yeaaa.

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FanArt and My Art Section

As usual! Remove spaces for links, and everyone's happy!

...I think. (Certainly haven't gotten complaints...)

So, without further ado, we have the sketches that we missed last time... Along with some reference art for this chapter, IN COLOUR!

SPOILER!Concept: Robot Dogs – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ RoboDog. jpg - Hey, remember that dog Noa had? The one following Jou around? ...It got worse.

Reference: Niu Tou & Ma Mian – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ Demons. jpg - DEMONS! Yea! For maximum demon experience, picture one a dark blue and the other a dark red.

SPOILER!Concept: Ghosts – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ Ghosts. jpg - Well, two of them are at least. Now technically, Seto's wearing clothes... They're just too dang tight to tell unless I stick a belt there. Not to mention sleeve endings. In any case, glowing people aside, we have here a ghostly Malik (you can likely guess from where), and the spirit taking residence in Jonouchi's head for the time being.

You'll never guess who it is! AHAHAHA! Or maybe you will. Never know. Probably won't tell you if you're wrong or right unless you're realllly off though.

SpoilerReference: Deckmaster- Judgeman – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ JudgemanHonda. jpg - And yes. That's an anti-tank gun. He can't really move with it.

But he really doesn't need to. At all.

SpoilerReference: Deckmaster- Robot Knight – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/RobotKnightHonda-1. jpg - THERE'S A GATTLING GUN ON HIS ARM! *collapse* To clarify, Robot Knight has a gatling gun in his card art, but, since that would obviously cause duel disk issues, he doesn't have it in the anime.

It's a damn cool gun though.

Reference: Deckmasters- Ruin and the Goddess – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ ShizukaDeckmasters. jpg - In which we see what Shizuka had, and what Shizuka will look like for the rest of this arc.

Yessss, you can really tell I liked that design, can't you?

Reference: Deckmasters- Strike Ninja & Super Roboyarou – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ HondanOtogiDeckmasters. jpg - I had fun with these ones too... That's all I really have to say though, hahahaha...

Well, that's all for now! Who knows when the next update will be, but it'll be shorter (hopefully), and with luck, quicker than we all figure it will be. So with that, until next time!