Sororicide
It wasn't real, she told herself with wide eyes, shaking on the spot despite all her mind telling her to snap herself from these thoughts and fight.
It wasn't real, it wasn't real, it was all just an illusion and those behind her would do well to realize this. It wasn't real, it was never real, but there were too many little uncertainties that were made legitimate with this revelation; a billowing coat to hide clearly feminine hips, a turtle neck to hide her throat. There were too many reactions to point to the truth. Silence from the 'mutt', shock from herself, dull horror from her rival at the side as Noa sneered. And as her opponent's monster held his mirrored shield across from her, the glass of her face down trap shattering with her 'giant germ' to disintegrate into the air, the woman found herself frozen in minute shock. Staring... Simply staring, first at her own horrified reflection and then at herself.
There were voices from the side, she could hear them. 'K... K... Kai...' They couldn't even say her name properly any more... Haha... Hah...
Most weren't even trying to bother with that. 'Shoujo,' she heard instead, the woman looking over herself as a warm breeze blew past her largely bare legs, a sight she had only ever seen when either showering or simply changing. 'O-Ojou,' the others cried in a failed attempt of politeness, her body shaking with rage as her eyes quivered over the sight of herself. 'Bnat,' the childish snake at the side screamed, the word clearly foreign and indiscernible.
Of course, even as unknown as the word was, she had a feeling she knew what that meant. 'Girl', they were shouting, 'Girl', 'Girl', 'Girl'..!
They knew now. About her gender, about her identity, about this weakness created by simply holding up strength and holding the mask. They knew...
They... KNEW... Everything..!
And this scum was even now speaking..!
"Do you like the clothes," Noa 'asked', Seto's eyes snapping forward as they caught her reflection in the glass once again. White t-shirt, almost navy-blue 'shorts' if they could even be called that, with how similar they were in appearance to a mere pair of underwear... Black shoes, white socks, and the only thing that revealed her deck master's identity was some sort of marking around her upper arms and throat, a 'tattoo'. Her breasts were for the first time in a long time, unbound while in another's presence, there was nothing to hide her body within... This 'man'... This BOY, she corrected in silent rage, slowly growing red as she clenched her fists. "...I made them from memory... Hnhnhnhnhn..."
Screw the disguise. Screw the voice, the clothes, the disadvantages meant NOTHING, this brat was going down if it killed her! "Gh... Hk..." No. Matter. What. Knuckles cracked as her fists clenched still tighter, and with a sudden roar that forced the crowd into silence she charged forward. "NOAAAAA," she snarled, proving to those at the side just how 'real' this 'ploy' was. There was no need to cover this voice now she thought, bringing her fist back for a punch as she made her move and chased the now backing-away warrior. No need at all. "Sacrifice the Giant Germ," she spat, move already underway as thick and almost moth-eaten bandages appeared around her arms and palms, "And summon the Vampire Lord, weapon mode," the woman continued, the wrapping seeming to glow ominously as she ran. "HHHAAAAAAH!"
A shattering sound clattered over the air, the glass of Chiron's shield spiderwebbing into a series of cracks. The mirror before her showed only a broken form of her reflection before shattering into pieces, the glass scattering to the ground as Chiron stepped back yet again. "Oh... So your monster regenerates," Noa was saying, the shield dissipating from the sides as his monster hurriedly ducked under a second strike. "Well... That's troublesome..."
Hn! Not as troublesome as this, she thought mid-stirke, moving forward with all the speed and force of a ragefilled tornado. "HHHAA!" A second blow to the monster was made, following that punch. Seto's fist coming down as her leg moved to kick the monster swiftly across the face, a sickening crack coming through the air to match the side kick's swift pull back. Even if the blow itself hadn't snapped its neck, the monster's eyes dilating as it became unable to breath, it would have died; from the force of the blow it was sent toward the lava and into the chasm bellow, and as its killer charged forward to leap off the beast as a crude stepping stone its face was even further decided with a voice-less and horrified scream. "TCH... Noa... Just because you have my personal thoughts to use against me does not mean you're the superior one," she snarled, again bringing her fist back as she took aim. "TAKE THIS!"
Dust filled the air as Seto's fist struck the ground, Noa having vanished in a cloud of smoke upon dodging. A small crater was all that remained, and as the man re-appeared to the side the woman turned on him with a low growl. To go on and on about 'fair fights' only to constantly teleport throughout the field... What point was it all if she did nothing! Yet the man seemed different despite this; his hair was slightly singed, and his jacket was now missing from his shoulders, apparently lost to whatever flames caught the fabric from the heat. It was only a moment of relief that she had at this sight however; for despite this change he seemed perfectly fine, even clapping from where he hovered above the chasm beyond her reach. "Hnhnhnhnhn..." Seto stared, frozen in shock for a moment as the man laughed, her opponent's eyes narrowed with mirth. "Wonderful... Wonderful," he laughed, opponent continuing to clench her fists in a building rage. "You've made me discard a monster and dealt damage to my lifepoints within one move, despite apparent disadvantages," the man sneered, seemingly emphasizing the last phrase with a grin. "Why... You aren't even phased by what I just did, are you," he chuckled, the woman across from him gritting her teeth. A time and place she told herself, shaking on the spot as she held herself back. A time and place..! If she attacked now she'd fall into the chasm before she even made contact, she couldn't move- "Ah, but you know," Noa sighed, opponent preparing for any attack that the man could make, "Those bandages look absolutely horrible on you..." The- What..? Before she could say a thing a wave of energy grew around the man's hand, Seto's eyes widening briefly as the "FISSURE," the man announced, a sudden blast of stone and wind throwing the woman back with a shout. "Destroying the Vampire Lord bound to your arms!"
"GH! HCK!" Stone cracked against Seto's back as she was flung against one of the cavern walls, ribs cracking on impact as the bandages on her arms smoked from existence. Her monster was gone... Along the stone wall the woman swallowed back a small bit of blood, hands slowly reaching up to pull herself to her feet. "Hah... Hahhh..." Alright... That didn't work. But the vampire would come back next turn at least, and-
"Summon Ares," she heard her opponent shout, the woman looking up with wide eyes as the monster appeared from the smoke and ground to charge forward in silence. "ATTACK!" Shit.
"GNHAAAGH!" Blood spurted from her stomach and mouth both as the warrior's spear was slammed through her body, Seto gritting her teeth as shouts came from the side. 'Kaiba', most were shouting, confusion, pity and a whole number of things that would otherwise not exist present in their tones. 'KAIBA-SAN,' came Yugi's cry, 'Kaiba-han,' from Shizuka. The spear was pinning her to the stone itself, her body almost hanging limp across the cliffside. 'KAIBA!'
'SETO-CHAN!' The woman's eyes flew open with that shout, gaze honing in on the monster before her as her attentions were pulled back into reality. S... Jonouchi..!
She told him not to call her that damn it! And- "Gnh..." God... Her chest...
"Is this really the best you had," Noa chuckled from before her, standing in mid air behind the monster he'd summoned. Seto merely leered upward as a glass 'set card' shimmered at her opponent's side, blood coating the stone and the spear shaft embedded in her body. "Really," the man was saying with a sigh, "You aren't taking me seriously at all! Maybe I would make a better you," he laughed, body shifting and twisting before her very eyes as she was met with close to a 'double' of herself. As hair lengthened to the point it would have been without the disguise, as clothing shifted into a uniform identical to hers, hips and breasts came into view... "...It isn't like my name doesn't 'suit it' after all," 'she' sneered, Seto's eyes quivering as she looked upon the being. That...
"YOU..." That. Was. IT! A hand flung up to the spear in her stomach, pulling at it as she breathed hoarsely. Her opponent's monster was growing pale now, and the bandages from her vampire were reappearing... It was her turn again and like hell she was just sitting by while THEY were watching, and while THIS person had her brother..! "Hahhh... Hahhhh... HAHHH..! I summon the Slate Warrior," she hissed, the spear cracking in her grip as the shoes on her feet 'glowed' and covered themselves with stone, "WEAPON MODE! And if you think that I'm through," the woman snarled, pulling the spear from her body and gripping it in her hands, as a sick suction-like noise followed the removal from her chest, "You can think again! I ATTACK," she roared, the spear's tip swung forward to pierce the monster's throat as she jumped to leap across the warrior's skull, " AND NOW-"
"Activate trap," Noa stated calmly, eyes narrowed as 'she' easily dodged the next strike kicked from his opponent. "'Earth Shaker'. I'm going to choose two attributes, Dark and Wind," she said calmly, narrowing her eyes as she grabbed the next leg flung toward her. "And you pick which one to destroy. ...Tainting this world with your demons again," the woman growled, sending a kick of her own into Seto's face as her opponent was sent skidding across the ground, "I'd thought you'd have learned the first time..!"
"NGH!" Stones dug into the wound on her chest, Seto pulling herself up to wipe her cheek of whatever blood had run into her mouth before growling. This 'World'? Could it even be called such a thing? "Hn! Demons suit this place perfectly," she spat in response, the bandages on her arms vanishing nonetheless as she made her decision. "But I'll choose the Vampire Lord regardless... You can pretend to be the God of your own little world all you want," Seto continued, running toward Noa once again, "But no matter what you do, you're going to hell!"
Chuckling met the air as the next strikes were again dodged, Noa easily skipping backward before jumping back into the air. "Hn! Hell? Quite accurate," her opponent retorted as the woman charged, "For we've entered the first turn of creation! Verse 5, chapter 6 of the book of Genesis," she sneered, the sound of a thundering storm coming over the air as winds sliced at any bare skin there was. "'The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become,' Noa quoted, 'And that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. So the Lord said, 'I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth...' So he created a flood," Noa continued with a darkening grin, the woman before her growing pale as water appeared from beyond and above the cavern's walls, "And did just that... GIANT FLOOD."
Oh great. A God-Complex with a themed deck... Just beautiful. "W... Water... WATER," those at the sides shouted, Seto unable to even roar in her distaste as she was thrown back by the powerful waves of the sea. Her senses were completely stripped from her being as rocks were pounded from existence and water filled the field... Her hearing was thrown out of synch, her eyes blinded, and her feeling numbed by the cold of ocean waters, leaving her unable to see, hear, think even save for the slight 'feeling' she had in her mind concerning the fight. The bandages on her arms would not return, that much she knew... Nor would the now eroded stone rims from her shoes, the embodiment of the Slate Warrior's power being washed away by the torrent that flung her about. She was underwater... She needed air... Ghn...
Ngghg... "BLG- GHAH!" Seto burst out atop the waves as she gasped for air, taking swift long strokes toward the nearest sign of 'land' before clambering on top of what was a tiny pinnacle of rock. "Hah... Hah... Hah..." Hands shook as they clutched the side of the stone, slowly pulling herself further up as she choked. Tch... Her weapons were gone she realized with a scowl, looking over herself in distaste. And her clothes were soaked, the tight clothing leaving a clear hole from Ares' attack visible for any to see the now cleansed and gaping wound. "...Hn! At least the brat had the decency to give me a bra," she hissed, the white fabric of her t-shirt sticking quite closely to her body for the moment. Because the fact that her 'audience' was almost entirely male wasn't bad enough already, right?
Pathetic little obsessive- "Hnhnhnhnhnhn..." Seto's eyes narrowed as chuckling came over the air, the woman standing atop her small 'rock' and looking about the sea with a scowl. Nothing, she thought to herself, clenching her fists. Nothing- Or so she thought. The woman turned to the side as a 'splashing' sound came over the air, scowl still set on her face only for it to drop, eyes to widening as an enormous ark arose from the depths below. Almost box like in appearance the waters broke from around the device, an enormous tablet covered in symbols standing tall in the center of the ship. The ship, however, was not what caught her eye, despite its archaic form and gargantuan size.
Rather it was the owner, now dressed in what looked to be almost ceremonial robes from the northern lands, who did so. Noa leaped forward from the side of the ark, still holding the feminine form of her counterpart as she came to a stop above the waves and smirked. "H- You..."
She was walking on the water, she told herself with a swallow, staring in shock as her opponent chuckled. WALKING on the... "Meet my 'deck master'," Noa sneered, gesturing behind her with a grin as she came to a stop a fair distance from her opponent. "The Ark of Shinato... The vessel of the Gods and the Herald to the Battle of the Heavens!"
Figuring out how to deal with the whole 'Seto's a girl' thing was both harder and easier than it could have been, he found. For the moment, Yugi and Katsuya were both holding their distance, Seto fairly frozen on the field for the moment as the others muttered amongst themselves. Maybe they hadn't noticed that they weren't saying anything yet, and maybe they weren't...
But he sure as hell wasn't going to ask right now. "A trick," Anzu was saying with a laugh, shaking her head nervously as an incredulous and possibly crazed smile came over her face. "This... This has to be a bluff," she continued to laugh, "There's... He just can't be..." And yet Seto's voice was not the same as her disguise, what with there being no use for it, so the argument fell short.
The others as well had their own takes on the situation, their own ways to deal with it. "...I KNEW I wasn't seeing things-aru!"
"You-" Otogi turned to the dog at that, eyes wide as he shook himself. "WAIT, so it wasn't just me then!"
The dog merely snorted in response, while the cobra on Anzu's head stared somewhat awkwardly at the field.
"Hey, am I the only one mildly turned on by this," he asked, his partner choking immediately.
"What- Ewwwww, you're a piece of my soul Ren!"
"...Hnnn... And just what does that mean I wonder," Otogi muttered, both he and Honda looking to their friend as she stared.
"Wha- No! NO," she hurriedly shouted, shuddering and shaking her head. "NOOOOOO, AUUUUGH... Definitely NOT, I-"
"G-Guys," Shizuka coughed, the others turning forward as the woman before them clenched her fists. "If this is a bluff, then... Then Kaiba-han is taking it quite 'well'," she choked, Seto in question moving to charge as her opponents words came across the field.
"Gh... ...NOAAAAAA!" Oh yea. That was definitely well. He'd just be hiding behind this rock now...
"Alright, now one of you has to admit that's hot," Ren said with a teasing grin, the serpent quickly grabbed by his disgusted partner.
"REN..."
"Actually, despite most of me arguing against it," Honda said nervously, "I'd have to agree-aru..."
"...Eh... I was joking..."
"Oh."
"H-Hah... But this... This can't be real right," Otogi coughed, he as well going somewhat red as the woman on the field charged and attacked her opponent with a shout. "I mean... This is Noa's realm, he could still be messing with our heads... He probably is, I mean..."
Yea... Yea just keep believing that... "That's right," Anzu said with a nod, laughing somewhat nervously, fingers digging into her staff as she attempted to calm down. "It's all just... One big misunderstanding," she laughed, before drawing back as Seto was thrown down by Noa's spell. "Gh- ...You're right though," she said with a swallow, the woman on field pulling herself up with minor difficulty, "He's taking it oddly well..."
"Because 'he' is not a 'he', is she," Katsuya's stowaway muttered, the blond swallowing as he shook. "And this... Is no bluff." No... No it wasn't, it wasn't and...
"...Jonouchi-kun," Yugi whispered with a swallow, the blond not answering as another shout came over the air. "Jonouchi-kun, if something happens-"
"SUMMON ARES," Noa roared, steam and lava rising from the ground to form the warrior as the spearman charged toward his fallen opponent, "AND ATTACK!" Attack...
No... No... "KAIBA," the crowd roared, the woman's own shout cut short by the spear that dug through her stomach and left her hanging limply on the stone "KAIBA-SAN," "KAIBA-HAN," Shizuka and Yugi both cried, Katsuya merely freezing in place as he looked down at the cliffs. She wasn't moving... Her eyes were beginning to close over, and she wasn't moving, she-
"Se... SETO-CHAN," he screamed, eyes wide. "SETO-CHAN!"
It was as though the world stood still, that moment. Before the crowd could turn and question him, Seto responded. Her eyes snapped open, and as Noa taunted her she made her move, eyes wide with rage. The spear in her stomach was shattered and pulled free, her attack made as she pushed forward, kicking off the monster in a roar...
And throughout all of this, the others turned back with wide eyes, slowly finding the words to say as they stared. "N-Nihan," Shizuka whispered, her brother quickly realizing what he'd said as both he and Yugi bit their lips and swallowed. "You..."
"...Noa said... 'Seri', aru," Honda muttered, the dog swallowing as the others stared and allowed him to continue. "Seri... That was the name of that girl you mentioned earlier this year-aru... The name of the girl you mentioned on Valentines," he continued, tilting his head as he looked awkwardly away.
"You said the kanji were 'se' and 'hito'," Anzu whispered almost hysterically, holding her head as the pieces fell into place one by one. "And that she was blunt, cold, and tall..."
"You always slip up," his sister added, rubbing her arms and looking away nervously. "You say 'konojou' sometimes, and before you say 'Kaiba' you always say 'Se' or 'Seto'..."
"Sometimes even 'Seto-chan'," Otogi continued, seeming to bite his lip as his friend looked away.
"Gh..." There was no hiding it now, was there... The secret was... "...Guys..."
They didn't say anything. His friends, his sister, they merely stared, waiting for him to explain, to tell him what this meant, and what everything meant, and just where to begin was... "...Well," the spirit in his mind muttered, "This is going to be awkward..." Ah- It was awkward enough without him damn it!
Yugi continued to bite his lip, before stepping forward with a nervous swallow. "I... We can explain about Kaiba-san later," he said quickly, the others swallowing as they stared to the boy in confusion. "It's true," the boy said with a swallow, seeming to almost look away as he spoke. "Kaiba-san is a woman; I found out not too long ago myself," he explained, "But both Jonouchi-kun and I promised to keep it secret... And more importantly... We can't let that get in our way right now," Yugi pressed, shouts covering the field as Seto in question continued her fight. "We can't let this distract her, no matter what!"
"Ah..."
The others again swallowed, looking to each other for a moment. "Y... You say that-aru, but..."
"Like Yugi said," Katsuya cut in, swallowing back a wave of unease as the others stared. "We can' let th's distract 'er! Noa's got Mokuba... An' he's already screwin' with her head enough," the blond pushed, gesturing somewhat to the field. "You might not know much abou' her but... But I..." He... Katsuya paused momentarily, the others watching almost expectantly. "...I don' wan' her t' lose, no matter what," he finally whispered, bowing his head as his face flushed red. "She can' lose... So we need t' make sure tha' no matter what, she doesn'! Nothin's changed," he continued, steeling his resolve as the others stared, their friend looking up and stepping forward with a determined gaze. "Seto-chan 's Seto-chan, no matter what we all call 'er. Jus' cause th's is out in th' open doesn' mean she ain't gonna fight," the blond pressed. "So lets cheer her on, got it?"
"J-Jonouchi," Otogi muttered, swallowing as he and the others stepped back somewhat.
"Nihan..."
"Got it," he repeated, before a rumbling noise tore through the air. The sound briefly came across almost as a 'snap', a breaking dam. As though a barrier had been broken, and as he looked to the side Katsuya's eyes widened, the others following his gaze before they could give an answer to his words. Something blue was approaching... Something big...
Something...
Wet. The group's eyes widened as they stared at the oncoming waves, stepping back with wide eyes despite there being nowhere to go. "N-Nihan," Shizuka squeaked, grip on her spear tightening as she looked to her brother. "I agree with you completely... But we need to run," she said with a swallow, the others nodding furiously.
Ren laughed somewhat hysterically at the chorus of agreement, swallowing as he turned to the girl. "H-Hah... RUN," he shouted incredulously, rising from Anzu's shoulder to gesture to the side. "That's WATER! ...WATER," he repeated, eyes wide as he coiled back up in fear. "We're on a tiny little cliff," he moaned, "Where are we supposed to RUN!"
Ohhhh crap. Katsuya clutched his staff, the others quickly sent into panic as they looked at the lava below. Nowhere to run, nowhere to stay... "AH... AH... Oh! I got an idea-aru! Quick," Honda shouted, bounding up and down as he barked, "Grab onto my-" Whatever the dog said next was drowned out by waves as the crowd was blown back, water filling their lungs and ears both as they were tossed about in the searing torrents. They were separated, divided by the currents... A dim light could be seen from above, from Noa's 'computer' he knew for some reason. As they sank however, a shadow passed over them. Something sharp grabbed his arms, pulling him upward as he attempted to breathe, and as he attempted to acknowledge the pin-prick sensations in his arms. Everyone was being pulled up in fact... By a series of long, snake like tendrils, rising toward one great and huge shadow...
Wait...
Snake-like? "GHAH!" Blond hair broke the water, the pricks in his arms vanishing at that very moment as he looked around in confusion. "W-What..."
"WUAHH!"
"AIR," came Ren's cry, the serpent clambering onto the blackened 'land' they'd been pulled to as still other shouts broke the waters. "I thought we were dead!"
"Hah... Hah... We almost were," Anzu continued, breathing haggardly as she pulled up on the 'land' to spit out a wave of salty seawater. "But where..."
A sigh of relief came from around them, their friend's somewhat robotized voice meeting the air. "Haaaaaaah... Man," Honda sighed, voice seemingly coming from nowhere. "I didn't think that would work-aru..." Ummmmm...
"...Where's Honda-han," Shizuka muttered nervously, looking around only to jump back as something shook water out from the front. "GH-" AH- Water!
A large hound's head turned, somewhat red eyes staring forward as the mane of snakes on his neck pulled the last of their group upward from the seas. "Hey! You alright-aru?"
Um... S-Sure... As good as he could be being rescued by a mane of poisonous snakes... "H-Hah... N-Never better," Katsuya wheezed, staring almost blankly as the others swallowed and looked down at what was apparently the dog's back. "Er... H-Honda..."
"I can't see any land-aru... We'll have to work with this," he continued, paddling forward as Seto herself clambered onto a small spire of rock far in the distance. "Just that-aru, and I don't think Kaiba will be too happy to see us," he added with a whine, ears pulling back somewhat while a reptilian tail acted as a rudder.
"Got that right," Otogi said with a swallow, Yugi sitting beside him to stare forward with a worried and attentive eye. "He... She's probably absolutely pissed," he muttered, shaking his head. Pissed? Ohhhhh...
"Tha's puttin' it lightly," Katsuya groaned, before choking as a shadow rose in the distance beyond the woman in question. "An' ohhhhh hell," he hissed, drawing back as Honda abruptly turned to avoid the waves of water sent scattering by the device.
"T-That..."
"It's a ship," Shizuka shouted with a swallow, answering Yugi's muttered and unfinished question with wide eyes. "An ark..!"
"It's more than that," the snake on Honda's back continued, the dog having turned to allow them a proper view of the device as he himself stared. "Look- Something's coming out of the water," he shouted, hood flared in caution and agitation both.
"More like 'lots of somethings'..." As Otogi said this a number of geysers erupted from the seas, each converging toward the tip of the tablet above before becoming absorbed on its stone cover. Images appeared on its form, carvings of monsters both 'dead' and 'alive'... The Giant Germ in the form of a few circles, the Vampire Lord as a caped 'man'... "What the hell is this," the teen muttered, narrowing his eyes as he looked to the tablet's design. "What..."
"Hnhnhnhnhn..." Far in the distance a woman could be seen at the head of the arc, wind blowing hair back in a constant 'cape'. A woman dressed in the robes of a culture that completely contrasted that of the ship's own, a large hat reaching almost to her brow despite the amount of hair that was in the way. There was something similar about her though he realized, narrowing his eyes as the form became clearer in the foggy air. Something... The woman leaped down from the ark, walking forward across the waters as ripples appeared beneath her feet. "Meet my deckmaster," she sneered, the ark floating on the seas behind her, as she gestured back. "The Ark of Shinato... The vessel of the Gods and the Herald to the Battle of the Heavens!"
"The ark of shinato," Honda repeated blankly, before his fur bristled and the dog tensed. "AH! N-NOA!"
"He... He turned himself into a GIRL," Anzu shouted incredulously, the others narrowing their eyes in confusion as Otogi grew pale and coughed.
"Agggh... ...If I didn't know that, she'd actually be very hot right now," he muttered, holding his head with a pained moan. "Someone please tell me that's not as bad as I think..."
"Er... No... No Otogi, tha's fuckin' creepy," his friend responded, pulling back from the teen with a swallow as the dancer scowled. "Hihhhh... What th' hell kinda monster is tha' anyways," he continued, shaking his head. "It's... A gian' BOAT!"
"It's not even a monster," the snake on Anzu's shoulder growled, hood flaring somewhat more as he spat at the air. "That's a SPELL!"
"But you can't use spells for deckmasters," Yugi protested, shaking his head as the duel's next turn came underway. "Only monsters, so how..."
The answer to that question was left unsaid, and as Honda continued to float on the seas they could do nothing but watch and wait for Seto's reaction to her opponent's words.
A reaction that was, to say the least, not too pleased. Geysers were rising into the water all about the field, and carvings of monsters were appearing on the stone atop the ark. In response to the eruptions by her side the Slate Warrior, the Vampire Lord, and the Giant Germ were all appearing on the tablet... Same with the Stone Giant that Noa had evidently discarded, the warriors she'd killed... All of the monsters were appearing on that stone, and as her opponent stood a 'safe' distance away upon the seas Seto grit her teeth. "Tch... Hiding from me now," she asked, the 'woman' merely smirking as she twirled the stolen blade from moments before in her hand.
"Please," she chuckled, narrowing her eyes as the blade vanished into dust upon the water. "As if I would need to hide... I'm merely standing by my ship's side," Noa stated in a voice all too similar to her own, "Making sure that all those in the grave are safely taken aboard for the use of my 'ability'!" And as to what that ability, her mind told her it wouldn't be good... Tch... "This is the beginning of the end," the woman was continuing on, brushing a small lock of hair from her eyes as she smirked. "Watch carefully; the Seven Turns of Creation have already begun!"
Th... The seven... That was right, she told herself. Noa had said this was the 'first turn'. Tch... Mutterings of 'God', of 'Floods' and of 'Creation'... Throwing her secret into the open, humiliating her as much as possible... All this... All of this..! "Gh... Hnhnhnhn... HNHNHAHA... HAHAHAHAHA!"
She just couldn't believe this all anymore... Noa's eyes narrowed from across her opponent, the light-haired woman staring in confusion as Seto cackled almost madly from her tiny stone cliff. "You... What's so funny," she spat, opponent turning a dangerously enraged stare to the woman. "Why are you laughing!" Well!
Hitting a sore point was she..? "'Seven Turns'..." Like everything else in that damn book, everything else the 'western world' obsessed with... Seven... Hn... Hnhnha... HAHAHAHAHA! "You claim to defeat me in SEVEN TURNS," she laughed, already making the summon for her turn as water arose from behind her. "It's nothing but a bluff and a joke," Seto sneered, almost bitterly "A pathetic attempt to shake my resolve... You've succeeded at NOTHING," she hissed, shaking her head as the 'Spear Dragon' appeared at her side to hover above the seas. "And right now, you've only killed yourself! Victory is on my side... You're open to any attack I make! Spear Dragon," the woman ordered, flipping back onto the monster's wide head as it tore into the air with a screech, "ATTACK NOA DIRECTLY!"
It would have worked, in a 'perfect world' she supposed, if this could even be called a 'world'. As Seto drew close she kicked off from her monster's body, ignoring Noa's shouts of deck-master abilities and perfect defenses while the Spear Dragon grappled with a re-summoned Vampire Lord. Something she'd known would happen thanks to the 'heads up' on Noa's ability, something she had considered and attacked with due to the dragon's own trick. However, as she approached her opponent from above she could see a smirk... She could hear a chuckle as she prepared to land a punch into her opponent's face, the sound causing her eyes to widen momentarily. "Ahhh," the woman whispered with a sneer, narrowing her eyes. "You've underestimated me..." What... What was he talking about- "And thus the second turn begins."
-FSSSSHHH-
Smoke wrapped around her body as the punch connected with thin air, leaving her with nothing to fall against. Cold water was splashing around her as she fell into the seas yet again, seemingly wrapping around her form and dragging her down into pitch black depths. The Vampire Lord had been defeated. As a defense mode monster however, most of the damage dealt had been through her dragon's effect, still affecting her opponent's life points despite the rules of play. And just dimly, as she dove forward against her will she could hear a voice... 'The Second Turn of Creation,' the voice chuckled, her mind just barely recognizing it as her opponent's. 'The land was cleansed of all sin; and so the flood receded, with the promise to never again cleanse the surface of the world by means of such a thing... Hnhnhnhnhn...' Receding... The waters were receding...
Ah-! As Seto turned over in the water a sinking sensation came over her body, more so than the plunge already left her with. Her feet touched the ground as it became visible to her, and water sank past her face at the same moment with the sound of rushing waves. The 'sun', the 'computer' gleamed brightly in the air, almost blinding her as she looked up; the soil began to dry, and all about enormous trees grew from shrubs within mere seconds, with grasses coating the ground beneath her feet as she was quickly encompassed in a wooded jungle. Her Spear Dragon was in defense mode now, circling the air in silence... And now, it was Noa's turn.
To add to that, she could see her 'audience' drying themselves off in the distance, their friend having somehow managed to multiply his size by an incredible amount. The dog, in question, was shaking himself with as much vigor as one would expect from a real one, with the added bonus of shouting and barking at the top of his lungs. "Hhhhh! Now there's salt-water all over my fur-aru..! Gh! It smells!"
Those at the sides of the dog quickly flinched away and ducked under the spray, the girls in particular giving out loud squeals of displeasure. "EEE! Honda-han," Shizuka protested, the dog's fur hanging messily on its form. "Stop shaking it on us!"
"GH- Honda, you're getting us covered in wet-dog smell," her friend continued, shaking the water from her own robes as her partner hissed.
"Don't make me hold my tongue out! I'll do it! And you won't like it when I do!" Hn! Really...
Seto scoffed at the ridiculous exchange going on, nonetheless looking to the crowd with narrowed eyes a moment longer before looking back to her surroundings. The 'second turn'... "Welcome to the era of Dinosaurs," a voice called out, both Seto and the crowd looking upward as Noa and her ark hovered in the air above them all. "It's an important time... A time where survival was power, a 'dog-eat-dog' world," Noa added with a smirk, Honda growling darkly at the look and jibe both. "In fact," she added darkly, "My summoned Giant Rex is already showing us an example..." Summoned... Shit!
The others turned, eyes wide as the Spear Dragon that had been attempting to signal its master was snapped up by its neck in the jaws of an enormous Tyrannosaurus-Rex seemingly from nowhere. Blood spurted out and to the ground in wide-spread and small drops, and bones could be heard crushing... Seto looked up with a fairly unimpressed scowl as the monster threw her dragon to the side, the corpse narrowly flying over the peanut gallery's head. "WUAAH!"
"W-WATCH IT-ARU!"
"Tch..." Bullshit... Absolute bullshit she thought to herself, narrowing her eyes as she looked back to Noa as her dragon's corpse disintegrated into ash. 'She' was laughing now, now that 'she' had an advantage again... Typical really. But she wasn't about to just give in just yet...
Not just yet... "Hnhnhnhnhn... Feeling frustrated," Noa chuckled, watching as her 'prey' vanished backward into the woods to 'hide' from her Giant Rex. "Confused perhaps..? I wouldn't be surprised after all," she laughed, unaware of the spell card activated by her opponent as she spoke. "I represent everything better than you... In skill, personality, intellect... I'm a computer after all," the woman shouted, grinning madly even as three face down panels and Seto's deckmaster ability came into play, "A perfect entity surpassing even human limits!" Surpassing her ass, a 'computer' would have been done by now..!
Nonetheless, this apparently surprised everyone else. "A... Comput'r," Jonouchi was repeating from the side, the blond looking up with narrowed eyes as he shook his head. "Wai', so..."
"Well Noa's dead right," the snake beside him muttered, Anzu holding the serpent in her hands for the moment as they stared up at the common enemy. "So there had to be something..."
"No..." The audience frowned, staring up at the woman as she sneered and responded to their mutterings. "I'm alive, and I've always been alive... Revived and existing in a manner you can't even begin to comprehend... Of course, it was hard, even unbearable at first," she continued, shaking her head and trailing off for a brief moment. "But I learned to cope... After all; it was only a matter of time before I realized the gift I'd been given," the woman cackled, "Realized the power that I had! I am a 'machine' now," Noa laughed, expression twisted with insanity. "The perfect being, with all the information of the world at the tips of my fingers. Anything I need to know, I have it within mere milli-seconds where others take years! I know EVERYTHING," the woman cackled, unaware of her opponent's current location. "How the world was formed... How the dawn of mankind began... You can't even hope to become so intelligent as a normal human being! And that SERI, is the difference between your mind and mine," she spat, still looking down from her ship even as the glassy panels of traps shifted through the air. "Such is the identity of a FAILSAFE! As a force meant only to drive me forward!"
"A... Failsafe," Yugi repeated, only for the others to hold their breaths. "Ah-"
Yes... They'd seen her, hadn't they. "Repeat that," a cold voice said, Noa turning only to be met with a solid kick against her face as the attacker narrowed her eyes. "I couldn't hear you."
"A-AH! YEA! GO SETO-CHAN," Jonouchi called out through the air, the peanut gallery already fulfilling their 'cheering' role as the woman above continued to attack their enemy. "GO F'R IT!"
"KICK HIS... HER... UM..." There was a short pause, and then, "KICK NOA'S ASS," Otogi shouted, the injured woman in question flung back through the air as both Seto and her summoned 'Twilight Zone Dragon' charged downward.
Hn! While she could hardly say the 'chan' was preferred, she agreed quite wholly with that plan! "Hn! Heaven-made intellect, beyond human reach'," she taunted, a flip-kick sending Noa's body further toward the ground as she fell alongside her summoned monster. "Claiming to be beyond anything this world has seen," she hissed, kicking off the dragon once again. Another blow as Seto landed on the ground, charging her recovering opponent with a punch that sent her flying into the woods before the woman could even stumble to her feet. "DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH," the woman roared, Noa looking up briefly as her opponent continued her attack. "You're just a pathetic little brat," she hissed, another punch slamming into Noa's cheek as the woman gave a short shout, "A whining little boy who can't accept the facts of life! It's not my business to bother with what happened to you," she continued, grabbing the woman by her jacket to pull her forward as Noa choked. "But enough is enough; you're just hiding behind layers of intellect and so-called omnipotence... When the fact is, you're DEAD," Seto roared, staring into what could have been her own eyes as Noa grit her teeth and looked back almost in tears. "And you should realize that now! Gozaburo had no intentions of bringing you back to the world like this... He'd have told my brother and I from the very start if that had been the case. Face it," she spat, throwing the woman to the ground with a sneer. "Your so called father didn't trust you after you became a computer... That's the real reason why you're 'still here'..."
Something had 'snapped' in Noa's mind at that point she told herself, the woman having collapsed to the ground beneath her hair and robes both. Something important, something dangerous... Whatever the 'thing' was, its restraints had blown. "My father loved me," she whispered, hands clutching at the ground before her as her voice rose into the air at a fever pitch. "He saved my life where medical science and technology failed, he risked everything for me... But he didn't want me to become 'lazy'," she continued, standing shakily on the ground as her opponent tensed and drew back from the clearly crazed woman. "He didn't want me to fall behind... So he offered me a body," she laughed, eyes wide and quivering as the winds themselves seemed to react with her insanity. "He showed me a body, just moments after you were adopted... 'He's almost the same age as you were', he told me, 'Almost thirteen...'" Thirt-
When her lessons had been at their fiercest... When her vocal lessons had been about to start... Seto stepped back as Noa approached, still walking slowly as the sounds of the jungle echoed around them.
"He created everything for me," Noa hissed, clenching her fists and wiping blood from her mouth as she laughed. "All that I wanted, he would give it to me... But it wasn't real," she screeched, charging with fists as her opponent attempted to duck and return the blows, the first two already striking her face and shoulders with the force of a small car. "The programming was delicate, fragile, and never real! How many children go to MARS for their birthday," the woman howled, nails slicing as Seto's cheeks as a blow struck her face in an almost clawed strike, "How many people can walk anywhere in the world and have everyone know your name," Noa roared, opponent forced to do nothing but block the attacks coming her way as 3 out of 4 each broke through the 'barrier'. "Even the DOG was fake," she spat, another right hook snapping Seto's head backward, "Even something with base instinct that all humans can grasp with ease," she snarled, opponent grunting as she was kicked in the stomach and left gasping for air. "But I LEARNED... I began to make adjustments," she hissed with a hysteric grin, kneeing the recovering opponent in the face before kicking her to the side. "Fixing things, learning things... Did you know," she asked, wide smile over her face as Seto looked up to breath haggardly, "That if I were to use all of the company's still active weapon satellite systems, I could destroy this world in thirty days?" Th... Thirty...
Seto found her blood running cold with those words, unable to move for a moment as her opponent slowly walked forward. "You... You would send the world into an apocalyptic ruin... Within..." Even she knew the chances of survival in that sort of thing... Even she knew that no one would live...
"I told him this you know," Noa 'laughed', shaking her head as she came closer to the standing woman. "I told him that, but after all I'd said and done do you know what he did?" Ohhhhh please don't, don't tell her that he-
"GLCK!" Fingernails dug into her throat with a sudden speed that nearly blinded her, her body pinned against the tree with all the force of a hurricane as Noa continued to 'laugh'. She couldn't breathe... She couldn't move, her throat was bleeding and...
And the crazy son-of-a-bitch was laughing... "He LEFT ME! HE. LEFT. ME," the woman screeched, grin falling into a snarl as she cried. "For YOU, who had LIED to him all that time! He never spoke to me again, never visited me... And finally, after three years of waiting you KILLED HIM," she roared, throwing her opponent by the neck and into the jungle with a screech as Seto cried out. "He turned all his attentions to you, all his love to you... And you betrayed him..."
"Gh... Hnngg..." Love? LOVE! This 'bitch'... DARED to compare it to... "That bastard... Couldn't have loved even himself," she spat, pulling herself from the ruined forest to glare at her opponent's battered body whilst the terrain continued to 'crumble'. "Not if his own life depended on it..! But he at least knew where to draw the line," the woman continued, stumbling to her feet as the sky above darkened and clouded over. "Even Gozaburo can't control the growth of the human mind, can't re-create its path... While he could create a paradise for you, and give you a place to live as you were, the real world was beyond his grasp. There's too much chaos," she growled, gripping the side of a tree for support and trying to catch her breath. "Too much to place in random chance, in a world of light and darkness both. The strength to live can only be learned through the pains and frustrations of the real world," the woman went on with a rasping choke, "And when he realized how you stood against man kind he must have been miserable... Our fight... HN! It was nothing more than to see who was more human," Seto hissed, shaking her head. "The computer, trapped in an endless paradise... Or the human, in constant agony and despair. Perhaps if you'd 'won'," she said with a frown, popping a dislocated shoulder back in place, "He'd have kept this 'promise', and accepted you again. But in the end you're just a small, lost little boy trapped in a cold and isolated realm... Left to become nothing more than an emotionless machine..."
She was surprised Noa stood there as long as she did really, listening to her words... She supposed that she shouldn't have been surprised though, with what she'd been saying, with the expression on her opponent's face hidden behind a curtain of light coloured hair. "You... You don't understand me at all," Noa whispered, shaking her head as she clenched her fists. "Lose all my feelings... No... I surpassed them," she muttered, smirking darkly as a shadow arose behind her to herald the placing of a 'spell'. "I surpassed every mortal boundary to become 'GOD'," she continued, "To become the creator of a new world..."
A 'new' world..? "Hn! To create a 'virtual world' is within the ability of anyone with a half a brain," Seto sneered, standing under her own strength and gripping her still gaping wounds with a wince. "You can't call yourself 'God' with that..."
"So you say," Noa chuckled, narrowing her eyes as she held her hands outward. "Yet I predict that in this very turn," she continued almost calmly, "Something will occur to prove that theory wrong, shaking the very foundation of your existence!" Her- What..? The chuckling grew into a full on cackle, and as the sky began to flash with cracking lightning the sounds were almost drowned out completely. "IT'S MY TURN," the woman roared, fires coming into the sky as Seto stepped back with wide eyes. "THE THIRD TURN OF CREATION; IN THE NAME OF THE LORD I WILL RESET THIS LAND ONCE MORE! DEEPEST IMPACT," Noa cried, meteors striking the ground and pummelling the summoned Rex into a pulp while the others screamed, "Destroying all monsters on the field!" Destroying-
Meteors continued to fall, and fires were catching the forests while destroying everything in sight. "Gh- Twilight Zone Dragon," she called out, the dragon swooping by as the enormous boulders smashed into the ground around them. "Activate your effect," the woman ordered as she flipped onto its back, "The Different Dimension!"
Not a moment too soon and they did just that, her dragon giving out a loud and affirmative growl as its four wings flapped. Through a pocket in the coding the duo flew, the world coating itself in black and grey as the fiery meteors pounded the earth flat. They could see nothing more of the damage done however. Could see nothing of those outside their realm, and nothing of the time that passed since they'd hidden. What they could hear seemed almost drowned in water, echoing beneath the waves of whatever dimension they were taking shelter in...
But she could hear their shouts nonetheless. 'The sky,' Yugi's friends were screaming, most other cries largely undecipherable. 'TAKE COVER!' 'This is bad-aru... REALLY BAD,' the particularly recognizable 'robot' howled, the dog's cries filling the air around her. Screaming... Nothing but screaming...
But for some reason the next voice she heard wasn't that of Noa, in either form. It was his... The voice of the 'mutt', the 'blond'... His voice... 'You see this power,' an unaccented voice was calling out, a chorus of chokes and gasps coming from below her position in response. 'This meteor shower, that destroyed the earth? The resulting ash and smoke was enough to block out the sun,' 'Jonouchi' chuckled in explaination, 'Bringing about an age of ice and cold, and allowing the mammals to rise...' The Ice Age..?
Seto's dragon landed on the ground, allowing its master to slide down and back to the real world as the 'different dimension' vanished from sight. In an instant, change could be seen around them. Where tall trees stood were now enormous pillars of ice if anything at all, and across the frosted plain mountains could be seen only in the far distance, as slightly faded shadows. The crowd was now standing behind her, grouped tightly beneath the enormous dog that was apparently Honda as the frigid winds blew, chilling their bones even from beneath the canine's thick coat. She herself was already struggling to keep the cold from affecting her, narrowing her eyes and gritting her teeth as goosebumps rose on her skin. No monsters... Noa had no monsters, and her dragon returned only on 'her turn'. But despite that, the 'Deepest Impact' spell had halved their lifepoints, leaving her with only 700 to call her own in contrast to Noa's own 1400. It was as though he wasn't trying to use monsters to attack, or even trying to attack at all... Just trying to lock her in a futile struggle, and gauge her reaction and rage. This... "The Third Turn of Creation," 'Jonouchi' announced, Seto widening her eyes as a figure appeared on the snow across from her in the same robes as her previous opponent. "'Ice Age'... 'The Rise of Mammals'..."
"Y...You..." Seto found herself stepping back despite her will and drive to fight, face already red and irritated in the blistering cold. "That's..."
"What th' hell," Jonouchi muttered from behind her, gripping his staff as he swallowed. "What did y'..."
"That's... That's NIHAN'S body," the blond's sister screamed in horror, Seto merely staring as Noa laughed from across them. "You..!"
"What's your problem-aru! First Kaiba and now this," Honda snarled, clawing at the ground as the snakes around his neck hissed just as angrily. "What's wrong with your own body-aru!"
Noa merely continued to laugh, snow whirling around his form in a 'private blizzard' as he grinned. "Well... It's survival of the fittest," he 'explained', holding hand out as he rose on a slowly growing mound of ice and snow. "Weeding out the weak and letting only the strongest survive! You think this is 'jarring'," he sneered, still grinning as the snow beneath him took form and seemingly began to move, "Think again! That moment has yet to come... All this is, is a reminder... I don't want YOUR body," the teen laughed, Seto grinding her teeth from below as the mound continued to rise and tower above her. "Your mask is essentially a permanent fixture, making you weak... I'll just take this one instead," he continued with a grin, gesturing to his robed form as he chuckled. "And alter the proper neurons to make you my puppet..!" Alter her...
Oh HELL... "A PUPPET," she snarled, eyes wide with rage as the mammoth Noa appeared on began to charge, the snow solidifying into brown fur and ivory tusks. "Like HELL! Twilight Zone Dragon," she ordered, the monster swooping to the side as she grabbed its tail to avoid the strike. "Take us up; I activate two of my traps," she shouted, throwing a hand forward as the mammoth continued to chase them, ignoring the fact that he quite obviously wouldn't be able to follow. "Ring of Destruction," the woman began, the first of her three glass panels shattering to form a ring of grenades around the mammoth's neck, "And Ring of Defense!"
'But why,' she could hear them shouting, resulting explosion cutting through the air as Seto landed safely to the side with her dragon, the mammoth across her left as nothing but a pair of hind legs that burned themselves to ash. 'Why bother when the Mammoth has less power?'
'Because,' Yugi explained with a swallow, the Twilight Zone dragon curling around Seto in the meantime. 'When the Mammoth is destroyed, it inflicts damage to both player's life points...' A fact she'd narrowly been able to take advantage of too... Though with both of those rings gone, it could be troublesome...
The smoke cleared as Noa wheezed from across her, standing limply on the ground before them and still clinging to Jonouchi's form. "HaHAAA! INCREDIBLE," those behind her were shouting, cheers. "That's great!"
"One more hit an' y' win Seto-chan! KICK THIS CREEP'S ASS!"
"But Noa's still got that ark shield thi-"
"Not now Ren," Anzu hissed, the duelist before the crowd rolling her eyes. Hn!
...Fools... Not to say she wouldn't win of course, but nonetheless. "Noa... Your spells and attacks amounted to nothing," Seto sneered, her opponent merely staring forward from a pathetic copy of her 'mutt's eyes. "It's OVER, NOA; I'm finishing this now," she spat, charging forward with a shout. "Twilight Zone Dragon enters attack mode," she announced, coming closer and closer to her injured opponent as she picked up her pace, "And I discard the Thunder Dragon from my hand! HAH!"
"GH!" A kick sent Noa flying back with those words, and Seto continued her charge as the teen was thrown violently across the frosted plain. "Nggh..!"
"I then play the spell Polymerization," she roared, spiralling smoke appearing over her fore arms as she spun forward for added momentum, "Fusing the two thunder dragons I pulled from my deck into the Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon... Weapon mode," the woman continued, another kick slamming into Noa's face as the sparks flew from her arms. "Along with the spell Quick Attack," she roared, punching the teen with a well placed uppercut to send him back yet again.
"HNG... Activate the effect of the ark," Noa announced, pulling himself to his feet to kick back from the additional kick his opponent had attempted to make in the meantime. "Summoning Giant Rex and Stone Golem to my defense, the latter as armor! Your attack changes nothing," he roared, stone lining the sides of his aged looking robes, "Nothing!" Hn!
"So you think! I activate my final card," his opponent countered, leaping high into the air to bring a flipped kick down on the Giant Rex's skull while she spoke, "Dragon's Rage..! Allow me to show you just how wide the gap between you and I is," she spat, pushing off the dinosaur's corpse to again attack her opponent. "You're DEAD!"
"GHO-" Yet another fist to the face and Noa was stumbling back with a bloodied nose, with cheers and shouts erupting from the sides as he struggled to stand. "GNA-" A roundhouse kick and he was sent flying back, skidding against the tundra and leaving a slightly bloodied trail behind him. And as Seto charged she could see only one thing, one thing in her mind. She was going to win she told herself, bringing her fist forward with the intent of connecting against Noa's disguised face while the teen again stood. She was going to win-
And suddenly, Noa wasn't borrowing Jonouchi's face any more, shifting into his 'original', 'adult' form with a leering grin. And over the air, she heard her brother, and saw a white blur enter her vision... "HHHHAAAH!"
"GH-" A sickening crack hit the air as her punch was caught in a 'block', wrist snapping as the woman gave a shout. Shouts from the side had quieted with a resounding hush, and as her wrist was pulled forward and further into the defender's grasp her eyes widened in shock. Impossible... Impossib- "Moku- GH-!" Another blow had been landed and her fist was dropped, her brother's knee catching her gut as she stumbled back. Impossible, why was he doing this... "G.. GHA!" Another strike to her stomach, this time his fist, and as she clutched the again bleeding wound that was located near the developing bruise she looked up with wide and disbelieving eyes that far betrayed her usual expressions. "M-Mokuba, wh-"
"I won't forgive you, for touching my brother," the boy spat, before throwing a fist into the face that had finally been lowered to his level. "TAKE THIS," he snarled, another crack meeting the air as blood rushed from her nose, "HHHAAAAAAHH!"
"GHNH!" It was probably obvious that Mokuba's power had been increased. That his power was only enough to send her flying across the frosted plain for that reason, that ordinarily, he would never have come close to exacting this kind of force. But as she pulled herself to her feet, blood gushing from a now broken nose she still had to stare for a completely different reason, all injuries momentarily forgotten as she looked across to her brother. "Gh... Mokuba..."
What had once been cheers were now the curses of a bitter and angry crowd, the shouts of a group who could do nothing else but watch in horror as a friend and sibling turned on them completely. Had she bothered to listen she'd have realized that Jonouchi's cries were missing from the crowd... That below, on the sides of the icy plateau, he'd disappeared, vanished into the blizzard around them. But for now she was too busy looking to her brother, the boy now holding a cautiously offensive stance across the field.
"Is this the one," he was asking with enraged eyes, those at the sides erupting in roars of anger as Mokuba addressed their enemy. "Is this the one trying to hurt us?" Hurt...
No... No that wasn't- "That's right," Noa said with a menacing and cunning smirk, his opponent's eyes wide with disbelief and horror both. "This is the one I told you about... Our enemy," he continued cunningly, "The one who'll ruin everything!"
"Enemy," she found herself repeating incredulously, stumbling to her feet as the cold chilled her skin and froze the blood on her face and body. "You... BASTARD..."
"Hnhnhnhnhn... Bad luck," the man across from her was saying with a chuckle, "Horrible! Mokuba is my brother though," the man said with a sigh, "And well... Brothers protect each other," he muttered with a smirk, opponent clenching her fists as laboured breaths fogged into the air. "Of course, you were in the middle of an attack weren't you? We're both waiting you know," he continued with a laugh, narrowing his eyes. "So go on! I did tell you after all," Noa muttered darkly, "That the 'third turn' would shock your very existence..." Nggg... Those words...
He'd planned this from the very start the little rat! He'd planned- "GHAAAAAHG!" Seto had little time to ponder what was or wasn't being plotted against her as her brother's 'class' kicked in, the boy seemingly vanishing from the air only to reappear and send a high-kick into her stomach. Air... She was in the air, launched upward by nothing but a kick, and she...
"Hn!" She was being followed.
"GH-" The back of her neck was the first to be struck down, made by Mokuba's elbow before she could even see him move past her in the air.
"HAH!"
Another blow. "Hng-!" Her stomach, his knee, sending her to the side in mid air as her body was tossed about like some abused rag-doll. "B-BARRIER," she finally shouted, delicate bruises and bleeding organs given the shield they needed as she pulled up the first and only 'White Magic' spell she'd bothered with. A shield... This shield would hold, it had to...
And still her brother attacked.
She could hear Noa speaking through all of this... 'Not attacking I take,' he was laughing, a final flip-kick sending the woman into the ground with enough force to form a crater amid dust and snow. 'Pity that... Of course, you'd have to strike Mokuba down in that case,' the man continued through ringing ears, shaking arms pulling herself upward as she choked and attempted to see through a haze of frost.
Moku... Mokuba... "Hnng... Hhaahhh... Ahhhh..." Pain... Her body was wracked with pain... Mokuba stood above her, at the edge of the crater... With a look in his eyes that spoke of complete and utter rage. "I... Pass," she rasped, coughing as her brother stared. "Gh... Hgh..." Pain... The blows her brother dealt, they hurt... But more than that... More than that, it...
"My turn then," Noa was chuckling, opponent barely able to breathe as she closed her eyes and struggled to breathe. "How weak the human mind though... Fragile and pathetic... Mokuba," he shouted, sounding almost as though he were underwater, "Step back a moment; it's too dangerous right now..." Dangerous... Hah...
Haha... She was still 'dangerous'..? Even like this..? "Gh... NOAAAA," she hissed, forcing herself to her front as she rolled over and attempted to climb her way out. "You monster... I... I..."
As bloodied knuckles pulled their way up her bandages were vanishing... Noa was speaking again... "Hnhnhnhnhn... I'm activating my third deckmaster ability," he was saying softly, shaking hands scratching and slicing themselves across the already freezing ground.
Gh... "Third," she asked in a rasping tone, managing to bring her gaze up toward the ark as she swallowed.
From the ark's tablet a number of symbols could be seen, each representing a monster that had been sent to the grave. Each glowing with an ethereal light as Mokuba stood at Noa's side, each light flowing from the tablet in a slow and cord-like stream towards their master. The wounds she'd inflicted upon him were healing... Clothing repairing, blood cleansed from his form as she stared... And as the glow continued Noa seemed to shine completely with power, a smirk growing on his face as he sneered. "'Absorption'," the man announced, holding his hands out with a grin. "By removing each monster in the ark from play, I gain five hundred life points. And with twelve monsters," he continued, grin growing almost crazed in appearance, "You can't even hope to defeat me..." Twelve times five hundred... That meant he had... S...Sixty...
Sixty four hundred points... He had... 'That BASTARD,' those at the side were snarling, Seto merely staring with incredulity as she forced herself out of the crater to spit a mouthful of blood to the ground. 'He was just tormenting her the entire time..! He could have done that whenever he wanted...' Whenever he wanted... He could have done it from the very start, but he'd waited... 'Kaiba-san, you need to turn this around, quick,' they were shouting, Yugi's voice in particular coming above the others. 'Kaiba-san..!'
Bastard... Bastard... "GH... HNG..." She forced herself to stand, blood dripping from her face and chest both as she ground her teeth. Bastard..!
"I'm not done yet... I activate the spell 'Dark Hole'," Noa said from far in the distance, opponent clenching her fists as she shook on the ground. "Destroying all monsters on the field... And sending them back to my ark..." This... This...
Her bandages had disappeared because of that spell... Eyes snapped upward in rage as a portal of sorts appeared before her, energy seeming to rise from the ground itself as the ice began to melt with it. "Tch... Twilight Zone Dragon enters defense mode," she announced, kicking back from the ground as her dragon appeared behind her, immune to the black hole's effects despite all the power it held. "Noa... Of all the most unforgivable things to do..." She'd made a promise she told herself, watching as her opponent grew further and further away, dragon putting as much distance between herself and the man. A promise... 'I'll look after you', she'd told him. 'I'll do everything our Dad did; I'll become your brother, alright?'
But she didn't, in the end. Look after him, she meant. She'd failed her brother... Hurt him, almost killed him in fact. Yet through even that he'd waited, standing beside that mutt and waiting... Both of them just sitting at her bedside...
"You saved me," she found herself muttering, looking down toward the field as the sounds of a jet began to rise through the air. "Now... It's my turn to save you..." 'Keep fighting,' they were shouting below, keep fighting, no matter what... There had to be something to break through, something. Some sort of trigger, as with Jonouchi's duel...
That was true. There was one thing she told herself, gaze growing soft as she watched her brother rise up in the cockpit of a fighter-jet. Only one. She didn't have it in her hands yet... But there was one way.
And if she had any hope of getting her brother out of this place, that move was going to be it.
Watching Seto get beaten to the ground was already a difficult thing to do let along stomach. The woman was deadly with a weapon, and just as deadly with her hands and feet alone after all; she was taller than anyone else he personally knew, and the fact that it was by more than say 'two centimeters' was more than frightening at times, and probably because she was a woman. He had to face it; as much as he didn't want to admit it, the woman could probably beat the crap out of himself and Honda at the same time if she wanted, without breaking a sweat.
But Noa was treating this as a game. As a sick twisted game, but a game nonetheless. There were moments where he seemed to falter of course, moments where it seemed Seto had the upper hand but even he could tell when someone was letting themselves be hit, letting themselves take a blow to give a false image of weakness. Whether or not Seto did was to be questioned. He knew she was capable, hell, how could she not be given all she did?
But she was also pissed as hell. Filled with rage over the imprisonment of her mind, over the chaos back outside on her airship, the kidnapping of her brother, the revelation of her most private secret, all within one short series of hours... All piled on and on and on with no stopping, no rest, no restraints...
And with each blow to Noa's body, in whatever form, he just knew she wasn't paying attention to the fact that as the 'computer', he should have dodged each strike, that he should have easily returned the fire before the punches were placed. Which was why, as their own section of frosted ice was separated from the battle field, he made his move and ran toward the plateau that the duelists fought upon. "Ah- Nihan," he heard behind him as he ran, the blond gripping his staff tightly as he skidded and hopped along ice-covered ground. "Nihan," Shizuka called out, "Where are you going?"
"Ah- Jonouchi-aru!"
"Jonouchi-kun," Yugi called out, the others calling for him as well. "Kaiba-san won't even let us interfere, and if Noa considers it cheating-"
"Then he'd 'f cut 's out already," the blond spat, running off despite the protests as he looked back. "Jus' don' come after me!"
"J-Jono-"
"Jus' don'," he snarled, turning back and vanishing into the storm. Snow was blowing all about the field, sticking to their skin... Most of them were in fairly open costumes, shivering violently... As the blizzard grew however he lost sight of the others, staff tightly gripped in place as he climbed up the ice wall. Dimly he could hear shouts... His bare feet were shaving themselves against the ice as he ran full tilt, bleeding across the ground even while he began his climb up the plateau.
'BASTARD,' he could hear Otogi roar, sliced fingers slowly gripping the top of the 'cliff' above him. 'WHAT KIND OF SICK FREAK ARE YOU,' he snarled.
'Mokuba... MOKUBA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING,' Anzu was shouting, voice panicked as it was joined by the others' own rage and horror filled screams. 'WHAT ARE YOU...'
As to what they were shouting about, he realized quite soon. He couldn't climb up the plateau properly after all. He'd had to 'spiral', move side to side until he was at the opposite end of the field to find a proper way up, something that wasted time, heat, and blood both looking back at the red footprints he'd left behind. But looking forward he found himself feeling sick, almost losing his grip on the ice he'd so struggled to climb up. Seto was strong, that was for sure. Probably the strongest woman he knew.
But she was powerless against her own brother. And Noa knew that. "TAKE THIS," Mokuba was snarling, eyes narrowed in a rage far unlike him as he pounded against the woman's form. "AND THIS! ...AND THIS!" Blow after blow after blow... She was either too shocked to move or simply unable to even comprehend what was happening, not even getting the chance to defend herself, not even getting the chance to target the boy's controller.
And finally she got the small window of time for a shield. "B-BARRIER!" A sphere of glass seemed to appear around her just in time with the words, but even this didn't save her from the final blow. Mokuba's kick sent her directly into the ground, the barrier itself forming a crater as it crackled out and flicked in and out of existence above a scarcely conscious woman.
Noa was taunting her. Laughing, crossing his arms with a menacing sneer in the 'Jiang-Shi' ropes that so clashed against his constant speeches of 'God'. It was his turn now... And even as Seto pulled herself out, the woman appearing as a mere silhouette through the raging snow storm, he kept laughing...
The blizzard vanished with the release of the dark hole, the 'sun' replaced with its incredible pull. All the snow on the field was sapped toward it, and in that same moment Seto re-summoned her dragon and fled to the skies. Be it to escape the storm and hide... Or to plan... Or simply to tend to wounds and attack from above. Either way, Mokuba himself followed shortly after as the jet monster 'Gradius' appeared around his form, while his 'controller' continued to alter the realm around them to his personal desires. "Hnhnhnhnhn... We now reach the Fourth Turn of Creation," Noa announced, hands held high as he laughed. "As evolution takes its course! The land thaws, and man rises as the world's dominant species... Welcome to the modern world," he called out cheerfully, Katsuya merely grinding his teeth as he tiptoed forward on now grass covered land. Heh... 'Welcome'..?
"Welcome t' my FIST," he snarled as he punched forward, only to find his hand passing through smoke and light both as the teen shifted back. "Gh... I knew y' were fakin' it out there," he hissed, sky scrapers and buildings numbly familiar to him rising around him as he looked around.
Vanished... He'd vanished... "Ohhh... Really now, that's just a little presumptuous," Noa sneered, re-appearing to the side of the blond as his second 'opponent' turned to snarl. "All I'm doing is using my skills to my advantage after all," he chuckled, Katsuya aiming a roundhouse at what again became mere smoke as it faded away. Damn it...
How the hell was he supposed to hit this guy! "Gh... Yer 'advant'ge' is you screwing with your heads y' freak! Y' know I was feelin' pretty sorry for yah b'fore," he continued, the hairs on the back of his neck rising with each moment he spent looking for the man, "But now..." He continued to look around with narrowed eyes, a paranoid feeling rising in him as he attempted to locate his 'opponent'. Where... Where... ...That way! "...Heh! Le's jus' say yer one disgustin' piece 'f work," he hissed, before throwing a fist at what appeared to be thin air as Noa appeared. "An' that I sure as hell ain't surprised yer 'dad' abandoned y'! HHAH!!"
"TCH-" The man jumped back as the fist narrowly avoided his chest, looking to Katsuya in both shock and mild horror for a moment before narrowing his eyes as his sore point was again ripped at. "You... My father loved me," he snarled, appearing to flame and smoke before the blond as the distance between the two increased. "He gave me everything, trusted me with everything! And I intend to more than surpass his wishes," he continued, knuckles cracking as be brought a hand forward.
"Oh yea? Well we'll jus' see abou' tha'," he snarled, charging the man with an apparent kick only to punch to his right as smoke met with the feint.
"HGA-"
Hehehehehe... "Looks like you ain't as 'all knowin' as y' think," the blond growled, a crack meeting the air as his opponent stumbled back from the force of the blow.
"GH- Gnn... Hah... That..." Noa's jaw cracked once again as he adjusted it, looking to the teen in apparent interest. "It looks as though you're not as 'normal' as you like to think either," he chuckled, narrowing his eyes as the blond paled and stepped back. "Tell me Katsuya," he continued with a wide eyed grin, his 'opponent' swallowing in unease beneath the man's gaze. "How did you know where I would appear?" Appear? That was easy he told himself, easy, he'd-
...Seen it... Before he... "You... You're fuckin' KIDDIN' ME," he roared, stumbling back with horror as a grin slowly came over Noa's face. "How th' hell..."
The man merely sneered, the clouds behind him appearing to converge and spiral as an image appeared over his vision. "Well," Noa was saying, the shouts of a vicious and one-sided battle between a cannon armed jet and a dragon coming over it, "I'm connected to you aren't I? So how could I not know about this..." How could he not screw with it more like..! "And besides that, I didn't tell you anything directly... More... Dangled it, just to see how high the dog could jump," he chuckled, Katsuya shaking his head in disbelief.
"You... Y' sabotaged our duel," he muttered with a swallow, thinking back to the cards and moves he'd seen ahead of time in his last match, to the moves he'd known his friend would make. "You screwed with my head and..."
A blood curdling screech hit the air at that moment, animal and instinctual in form as a ray of light pierced the sky, breaking the clouds and forcing them back in a shockwave. He could see her... See her red, burnt form falling from the ground, see the dragon destroyed in the blast and the canon Mokuba wielded from within the ship sending a blaze of fire into the air toward her to burn the woman further, send her even quicker to her death...
That, however, had yet to happen he realized coldly, the sky clearing as sounds of battle continued from above as his vision 'cleared'. It was only then that it really began, that the first strike was planned. That the clouds truly converged, and the ship Mokuba piloted now began to charge its ray directly above his target. That this vision... "Hnhnhnhnhn... Better hurry," Noa chuckled, smoking from existence as Katsuya clenched his fists and turned on him, "We're only one turn away from the end now..."
"Gh... Damn it Noa... YOU-"
"GHHRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
The scream..! Katsuya's gaze snapped to the side, the clouds parting just as he'd seen before. Seto's dragon was coated in flames, barely pulling itself to its hidden dimension to recover. Seto herself was falling however, almost in slow motion as he ran forward and watched another blast charge seemingly from nowhere. She couldn't scream any more, her injuries revealed as much. Revealed that she should have long since died, with smoke rose from her form and burns covering her body almost completely. "Seto-chan," he shouted, staff clattering to the ground as the others ran over with wide eyes, having clambered up the thawed lands themselves. "SETO-CHAN!" He reached out, hands wide spread as he jumped...
And as the sixth turn came to an end, he opened his eyes and cushioned her fall, catching her in his arms. Held her close despite whatever she thought, the others thought, anyone...
There was a second Gradius jet he realized coldly, the second blast making its way downward as he lay the woman on the ground, the blast connecting with him and forcing a jolt through his body as he choked. Its fires and energy had seared his back, effectively grafting his very clothes to his skin, and as he slowly stood up from Seto's largely motionless form he found himself fighting off a scream in pain, barely holding the attack from his friend. "Gh... Nh..." He was still on fire right? Still alive right? But how..? How, he wasn't dueling, so how..? "Agh... Nh... g..!"
"Look, Mokuba," he heard Noa chuckle, the blond slowly turning in place to look at the man with undying rage. "Look at the pain our enemies are in..."
"NOA..." Kill him... He was going to kill him, kill him, kill-
"Gh... Kah! Kgh!" Coughing came from behind the blond, and with wide eyes Katsuya turned to watch as Seto weakly grabbed the side of the ground to pull herself up, ignoring charred skin and the pain it caused to look dully at the surroundings and those around her. "Gh... What..."
"S-Seto-chan," Katsuya shouted, looking back with wide eyes. "You-"
More chuckling came from before them, both looking forward as the crowd of onlookers held their distance and curbed their charge. "It hurts, doesn't it, 'Seri'," Noa asked, arms crossed and hidden beneath oversized sleeves. "To be so viciously attacked by someone you love, someone you would do anything for," he sneered, Katsuya and Seto both narrowing their eyes as the latter attempted to move.
"No... A... GH!"
Katsuya turned once again as Seto collapsed to her knees, running back to the woman's side and attempting to help the her to her feet. "Ah- Seto-chan," he said with a swallow, ignoring the slight burn and 'stick' from the blood and ash covering her, "You-"
"SHUT UP," she hissed, pushing the blond back as she stepped forward on wobbling legs. "Hah... Stupid... Mutt," she forced out, looking to Katsuya with narrowed eyes as she coughed. "Don't call me that... Gh... Hah... Hgn..!" The woman winced, clutching the freshly burnt wounds received as she moved past her 'friend' to leer at her current opponent. "This... I don't need you to tell me what to do," she muttered, Katsuya staring with wide eyes. Didn't... He... But she was-
"GH- I ain't tellin' y' t' do anything," he protested, the woman still walking onward despite this.
"Then shut up," Seto wheezed, blood dripping behind her and to the ground as the others stared.
But... She... "Yer gonna die if y' keep goin'," the blond roared, Seto seeming to pause momentarily.
"If I have to," she seemed to whisper, looking back somewhat as Katsuya paled. If... If she had...
"If y'- WHAT!"
"Trust me, Mutt," the woman growled, taking another shaking step forward as she bit back her pain, "It takes more than thi- Gh... ...More than this to take me down..."
S-Seto... "But... You..." He didn't want her to d-
"I hope we aren't interrupting anything," Noa chuckled, the two hurriedly turning their attentions forward with grit teeth. "Though I suppose it's better than simple 'yelling'... After all," Noa laughed darkly, "Then you'd simply be proving how close to crashing you were! Hnhnhahaha!" The laughter continued to hover bitterly in the air, the crowd behind them staring with wide, enraged eyes and grit teeth. "Of course, this is going on for so long," Noa muttered almost sadly, Mokuba appearing to stare at the two before him with narrowed eyes from the man's side. "It's almost boring..." Boring..?
Katsuya's face slowly paled in disbelief, the blond stepping forward with wide eyes. "You... Are you serious," he snarled lowly, an expression far unlike any he'd ever held in front of those he knew coming over his face. "Are you... MOKUBA," the blond roared, the boy seeming to narrow his eyes further at the shouts that were filling the field. "Don' you care at all! That yer treatin' Seto-chan like this? Tha' yer doin' all this! We came here together," he shouted, the woman beside him merely watching her brother's reaction as Mokuba frowned, "We... We came..."
Damn it Mokuba..! "Remember last summer," Shizuka 'asked' with an abrupt shout, appearing behind the two as Seto narrowed her eyes and stared. "When you came to Osaka, you told me all about how much you loved Kaiba-han! How much you wanted hi... How much you wanted her to wake up at that time," she cried out with a swallow, "So that you could show her everything! So that you could take her with next time!"
"And the Monster World," Honda added, his tic momentarily vanishing as his still gigantic and canine form loomed overhead with the others in tow. "Do you remember fighting with us against the other Bakura, against Zork," he shouted and howled, the snakes around his neck hissing in 'agreement'. "Do you remember how that NPC, 'KAI' came to fight with us!"
"And what about the tanabata festival, on your birthday," continued Otogi, the dancer moving to stand closer to the crowd as the boy across from them slowly drew back and held his head. "We had bean cake, remember, and you made a wish with us to hang on the bamboo!"
"And your graduation," Anzu cried out with the others, "What about that?"
"What about meeting Rebecca, and playing Capmon" Yugi shouted,
"Ragging Jonouchi out for getting himself into something stupid again," Ren offered with another shout,
"Running from those girls on Valentines and White Day," Honda shouted out again, ears pricked back somewhat, "And what about-"
"...Hanami," Seto muttered, the others falling silent as the single phrase came through the air. That day in the sakura fields, the day that she'd have missed if not for his own and Mokuba's influence... "...I can't offer much to remember positively," the woman whispered, stepping forward at a limp as the deck-master markings on her body began to glow and shine brightly from her otherwise destroyed body. "And I can't say that I know most of what your friends are talking about," she continued almost quietly, "No matter how much I want to..." Mokuba merely stared as the woman came closer, his 'brother' putting a possessive hand over his shoulder to pull him back as the boy bit his lip. They were breaking through, little by little... Ever so slowly... "...This... I can't fight you," Seto whispered, soft eyes looking out to the boy as he continued to frown with confusion. "I can only fight with you at my side, and everything else is just futile attempts at the impossible..."
"...Niichan," Mokuba whispered, looking up to Noa somewhat. "...Noa..."
"...Don't listen to her," Noa was muttering, grip tightening on the boy's form. "Don't listen to her, she's lying, she's-"
"I can't change the past," the woman continued on, regardless of who was listening. "The house we lived in was hell... And for those years you suffered for it all. But no matter what... Up until this point you've stood by my side," she rasped, throat still charred and ashen from the previous attacks. "Waiting for my eyes to open... Waiting, and never losing faith. So let me at least clear a path to the future for you," the woman whispered, light seeming to glow over her wounds as wind blew about the field. "Let me show you the card that you gave me those years ago, that card that saved me back then... The card I promised to show you again," she continued softly, "No matter what it took..." That card...
That was why...
"...Nee... Sama," Mokuba whispered, bringing his hands from his head. "You're..."
The words were quiet. Mere whispers on the wind, something he wasn't even sure he'd heard by means of his ability or with his ears. Perhaps Seto as well hadn't heard them. Perhaps she wanted to be sure that he had but nonetheless she continued on, even as Noa turned a wide and disbelieving eye toward the boy at his side in response to the muttered words. "Mokuba," she began, swallowing as cloth repaired on her skin with the rest of her form, "If I don't get this card... Then that proves I couldn't keep this promise," Seto whispered, light continuing to emanate from the field beneath her feet. "It proves I can't be your sister, let alone the 'brother' I promised to be... So I ask you... Am I worthy of that card?"
Tears were running down Mokuba's cheeks, and yet the boy appeared to be unaware as to why. He was shivering, shaking, memories appearing with no sign as to their origin or how they came into being. Across from him, Seto was staring across the field, the winds still blowing with Katsuya standing off to the side as light continued to rise from the ground. That 'worth' she was questioning...
She more than had it, he told himself, the drawn card already appearing within both his own and Seto's minds. "I activate my deckmaster ability," the woman uttered lowly, standing almost limp as the light about her began to materialize as an almost water-like torrent at her feet. "Lowering the number of tributes needed for a light-type monster by one... And I tribute the Twilight Zone Dragon," she shouted, the wind and light forcing those around her to slowly be blown back as the dragon soared toward her from behind, "And I summon this..! The most powerful of all monsters," she roared, the shout mirrored as an enormous white beast rose from her shadow and the light both to swirl around her and destroy the form of the green one behind her, "THE BLUE EYES WHITE DRAGON!"
"H-Ahhh... That..."
"Gh... No," Noa hissed, watching as his grip slipped from the boy at his side. "Mokuba," he shouted, looking to him almost desperately, "Mokuba-"
The light on the field was blinding, and almost as inhibiting as the roar of the dragon whose head was now sitting above Seto's own. The dragon's eyes were piercing blue, staring forward, watching as Mokuba stepped away from Noa with wide eyes. "YOU..." He shook his head with fear, horror, realization... An entire multitude of emotions passed over his face, and as he looked back to the dragon the gaze widened. "I... Nee-sama," Mokuba cried, stepping forward as he looked to the monster and his sister both. A few stumbling steps... An incredulous look from Noa, the man silent with momentary shock and rage... "S-SETO-NEESAMA," he wailed, still white clothes billowing in the wind behind him. The boy ran forward, wrapping his arms around the woman's waist even as she winced in pain, the injuries sustained in battle still not completely healed over. "Nee-sama... Nee-sama I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, I'm sorry... I'm sorry..!"
"It's fine," she answered quietly, holding the boy close as the others stared in silence. "It wasn't you- I know that... This wasn't your fault... Now," she continued, gesturing behind her as she began to pull herself onto the dragon's back. "Stay back with the others... I'm going to finish this now," the woman growled, Mokuba nodding as he ran back to stand with the group.
"R-Right..."
"Ah- Mokuba-kun," Yugi shouted with a relieved laugh, the boy running over with a nervous swallow as the others made room. "You- You made it back..!"
"Mokuba," Katsuya continued, the two sharing their own brief hug before the blond looked over the boy in worry. "Oi, Mokuba, you alrigh'... You gonna be alrigh', wi' what Noa did..?"
The response was a shaky nod, Mokuba again swallowing in unease. "I'm... I'm fine. I'll be fine," he answered yet again, looking back to the field. "But nee-sama..."
"...NOA," Seto barked, strength somehow restored as she leered at the jets and the man currently standing before her. "Even CONSIDER touching my family and remember that THIS will be your fate! Blue-Eyes," she ordered, the monster opening its great maw as white flames grew in her throat, "ATTACK GRADIUS!"
With a howl of flames the blast was released, Blue-Eyes' great roar heard clearly over the field. The machine it struck exploded into shrapnel and flames in the instant the sparks connected; and as the steel rained on Noa, the man glaring through the haze and smoke, the second 'Gradius' exploded along with it, caught in the crossfire of card effects and flames.
"Hah... It worked," Otogi was cheering, clapping a fist in his hand as he grinned. "We made it through!"
"Not only that but 'Gradius Option' is gone too-aru! We're going to make it," Honda barked, Mokuba nodding and swallowing as he watched. They were almost there... They were almost...
Katsuya frowned abruptly, eyes briefly meeting with their opponent's as he growled. "Oh tha' son-of-a-bitch," the blond at the side hissed, the others turning in confusion as Noa's chuckling came across the field. "He's usin' th' effect..."
"Effect," Yugi repeated, the others bearing similar expressions. "Wait..!"
"Hnhnhnhnhnhn..." Katsuya fell silent as laughter filled the air, the others growing visibly pale as the man across from them cackled. "Hnhnhaha... HnhnHAHAHAHAHA! Oh Seri," Noa chuckled, shaking his head as the woman tensed from across him. "You never cease to amuse me... The fact that you've managed to scratch me again is amazing," he continued with a smug laugh, "But the fact remains that I am INVINCIBLE... After all... If you recall," he sneered, snapping his finger "I have five monsters in the Ark right now... And no 'set card' can stop this," the man continued on, the sheet of glass before his opponent glimmering suspiciously from the previous turn in the meantime. "My life points rise by another 2500 lifepoints," Noa announced, any and all injuries sustained again healing as the pulsing light continued to emanate off his robes, "Bringing my total to 7400! AND NOW THAT IT'S THE SEVENTH TURN," he roared, thunder seeming to crack around them, "ALLOW ME TO REVEAL-"
"Activate Trap," Seto called out, glass shattering as the sky began to darken even further with apparent rage. "I'm taking your 'heaven and earth' and I'm dragging them to hell," she hissed, Blue-Eyes giving an angered snarl from beneath her. "I'm bringing out 'LAST TURN'," she announced, the man across from her staring with narrowed eyes. The glass that shattered into the air spread to the side to surround them both, creating a fence of mirrors around them. "You've kept me waiting long enough," the woman snarled, her dragon's wings beating at the ground as they rose high into the air. "You've held me back far too long! THIS is the deciding moment," Seto roared, stones crumbling and rising into the air as a scene almost similar to Shizuka's own ritual summon came into being. "The 'REAL' seventh turn," she continued in rage, "The APOCALYPSE! We're going to face each other with one monster each," the woman shouted, Noa merely seeming to smoke somewhat as those below watched in horror at the disintegrating terrain within the field's limits, "And the last one standing wins this match!" One on one... No lifepoints, no spells and traps...
"A las' gamble," Katsuya muttered, Yugi nodding fearfully from the side.
"One on one... If Kaiba-san loses," he whispered, Mokuba shivering from between the two at the words. "She..." She couldn't lose... No matter what, she could not lose..!
The crowd fell silent at the words nonetheless, lightning striking the ground as Noa as well rose to the air. "Hn! Well then... If it's a battle you want, I choose the Ark of Shinato," he announced, smoking back into existence atop the bow of the ship as it rose further into the air.
"And I fight with Blue-Eyes," Seto called out in response, the dragon giving a fearsome roar from its position above their opponent's ship. "NOW... Witness the force of the combined anger from myself and Mokuba both," she cried, the sounds almost drowned out by her dragon's snarls as white flames licked the air, "BURST STREAM!"
White light filled the air in that moment, and for just a brief moment in time he could see nothing. Not the flames that devoured the ship to reduce it to ashes in the air, nor the rage that Seto continued to attack in, her dragon snarling and clawing at some unseen force. He couldn't see Ren hissing in some sort of fit to the side, nor a hope filled stare from the others. He couldn't hear what they were saying either...
He could only hear Noa's scream, agonized and pained... Until at the very end, the light cleared and they were met with the enormous figure of some strange angel. Noa's clothing had changed; he wore the robes of a celestial being and radiated with the power of one, with six wings spread wide behind his hovering and almost deadly pale form as they stared, hopefilled gaze shifting to that of horror. It was only now that they realized the scream had changed... That it had shifted, contorted, and faded into a laugh, a mad cackle. Only as they looked at Noa's smirking face, and the gathered energy in his puppet-like hands that they realized how wrong they'd been. "W..." How wrong Seto had been, the woman now staring at the being above her almost in fear. "You..."
"Hnhnhnhnhn... I lied," he whispered, fingers cracking as he spread his hands forward in an attack. "Divine Ring."
-VSSHHHHHHHH-
In a single instant they were all thrown back, the shock-wave of the near galactic proportions forcing them against the ground with a cry. Stones that had littered the sky shattered and clattered to the ground, the fence vanished and the sky darkened more than it already had... Even with the burning pain however, it had been more than apparent that they were the lucky ones in this strike, that they had it considerably easy compared to the actual duelists. Far in the distance Blue-Eyes was dissolving into nothing but ash on the grounds after all, and as Katsuya looked to the crater that had been formed by its fallen form he found himself pulling Mokuba up by the arm. "C'mon," he said with a nervous swallow, the boy nodding almost stiffly as they began to push through their pain and run forward, "C'mon," he repeated desperately, "We gotta get t' her... We..."
"Hnhnhnhnhn... Did you forget," Noa laughed, voice booming and thundering across the sky as Seto slowly pulled herself back out of the crater to collapse on her front at the hole's edge. "Did you forget what turn this was? This is MY realm" the 'God' roared, robes billowing in a non-existent wind as he leered at the girl before him. "And the final turn of creation! The round where my TRUE deckmaster arises, where the almighty SHINATO comes forth... Allowing me to stand as GOD," he echoed commandingly, "Just as it should be..."
Just... As it 'should'... The blond bit his lip and pushed Noa's words from mind, continuing forward as the others followed behind them through their own recovery. "We're almos' there," Katsuya was assuring his friend, Mokuba stumbling somewhat on the broken terrain as they ran toward Seto's collapsed form, "We're almos' there," he whispered, "Jus' keep runnin'..."
"Hah... Hah, hah... ...Hah... Nee-sama," Mokuba shouted, the woman blearily opening her eyes to reach out from the edge of the crater. "NEE-SAMA," he screamed, pulling out from Katsuya's grasp and breaking into an even quicker run, "Please, don't die!"
The woman couldn't say anything though, despite the fact that she so clearly wanted to try... Her body was battered and broken, her hand shaking as it was held out, her entire form covered in dirt and ash and blood, reddened and irritated, not a single place left untouched by the attack. She...
She... "Seto-chan..." How was she still alive..? How... After all this, how was she...
It was impossible not to weep at the sight. Impossible not to stop and stare, and simply let the tears roll down their cheeks. "NEE-SAMA," Mokuba was crying, tripping and falling to his knees as his sister's hand fell short from fatigue. "Nee-sama! I'm sorry... I'm so sorry," he wept, bowing his head as he shook. "So sorry..."
"It's... Okay," Seto rasped weakly, bringing her hand upward as her brother cried. The woman was forcing herself to move. To get closer, to at least be able to touch her brother's cheek, to wipe the tears from his eyes and offer at least a shred of comfort. "I'm... Gk... I'm... Fine... Don't... Cry," the woman continued, tears developing in her own eyes despite the words, her fingers shaking uncontrollably as she brought her hand upward. "Don't cry... Show you're strong... And don't cry... No matter what..."
"N-Nee-sama..." Mokuba choked, wiping his eyes as his sister continued to struggle before him. "Nee-sama," he wept, his sister's hand coming closer to his face. "I-"
They never heard what words followed that. For at that moment, it was Noa's own words who overpowered them both, the two before them seeming to freeze in time rather than fear. "Stone Gaze," the 'God' whispered, Katsuya's eyes quivering as he stared at the now colourless sight before him. No...
No...
"No... S-Seto-chan," Katsuya whispered, looking at the two with wide and tear-filled eyes as he took a step forward. Were tears falling from the stone, the stone that now sat before him..? The statues who were mere centimetres apart from reunion, the boy having just looked up to meet his sister's weak attempt to comfort him..? They... "Mokuba... Seto..." So close...
They'd been so close... "Oh my god," one of the others were whispering, still standing far from their location as their own misery became apparent. "Kaiba..."
"K-Kaiba-han..."
"No..."
"Hnhnhnhnhn..." Katsuya's briefly closed eyes snapped open as Noa's chuckling again broke the air, the blond slowly turning back as the so-called 'god' laughed. "Such a pity, isn't it," he sneered, those below shifting through variant forms of rage and despair both as Katsuya grit his teeth and shook. "So close, yet not close enough..."
"You... Kaiba-san," Yugi wept, shaking his head as he stared toward the stone figures. "Mokuba-kun..."
Noa did not care for nor bother addressing the group below. He merely held his menacing grin and chuckled, eyes narrowed with apparent mirth. "This statue... I think I'll call it 'Futility'," he decided, crossing his arms as the expression grew wider. "You can guess why I would imagine..."
"You..." If the phrase was 'straw' breaking the camels back, then this would be the grain of salt that did so. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" A roar of energy seemed to flash through the area, and as both Katsuya and the Other Yugi leered upward Noa appeared to smirk, clearly enjoying the rage he'd put the boy into. "You toyed with us, with her... You humiliated her in the worst way possible before tormenting her before our eyes," he screamed in accusation, red eyes almost flashing in the light.
"You used Mokuba as a shield, y' drew things out f'r no reason jus' f'r their pain... CAN'T YOU FEEL ANYTHIN'," Katsuya snarled in addition, eyes wide and filled with pain as his mind continued to fill with the last few tear-filled whispers he'd heard before Noa cut in. "CAN'T YOU HEAR THEM!"
Noa merely sneered, taking a 'seated' position on the air. "Feel," he asked, the smirk growing darker. HN! This is simply fate as it stands. I predicted all of this," he continued, a shaking his head. "And it's all for the sake of my victory..."
"VICTORY," the Other Yugi spat, voice filled with an incredulous rage. "YOU LOST THAT FIGHT!"
"What... He 'lost'," Anzu repeated, the woman shaking her head.
Ren nodded, his own hood flared as he answered his partner's question. "Kaiba had the Twilight Zone Dragon even after she set that trap card... Since it comes back after death it would have been a tie," he spat angrily, "But she summoned Blue-Eyes instead!"
"She summoned the dragon so that Mokuba would be able to pull himself back into sanity," Shizuka continued, clenching her spear and bowing her head as she attempted to reign in her anger. "So that she could save her brother..!"
"An' all we're doin' is arguin' with YOU abou' it," Katsuya roared, cloak seeming to furl and smoke off his form as the others jumped back, the blackened flames catching and burning the ground where they fell. "While you laugh an think 'f how t' get rid 'f all us, or how t' amuse yerself..! You want to take her place," he snarled, the others stepping back for reasons beyond him as the cloak continued to dye black and melt into his shadow. "You think you can replace HER! I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU," he roared, kicking from the ground to leap upward as shadows filled his vision and covered him from above, "You can't control anything," the blond spat as the darkness swirled behind and above him, "Not really... Not when you can't understand it! NOA... I'M GOING TO KILL YOU," he roared, his mouth and the mouth of a formless demon's both opening up as 'Shinato' drew back in confused fear. "AND I'M GOING TO MAKE SURE THAT NOTHING REMAINS OF EVEN YOUR SOUL! HRAAAAAAHHH!"
He didn't know where this power came from. He didn't want to even ask. "Chabar," he could hear in his mind as he charged, wings spread out from behind and above him on a shadow's flame-like form while he ran on the air, "Chabar, reel in your anger NOW," the ghost hissed, his friend only partially listening? His anger? But why? Why should he even BOTHER with something like that? "JUST DO IT," the ghost wailed, sounding almost desperate in his mind, "BEFORE YOU-"
"Ohohoh... Now this is interesting," Noa chuckled, the enormous being of 'liquid' shadow charging toward him as Katsuya himself snarled and ran beneath it on thin air. "Perhaps I've made the better decision after all..." Better decision..? The distance seemed to almost increase between the two but he couldn't notice, he didn't care. He wanted to do nothing but end this... End it now, end it all- "I do prefer keeping my gender intact after all..." Gender..?
The blond momentarily froze, the shadows around him seeming to melt and move through the air like a strange gathering of anti-gravitational liquid. Gender... Noa was obviously a man, or at least a 'boy', it did seem strange that he'd considered Seto's body but... If he was going to take... A different one...
'I'll make you a puppet,' he'd said, the words piercing Katsuya's thoughts as he shook. "YOU... MONSTER! I ATTACK," he roared, charging forward as shouts from below and within his mind both erupted in protest, the shadows seeming to gather and wrap around his form as he lashed forward. "HRAAAAAAAHHHH!"
"Hnhnhnhnhn... I don't think so," his opponent hissed, seemingly passing through him as the blond choked and froze. Didn't...
"Gh-" The blond fell to his knees as he stopped on the other side of the 'angel', clutching his chest before collapsing even further forward. "GHN..."
"Chabar..!"
"JONOUCHI!"
"NIHAN!"
The last thing he saw as the shadows dissipated from at his feet was a blinding light... And above him, he thought he saw his own body looking down with a sneer, any remaining traces of the being he'd attacked with vanishing into dust. The last thing he heard however, was a challenge... A challenge of revenge, a challenge from a friend... And the word...
DUEL.
AN: NOOOOO JONOUCHI! We already knew the Kaiba siblings would be turned into stone (noooooo... Kaiiiibbaaaaaaaa...)... But what happened to Jou!
You'll find out next chapter... If you haven't already guessed.
As you can plainly see, I ended up with all of Kaiba VS Noa in the same chapter after all! This means all of Yugi VS Noa will be in the next one... And quite likely, so will any 'follow up' before we hit the 'real' second half. (Despite it technically being more like... The third 'third'.)
Anyways, there's art for you below as usual, but other than that there's not much to say...
OH! On a life related note, don't worry about me! I may have gotten suckered by a 'fly-by-night' for a day, but I've still got my temp-agency and apartment! One wasted day isn't much when you didn't have a job in the first place. (Ohohohoh~)
Now then, back on topic, for those waiting on what's going on in the real world, we're almost there... I'd say about two, possibly three (more likely two) chapters. I just need to get the timing right, so that things aren't split up every which way.
So, with all that covered...
Anonymous Review Responses
Hey there Iona! No worries about the job, I'll be fine!
As for 'trouble'... OHHHHH yea. Someone's in trouble, but the others are gonna catch a WHOOOOOLE lot of it first! In any case, enjoy the chapter! Hopefully the next one will come soon enough!
Usagi's Manga & Japan Guide/Corner
The section that's now quite short compared to the rest of the chapter. Remember when it took like... Half of it? HAHAHAAaaaa-ahhhhh...
Sororicide by definition is the murder of one's own sister. Technically Mokuba didn't do it, but he came dangerously close to it thanks to Noa's doings...
As usual, your daily dose of exposition has been replaced with mental knowledge; basically, when a card is activated, the effect is sent directly to the mind of the opponent, and regardless of what they say or do, the effect completes (unless of course they have a counter trap, and they activate it). This means that a lot of this duel moves faster, and smoother as well, as battling isn't taken up with attempts to explain what's going on.
'Ares'? As in GOD OF WAR Ares? Actually yes. Chiron is also Greek, being the name of a certain Centaur… (Not to mention the fact that he IS a centaur monster!)
For a guy with biblical obsession, Noa had a fair number of… Not-so-Christian/Catholic monsters there. Hehee. Anyways, Ares is mistranslated as 'Aeris', but given that his Japanese name is Holy GOD Ares…
Oh... And if you're wondering how those two monsters fit into the 'seven turns', they represent the 'nephlim', the giants that inhabited the earth before the flood of the world in the bible. I'm really not sure Noa should be putting the nephlim and the giants in the same story though. Not in that order at least.
When Noa says that 'the name suits it', he's referring to the fact that Noa, ordinarily, is a woman's name.
Damn it Noa, stop it with your God complex already. It was bad enough when you turned into Shinato, now you're WALKING ON WATER.
The Ainu, the indigenous population in Northern Japan, is a fairly cool group of people whose culture to take a look at in my opinion. It's a little upsetting that it took until 2008 for Japan to officially recognize them however, and the fact is, while 25000 are officially considered Ainu, there's actually about 200,000 in estimate… And even then, thanks to mixed heritage and historical issues, a 'pure Ainu' person is impossible now!
Any ways, I linked the Ark itself to the Ainu mostly because of the 'tablet' that's on the top (Not to mention that 'Shinato' was derived from an ooooolllld Japanese wind Goddess named 'Shinato-be-no-mikoto'. Which, literally translated is... Something about China. 'Shina' is slang for 'China' with the kanji used. UM. A Chinese Goddess then? EH?)…
The symbols look similar to the patterns on traditional clothing. Which is why Fem!Noa has them on her hat, even though her robes are that of a 'Jian-Shi', China's fairly frightening take on vampires and zombies combined. And so does Jou!Noa (Hidden by hair)… And Normal!Noa as well. YEA.
More on the deckmaster clothing, Jiang-Shi are specifically 'energy vampires' (Though some depictions have them suck blood now), absorbing the life force of a person. They're corpses, so stiff with rot that they cannot move without hopping, and are often seen in Ming Dynasty clothing with a seal of sorts across their face. (That's what Jou has at the side of his headband below) They also have really long tongues, and could potentially turn you into one of them. HIHHHHH...
As to why the clothes are purple this time around, it's because purple is generally representative of evil, and occasionally death in Japan. White is also linked to death, but I'm fairly certain that that one is a more 'at peace' one.
What's going through everyone's heads… Well, for Ren/Malik, Honda, and Otogi, it's a sad and twisted mix of 'WTF' and '…She's actually REALLY hot' (Similar to Jonouchi's own initial reaction)… Anzu on the other hand is flashing back to all those tampon jokes, smacking herself over the head, and entering liberal amounts of denial; because remember, she's still largely bitter about what Kaiba's done. She 'forgives' her, but she doesn't completely trust her… Throwing in the whole 'Oh and she's been a girl this entire time' just makes certain words and phrases seem more awkward or prickish. Either through double standards (which happens a lot with fem-Kaiba I would think), or simply through… Well, awkwardness.
Shizuka on the other hand is just plain confused; she's only known Kaiba in person for about a day after all!
What? Noa being unaware? But Noa's a computer! Noa also blocked Kaiba's mind from his own to make the duel 'fair'; so for once, Seto has an element of surprise that would otherwise be impossible.
...
He's also faking it just to make Seto completely lose it at some points. (For a large portion however, he is in fact being caught so completely off guard by his own thoughts that Seto's able to beat the crap out of him.)
Technically, 'D.D. Dragon' (Twilight Zone Dragon) has 1200 attack points, not 1400 like the Anime. OHHH WELLLL.
Oh, and Noa's temporary reverse mind screw is brought to you by denial and an unwanted flashback- that's right. While Kaiba beat the shit out of him/her, he/she was busy watching the flashback we see in the anime.
Is it just me, or did I just make Noa's 'crazy' a hereditary trait..? He got it from momma! YAYYYY. Though you never know, Gozaburo wasn't all there either I think... HMMM...
Hey, more script moving! Mostly for, as usual, making it run smoothly… Also for scenes like Noa and Kaiba's 'cat fight', though I'd really rather call it a 'tiger fight', as that was far more vicious than a 'cat fight' from what I can tell.
Tecnically, 'Ring of Defense' prevents all effect damage from a trap. This includes damage to the opposing player. But shhhhhhh… Anime...
Another technicality is that Twin Headed Thunder Dragon is a Thunder monster, not a Dragon. SILLY ANIME~
OH GOD- Mokuba…
...Yea. Some of you may wonder how I could write that… It was really hard, and rightfully so, given the usual relationship between these two. But the fact is, not only has Mokuba been completely conditioned to Noa's being, he's completely forgotten Seto, with those memories 'locked' away (Noa couldn't erase them, as those memories affect how Mokuba acts. Instead, he messed around with what was accessible and not.)… He's having a 'Kisara moment'.
Kaiba, of course, is having a fairly self-explanatory reaction… Because really, she's not throwing any punches on her brother. Also, she was kinda hit head on by a canon, so she's not going to be all there. At least not enough to do more than growl at Jonouchi and keep trying.
As for later, Noa most certainly did not erase or lock away the positive memories, not completely; rather, he blocked off the memories of the people in them. But of course, simply sticking themselves in his memories fixed that problem...
Lots of other dialogue changes in other words; a majority of the quick cuts to the side were left out for one, just to keep things moving smoothly.
Woah! What happened up there while Jonouchi was fighting Noa! Lots of things, things that I will explain here, as they all happened in their heads. Basically, Noa has Mokuba piloting 'Gradius' (A jet fighter monster), which is equipped with 'Cyclon Laser' and 'Matter Leveler', adding attack power. This also allows the damage dealt to affect Kaiba's lifepoints even on defense mode monsters.
In other words, Seto's 'passed turn' happened where it should, but you can't see it… Really, all she did was simply not attack as Mokuba chased her around. And of course, this means that the second Gradius was summoned while there, and that the real reason Seto's in such a terrible condition is that she was fired at in mid air, directly. (Noa summoned 'Gradius' Option, which effectively clones the monster. It shouldn't clone the attack upgrade though…) Also, I was rather iffy about writing more Mokuba-beats-his-sister-stuff.
WHAT. Kaiba would never accept everyone's help! Well they're not technically helping… Plus, she can barely stand at the time this happens, let alone bark out another 'GO AWAY, LEAVE ME ALONEEEEEE'. Another point is that she's a little more conditioned to this friend deal than her canon counterpart; likely because Mokuba and Jou actually make her get out of the house to do things (-coughHanamicough-) with other people… Also, a lot of the things she's hearing are things that she's only vaguely heard about; so she can't help but simply listen.
Seventh turn? That's right; the sixth turn, (I like to call it 'Warfare') happened in the air, between Mokuba and Kaiba.
Poor guys... (IT'S ALL MY FAAAUUUULLLLTTTT...)
Speaking of Kaiba, that's not typing mistake up there; Jonouchi really did briefly call her by first name, with no honorifics. In other words, habit is becoming a little more serious.
Shadows! WHAT? Before you get confused, Jonouchi didn't turn into anything... It just jumped out of his shadow. It also couldn't properly take form... As technically, there isn't any real form there, just what's in their currently shared 'minds/dreams'. So... Things that take form have a little difficulty doing it.
As for why our ghost friend got so freaked, well... That kind of affected him too, since it's a 'real' thing instead of just Virtual. It scared him, in other words.
FanArt & My Art Section
Take out spaces, paste link, and hit GO!
We have some references for you here, along with me experimenting with a different style! Yea!
Reference/Costume: Noa's Programs/Mokuba – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ ProgramsnMokuba. jpg - I got bored with styles... Heheheee. Probably won't use this one again though. Interestingly enough, Mokuba never actually wore that outfit; it was the original plan, but for some reason I really enjoyed the idea of him simply 'mirroring' Noa a lot better. ('Cept his clothes were white.)
Reference: Gym Uniform!Kaiba – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ SetoHighKick-1. jpg - In which Kaiba kicks ass. With little to call pants. There's also a reference to the Deckmaster-Tattoo there... And don't worry, she gets her clothes back. ... Eventually. Oh, and if you don't like LEGS, you probably shouldn't look.
Reference: Deckmasters!Shinato's Ark – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ NoaShinatoArk-1. jpg - The reference for Shinato himself is going to come later, but I had a fair amount of fun designing three variants of the same costume. Possibly too much fun...
Musical Notes:
Never never NEVER read a chapter like this while listening to Rin and Len Kagamine's 'Paper Airplane'. EVER. NEVER EVER. You will cry. Even if you don't know what it's about, you will cry.
That's all the notes for today though, since most of the songs I listen to are songs you know about by now.
And that's all for this update! Next up, Noa VS Yugi... Along with a bit of extra fun...