The Final Gate
In the world of her past, Seto couldn't help but find herself catching details that she had long ago missed during the time she had initially lived through the moment. Just little things, tiny things… Comparisons she couldn't help but make at the moment, comparisons between things that she wanted to do nothing more than ignore. But as she moved it simply became even more impossible to do such a thing. She kept finding similarities between the people she knew in the present and the people she saw in those 'dreams', between people she saw in the 'memories' that didn't exist, and simply couldn't exist…
No matter how 'real' they felt..!
She hated this… Hated the feelings her past was throwing back at her, and the visions that she had long since forgotten as a child and was just now throwing from thought with the excuse of an overactive, childish imagination that she'd long since lost. Shadows arose around each corner where they shouldn't have, staring at her from afar... And as she looked at her younger self she thought one of them spoke, whispering to her, speaking to her as she stared. Were the dragons always there, a naïve portion of her mind dared to ask. Were they always there, and was that one always in her shadow… Following her..? Speaking to her..?
Waiting for her to answer..?
The shadows vanished after one single event, one simple event it seemed. That car crash… Her father's death, with the truck toppling over as vehicles behind it squealed to a stop… It was all just childish fantasizing then she told herself with a snort, shaking her head as she continued to move through her past in a body she'd long out grown. Nothing more and nothing less.
A 'trick of the light', one could say. The wind, even. These things that she 'missed' were of no use to her, she continued to tell herself calmly. No use at all. Even later on however, there were other things she missed…
But these things were far too serious to ignore. Things like the look on Gozaburo's face when she'd 'won' her match, the glimmer of some twisted form of success across his face as she prepared for what was yet to come. Things like the mutterings of the servants that she'd passed off as nothing to bother with, mutterings of a boy named 'Noa' and of resemblances, resemblances that she'd thought were being drawn between herself and her brother. Things like the clothes she had been 'given' already, some of which still seemed warm despite the intense cold they brought to her skin, and the strong scent of some other child. The seemingly pointless questions of hobbies, likes and dislikes, the constant disappointment expressed whenever those likes and dislikes were voiced at the dinner table…
The line of slightly paler skin where a wedding band would have sat, and the dust that had sat on the switch until the moment it was used. The case that had held it, about which maids had whispered 'was always closed before they came, do you think it might be that the latch has broken?'
Her memories were fragmented, it seemed. Scattered across time and ordered in no particular path of chronology or importance. Maybe that was her own fault; how much did she truly want to remember after all? How much had she blocked from her mind, wishing for it to have never happened? ...Or maybe it was something else, her mind muttered. Who knew really. But for some reason, as she sank further into these thoughts…
Her memory cleared. And rather than fragments, an entire scene opened before her.
She could remember Germany. The 'dinner party' she'd been stuck attending, the one that they'd been invited to in regards to a recent agreement that Kaiba Corp and Schroider Corp came into. "Seto, this is Siegfried," Gozaburo had told her at the party, a boy around her age and height standing before her with somewhat narrowed eyes as he studied the two 'boys' across him. "You will be working with him a lot in the future when you take over the company," the man had continued. "I expect you to get along well with him." Or rather 'learn how he acted so you could take advantage of him'. She wasn't stupid... She knew how Gozaburo worked.
Or at least, she somewhat knew at that point.
Siegfried was the son of the woman CEO of Schroider Corporation, a company dedicated to developing battle ready defense systems and precautionary devices. His mother, Herja, seemed all too willing to let her son do as he pleased however- if anything, it seemed almost that as she led Gozaburo away to discuss a recent agreement their companies had met, that she supported it. As the woman conversed with her business partner at the side the children had scattered, the youngest two taken away by a pair of maids to a room they could play in and Seto herself pulled away by the pale haired, pink clothed boy she'd only just met.
"Want to see something cool," he'd asked in Japanese, Seto not wondering why the German boy would know the language at the time, or how he'd decided on that one over English. She'd supposed there'd been nothing better to do really though; so she agreed, deciding that she would likely cause more problems if she refused for the moment. And with those words Siegfried had led her to the side with a grin, plugging a small netbook into a panel on the side of the hall to the room. The pair were more than hidden in the dark of the hallway, illuminated only by the light of the netbook. And as Seto stared, she watched as the boy tapped a few keys and…
"AH!" The lights blew out instantly, Siegfried quickly disconnecting the laptop and closing it over before the light gave him away. The guests continued to scream...
"The power is out!"
"What's going on," others cried.
"Who... How..!"
But... He'd only touched a few keys... And the screen had clearly revealed that he wasn't being granted access to the system so- "Ah… Siegfried," she muttered as her arm was pulled, eyes somewhat wide with surprise at the boy's apparent hack. "You…"
Siegfried chuckled at the reaction all the party goers were having, before pulling his 'friend' off to the side and up the stairs as she frowned. "Shhh," he whispered, still laughing quietly as they came out to the 'third' level of the building. "It's more fun to watch from up here, so keep quiet..!"
"Up th- What," she hissed, before cutting her words short as her question was answered. This...
The ballroom balcony. The moonlight from the skylight illuminated both it and the panic below them in full, with people tripping over their dresses, spilling cocktails on the other… "Isn't this so much better than just waiting for our parents to finish talking," Siegfried laughed with a grin, the light easily showing them who was who as those below scrambled.
She'd said nothing for a moment… In fact, she didn't say anything for the rest of the black out. But she had smiled at the chaos below, or so it seemed. She hadn't noticed it… But the boy was right, it was fairly amusing, given that she wouldn't be blamed for the event. And while they sat there in the dark, a number of minutes passed, with the two staring down at the chaos and occasionally cracking a smile. Only a short number though; "I should turn the lights back on," Siegfried had said after a moment after all, smile fading only slightly. "Before they realize it was done digitally." Yes… That would probably be a good idea…
Seeing how there was a maid whispering in Herja's ear at the moment.
The power out had caused a number of problems for their parents it seemed, or at least for Gozaburo. Herja didn't seem to be particularly affected by the event, though she did give a raised eyebrow to her son. Regardless of whether or not she knew however, the damage from the temporary outtage had been done. The garage had, as a result of it, locked up completely… Which meant that their transport, which had been parked inside rather than outside, would be stuck in there for the evening, when the failsafes turned back off.
Their 'father', needless to say, wasn't pleased. "We'll have to spend the night in their guest rooms," the man had told them with distaste, pulling them to the side to give them, or at least her, their warnings. "You had better behave…"
"Of course, Tou-san." Of course she would- what did he take her for? She would stay in the guestroom for the night, and in the morning, they would leave. As it were, Siegfried had other plans- apparently his bedtime had been 'cancelled' for the moment.
Which meant he would be bugging them for the evening. "Niiiiiiii-samaaaaaa," Mokuba was shouting, running down the hall with Leon, Siegfried's brother at his side. "Nii-sama," he continued cheerfully, having been completely assured that their 'father' would be in an opposite wing. "We're gonna go swimming," the seven year old shouted, "They have an indoor pool with a waterslide and everything, and-"
"...Oops?"
The door had slammed open with those words before she could even protest, having barely pulled up her underwear as the three boys looked in the room. Leon's innocent comment was completely ignored, as was Mokuba's flushed apology- Siegfried's own statement had taken most of her attention. "Aaaaah… So you are a boy then," the tallest of the trio had laughed, eyes having honed in on clothing clearly meant for that very gender as Seto went red. "I had my doubts," he continued with a smirk, "You act a little like a-"
Girl? As if! "If anything," she'd growled dangerously, turning toward them with narrowed eyes as she caught the end of the sentence, "I would think that the one with PINK HAIR is the girl..!"
"AH- N-Nein," Siegfried shouted in protest, hurriedly clutching his head almost protectively. "I'm definitely a boy, this is just-"
"GET OUT!"
The door had slammed fairly quick after that, not to say she didn't end up at the pool in swim-shorts and a t-shirt curtsey of nosy Schroider brothers and the refusal to leave her in peace. "Hn! Calling me a girl… How do I know you aren't one," she'd grumbled to her 'friend', the boy rolling his eyes from where he was carrying his brother around in the water.
"Oh please," he muttered, Leon sliding down the boy's back to swim off to the nearby slide. "My hair is not that 'girly'…"
"It's pink," Seto countered flatly, arms crossed from the lawn chair at the side.
"Blame my Vater," Siegfried responded. His father? Hah!
"It's grown to your back," she hissed.
"It's tradition!"
"You could at least tie it back or something," she muttered under her breath, the boy rolling his eyes and turning away with a groan.
"Aaack! Mein Gott," the boy sighed, swimming away. "It is useless, trying to reason with you!"
Maybe. But that was just how she was. Which was why she left the pool early, finding no use in watching as her brother splashed around with the two German boys from the sidelines when there was a trained servant at the side to act as a lifeguard. What was the point in it all anyways, she muttered to herself as she re-entered her room. They'd have to dry off, they'd get water over everything before that point, and in the end, their 'father' would yell at them for acting 'childish' when he found out that they'd stayed up late to go swimming.
Because shudder to think a child would do such a thing, and want to play for once in their life..!
Yet that never happened. Gozaburo never came across them, never found out what they were doing. So as she stood in the room she was going to use for the evening and changed out of her clothes, she felt herself relax for the first time in quite a while... Feeling prepared to have her first peaceful night of sleep in a long time...
Big mistake. The door swung open as she grabbed her pajama pants and underwear from the side, and once again someone ran into the room before she could even make a sound.
But this time, she wasn't wearing anything that would tell them something other than the truth. "Seto," a somewhat accented voice cheered, "Hey, Seto! I was talking to Mutti and I wanted to know... If..." Siegfried's words fell short as he stared at the girl across from him, the twelve year old's face going beet red as he choked. "You wanted... To..." The boy coughed, finally halting all attempts at speech as the girl turned toward him with wide eyes. "...Ah... F-Frau... Lein..."
"GET... OUT," she managed to hiss almost murderously. "NOW."
The boy had done so without another word, and for the rest of the evening after her pajamas were on she waited on the bed with wide eyes. Waited for someone else to come into the room as she stared at the ceiling and clutched the blanket in fear. Waited for someone to shout, roar, to do anything, anything... Waiting for Gozaburo, waiting for the switch, waiting for the deal to be cut short right then and there... Waiting for Mokuba to be sent back to that place with her, where they could possibly be separated..!
But no one came. She spent a number of hours in fear before exhaustion knocked her unconscious, but no one came. And in the morning, despite all the threatening looks she sent to the boy who now knew her identity, and all of the narrowed glares Siegfried was subjected to from those same eyes, she could not have felt more frightened. Her heart was racing... She was barely able to focus on what was happening around her, and then as the boy's mother left the table with Gozaburo she felt it stop for just a single moment. There... He'd told his mother. And now she was going to tell her 'father'. And after that...
Everything would come to an end, she thought to herself in panic. Everything..! "Seto," the man called out from the other room, the girl walking in as she tried desperately to remain calm, or at least appear as such. "Frau Schroider would like to offer you a deal," he stated in English, any of those outside the room unable to completely understand them further than the name as a result. "Listen carefully." A...
A deal..? They weren't talking about who she was..? They weren't...
Then what were they...
The girl bowed her head shortly as a multitude of thoughts whirled through her mind, looking up toward the tall woman that was Siegfried's mother as narrowed but somewhat calm grey eyes stared down. "Seto," the woman stated with a just slight accent, arms loosely crossed over her waist. "Your father and I have decided that it would be beneficial if you were to spend the next three weeks in my home to learn more of the Schroider Corporation," she told her curtly, expression not once changing save for a slight change of the 'light' in her eyes. Three weeks... ...W... What..? Seto's eyes widened only slightly at the 'proposal', and the woman continued. "You will be made to keep up with your schooling while away of course, as per your father's request... And during your stay your brother will remain as well, so as to lessen the pressure on him." Pressure? What pressure? Not that she was complaining of course, but-
Gozaburo turned at the last portion of the agreement, frowning. "Mokuba as well," he hissed, narrowing his eyes. "We never agreed on this, he'll only distract-"
"I already told you," the woman hissed in German, the language somehow translated through her memory by some unseen force as Herja's eyes narrowed even more than they already were. "I will make certain that your son keeps his lessons in check. I will make sure to abide by the rules and 'guidelines' you have given me," she continued fiercely, "But I will not separate a pair of siblings... I will not betray your trust," Herja warned. "But remember just whose home you are standing in, and exactly how our companies came to be connected..."
At the time the memory actually occurred, Seto had simply thought that whatever Herja had said had 'impressed' her 'father'. That she had added something else to change the man's mind, to bend him to her will. Gozaburo however had tensed somewhat as the woman spoke she noticed now, before giving his usual curt nod and regaining an apparent image of superiority despite his 'opponent' appearing taller than himself with her heels raising her above their near equal heights. "...Very well..." Ah- He agreed..! "I will be leaving within the next hour," he said curtly, looking down to his 'son' before lowering his voice to a hissing whisper. "You had better behave..."
Ah... She would..! No matter what, she... "I will," she had responded, swallowing nervously. "No matter what, I will," she told her 'father' in an apparently confident tone. No matter what, no matter...
An hour passed and the car left with Gozaburo inside to leave for his private jet. Seto stood in the entrance of the mansion to watch it vanish before turning to the woman who had instilled this agreement, preparing for a repeat of what she received in her home...
But instead a hand came to rest on her shoulder, that same woman bending down somewhat to look upon her. And as she looked up, Herja's eyes had softened, despite the severity that still lay behind them and in the apparently narrowed gaze. "I am no fool," she whispered almost warningly, the girl beside her narrowing her eyes somewhat in confusion. "You would do well to realize this..." Of course..! But why... Why was she telling her... "I have created a schedule for you," the woman continued curtly, a maid moving from the side to bow politely as her mistress stood. "It will be sitting upon the wall within your room for the next three weeks. Do your work according to schedule," Herja explained, "And you will be allowed to use your remaining time as you wish. Lunch will be in one hour; I expect to see yourself and your brother at the dinner table in that time."
Ah... Very to the point. How.. 'German'... Of her... "...Of course," Seto said after a moment, bowing her head politely. "I'll be sure to follow these requests."
"...Good," the woman responded, before walking out of the foyer.
She expected that schedule to be as ridiculous as her lessons were, having proceeded to walk back to her 'room' with a thick scowl on her face with eyes wide with rage. A schedule with time forced for tasks she had learned to complete within moments, but was still left to complete in the 'time frame' lest she be stricken for 'slacking'. A schedule that would leave her locked in her room for hours with nothing to do, nothing to say...
However, she was again proven wrong. "...Why are they doing this," she muttered to herself, staring at the schedule in disbelief, eyes wide and quivering as she looked over the neatly handwritten tasks on the board. "...Why..." There was... Next to nothing... Nothing...
Each 'lesson' had been divided appropriately into slots, each day only holding approximately four hours of school work, and yet... Everything was there. Nothing had been cut, her lessons had merely been slipped into times that would 'make sense' for someone of her current education. And moreover... There was a note at the bottom. 'Should you complete your lessons early,' the note read, her hands shaking as she held it, 'Consider them complete for the day. There will be no additional work,' it continued, 'Provided all is correct and in order.' This...
She would have at least five hours of free time each day. She would have. Five hours... Of time each day... Five hours each day, but Mokuba wouldn't want to spend that much time playing chess or capmon or whatever, and she wouldn't be able to handle running around as much as he did so... So...
So what was she supposed to do during that time, what was she supposed to do when she and her brother 'ran out' of things to do..!
"Hey," a voice from the doorway said with a laugh, Siegfried leaning against the frame with a knowing smirk as she turned to face him with narrowed eyes. "You coming for lunch or not?"
...She...
She'd just have to 'manage', she supposed.
Somehow, that moron managed to get her in that dress on the second week there. "You're kidding me," she growled, looking up from the book she'd been reading in their library when the boy suggested the act. "You expect me to wear that?"
"Technically," Siegfried responded curtly, gesturing to the somewhat lace-lined sundress, "I'll be wearing this one." He...
He was going to wear... Seto blinked, putting the book down and staring almost owlishly at the boy in a momentary slip of emotional control. "...And you say you aren't a girl..."
"A- HEY! Watch it now," he retorted, eyes wide. "It's not like I do this all the time!" Oh really... "Now," the boy continued with a confident smile, "I got this one for you," he said with a grin, holding out a similar dress and hat. "It's even got a hat, so-"
Seto rolled her eyes as the boy looked down from the dresses in his hand, blinking at the snort she'd given in response. "Hn! Just what makes you think I'm going to even consider putting something like that on," she growled, putting the book to the side before crossing her arms. Seeing how she assumed only Siegfried was aware at the moment...
Which was hopefully an accurate assumption...
The boy merely smirked, pulling the dresses back with a grin. "Because we're going outside," he said with a grin, his 'friend' frowning in confusion. Outside..?
It was true, that Siegfried in fact had rules to obey; one of the only restrictions as it were, if it could be called such, was that they remain within the property's boundaries. All of them; she and her brother were no exceptions. The property, however, was more than expansive. Forests, fields, a pond that they could dive in... It was more than enough to simply sit within the grassy plains of those 'restrictions' to do her work in peace, or simply read a book as she was doing now. More than enough.
And this idiot still wanted to play 'hooky' and run away? "Come on~," Siegfried continued to whine, the grin still on his face as he attempted to convince the girl. "No one's going to be looking for two girls..! And besides," he added, leaning in with a whisper as Seto frowned. "When are you going to get another chance to wear one of these..?" One of those..?
"Tch! I don't even like dresses," she growled, pulling back somewhat as she shook her head.
Siegfried appeared to deflate somewhat, pouting. "Awww... But you're actually a really pretty girl," he continued despite the girl's scowl, "I bet you'd look nice..."
She supposed she did... She still couldn't quite remember how he'd convinced her to wear it Seto thought dryly, unable to feel completely enraged about the embarrassment of her younger self wearing something so ridiculous, but she supposed that looking back it was indeed somewhat nice. And the country they were traveling through...
That was more than worth the embarrassment that had no true legitimacy behind it.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen was a small town that thrived on tourism for the nearby Alpine range of Germany. It was just a kilometer or so away from the mansion that Siegfried's family lived within, and it was a town that the boy was more or less familiar with, having apparently gone down a number of times before. "So then you crossdress often," she'd asked smartly as they hitch-hiked on a passing truck's trailer, the boy snorting in response.
"Hn! It beats sitting around inside..!" Well...
...She supposed so. (And it wasn't as though anyone could recognize her now, given what she was wearing...) But thinking back as her mind 'translated' those occasional words she caught as they ran through that town... The words of passing town citizens and common residents of the downtown streets... 'Ahhh, there he goes again,' one would mutter, giggling to her friend. 'You don't suppose his mother plans on bursting his bubble anytime soon...'
'Ooooh, not as long as he looks like that I don't think,' the friend answered. 'I should think she gets quite a laugh about that...' Something told her, now that she understood their words at least, that she knew who that 'She' they spoke of was.
"And just who exactly is your little friend," the ladies at the cafe asked as they stopped for a snack, Seto having decided to simply hold a look of indifference to hide any excitement her eleven year old self might have had at that time.
"She looks very nice," another of the ladies continued as Siegfried looked at the menu for ice cream, Seto in question momentarily breaking from the memory's hold as she closed her eyes and grimaced. Please stop talking about what she looked like...
"Ohhh, and such beautiful eyes as well," they crooned, Seto's eyebrow twitching somewhat from beneath her hat. Stop talking about her eyes...
"Is she from the East," one of the gossiping women asked in a hushed whisper as Siegfried impatiently waited for the sundaes he'd ordered, "She looks very exotic..." Stop talking about her NOW.
She was beginning to wish she couldn't understand what they were saying anymore... Particularly since these weren't the words you used to describe an eleven year old girl..! "Hey, Seto..." The girl looked up, blinking as Siegfried held out a styrofoam bowl. "You like vanilla right?"
"...That's fine." For now, she supposed...
...(Looking back, it was good ice-cream, and she wished she'd said something about that...)
They'd gotten back just in time for supper it seemed that day. They'd changed back into their ordinary clothes, and somehow, Siegfried had convinced her to join him again the next week, as a 'last day' sort of deal. They went to a river beach this time, taking a train to 'Fussen', on the western half of Bavaria in the same dresses that the moron had held out before. She couldn't fully recall what they did while they were there at that river and lake... It was a faded memory, a long since faded memory...
But it was a nice one, she knew that much. One she hadn't wanted to end, one that she had found herself cursing as she left for Japan at the end of those three weeks, and as Mokuba gave somewhat saddened good-byes to the family that had looked after them over the summer. It was useless... Pointless..! What good were those days after all she told herself bitterly over the next number of weeks, if they would never happen again? Yet that next summer, Herja made the same request she had the year before. Only this time, it was for the full month of the summer, something that Gozaburo hadn't argued against despite narrowed eyes and something that had caught her so off guard she'd been unable to speak for almost a half hour after the fact. Things had changed by that point, that time that she'd gotten there for the second visit... Siegfried was certainly getting taller, much to her distaste and annoyance; after all, weren't the girls supposed to grow first? Evidently not... Moreover, his mother had apparently given him the right to leave the property, something he and only he alone had the privilege of in terms of the other children in the building.
Though now that she could understand what the maids had been muttering about, that was likely because it was no longer 'cute' to see the moron run around in a dress that he'd gotten the right to do so. "So," he'd asked suggestively that first week back in Germany, "Care to join me on another 'trip'," Siegfried chuckled, Seto looking over the next book she'd started on almost blankly.
"I'm not wearing the dress," she said curtly, already spotting the hanger in her 'friend's hand. "You don't need one, I don't need one.
"Oh come on... Bitte," he whined, holding the new and somewhat more 'personalized' dress forward.
"No."
"Bitteeeeeeeee? Bitte-bitte-bittebittebitte-"
"I said no," she growled, cutting the annoying string of German pleading short as Siegfried looked back up. "And the fact is, you're allowed to go out on your own anyways," she stated curtly, "So what would the use be in the dress?"
The boy shrugged, brushing back a lock of hair and continuing to hold out the dress. "Well... I might be allowed," he offered with a 'cough', "But as for you..."
She still didn't remember how this idiot was able to convince her to wear a sundress of all things... Let alone three times, one of which was after a full year of classes and practice in 'masculine speaking' on her own time. (Ore, she reminded herself, use 'Ore'!)
The countryside likely had something to do with it though. The rolling hills, the towering mountains... There were no 'trips', no real ones at least, during the rest of the year, or in any of the years she had spent at Gozaburo's so far. Perhaps another dinner party here or there, but for the most part any other event that her 'father' was invited to was for Gozaburo and Gozaburo alone, with herself left in the care of maids, butlers, and tutors wielding (for the most part) a switch. "Honestly," Siegfried had asked during one of the days they were outside of the property, wandering the town's botanical garden as she hung back in silence. "You act like you've never had any fun in your life!"
Hn! Really... "Not since I was a kid," she muttered dryly, sounding more than a decade over her age as her partner snorted.
"Hah! Some excuse," he'd laughed, pulling her off by the wrist as she shouted in protest, "You still are a kid! You need to live more," the boy shouted, his friend stumbling somewhat as she scowled.
"Li- And just what's that supposed to mean," she asked angrily, eyes wide as she frowned. She had lessons... A company to learn to run, not to mention that she needed to figure out how to turn that same company away from the arms machines it so constantly produced. "'Having fun'... Don't you plan on taking over your mother's company," the girl continued, pulling her wrist back even as she continued to follow the boy.
Another snort had been her response, and they continued to run through the flowered bushes of the garden. "Hah! Of course I do," he countered, coming to a slow walk as he smirked. "In like... Twenty years. You shouldn't be worrying about these sorts of things," Siegfried told her seriously, the smile seeming more 'honest' than joking as he looked to her. "Not now..!"
She couldn't remember what she said after that. There were lots of holes in her memory it seemed, and she wasn't sure why. But for some reason, as she stared out at the sunset 'above' the garden, the pair having eaten long ago before leaving... Well... At the time, she'd wondered if the moron beside her had been trying to make a move on her. Date her or even 'court' her or some other stupid thing, but...
This didn't feel like that she realized, looking back with narrowed eyes. He wasn't looking at her like that, not at all. If anything, it was more like how he would look at his brother. There was concern of all things in his eyes... A concern she didn't want, and didn't need, and more importantly, why, Seto thought with a growl, clenching her fists as she momentarily jarred her thoughts from the constant rush of memories and feelings yet again. Why, WHY was she remembering this now, and WHY was she caring..! And WHY did HE care, like what the 'Mutt' did..?
"I'll see you next summer ja," he asked as she left that summer, the dresses discarded and the bags backed and ready for the plane. That was the plan... Bring up the deal once again, and visit once more... It would be a long time, and it would only be for a month but...
"...Yes," she responded honestly. "You will."
She was sure of that... Completely sure, and no matter what happened she told herself, she'd make it. For Mokuba, who was finally enjoying time with someone his age. For herself, admittedly, not that that mattered as much... And more importantly, to escape from-
"...You seem oddly cheerful about these visits," her father asked her as that summer approached, the now thirteen year old girl swallowing nervously as Gozaburo approached her on the subject of Herja's repeated request. He sat behind his office desk, having called her into the mansion room from her English class. And as always, the mood of the room made it considerably difficult to stand, even with the slight gain in height she'd earned throughout the year. None of this made any difference to her 'father's words. "...You're far too cheerful in fact," the man muttered, "And I've noticed that you've been acting more brazen lately as well," he sneered. "It used to be that this," he growled, holding out the switch in his hands as he flapped the end in gesture, "Would scarcely meet the air... I was almost pleased by that fact," he continued, "Almost... But this year," the man hissed, slamming it to the desk as his 'son' reminded herself not to flinch. "I'm almost certain that these 'visits' are the source of this..." Maybe... Maybe not...
But he had no right, no right to do this, but if she said anything, her brother would be GONE, it wasn't worth their lives though, it wasn't, he's not in danger, she is, and if she died, so long as she held her tongue that wouldn't happen, and- "I was distracted," she said 'plainly', coming up with a lie on the spot as she swallowed back mental strings of fear and panic. "I had been thinking," she continued, "Shortly after the end of last summer's visit, that perhaps I was not learning 'enough' from the Schroider family about their company..." So... If he could please take that excuse now... Gozaburo's eyes seemed to narrow somewhat with those words, but this was not anger causing the shift for once. There was only curiosity... Which meant that she had his attention. So she continued on. "I wished to surprise you Father," she told the man with a swallow, a bead of sweat running down the back of her neck. "I planned to spy on the company's inner workings," Seto went on, "Going beyond what the family revealed, so that we could further our own company's development and possibly discard the need for a partnership..." That was her excuse... So... Please work, she whispered to herself, looking to her 'father' with apparently emotionless eyes. Please...
"Hn..." Her 'father' sat back in his chair, eyes narrowed in thought as he stared toward the girl. Waiting. Waiting for something to snap, for the 'lie' to be revealed. But there was nothing, and with that the man's glare vanished completely. "...You're finally beginning to think like a Kaiba," he finally said with a smirk, the girl before him suppressing a wave of nausea at the thought as Gozaburo chuckled. "Good... Good. It's about time... I'll speak with Herja," he continued, eyes narrowed in expectant mirth. "In the meantime, I suggest you pack your things..." Pack... ...It...
It worked...
…...
…
...YES..!
That summer... She could spend time with her brother again, just as she had the summers before. Spend time with someone her age, without worrying about secrets, about... Anything..! Nothing..! All she needed to do was remember the salve for the again raw wounds on her back, the wounds that were well worth the time she got with her brother for that price, well worth the few minutes of sleep, and- "...Why haven't you said anything yet," her friend finally asked during the third week of that summer, Seto turning from the game of capmon she was playing with her brother with a somewhat curious blink. "About your back," he continued, the girl's eyes widening. He...
He saw the- She tensed. What other option did she have but to do that, she was in front of her brother right now and- "My... My b-"
"Nii-sama," Mokuba asked, eyes wide with slight curiosity as the nine year old looked forward, "What's he talking ab-"
"Nothing," she said quickly, standing from the table despite her brother's frown. "Hang on a moment..."
Siegfried might have caught a glimpse of her back thanks to that stupid gardner drenching her with a hose as she passed by the bushes in her white shirt, but regardless of what the boy saw, her back was for her to worry about. "But 'Fathers' don't do that to their children," her friend protested angrily, eyes wide. True... But it was all for Mokuba's sake. "Getting yourself beaten so that he can be locked away in a room," the boy snarled, "That's for 'his sake'!" It could have been worse. Far worse, he had to understand that. "But it could be better, kusine..." Kusine...
That word... She'd misheard him last time, and asked what he'd just said. Had he said... Something about his teeth? What? This time she could understand him though. And even if she hadn't, she'd have made the connection, the word sounding far to close to its English counterpart than could be safe. 'Cousin'. He'd said... Seto's eyes widened still more as she stared at the boy, her blood running cold as she studied Siegfried's worried face. Those eyes... Narrowed to slits by heritage, but those eyes... "...Noa," she hissed, stepping back from a 'ghost' of herself and watching her memory continue to play as she again snapped free of her own thoughts. Noa... This was NOA'S cousin, this was-
Siegfried was only a few months older than her she thought coldly, the scene seeming to pause just briefly as she held her head. He would have been eight when Noa died, and if they'd visited even once or twice in the past... Then he'd known who he was, and he'd know...
Exactly... Who that boy was... And who he looked like. "...I doubt it could be 'better'," she had lied that day, looking to her friend in blank indifference. "Now... ...Lets go home." When had Siegfried's house become 'home' she wondered, frowning as she thought back to her words from that time. It certainly wasn't 'home' a week later... Not after... Everything else...
...She could only barely remember this though... "Gozaburo will be here for the final three days of the summer," Herja had told them that evening, after she and Siegfried had returned from the town that both were now allowed to wander through alone. "During those days nothing will change, understand," she said plainly, fixing the children with a steady look. "Nothing." Nothing would change..?
And just how was that supposed to work! She'd prepared a 'back up' of information to show her 'father', that was true, but for him to come now..! She couldn't do anything while he was here, she couldn't simply act as though he didn't exist...
But evidently Siegfried thought otherwise. "Come on," he hissed from the doorway to her room, Seto looking up from the desk that she was sketching things upon in her spare time. "We were going to take the cable car up to hike along the mountain, remember," he continued, the girl gritting her teeth in response as she looked away. Tch...
Of all the selfish- "My FATHER is in the room across this hall," she hissed, eyes wide with a mix of rage and fear, "So just what do you expect me to-"
"Oh please," the boy muttered, running over to pull the girl from her chair as he gripped a hanger in the other. "Mutti's going to keep him busy all day," he whispered quickly, "So let's go!"
One day, she was going to ask where he kept finding these dresses. If she ever decided to speak to him again, and if he ever decided to speak to her. "You're real clothes will get too dirty if you wear them where we're going; come on," he'd said, holding it out. "Just for today... Alright?" Maybe she was just protesting for the sake of her image back then, before throwing on that outfit, which had been made to suit the somewhat chilled weather they'd encounter on the mountain. Why... She'd have certainly protested now!
But that day... It really had been fun, hadn't it, she thought with somewhat dimmed eyes, a snowy breeze passing her by as the memory again overwhelmed her. Or at least, that was what she'd thought back then... They'd gone up the cable car to reach the snowy peaks of the mountain after hiking up to the building first, jackets stowed in bags along with ponchos and in the case of the hike, hats. Even in nothing but a pair of borrowed boots and a jacket or poncho however it was perfectly fine to stand on the snow covered mountain. The view was incredible... The air was so clear, so devoid of cigar smoke like what Gozaburo so constantly filled the air with. And even though Mokuba wasn't there... Even though he wasn't there to see it... She'd found herself wanting that day to last forever she thought miserably. Mokuba was still playing with Leon, likely chasing the family's dog around but...
These weeks...
In the end, they had to come to an end right? They had to stop... They went back at sun-down, having eaten supper while at the mountain, looking out over all that lay beneath them. The food had been 'different' of course, given where it came from but... For some reason she hadn't minded too much. It was... Nice. And for once, not as awkward as most other times would have been, as when they'd had that first ice cream. They'd gotten back with time to spare even; Herja was still speaking with Gozaburo it seemed, as she had been a number of hours prior, with the door open only a crack as they slipped past in silence. She'd been able to clean up, get changed, dry her hair from the shower she'd taken to eradicate any still lingering 'mountain scent'... Her work had long since been finished after all, and now there was only one thing left to do.
"Hey, should we find Mokuba," Siegfried asked, Seto looking up from where he'd been waiting in the doorway for her to finish changing in the washroom. "It's his and Leon's bedtime isn't it," he continued, the girl looking to the clock at that comment.
That was right, it was she told herself somewhat blankly, but...
Shouts were coming from the room across them, the initial outburst jarring them from their thoughts as they looked toward the room. The two both narrowed their eyes, walking toward it as the foreign shouts continued... And at the time, when she'd first experienced this, she hadn't understood what they were saying. Their words were in German after all, a language she had yet to learn. But Siegfried had understood it perfectly. And as he swallowed, growing pale in the face he quickly stepped back to mutter something under his breath. "...What was that," Seto asked, looking to the boy. "What are they saying..?"
"I'm going to go find Leon," he whispered, stepping back with a nervous swallow. "You should probably come with," he continued in panic, "I-"
"Du HÖRST MICH NICHT!" He wasn't listening to her, her mind told her as the line was translated. "Wenn du dieses Theatre noch weiter spielen würdest," a woman, Herja she realized, screeched in rage, "Hättest du ein mädel, das so verwirrt wäre, und du ihr so weh getan hättest, Gozaburo... Du weiß es doch! Sie ist weder dein SOHN," the CEO snarled, "Noch deine FRAU. Es wäre besser wenn du diese Einsicht käme, sonst wäre es zu spat!!"
Seto hadn't known what they were saying, rather, what Herja was saying that day. She hadn't known at all, not at all she realized with cold horror and rage as everything began to fall into place before her eyes. Siegfried had though. He'd frozen up behind her as she stood outside the door, which had just been tapped open by her outstretched hand, by the hand she'd found herself reaching out with in her hesitancy...
'You're not LISTENING!' She didn't know... 'If you continue with this facade,' Herja had roared with wide eyes, 'You will have a very confused and very hurt little girl on your hands Gozaburo... And you KNOW this! She is not your SON,' she screamed, a flash of light hair and a sneering grin coming to mind as Seto thought of her captor, 'Nor is she your WIFE,' the woman had gone on, a faded photograph coming to mind as she stared forward in silent fear. 'You would do well to realize that now, before it is too late!' That... This...
Gozaburo had said nothing in response, instead turning with narrowed eyes as Seto stood in the doorway near the stairs. This was... "...Seto," he'd said curtly, switching back to Japanese as his 'daughter' looked forward in mixed betrayal and shock. "...I thought you were supposed to be in your room..." The girl couldn't help but swallow at that, despite merely narrowing her eyes and nodding in response.
"I... I heard shouts..." But there was nothing else left to say from that, was there, even though she now stood in the doorway. Even now, as she realized just how much of her 'disguise' had been in vain, how much everything had been in vain..!
Silence was settling over the air... Herja gave Gozaburo a single cold look before walking past to leave the room, hissing something to the man in German... "Wenn du diese ihr diese Details nicht erklären wirst ," she muttered darkly, eyes narrowing to mere slits, "Dann sage ich ihr alles Bescheid... ..."
She left the room after that, taking Siegfried downstairs. Took the last 'witness' away, leaving Seto standing just before the staircase and the doorway as Gozaburo looked down upon her from the other side of the room. She was thirteen by this point. She'd learned how to act around this man, and just how to keep her own mind 'intact', or so she had thought back then. Maybe she was more 'brazen', more of a 'pain' to deal with who knew... But as she steeled her resolve, forcing herself to cast any fear of this man aside, she found herself failing horribly in the back of her mind, that small part of her that held a fear of this man deep inside simply unwilling to die.
"Why weren't you in your room earlier," the man growled, Seto unable to keep herself from stepping back as her worst fears were confirmed in regards to being caught in the act.
"I had... I had finished my class work," she said truthfully, clenching and unclenching her fists. "...Herja-san allowed me to leave the room following this... So I did..."
"I told you to stay in your room," Gozaburo continued almost dangerously. Stay here, stay there... A 'boy' did 'this', did 'that', did...
That was it... He'd known all along just who she was, and he'd strung her along like some pathetic little fish, attacking the baited line. That was it..! That was... "There's nothing to do in 'my room'," she hissed in response to the man's words, shaking on the spot. "What do you expect me to do when the lessons are done? Find some more school work, when I've already surpassed a high school student's level! What do you want from me?"
"Why are you like this..." Her 'father's words were almost whispered, and slowly they raised in volume as Seto narrowed her eyes and took yet another step back. "You don't listen," he growled. "You talk back when others speak, you hate the horses, you hate the winter, you hate the suits, you hate the classes..!" What...
What the hell was this..? What the hell did any of that have to do with this..! "So sorry I don't meet with your expectations, Father... But not everyone is exactly what you want them to be," she snarled, face growing red as her 'father' held his head in his hands.
"It shouldn't have been like this," he continued to ramble, the scowl set on his face as he stepped toward his 'daughter'. "You looked exactly... ...Your intelligence was... ..." Was...
What? What was it? What did she look like? What was this..! "Tch... Were you expecting someone else," she spat, hair standing on end as she gestured to herself. "I'm my own person 'Father'..! Haven't you realized this? Can't you just accept what I've done and live with that," she roared, the few years of abuse finally cracking as she shouted to the man. "Can't you just do that much!"
"You..." Shit. She'd gone to far she realized, stepping back yet again and swallowing as Gozaburo approached her with clenched fists. "Everything you talk about... It's always card games, dragons, so-called 'peace' and 'honor'," he hissed, his own face red despite the reasoning being drastically different. "All those words... They're nothing but toys and DREAMS," Gozaburo snarled, "What kind of SON ARE YOU?"
What kind of 'son'.? "Isn't all of this normal for a 'son'," she retorted, no longer bothering to keep her voice down. "What kind of FATHER uses a switch when their 'son' finishes classes ahead of time," Seto continued, looking forward in rage. What kind of 'FATHER' puts all of his attentions on one son while locking the other in their ROOM! What kind of FATHER-"
"That's ENOUGH," Gozaburo roared, eyes wide with rage as the girl cut her words short and stepped back yet again. "Why... Why are you LIKE THIS," he continued, holding his head before finally snapping as Seto grit her teeth and waited for a switch, or even a belt to fall. "Why... WHY AREN'T YOU MORE LIKE HIM!"
The girl's eyes flew open with that, and in a moment both of them had frozen, the girl standing in horror as she slowly stepped back to prepare to run. "Who," she whispered, eyes wide as she began to fall. "Who is... Him..?"
She'd stepped too far back. She'd fallen backwards on the stairs, unable to think any further than the fact that she could now see the ceiling above her. Who was 'him' she thought in her mind as she fell back, and as Gozaburo's shout of 'SETO!' came through the air and as panicked cries from the floors below filled the area. Who was 'him', who was...
Noa...
'This isn't the memory,' they'd told her as they ran through her mind. 'This isn't it...' No...
This was.
'What do you remember from yesterday,' she'd been asked when she woke up, the girl holding her head as Gozaburo stood at the side with narrowed eyes, 'What do you remember..?'
'I was doing my school work,' she whispered, frowning as she attempted to clear her thoughts. 'That's all and... And then... I...' Then she'd left with Siegfried... But it was all a blur, all fragmented, all... All...
'Don't strain yourself,' Gozaburo warned. 'You fell on the stairs.' Fell... Haha. Ha...
Hahaha... HAHA... This... THIS..!
"If you continue with this," Herja had snarled, "You will have one very confused and very hurt little girl on your hands..!" She was hardly 'little' she thought, the world around her shaking and crumbling as her eyes met with that of her past counterpart. Hardly 'hurt' and 'confused' she told herself as she clenched her fists, glass shattering around her as her eyes widened with rage.
But angry...
Oh yes. "GOZABURO," she snarled, breathing heavily as she looked upward at the virtually created tower that appeared before her as the last of her memories were cast aside. As she was returned to the clothes she'd worn coming in, the only thing missing being her coat and binding. This scum... This god-forsaken... "I'm coming for you," she roared, eyes wide as the scene seemed to rumble around them. "And when I find you... I'll make sure there isn't even a scrap of you remaining..!"
Her only answer was cackling laughter...
And a door appearing behind her.
For a moment as he held his head everything was swirling. The data was swarming his mind now that the walls of his memories had been shattered, and the walls he was attempting to put up in defense were nothing without the guidance of the ghost he'd met before. They were falling without her aid, collapsing each time he attempted to erect them. He needed... He... True, he remembered dimly, she'd tried to kill him...
But the walls... They'd helped... So much, they'd helped, and if he could put those walls back up he'd stop watching everyone else's minds, stop seeing everything they saw all at once as though he had numerous eyes EVERYWHERE, hearing everything, feeling everything...
Honda and Otogi were still arguing over rent prices as they walked back home, unaware that Honda's appearance as a still enormous hound was anything but normal. Yugi was jumping from memory to memory... shaking his head, attempting to re-establish the link he held with his lighter half, attempting to grasp at the one bit of 'sense' he could make in this place... Anzu was being held close by none other than Malik at the moment while she cried out in pain, but for the moment his mind wouldn't let him lash out at the teen- it wouldn't help, his logical mind told him, and besides, didn't it look like he was... Comforting her? Helping her..?
Seto was gone, having torn herself from the system with her own free will and spite. Mokuba and Noa as well, but Mokuba wasn't even connected any more, they were both outside the system, and-
Shizuka... ...His sister...
She was crying... She was crying and he had a voice in the back of his mind telling him not to care..! "Damn it," he snarled, holding his head as cracks appeared across 'reality', as he stumbled back and screamed. "DAMN IT!"
-End Program,- his mind snarled. -Returning to Main Menu.-
He didn't want to feel like this again, he didn't, he... "...HRAAAAAAAAAHHH!" And with one fell strike the illusions had broken, shattering across the entirety of the computerized realm. The city streets came back across the land, along with store buildings and highrises... The Domino Ward, the 'Main Menu', their 'home' had returned, but even with that he couldn't feel a shred of relief, not anything... "Hah... Hah... ...Ghnn..." His head... "Hn... Hah..." His head... The blond stumbled forward as he bit his lip, fingers digging into his skull as he forced a wall up once again, doing all he could to cement the block on the information in place. He had to stop the data, had to stop everything, before he was too overwhelmed to think, to exist, to... Even pretend to feel, in even the slightest...
"Jonouchi," a familiar voice shouted, the blond collapsing on the side of the road in his jeans and 'tunic-shirt' as he grimaced in apparent pain. "JONOUCHI," the other Yugi cried, running over in his own slightly altered costume, eyes wide with worry while numerous shouts filled the air.
Katsuya looked up with ragged breaths as the others came over, swallowing as his vision cleared. Yugi... Honda, Otogi, Shizuka... All in clothes that looked like some mix between their former 'class costumes' and their actual outfits but... Wait...
"Honda," he muttered, slowly pulling himself to his feet as he looked at the teen. He must have done this when he 'shattered' the memories... When he told the program to 're-set', to come back to even slight normalcy... "Honda," he repeated, "Yer..."
"Human," he laughed, crossing his arms with a grin. "Yep! Great isn't it-aru?" ...Aru?
...Crap, he must not have 'reset' completely... "AH-" Otogi blinked, looking to the teen with somewhat wide eyes. "You did it again..!" This was happening often then..?
"Did what-aru?"
"Bark," the teen protested, "You're barking at the end of your sentences!"
"What? I am not-aru!" Yes he was... "What are you-" Honda paused, bringing a furred sleeve up to his neck as he choked in apparent realization. "Erf!"
"H-Honda-han," Shizuka coughed, her hair still snow white from the 'Ruin' costume she was only slightly wearing now. The teen held his head, groaning as a slight canine whine came out with it. "Are you alright..?"
"AUGGGGHHHHH... I just got over being a dog-aru, how can I still be one," he whined. "This isn't fair-aru..! I thought I'd finally gotten my body back-aru..!" Well, his clothes were kinda covered in fur but... ...Hey, this was close enough anyways. It wasn't like it was really his body, the computerized side of him muttered.
Memories had other things to say however, bringing another problem forward, another problem that the computer continuously told him not to bother with. Something that was taking all he had to push back with that 'wall'. "...Where'r th' others," Katsuya wheezed, standing and leaning against the wall as the others turned back from Honda. "Where..."
"Ni-Nihan, should you be talking in this condition," Shizuka asked, biting her lip as she looked to the clearly weakened blond. "I mean, you're..."
"...Jonouchi... What happened," Yugi muttered, narrowing his eyes as Katsuya coughed again. "How did we get out of the-"
"Noa's gone," he said bluntly, still holding his head as the others tensed. "Bastard cheat'd us all... He's got Mokuba... But he didn' take Mokuba's body," he rambled on, closing his eyes and biting his lip. "He... He took..."
His. The others paled as they realized what their friend was trying to say, what the computer was saying, each one swallowing as they traded fearful glances. "He... Nihan... Don't tell me he took your body," his sister whispered, shaking her head despite her own subconscious thought being told otherwise. "Don't..."
"The computer... You're the computer again then, aren't you," Otogi muttered, sweat dripping down the side of his face as he stared at his friend. "You're..."
"...If you're the computer why did you ask where the others were..?" Honda shook his head, biting his lip before continuing on. "You're 'connected' to all of us now aren't you-aru? So why can't you? Hell, couldn't you just get us out yourself-aru?" Why couldn't he get them out..?
Because his mind and memory kept telling him that something was happening outside right now, something that they couldn't interrupt. But for now, his 'mind' told him, be half-honest instead of completely. "I put up a wall," he muttered almost darkly, still staring at the ground with shadowed eyes as he attempted to regain even a small sense of himself. "T' block out th' rest 'f th' computer, an th' thoughts 'f everyone else... So tha' I could jus' stick w' my memories an thoughts instead, so I could still be 'me'..." And even then, not even that... "I..." The blond swallowed, taking in a deep and shuddering breath. "'F... 'F I break tha' wall," he whispered, slowly standing up straight, "'F I let all tha' through... I don' think I'll ever be able t' be me again..." He'd just be another Noa... Another broken human being that was reduced to nothing but a cold-hearted and unthinking machine... Unable to do nothing but act on the basis of his last 'dying' thoughts and drive to escape, sacrificing anything and everyone he knew to reach that end.
...But...
Even so... "...They can' be far," he muttered, moving past the others with a determined and almost dead stare. "I broke all 'f y' out, an y' weren't tha' far from each other," he continued, those behind him trading worried glances as their clearly 'different' friend spoke on. "They should be... ...Down th's road," he decided on a whim, nodding nervously. Yea...
This one seemed like a good idea...
As they sat in the middle of the street park benches, neither knew what to say to the other. Their clothes were different. Her robes didn't have sleeves any more, and the skirt was divided into pants it seemed... But across her back...
Her burning, bleeding back... "Anzu," Malik began from across from her, reaching out with a now human hand as he swallowed. "I-"
"Get away from me," she hissed viciously, pulling her legs up against herself as she looked up from the bench with shadowed eyes. "And STAY away..."
The blond swallowed, nonetheless doing as requested as he lowered his hand and turned his eyes downward. "Anzu... I'm truly sorry... For everything that happened," he whispered, shaking his head and biting his lip. "But..." Briefly he paused, before looking up again with empathy, worry... "But I..."
"How can you even look at me like that," the woman spat, eyes wide with a rage that was only partially her own. "How can I even look at you now..!" There was no answer for a moment, and as tears rolled down her face she continued on. "You're HIM," she roared, holding her legs close as the Egyptian stood before her, tightening her grip as though the 'smaller' she got the less likely she would be spotted. "You're the one who caused all of this..!"
"I know," he responded with an almost broken tone, "And I-"
"What do I even CALL YOU," she screamed in rage, turning her head up toward the blond as memories that weren't hers continued to pound her skull, her back still stinging from the pain inflicted by those same thoughts. "I TRUSTED you... The one who put my father in a hospital," she cried, "The one who tried to kill all of my friends... I TRUSTED you, and you turned out to be HIM! You... You're a MONSTER," she shouted, voice breaking under the strain of her tears. "A monster..!" And she'd fallen for him, she thought as she brought her face to her legs in tears. Completely fallen for it, never suspecting...
"I know." What... Anzu looked up at the blond, her scowl fading somewhat with the words. He wasn't denying it...
Any of it... But why..? "You..."
"No amount of apologies can make up for what I've done," Malik whispered, attempting to come close once again before stopping as the woman before him flinched away. "I deserve anything you and your friends decide to do. Beat me, leave me behind, or kill me outright," the blond 'offered', "Do what you will. Because against better reasoning," he continued, expression torn as he stood there, "I've come to think of you as friends, if not partially as a family of sorts... Maybe it's because of what happened; I can't feel everything right now you know," he explained. "All of my hate, all of my anger... It's gone, using my body as its vessel and it's beyond my control. But that doesn't change what I did... It doesn't change what I've seen and experienced here, what I've felt while here... And nothing will erase the guilt of what I've done to all of you," the blond told her, taking a seat on the bench as he clutched the sleeves on his arms. "Nothing," he repeated, bowing his head.
She didn't respond for a moment. Her back still burned with pain, still bled after all, leaving markings identical to Malik's own but... In the end, she merely lay her head on her knees, eyes dimming as she attempted to make sense of it all. There were 'two Maliks' now. One was worse than this one, and this one was the one who had done all those things. But at the same time, it wasn't. There was no hate or anger left for him, not beyond what he re-created... Or beyond what he could leech off of her, her memories told her. "...What do we even do now," she eventually muttered, wiping her eyes and continuing to choke on her words. "What... What do you call 'us', what do you call 'this'," she continued, attempting to rub her back only to grimace in pain and pull her hand away with a hiss. The pain... It still burned, but touching it just made it... "...What... What do I..."
What did she do..? Malik's arms were again around her, pulling her close from the side even though she more or less resembled an 'egg' at the moment. "I don't know," he admitted, still staring at the ground. "I know my memories flooded your mind... But your memories did the same to me," he went on with a confused grimace, "And I don't know... Would this be a form of friendship," he asked, Anzu shaking her head immediately.
"It's more than friends," the woman said almost bluntly, before just as quickly clarifying. "But it's certainly not some kind of relationship... Nothing like that."
"...Siblings then," he offered, gently rubbing his 'friend's shoulder as she turned up and frowned.
"But we aren't even relat-"
"Rishid isn't related to me," Malik countered quietly, still not looking at the woman. "I still consider him my brother though. For as long as I remember, he's been my 'brother'." Ah...
A small bit of silence settled in, Anzu doing nothing more than sitting in the blond's arms with those words. 'Rishid'... That was... The tall man, the one she'd caught a glimpse of during Jonouchi's fight... Wasn't it? Silence continued to hover over them, a few birds chirping in the distance as the sun shone from above.
"You know," her 'friend' whispered, looking around the street they sat in with almost dull eyes, "I find whenever I pass this street, I think of that street in California..." Cali..?
"You've been to California," she asked idly, only to feel Malik shake his head.
"No. You have. It's the same with this street... I'm... Sorry," he admitted, Anzu merely nodding slowly in understanding.
"It's fine," the woman responded, before bringing up her earlier thoughts. "I... ...Rishid... He's the tall man, with the carving on his face, right..?" The blond nodded, and she swallowed, memories she should never have had on the man coming to mind. "He... He did that ritual when... This happened right," she asked, gesturing to their backs. "With the coming-of-age ceremony, and..." Another nod, the woman again looking down at the ground as she slowly brought her legs back down. "...And the woman... Ishizu," Anzu continued almost questioningly. "She's-"
"Our- ...My sister," Malik answered after a quick correction, the pair both standing at the ground as they attempted to make sense of the still present 'link' between the two.
Why did she know all these things... Why... She wasn't reading Malik's mind, and he wasn't reading hers, but these memories... "I'm so confused," she hissed, holding her head as she curled up somewhat.
"I know." Of course he knew... "...I'm sorry," the blond beside her repeated, neither looking directly at the other as they spoke. This... All of this...
"I don't... I just don't understand any of this," Anzu cried softly, still shaking her head as she shook, the pain on her back still burning like some raging flame. "I-"
"I'm sorry... Anzu, I-"
"It hurts," she finally wept, curling forward as a few corners of her still bleeding back faced the sky from beneath Malik's arm. "It hurts..!"
"I know," Malik whispered. "I know, but there's nothing I can do about it, we can't-"
"But how did you live with it then," the woman cried, looking back with tear-filled eyes. "How did you-" She cut off as she was met with a saddened gaze, already knowing the answer.
"I didn't."
They found the pair just moments after that exchange between them occurred, and after the duo had fallen into another span of silence. Thundering footsteps had filled the air in a stampede down the street, and as they turned the corner Anzu and Malik both shifted toward them, Katsuya himself merely slowing down with a slight frown.
"There she is," Yugi shouted, eyes wide as he looked to the woman in black. "Anzu... ANZU!"
"Who's sitting beside her," Otogi added, the group slowing to a stop a few feet away in confusion as he looked to the blond beside their friend. "The one in orange?"
At this the two on the bench looked up, Malik pulling back only slightly as an audible growl came from the former 'dog' of the group. "Rrrrrrrrrr... You..!"
"M-Malik," Shizuka whispered, eyes wide as she froze in momentary horror at the sight of the blond. "But how-!"
"He must have been controlling her mind," Honda snarled, teeth grinding as his hair and the fur on his clothing both began to bristle, his fists held in almost scratching motions as rage built amid the crowd. "Bastard..! I should kill you right here-aru..!"
"Then why don't we do that," Otogi added, his own eyes narrowing in a calm rage. "Anzu," he shouted, gesturing to the side. "Get away from him, he's-"
"Not going anywhere," she responded curtly, standing up from the bench as the others stared in confusion. "You're not going to even touch Malik, understand," the woman continued, the two who had been about to move for an attack frowning. "He's our ally! No matter what happened before, he's on our side!"
"On our- Bullshit!" Growls again floated through the air, a majority of the crowd narrowing their eyes whilst Yugi and Katsuya both stared in silence. "Is she still being controlled-aru," Honda asked, his friend shrugging.
"I don't know, is that possible through the computer," Otogi muttered confusedly, "I mean-"
"Well if Anzu's acting like this it's the only real reason we have right," Shizuka whispered, only for her brother to shake his head as he stepped forward and cut her off.
"No," he said quickly, expression far more 'blank' than it normally would have been "It ain'." The others turned, Yugi in particular raising a suspicious eyebrow as Malik stared. "We c'n sort th's out later," he continued, mind still running on the logic of the computer system, "But f'r now we gotta find Seto-chan an' Mokuba. B'sides," the blond went on, looking back to the pair with narrowed eyes as both tensed under the stare. "They're both 'them'... I c'n tell y' tha' now."
Silence hung over the area, with a majority of the others appearing to barely be convinced by the move. In the end however, any possible comments were stopped before they started, the look on Katsuya's face along with the combined and subconscious mental prodding giving them enough of a headache to put a stop on the argument. "Man," Honda muttered, shaking his head as he looked toward his friend. "You weren't kidding about the computer thing..."
"Thanks," Katsuya said almost automatically, the teen giving a slight shudder in response.
"That wasn't a complime-"
"We need to get out of here," Yugi said plainly, still fixing a suspicious eye on Malik as he cut the teen off. "Come on," he continued swiftly, "Lets move..."
The others nodded, Katsuya stepping forward to lead them down the road. "Righ'," he began, nodding somewhat shortly as he attempted to regain his bearings without losing track of where they were. "I think there's somethin' over here..."
"You think, or you know," Malik asked smartly, before rubbing a bruised shoulder when Anzu smacked it as a response. "Ow!"
"You're not going to be helping your case with that," she muttered.
"It's only the truth..! I-" The Egyptian cut his words short as they moved past the next series of buildings, the group having walked through a strange 'round about' street only to freeze. Despite his 'computer side' telling him there was nothing to worry about, Katsuya had to really 'feel' for the shock that had caused this tension actually. After all...
The city had just been replaced with a bi-coloured, checkered lawn, possibly the size of Mongolia. It spanned for a seemingly endless distance, and where they now stood marked the 'line' between two rows of enormous white chess pieces. "Holy shit," Honda muttered, shaking his head. "Kaiba's 'dad' really likes chess-aru..!"
Ohohoh... If they only knew. "That's... That's putting it lightly," Otogi muttered with a cough, the others unable to do more than look up as they walked between the two rows of white pieces. "That... Yea..." Not much else to say on this...
"What do you think we'll need to do here," Anzu asked, the pieces towering above them as buildings in their own right from where they slowly walked between them. "I mean, these things are huge..."
More than huge; it was almost as though Tokyo tower multiplied. And yet he apparently wasn't the only one thinking 'clearly' despite this. "We'll obviously have to play through this," Yugi said almost quietly, the boy looking up at the pieces and narrowing his eyes. "Somehow, at least."
Yes... 'Somehow'. "Eh- Play? With these," Malik protested with a frown. The Egyptian gestured up at the pieces, a frown on his face. "And what makes you think that? Do you have some sort of psychic powers we don't know about?"
The boy chose to ignore the comment, instead pointing between the pawns to gesture to a number of black pieces opposite them as Shizuka examined the Queen behind her. "We can't pass through these pieces," he answered, bringing his hand back. "So I doubt we'll be able to pass through the black side. But what do you see between the King and Queen of that side?"
The group squinted at that, leaning in somewhat to look at the hazed structure between pieces. Between the king and Queen... He knew without even having to 'look'. "A tower," Otogi answered, the teen narrowing his eyes even more. "In fact, I think it's..."
"KaibaCorp," Katsuya muttered, eyes widening somewhat as the others stared. The shine across the building's glass, the oddly shaped helicopter pad... There was no doubt about it. "'S KaibaCorp." And if they were lucky, perhaps it was also where Seto w-
"A-AH! W-What!" The teens each jumped as a rumbling, robotized cry erupted from behind, seemingly originating from above and operating with a tone almost similar to Shizuka's own. "W-What happened..!"
They turned, Katsuya looking up with wide eyes as the 'Queen Chesspiece' seemed to move, the blank-faced head looking down as its 'arms' stretched out in apparent shock. This... The skirt had divided to reveal a balancing 'point', and shards of the piece now hovered around it but... "W-What th' hell-" His mind told him he shouldn't have been surprised; this was 'normal'. But the wall prevented him from knowing how this had happened, and exactly what had-
"N-Nihan," the Chesspiece shouted, looking down with wide and terrified lens eyes. "I think I... Ah... ...I think I'm stuck..." Oh HELL... That was...
"S-Shizuka..?"
As the piece nodded, the others had to swallow. This... Would be an interesting game.
She supposed that a door that took her directly to where she needed to be would have been 'asking too much' really. If Noa had been content with leading her around pointlessly after all, then why wouldn't the man she had once called 'Father'? An endless staircase had met her vision when she opened the door, and it was with grit teeth that she had begun to run up the stairs. For herself. For Mokuba. Hell...
By this point she felt like she was doing it for just about everyone stuck in this hole! And as she ran she could hear his endless and cackling laughter, taunting her as she panted and charged up each step. "Hnhnhnhnhn... HAHAHAHAHA... Come and get me," Gozaburo sneered, flames seeming to line the sides of the staircase as she ran. "Come on, Seto..!" Tch...
"Leave," she hissed, continuing to run up the stairs even as a vicious draft of cold struck her from the side. She could scarcely see the stairs she ran upon, and if she looked over the side there was nothing else. And each time she took in a breath the cold wind blew, seeming to slam against her with all the force of a living human being. "Leave," she repeated with a growling tone, her locket slamming against her chest with each step. "Leave me..!"
The cold wind blew once again... "You're too LATE," a woman's voice hissed, a winged mask floating past on a wind of white, the breeze seeming to form a gown in the dust at her side. "Too LATE," the woman snarled, "TOO LATE!"
Damn it all... She didn't know who this woman was, but if this wind kept blowing... The mask hovered just ahead of her, and she grit her teeth. "Tch... LEAVE me," Seto roared, throwing her arm through the mist and continuing to run up the stairs. She didn't have time for this... She needed to get out of here, she needed to get her brother out of here, and she needed to get everyone else-
"Too late ojou-chan," the voice whispered, mask returning in a mist as its porcelain expression of serenity twisted into a snarl at the side. "TOO LATE! Your brother is gone and your lover is DEAD," she screeched, the misted body furling into a white flame. "TURN BACK!" Gh- Lover!
Seto paid no attention to the rest of the spirit's warnings, merely continuing her run and throwing a knife-hand toward the shade. "I said LEAVE," she snarled, cutting through the mask as she charged the steps. "NOW!"
At that word the stairs suddenly disappeared, the woman stumbling into darkness as her body seemed to glow. She tripped, stepping forward once or twice, before looking beneath her and finding herself hovering in place. Gh- This... This place. "Hnhnhnhn... Hnhahahaha..."
She was at the 'top', she told herself. There was no where left to run, and no where for her target to hide. "Tch... Gozaburo," Seto hissed, narrowing her eyes as the man appeared across from her in a brief pillar of flames. A reddish coloured suit met her gaze along with a scowling expression and a smoking cigar. He looked no different than the day he died... Go figure.
"Well... You certainly took your time in coming here," the ghost muttered plainly, Seto narrowing her eyes as she walked toward the man with an unimpressed scowl. "I've been waiting... We need to have a talk," he continued, raising an eyebrow slightly.
As if she would be bothering with something like that... "Tch! Hardly," she growled, fists clenched as she stopped just a few feet away from the man. "If I didn't know just who you were I'd almost laugh at how ridiculous all of this was..!" At how pointless this entire realm was, at how pointless it was for a dead man to attempt the destruction of anything... At least Noa, at the pathetic core, had a reason!
But the 'man' merely snorted at her words, shaking his head. "Now now Seto," he 'sighed', tapping some of the ashes from his cigar to the ground. "Don't be like that... We have plenty of time after all," he continued, the darkness below vanishing as a chess 'board' appeared beneath them. "See?"
Seto looked down briefly with those words, frowning as she looked to the pieces that were there. Some were moving... Others were changing, shifting... The two rooks at the sides had shifted into some sort of moving tank, with the knight closest to the Queen resembling some sort of mechanized vulture, the second seeming almost similar to her dragon. The Queen itself looked like some skirted 'Gundam', the King a 'control tower' and the Bishop's large round 'hat' opening up like a flower to reveal a large glowing stone, a figure hidden within. And as she stared at the bizarre scene, watched as the counterparts to these pieces mutated into monsters on the oppsoite end of the field, she heard a voice...
"Game START," Yugi roared from inside the King's Chesspiece, the boy flipping a wide number of switches before hitting a single button. "PAWN TO D-4!" A chess game... As the pawn moved forward she frowned, shaking her head. It was all... A chess game.
Gozaburo's Knight was the first to move in response, hovering through the air before landing on F6. This match... These first two moves, almost identical to- "Tch... Even if we had eternity my words would be short," the woman hissed, looking up as the image of the chessboard vanished from sight below them. "Listen to me," Seto continued darkly, "And let us out, NOW," she snarled, pointing toward the man with grit teeth.
"Hnhnhnhnhn... I don't think so," the ghost chuckled, pacing around the woman as she glared at the spirit from her floating position. "Your little friend seems more than 'capable' of fighting... Why not let him decide for you, like how you decided I would adopt you," he sneered, Seto continuing to narrow her eyes in response. Hn! Chess, chess, nothing but chess...
But those few moves had revealed all she needed to know about how this man thought. "This really is a waste of time," she hissed, narrowing her eyes. "You think you can defeat Yugi in Chess? Please... I defeated you as a CHILD," the woman spat, eyes widening as she continued on. "And with that in mind just how do you think you'll fare against my current rival?"
The ghost's smirk fell instantly, a scowl appearing on his face. "Oh... Believe me when I say that I will be more than a 'challenge' for your precious 'rival'," he growled, seeming to 'flame' before Seto as he spoke. "And you would do well to realize that you are not as 'powerful' as you think... Besides," the man sneered, revealing the board again as the Knight which resembled a vulture was crushed beneath the black 'demon' which attacked it, "No one said we had to continue fighting... I don't need the 'real world' after all," he chuckled darkly, the knight's rider below being spared by the pawn that saved it shortly thereafter. "All I ask is that you stay here, as my son... Or my daughter... Whatever your choice," he continued, "And I'll let the others escape." REALLY? He thought he would get her with that?
"Tch... Bullshit," she growled, not even allowing herself a moment to consider the offer. "I know what you're trying... And it won't work. I would much rather die than remain here with you," the woman spat with another accusing point. "Particularly when your 'word' is worth as much as the filth in the horses' stables! If you want 'me' so bad," Seto continued darkly, "Then fight me yourself, COWARD!"
In that moment the ghost before her erupted into a tower of blood flames, the woman below clenching her fists as she stared up to the demon with narrowed eyes. "YOU... Very well," he snarled, a familiar stream of 'cards' swirling around his 'daughter' as she continued to look forward. "We're going to play a game you're VERY familiar with," Gozaburo snarled, voice twisted by the crackling flames. "I'm going to defeat you in the one game you pride yourself upon, like you did to me..!" The game she prided herself upon-
He was going to challenge her to that..! "You... You're challenging me in Duel Monsters," Seto muttered incredulously. The game that she considered herself the 'Queen' of... And with Gozaburo's words in mind her scowl deepened. "...Tch! As I thought... This is just one big vengeance ploy..! All this work... And THIS was your grand scheme," she roared, looking up with narrowed eyes. "Really?"
"Hn! You can thank your 'brother' for the complications of things," Gozaburo sneered, the flames still swirling without any sign of permanent form. "If it hadn't been for his mind snapping into a pathetic little child I'd have never broken free..! And you can thank your 'Katsuya' for that," the man added, Seto narrowing her eyes as cards she 'picked' slowly vanished from the screen around her. This...
She didn't even think of him by his first name..! So stop speaking of him as though they thought of each other like that..! "Well... So you were 'trapped'..." Trapped by none other than the one they'd have had to break to escape in the first place... "Hn! A 'ghost' trapped... How pathetic," she sneered, the flaming specter merely snarling in response to the words that Seto would ordinarily have never brought herself to say.
"HN! We shall soon see who the 'PATHETIC' one is," Gozaburo hissed. "You... I HATE you," the demon roared, no longer even remotely resembling a human being as razor sharp teeth flashed from the fires. "More than anything, I HATE you! You took my company," he snarled, "My life..!"
"You took your OWN life," she retorted, eyes narrowed even further as the cards spun about her. "And if you think that this gives you the right to trap us in this world you can think again... Make your move, Gozaburo!" It was time to get this over with..!
Now that the mental wall he'd created was in place and he'd mostly gotten over no longer having a body, it was easy to act like himself. Perhaps even too easy the memories thought he should know, but for the sake of the others, he'd continue anyways.
It was the least he could do right?
And even if there had really been no reason to freak out about the 'Chess Piece' deal, (or so his computerized mind told him) he would at least act as though it had and move on. "Alrigh'," Katsuya said as he cracked his knuckles, the initial panic having calmed down considerably. "Looks like we know how we're gonna play th's game now," he said with a grin, the others nodding in response. A person would take a piece, and they'd move on... "Oi Yugi," he shouted, gesturing to the piece in front of him, "You think you c'n take th' King?"
"Ah- The King," the boy responded, turning from where he'd been about to take a Bishop. "Why the King?"
"Yea... The King can barely move," Otogi continued, "Why would-"
"Cause th' King's gonna be controllin' th' players," he countered, the others raising their eyebrows. "We each gotta take a piece, yea, but someone's gotta move each 'f us! 'Nless y' want t' face Gozaburo w' a computer d'ciding yer moves," he added, the others swallowing in response.
"And how did you know the 'king' would be the one to do it," Malik asked somewhat suspiciously, crossing his arms from where he stood a slight distance away.
How... "I jus' do," he grumbled, scowling as he looked away. "'S a c'mputer thing..." And not easy to avoid either. "Anyways... Oi, Shizuka," he shouted up, the 'Queen' looking down with a slight nod. "I'm takin' th' King's Knight, got it," he told her, the Queen seeming to nod.
"Alright Nihan," the Queen responded, before looking to the side to stare. "Ah..."
Yugi tapped the 'King' piece beside the woman, the piece in question giving a shudder as the boy vanished from sight. Unlike the Queen however no limbs appeared, nor did any sign of humanity about the device. Instead, a large 'window' opened near the 'crown' at the top, a voice coming over a speaker system in the 'tower'. "...I'm in," Yugi said almost plainly, the boy looking around the room he now sat in with mild indifference. "It looks almost like an Airport control tower..."
"Airpo- Wai'," Katsuya muttered, before shouting up, "How th' hell d' you know what a-"
"Aibou told me," he said plainly, before continuing on with his usual voice of authority to guide the group through. "Now... Honda," he started, the teen blinking as he looked up and nodded. "I need you to take the Rook on Shizuka's side."
"Ah- Shizuka's-" The teen flushed, before receiving a fairly quick swat from the blond beside him. "ERF!"
"My sister is off limits," he said bluntly, eye twitching somewhat. "Jus' take th' piece."
The teen hurriedly nodded, running off as Otogi turned toward the King. "And us," he asked, frowning somewhat.
"You can take the second rook," Yugi began, his friend doing just that as he headed for the one on the King's side "As for Anzu, if you could take the bishop..."
The woman nodded, moving toward it with another nod. "Right- I'll take Shizuka's then," she began, before turning to Malik to frown. "Ah... But..."
"I'll take Shizuka's knight," the Egyptian said plainly, giving the woman a smirk as he gestured to the piece beside hers. "I can hardly sit on your wrist like this, hm?"
Anzu stared for a moment at that, before nodding in silence. Each one of them were now standing before their pieces... And with deep breaths each one stepped 'into' them, eyes shut in anticipation as the newly activated pieces shifted and twisted under their new 'hosts'. The rooks responded first. Claw-like legs spread out from the bottom, and rising out on the tops of both were two manned turrets, Otogi and Honda each looking down at their 'tanks' in a mix of shock and approval. The Bishop was next, the top breaking into a flower of sorts as the panels fell to the side, revealing in the center a great and glowing sphere... Under the control of the woman inside it. And finally the knights.
What were once horses reared their heads and shook off shards and chunks of stone, a large white vulture rising up at Anzu's side while a dragon snarled beside Otogi's rook. Metaloid feathers and scales shone in the air, shifting and clacking as each beast gave their own snarl... On the head of the Egyptian Malik stood, gripping a set of reigns tightly as he gave a quick nod to Yugi- And as the Blue-Eyed dragon beneath him gave a rumbling cry Katsuya did the same with the reigns in his hand, barely finding his foot holds on the head as the dragon snarled. They were ready now, he thought to himself, swallowing as the Black Chesspieces that countered their own chosen ones each shattered into demonic and fiendish forms from across the field. They were ready...
"GAME START," Yugi roared, one of the pawns ahead seeming to hover in the air at his command. "PAWN TO D4!" In a moment the piece responded, and just as swiftly the first of the blade armed knights across from them began to move for its play.
Knight to F6, a shuddering and bodiless voice seemed to sneer, the King's eyes gleaming as he spoke. The knight easily leaped over his army's barrier, blade at the ready as he hissed and spread gold gilded wings behind him. The message was fairly clear; it was their move.
Yugi seemed to narrow his eyes from within the tower, arms crossed at what was a somewhat unusual start off move. "...Pawn to C4," he eventually decided, the next pawn moving its start off of two-spaces forward. Now...
Another pawn floated outward from the other side, taking a rest beside the Knight as the grating and rumbling voice of their opponent again came over the air. Pawn to E6, the King stated, their own continuing to stare through the window in thought.
His friend looked over from the window, giving the teen a slight look as his friend turned. "Jonouchi," he said clearly. "Are you ready?" Rea-
The blond nodded, smirking somewhat as his steed snarled and roared with anticipation. "Heh! Would I be here if I wasn'," he laughed, pulling at his reigns. His friend merely returned the expression as Katsuya looked forward, pointing his dragon toward the field with a grin. "Go!"
"Knight to F3," the boy beside them called out, their opponent taking the next move as Kastuya's dragon snarled. Wings beat at the air and the monster tore upward, leaping over their wall of pawns to come to rest on their appropriate square. "Now..."
Pawn to B6, the King snarled.
"Knight to C3," Yugi countered.
"Knight," Malik repeated, before looking forward from the head of the buzzard he stood upon. "Understood, Pr'ah! Let's GO," he shouted, the bird he was on taking off through the air to weave over and around the pawns in his way before alighting in its new position. "Your turn!"
Heh... Whoever said Chess was boring was probably only half right Katsuya thought briefly, watching as the Black Side's zombie-like pieces began to move again. Bishop to B7.
"Pawn to A3!"
Pawn to D5.
"The first pawn attacks," Yugi announced, the black one having come into range. Standing at a diagonal the white pawn shuddered, before slamming into and through the black one from its position in the 'C' column to the D one. Dust littered the ground, and Katsuya swallowed as he looked at the wreckage now scattered across the field. Well... He knew what would happen if they lost now.
Knight to D5, the Black King responded. Shit. With a blinding slash the knight struck the pawn in its way, stone scattering across the field as the demon cackled viciously. The blade on the Knight's arm was almost blood-red in colour, his armor a rusted gold. And the eyes that it had... Rather didn't have...
Yugi remained unphased by the demon as he stood at the control panel of the King's tower, merely continuing on. "Pawn to E3," he ordered, the others paling. Ack-
"YUGI," Anzu shouted abruptly, "But Malik is still in the way of-"
"OHHH SHIT," the blond shouted, his steed rearing angrily as the winged 'Shadowknight' jumped the pawns in his path to cackle. "SHIT," he repeated as the bird screeched. "SHIIIIT!"
Knight to C3, the bloody King announced coldly, Malik's steed narrowly dodging each strike from the monster.
"Shit, shit, shi-"
"Pawn to C3," Yugi shouted immediately, Malik knocked from his ride as the Knight's blade finally tore through his monster's throat. "Now Malik," he called out, the Egyptian looking back as he fell amid the dust. "Take the Pawn!"
The pawn..! As dust filled the air from the destroyed white Knight the field fell silent, nothing but the shadow of the Black one remaining. There was no sign of the remaining chess pieces, of Malik... As it began to clear however, a cackle could be heard... Growing louder... And louder...
"Hehehehehe... Let's DO THIS," Malik roared with a somewhat digitized voice, face barely visible in the cockpit of some strange mix between a gundam machine and a pawn. "ATTACK!"
"GN-!" The Black Knight froze as Malik struck, metal fists knocking the demon's head from place with ease to reveal naught but dead bone and sinew. The rest of the body soon followed into ashes after the attack... Collapsing into nothing but dust below, and with a slight smirk from the one controlling it the 'Pawn' turned to give the team's 'King' a small salute.
"Keep it up," he shouted, giving their friend a curt nod. "We can't take too long after all..!" No... They couldn't, his mind whispered, the reason kept well hidden at the back of his mind.
So they'd just have to continue playing. Bishop to E7, the Black King ordered, the 'normal' of the two Bishop pieces hovering one square downward.
"Bishop to B5," Yugi countered, his own 'faceless' piece doing the same. Time to play the waiting game Katsuya thought as the Black team sent a pawn to C6 to end its turn. The waiting game that came between attacks... The bishop was forced to retreat to D3 and the black pawn had since moved a space forward... And now... "I 'Castle'," the boy shouted clearly to the crowd, the tower seeming to move toward Otogi's rook as the tank did the same. "Otogi..!"
"Got it," the teen answered, the two pieces charging the other as the tank and King both skittered forward on robotized legs. "Haaaah!"
And as the two pieces switched, and the remaining Black Knight took its move, those on the field continued to stare, waiting for what would happen next. Time to play the waiting game...
And pray that it ended well...
As they walked along the tunnels to Alcatraz island, there was more than enough silence to be left to their own thoughts. Mokuba's thoughts were stinted of course, what with a large number being blocked to hold him at his side. But that would change over a short amount of time; after all, it would be easy to 'replace' those memories in the end, so what few thoughts Mokuba had right now mattered little. His own thoughts however, had never been clearer, even during his time as a computer.
His father had abandoned him. Like he had in life he'd abandoned him, casting him to the side like some discarded doll. His father had come back, only to abandon him... But all the same, his father was also dead. He'd jumped out a window and left nothing of himself behind. But ghosts didn't exist right, he asked himself as they came to the end of the hall to enter the next passcode. Right?
The door to the outside opened from beneath a light pile of rubble, and as the door was pushed off completely. the two 'brothers' stepped outside. The rubble littering the ground even after these years shimmered in the late morning sun, with Mokuba running forward with a shout as he finally felt some real sunlight after the terrors of the Virtual World. "Ahaha! Alright," he cheered, the ocean near the edge of the island giving its 'back-and-forth' rhythm of waves in response. "Finally! We made it..!"
"Hnhnhnhn... Excited," Noa asked with a smirk, walking out behind the boy as his 'brother' turned back.
"Of course..!" Hnhnhn... This boy...
Such a nice boy... It made him almost regret blocking all of those memories, when he'd offered him a body that was truly his own. But his plan would never have worked he told himself, recalling Mokuba's words from within the computer as his eyes dimmed. Never... It would never have worked, it couldn't have... "...How about we leave this place," he said with narrowed eyes, staring past his brother and to the ocean around them. They needed to leave... Leave all of this behind, forget about everything... Forget about the emotions he'd gleaned from his victims minds, the loyalties each person held for the other...
Mokuba turned toward the center of the island, nodding furiously as he looked up to Noa. "Right; we had a plane didn't we," the boy shouted with a grin, his brother blinking somewhat confusedly. A plane..? So they wouldn't have to find a helicopter or a boat in these ruins? "Let's go," Mokuba continued, pulling the blond off toward the tower in the distance with a smile. "We were supposed to leave during the explosion right..?" Explo-
Ahhhh... His memories were already merging, he thought to himself, a relieved smile coming over him. Of course... That was all. 'Tch. You're twisted,' he thought he heard someone say, Noa frowning as he was led over the wreckage of the artificial island. Who...
Who was that, he thought to himself, briefly looking back with a frown. Who... "Over here," Mokuba was saying, pushing the keys to a staircase door in the tower. "Let's go," he continued, "We don't have much time right?" Twenty minutes actually... But really, he thought to himself, who was counting any direction other than down? It took just a little under ten minutes to get here after all, so to say they were low on time wasn't at all a stretch.
The next code was entered and the door clicked open, the duo entering the staircase to walk down through the darkness. Mokuba was already running ahead down the stairs in apparent excitement. The boy had no reason to believe that Noa wouldn't be right behind him after all, but even with this the blond was still hanging back, holding his head in a slowly increasing sting of pain. Why, he asked himself, biting his lip as he stared forward. Why did it hurt... "This isn't YOURS," the voice hissed, Noa narrowing his eyes. That voice...
The voice Katsuya called 'the white ghost'... But... "...Ghosts don't exist," he said bluntly, seemingly to himself. "They can't exist..." Even if Gozaburo seemed to be one, it was still impossible..!
"Hnhnhnhnhn... I am no GHOST," the voice countered with a sneer, likely narrowing his eyes in the back of his mind. "Merely a 'presence', forced to reside in another body with the absence of my own. And YOUR presence," the ghost spat, "Is not welcome here..!"
Please... So now he was arguing with a voice in his head? "Tch... Get used to it," he growled, briefly wondering if he was losing his mind again. He'd done it while down there hadn't he? Gone insane... Not knowing how to cope with regained feelings, regained emotions... Mokuba and Seto snapped him out of it somehow though, and in that moment he'd made his decision to take a body and live. To take a body and flee to the real world. But Katsuya... Even after the first body snatch he hadn't shown any real anger for him. None at all... He was... "...Such an idiot," Noa muttered, walking slowly down the stairs and continuing to grip at his head as another headache shot through his mind. "Ghh..."
"Perhaps you're right," the ghost responded, crossing his arms in the back of his mind. "God only knows how someone with at least average intelligence can act so moronically half the time. But at least he has HONOR," the spirit hissed, eyes narrowing further as Noa leaned against the railing to collapse somewhat. Shut up, he thought to himself in response, only to flinch as a shadow passed him by. Shut u-
Another shadow...
What was that..? Noa held his head once again as the shadows swooped past, the pale and nearly translucent image of a black dragon and a ball of fur meeting his eyes, accompanied by a four winged 'eagle', a white dragon... Red-Eyes, and Kuriboh, his mind told him. Simorgh, Blue-Eyes... The creatures each stood before him, eyes narrowed in apparent rage as they blocked his path. "This... What is this..."
"This isn't your power to control," the ghost hissed, growling in the back of his mind. "Leave..."
"Grnnnnn..."
"No..."
"Leave..!"
"GRAAAAAAHH!"
"No," he shouted, the sound echoing over the air. The white ghost cut his snarls short momentarily, Noa looking forward with crazed eyes. This... He wasn't giving away this body..! "And as for you," he hissed, looking to the small spirits before him. "HRAH!" A knife-hand strike was thrown through the beasts, each one vanishing with a short scream and a burst of shadows as they were cut in two. "Tch... You aren't getting rid of me," the blond growled, the ghost in his mind silent as Noa chuckled darkly. "Not for a while..."
"...Tch. ...And here I thought I was a monster..." A monster..? Please...
This was just human nature. "Noa-niichan," Mokuba shouted from downstairs, the blond looking over the railing as his brother looked up from a few flights down. "Are you coming?"
"I'll be right there," he called down with a somewhat unnerved tone, still clutching his head tightly. Right there... He would leave with his new brother, he would never go back... "...Who are you," he hissed, running down the final length of the stairs with this in mind.
"...No one you should concern yourself with," the ghost snarled in response. "Seeing how I'm 'not getting rid of you' for a while..." So the ghost couldn't do anything but talk then could he?
...Hnhnhnhn... That was right... He was free now, wasn't he..? Noa continued to smirk as he speed-walked into the basement hangar, eyes widening as Mokuba ran toward their escape plan. The jet before him was huge... And had obviously been modeled off of a fighter jet, but with added details and extensions to shape it into something 'else'. The hull, the glass... Everything was white save for the cock-pit, which was obviously meant to remain completely transparent, but this... "...Blue eyes," he muttered, looking to the plane and shaking his head as he stared at the delicately painted jet. She was far too obsessed with that thing he told himself, and...
...Well, he supposed he could fix these things later he decided, climbing up the steps that were provided for entry into the jet. Now that he had his own life to live. His own company to run. It would probably be a bad idea to try and return to the arms force, but no one said he couldn't sell the virtual technology for training programs right..?
...Yea... "Come on Mokuba," he said after a brief moment, helping the boy into the cockpit as he gave him an honest smile. "Buckle in... We have a long ride..."
"Right..!"
A long ride... Very long. He took his seat, buckling himself in and tapping a button on the controls as the cockpit closed and sealed over. One switch was flicked, two, three, and the engine was starting as the exit from the place opened before them, a long runway ramping before them toward the hole where they would be launched forward. More switches were flicked, the engine roaring at its steady pace... The steering was ready, the catapult was- 'He's been through enough,' he could remember Katsuya saying, the blond freezing momentarily as he continued to go through the 'motions' of getting the jet to leave. 'Maybe we can make you a body,' Mokuba, the 'real' Mokuba had said.
'I trust him, other me.'
'He's just a boy! Don't hurt him-'
'Y' can't feel when yer like tha'. Y' can' think properly, y' can' act properly... I might not be able t' f'rgive 'm... But I sure as hell can' blame 'm either, not if he was like tha' f'r this long.' Not if he was...
…...
…
Noa's hand paused as he came to the final switch, eyes dimming. This was it. He pushed this and the catapult would take them forward, and all that would remain would be controlling the aircraft. One simple action, that was all it would take but... "...Niichan," Mokuba asked from behind the seat, a frown on his face. "Is something wrong..?"
Of... Of course not..! "Nothing... Just..." Everything was fine, he told himself. Everything was fine. He had Mokuba, he had his brother, he-
"Please... As though it's even 'really' him," the ghost hissed, Noa's hand still shaking above the switch.
He was going to destroy it all though, he thought to himself. Friends, family, everything, everything... "Everything," he muttered under his breath, "I... Hngg..." His hand fell to the side, the blond gritting his teeth as tears began to run down his face. "Everything..."
All the thoughts he'd gleaned from their heads...
There were some that he'd missed... '...I'm sorry,' Katsuya was whispering behind the scenes of his old memories, the ones he'd so locked away. 'I'm sorry about this...' And all the memories...
'She is NOT your SON,' his aunt screamed, Seto standing just outside the room without any clue as to what they were saying. Without any suspicion that she'd been found out... All because...
'...Dad,' he had said that day. 'This person... I did some research...
'Did you know she was a woman?' Gozaburo found out because of him. But Aunt Herja, and his cousins... They'd found out on their own, because they'd cared enough to question his father's actions, his crazed and depressed attacks. All of them... That family he'd left behind in that country... There were people who cared but they'd moved on, they'd all moved on, they never even suspected that he was still alive..! "Hnggg..." And it was like Ota had said... He couldn't really go back... He couldn't go and tell them he was alive, because he... "Hnnn... Hnnhhh..."
'Even ONE life is worth it,' Malik had snarled, even with the knowledge that the ones he'd come to know detested him above everything. 'We are still the same..!'
"...Niichan," his brother asked again from behind.
The switch was pulled down but it was not the one that would control the catapult. All of the switches that he'd flicked on were pulled back off as the engine was killed, the cockpit opening wide as he hopped out of the jet. Mokuba did the same albeit with hesitancy, and as the ghost in his mind held silent the blond swallowed, charging down the steps to run for the hall.
"N-Niichan," Mokuba shouted, hopping out to run after the teen. "Noa-niichan," he shouted out, "What are you-"
"We're going back," Noa said almost stiffly, head still pounding even as he re-opened the door out. "We're stopping the explosion and we're going back."
"Wha... But Niichan," his brother protested, "Why are we-"
"Because even one life isn't worth losing," he responded, running off with the boy just barely catching up behind him as they charged up the stairs. "Even one life... ...If you can spare them all..." This wasn't friendship, he tried to convince himself. It wasn't, it wasn't..!
But every time he looked back at the brother he'd so dreamed of having... And every time he looked at the dog-tags around his body's neck... "...Niichan..?"
"Just run," he shouted back, looking ahead once more as he rounded a corner on the stair case. "We don't have much time..!"
"You don't have any time at all," his 'stowaway' added. That was true he supposed...
But they could still try, right?
The pacing probably lasted a few minutes really. One step around the other, slowly... Very slowly, only further increasing his fear as Malik's grin continued to face him and as the bloodied millennium rod sat in his hands.. 'Mouse'... He called him a mouse, but for the moment he was a little too distracted to feel insulted really. The fact was, he felt like a mouse for the moment. Possibly something smaller than that even, such as a mite, or a flea...
Malik's back was to the hall now. Keiichi's was to the ruined computer. And for a moment he'd contemplated attacking before deciding against it. They continued pacing... The door was behind him. Then the hall again... Now the wall...
A clicking sound came from behind the door behind his opponent, and with the slight distraction it brought the Egyptian Keiichi charged, duel disk gripped like the blade he would use it for. Now... Now, he told himself in panic as he brought the 'weapon' forward, face twisted with rage as he shouted. NOW! "HRAAAAAAAHHHH!"
The blades clashed, the millennium rod easily scraping over the duel disk to slash past and forward as Keiichi ducked and kicked back from the blow. He charged again. Ducking under another strike from the rod with alarming flexibility, attempting to slash at his opponent only to be forced to jump back once again, rolling back on the ground and running forward to try again. And then, finally, there was one opening... One he could use to simply impale the son-of-a-bitch on his duel disk and-
-fst-
"What..." For a slight moment, just a small one he stopped mid charge, time seeming to freeze as his eyes widened. Something had passed by his other cheek... Something sharp... And his cheek, the un-injured one, was now stinging... "Wha- GHO-!"
That moment was all it took for the tables to turn and turn violently. Malik's blade had more than enough power behind it to throw him back as he was slashed across the chest and stomach, not that the rod itself wasn't likely helping to increase the weapon's power. Keiichi stumbled back as Malik cackled, hand flying to his stomach in response as an ugly and bleeding gash met his vision through a torn shirt and a partially severed shoelace holding the tauk. "Hnhnhnhnhn... Not done yet I hope," Malik sneered viciously, walking toward the boy as he looked back up. "We've only just begun..." Please... Don't...
The Egyptian charged again, Keiichi hurriedly bringing up the dueldisk for a block only for it to be knocked from his grip as the Rod swung forward. In one swift movement it was slashed back down, the blade sending a burning pain over his body and- "Sh- KGA-AH!"
This one threw him against the wall with all the force of a bag of bricks and throughout all the damage done his opponent laughed. Another gash across his chest had appeared now despite it being a much smaller one in size, and as he stumbled forward from the wall there was a second blow to slam him violently into the structure yet again. "HNHNHAHAHAHA!" Stop laughing... "HAHAHAHA!" Stop laugh-
"GH... GHAAAAAHH!" His wounds were filling with fire, and pain was coursing through his every vein and artery... What... WHAT THE HELL WAS ON THAT BLADE..! What was it that was forcing this... This kind of... Keiichi bit his lip while his thoughts began to merge and run in circles of each other, the boy looking forward as the shoelace around his neck fell lose. "Hngg... Ngghh..." What was on that...
Blade. "HAHAHAAAA!"
Malik was coming back, and this time the millennium rod's dagger tip was coming directly toward his throat. With wide eyes however it seemed to slow. His heart rate slowed. The blade slowed. Move, he thought to himself, eyes unblinking as it came closer, as the blood that had stuck to the blade slowly wicked off drops of the fluid to the air. Move, he repeated in his mind, MOVE!
-thnk- "Gh- WHAT!" All he'd done was shift his head to the right, snapping past the Rod's effect of paralyzing fear at the last instant. That was all he'd done and the blade grazed his neck, just at his collar, narrowly avoiding the precious artery located there. And as he ducked out of the way, snapping himself from his stupor Malik pulled at the blade in rage, steel and concrete serving to lodge it in place with alarming ease. "Gh... Of all the... You SCUM," he snarled, turning on his opponent as the boy fled around him. "FILTH!"
"Hng... Hgk..." Keiichi merely ignored his opponent's words, grabbing his duel disk from the ground before choking for breath. "Hng..." His neck... He had to stop the bleeding on his neck... It wasn't an arterial bleed or anything but he needed to stop it, and fast... The boy looked down at his shredded shirt, numbly ripping off a large scrap between the slashed ruins to tie around his neck in a frenzy of tangled and bloodied hair. It had to work he told himself, just for a moment, just for...
"Get OUT," Malik roared at his weapon, still pulling at the millennium rod as Keiichi turned with his duel disk. The wound was bandaged... His other ones were still bleeding somewhat but for some reason or other he was still standing, and still willing to fight this madman. "AAAAAAGGGH... Get OUT GET OUT GET OUT!"
"Heh... Little... Stuck there," he rasped, gripping his disk tightly as he ran to take advantage of his opponent's 'imprisonment'. "Let me HELP!"
He shouldn't have charged.
In that moment the rod was pulled free, and a flash of gold met his eyes. The tauk, loosened by the torn shoelace had fallen from its place but remained caught by the loops holding his belt... And though the crushing pressure of the millennium rod was still not at full power with it caught in the folds of his shirt it was enough to leave him gasping for air as he landed on the corroded and crushed computer at the side, sparking wires stinging against his face as he attempted to recover from a 'magically' improved attack from the blond. The millennium rod hadn't even touched him, he thought with rasping breaths. Malik had simply held it and he was thrown back, he... "Gn... Hnk..." He was losing his 'advantage', if it could be called that... "Hnaa... Ah..." And the pain... It... Hurt... So much...
Pain... "Hnhnhnhnhn... That was almost fun," Malik hissed, walking over as he twirled the rod in his hands to look down on the bleeding and crippled boy. "Why... That was more amusement than I'd ever expected from a mouse like you..." Gh... Ngh...
"Not... A mou- gk!"
The blade was brought under his throat, and Keiichi gasped for air as his head was forced upward, the dagger poking against his neck as he willed himself not to swallow, not to speak. "Why do you fight," Malik sneered, narrowing his eyes. "Why don't you tell me..?"
Why..? Why did he fight..? "M... Friends," he wheezed, narrowing his eyes before squeezing them shut in pain. Blood... He was bleeding too much, he realized, attempting to clear his vision as he opened his eyes again. The adrenalin had kept him going through the cuts and slices, but now that he wasn't moving... He was weak. So weak, he told himself, he just wanted to... Just wanted to...
Malik snorted at the excuse his victim had given him, leaning in as he pressed the blade closer to Keiichi's throat. "HAH! Friends... You mean that 'blind rat' in the other room you have eyes for," he sneered, the grin across his face widening. "You don't really care for the others..." That... That wasn't true he told himself. He didn't know them, but that didn't mean he wanted them dead..! And...
...Blind...
"Not... Blind," he wheezed, eyes almost completely closed in his weakness. "Not... A ra- GRAAAHHH!" The blade dug deep into the already bleeding gash on his arm, before being pulled out as an almost fire-like feeling spread across the limb. The re-opened wound would be more than something to worry about, and as sparks continued to dance around him he flinched with pain. "Gh... Hah... Hahgg..."
"Hnhnhnhnhn... So funny," Malik chuckled, licking the blood from his weapon with wide and amused eyes. "Only one cut and you scream like the mouse you are..!" Gh... Stop... Tha- Stop-
The blade came back. "GHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" He'd gone again. Carving at the first slice on his chest to widen it further, but why wasn't he dying yet, he was bleeding he knew that much and yet... "Gh... Hggh..."
"Hnhnhn... Hnhnhahaha... You claim your friend isn't blind little mouse," the teen was hissing, Keiichi's eyes drifting weakly across the panels and cables beside him as he continued to bleed out and weaken. "Perhaps so... But when I'm done with her," he continued, his victim's eyes drifting on a severed and sparking cable at the side before snapping back, "She will be..." Gh... Not...
Not if he could help it..! Weak fingers reached out to his side as he closed his eyes and bit through the pain... As he reached around the plastic coated cable, gripped it in his hands and-
"GH-LK- HHH!" The blunt end of the rod slammed on his throat, crushing it and forcing him to drop the cable as he wheezed. "GK... Ghhaaaahhh... Ahhhh.." Air... Air, he couldn't get any air, not enough air, not... The trachea was crushed, not completely thank god but it was enough that... that...
"Hnhnhnhnhn..." That bastard... Was laughing still..! "You know what," Malik chuckled maliciously, again spinning the millennium rod in his fingers. "I'm now glad you stopped me... You've given me a wonderful idea... Because the last thing your 'friend' is going to see is your mutilated corpse," the blond spat with his wide eyed grin, "Before I do the same to everyone else in this building..!" No... No...
He couldn't let him..! His fingers were wrapping around the cable... He still couldn't breath, but he had to, he had to, and Malik was fingering the blade as he kept his eyes on the carnage rather than the minute resistance.
"Any last words, little mouse..?"
"Y... s..." There was... This, he thought, bringing his hand closer as he pulled the live wire in, tightening his grip as he looked up weakly. This, and only this... "Gd... 's... C'nd'ct..." His words were caught in his throat. "B'ch..." He needed to clear his voice, say this one last thing...
The millennium rod was pulled back in preparation for an attack and for just one short instance he felt a rush of energy fill his body. "What was that," Malik asked 'humerously', wide and menacing grin looking down upon him from above as his victim wheezed. "I can't hear you," he roared, bringing the blade toward the boy's face.
And then as he brought his arm up in defense it stopped, caught against sparking cables as electricity before it could come close. "I said," he rasped, Malik's body jerking and tensing as the live wire glued itself the the blade in his hands and shocked him completely, giving him no chance of escape from the sparks hold, "That gold... Is a super-conductive metal... Baka'yarou." With a strong tug the cable's other end was ripped from its socket, Malik's limp body collapsing to the ground with the rod in his hands. A few more twitches came over the air from the somehow still living... Sparks still danced along the golden blade, and as Keiichi stood he slowly pulled out the tauk that was somehow still on his person, the cord having somehow looped around his belt. There it was... Shining blankly... And he...
He'd won. The boy wheezed as he collapsed to the floor from the 'table', before weakly pulling himself to his feet as he continued to choke. He had to get... Malik back to the ship, he told himself, grabbing the violet coloured cloak that the teen wore around his shoulders, pulling it forward as he stumbled down the hall. He needed... To get to the ship... Blood was falling everywhere he thought dully to himself, the room he left behind resembling a scene from a horror film as Malik's unconscious form spread what fell to the ground in a sick trail. Falling everywhere... Staining his clothes, the 'bandage' he'd made on the fly... His duel disk was somehow still attached to his arm, along with everything else on his person, not that it resembled a duel disk any more. And he was... Alive. And he was... He felt... So...
Weak...
As he collapsed in front of the airship's steps, the last thing he heard was a shout for a doctor and a calm voice as Ishizu's blurred form ran close. 'Congratulations young one,' the voice whispered, hands of light seeming to brush against his bleeding face in a show of comfort. 'You have succeeded... By your actions... The Pharaoh is safe...'
By his... ...Hn..! Whatever, he thought dimly, closing his eyes over. He... He better get a new dueldisk for...
This...
…
It hurt...
'Quick... Stop the bleeding!'
They'd cut a few minutes of time from the ten it would take to return, running as fast as they had been able to through the halls. The speed differences however were becoming somewhat painful, and as he looked back Noa grit his teeth.
"Hah.. Hah... Hah... N-Niichan," his brother whispered, breathing becoming laboured. "I can't... I can't keep running, I..." Mokuba was quickly grabbed around the waist, Noa not even looking down as he took the boy under his arm and picked up speed.
They needed as much time as they could get..."I'll carry you then," he told his brother, still running as fast as his body allowed. Five minutes down, plus the few others spent outside... "We need to hurry," he'd told the boy as they entered the main computer room, "Before-"
-BRAM!-
The two both froze, Noa looking up to where the glass window above the computer room sat. The windows encompassed two different rooms... The pod room, which was locked to the outside...
And the power control room outside it. "No," he hissed, watching as sparks flew from behind the red-flecked glass before disappearing from sight as the lights dimmed with it. "NO..!" Mokuba was let down to the ground, the blond running to the computer as he turned on the devices in panic. Please, please, please don't be-...
-Entering Safe Mode,- the computer announced monotonously. -All wireless communications disabled for power conservation. All primary functions locked. Manual Override disabled for power conservation.- And so on, so forth and...
If he tried to hack into the device it would simply shut down. 'Primary Functions' included power and settings for the wireless network. The wireless network was the only way to reach the satellite. And now he couldn't do even that. "No no no NO," he repeated under his breath. "No, no, no..."
"Niichan..?" Noa continued to stare at the screen in horror, stepping back as he held his hands over his mouth as his 'brother' approached from behind. "Noa-niichan," he asked, not looking directly at the screen which now flashed a timer for attack. "What's wrong..." Everything. Everything was wrong, everything, he couldn't stop the launch, he couldn't..!
"Then what do you plan to do brat," the ghost in his mind hissed.
…
There was only one thing he could do, was there. "Mokuba," Noa said slowly, bowing his head as he swallowed and gripped the table. "I need to do something... Something important," he whispered, taking a shuddering breath.
"...What kind of thing," the boy asked quietly.
That thing... "When we left the Virtual World," he began, taking yet another shuddered breath. "Something went... Wrong..."
"...With me," Mokuba asked aloud.
...Yes. Noa nodded, biting his lip as he shook. "Both of us, really," he added 'honestly'. "Listen... ...I'm sending you in again so that I can fix it, alright," he continued with a somewhat broken smile, turning to the boy with yet another swallow. "You... You trust me right..?"
Mokuba nodded, but it was with the blocked memories that he did so, and not with the memories he originally had available. So no... Not after this... "Of course," the boy shouted. But not really... "I'll always trust you..!" No he wouldn't... "What kind of question is that?" Please...
Stop talking...!
The blond forced a smile on his face as he guided Mokuba back up the stairs, whatever carnage occurring in the other room unable to affect them for the moment. He guided him to the pod that had been left open in his wake, closing it over as his 'brother' lay back and got himself comfortable... "It'll only take a moment," he whispered to the boy, holding the glass panel. "Just a moment..."
"I know," Mokuba said with a smile, lying back and closing his eyes. "See you in a bit, Noa-nii..."
No. He wouldn't. And as the pod sealed the boy fell into a deep 'sleep', Noa again swallowing as he turned away. There. He was in. Noa swallowed, taking a deep breath as he turned to the computer the pods were connected to. There was no use in using the 'Military' computer to access all of this... The basic system the pods were set upon would be more than enough, he knew that much, and if he went back downstairs it would just seem like he was hiding anyways. And he couldn't do that.
...But would there be enough time..? A clock came onto the screen at the side as Noa took a seat at the computer, flicking the monitor on and beginning to work on the program. Eleven minutes left... Soon to be ten. "They're going to be pissed," he muttered, swallowing nervously as he set up a headset. "More than pissed," he continued to whisper, "They'll..."
"At least you're doing something 'good'," the ghost in his mind muttered, before again falling silent. Yea...
There was... That... "...I certainly hope it's 'good'..."
Knight to C6, the Black King announced after Yugi's 'castling' move, the second demonic figure coming forward as it hopped over the equally frightening bishop that had stood in place for a majority of the match. The blade gleamed under a falsely created sun, and as it stood before them the 'team' narrowed their eyes.
"Hnn... Anzu," Yugi called out, the woman nodding from within her 'sphere' as they both looked toward their opponent. "It's your turn..! Bishop to B2," he announced, the structure Anzu stood within abruptly ripping from the ground like some great plant.
"Alright," she called out, the panels that made up the bottom of the hovering device spinning as she moved. "I'm ready..!"
And good thing too. Rook to C8... The skull and bone lined tower moved across the ground at the order of the King, almost slithering to the monstrous Queen's side as both pieces leered at their opponent.
"Hn... Queen to E2," their own King countered, Shizuka seeming to hover in the air as she did just that.
And as the queen came just a few spaces forward the black King saw his approaching threat, making his next move. CASTLING, their opponent responded, thunder cracking across the air. The clouds above blocked out the sun, filling the air with cold winds and vicious winds.
"Ack- What the-" Those on the field looked up as thunder continued to boom, lightning striking nearby as rain began to fall. "What is this!"
"Since when was the weather affected by this-aru!"
"Awww hell," Otogi muttered, ducking somewhat from where he stood on his own chess piece. "I'm all wet..."
"Hnn... Honda! Move your Rook to D1," Yugi called out, the teen nodding from atop his legged tank.
The weather might have been crummy after all, but there was work to be done. "Got it," he called out, pulling on the turret controls as the tank began to move, other pieces following after in a mix of demonic visage and blank black stone.
Queen to C7...
"Malik! C4!"
"Going," the now armored teen responded, the pawn charging his one step forward. "And now-"
Pawn takes D4, the Black King snarled from his spot, one of the pawns shattering into a boned foot soldier as it charged to come at Malik's side.
"Tch... Suddenly, I hate being a pawn," the teen muttered, looking to the opponent that he could no longer attack or block as it snarled at him and gestured with a gilded and clawed hand. "Damn it..."
"That's fine Malik," Yugi shouted from the tower, flipping through another row of switches to move another of his available pawns. "Pawn to D4," he roared, moving the piece in question to completely crush the opponent beneath stone.
Knight, A5.
"Pawn, D5!"
Pawn, D5.
"HEH!" The teen grinned from within his 'gundam', rushing forward with a clenched fist as the black pawn sat over the ruins of their last piece. "My turn then! Pawn to D5," he cackled, jumping the diagonal as he sent a fist forward. "ATTACK!"
"Wait, MALIK," their 'King' cried, eyes wide.
"MALIK," the others shouted.
"Eh?" The 'pawn' blinked, slowly turning as the formerly motionless and horribly disfigured 'Bishop' turned its head from the side to grin from its skull and skin face. There was a perfect line between... Them... "...SHIT..!"
BISHOP ATTACKS THE PAWN- D5!
"MALIK, JUMP!"
There was not another word to be said in regards to that particular comment of course, at least not to argue. As the glass shattered across the 'mecha' of the Pawn Malik pulled himself away as quickly as possible... And as to what he landed on...
"Bishop, H7!"
KING, H7,
"Rook," Yugi shouted, Honda driving the tank forward as multiple guns began firing toward where Malik fell, "D5!"
"H-HHAAAAHHH! SHII- OOF!"
"Stop screaming damn it!" A clawed hand snatched Malik up from where he'd been clinging to the Bishop's staff, the bishop in question having been taken out by the fired ammunitions when Honda had charged. "You're hurting my ears!"
"They can't be that sensitive," the former snake muttered, clambering up to the 'bridge' of the rook with a frown.
"Well they ARE," Honda retorted, Malik staring at him somewhat blankly.
"What are you a dog?"
"ERF! NO," he protested. "No way-aru!"
"..." Malik apparently found laughter the far more amusing option this time around, but needless to say, Honda's response had the others fairly silent as they stared at the teen in incredulity.
Whatever other comments that could come in response were cut short however, as the game continued on. King, G8, the Black King rumbled from far off, the frightening and imposing monster returning to his square as Malik looked up from where he now sat on the multi-limbed tank.
"Oh come on, seriously..? We have him in check and he does that?"
"What the hell-aru... How are we supposed to get anything done," Honda growled, before another one's words cut his own short.
"Hnnn... Bishop, G7," Yugi called out, the others widening their eyes in response. The 'Bishop' was Anzu though... And G-7 was right beside...
"Ah- Y-YUGI," Otogi shouted incredulously, the Bishop that was Anzu having no choice but to move as it hovered through the air with her inside. "That's suicide, she'll-"
The look on Yugi's face quite clearly said to 'shut up' for the moment, and as Anzu's bishop moved forward it seemed that the woman knew just what Yugi was planning by this. "Gh... I'll see you soon," she shouted hopefully, biting her lip as she turned back. "Got it!"
"See- WH- WAIT, WHAT," Malik roared, gripping the railing of the rook he was on. "WAIT! ANZU!"
"Anzu!" Shit..!
The King's blade cleaved the Bishop's structure cleanly in two, sending both thankfully horizontally sliced halves to the ground. Stones littered the field, and Anzu clung to the prison she'd been kept in until that point, her eyes squeezed shut as the 'gem' she was inside clattered against the plain. And when the smoke cleared...
The Bishop's stone was too coated with dust to see or hear if anything was alive in there at all, with no sounds coming forth. "A-Anzu," Katsuya muttered, swallowing as the others looked to Yugi's chesspiece. "She..."
"Yugi," Malik hissed, looking off to the side. "What do you think you're-"
"Knight, E5," the boy called out before the sentence could be completed, not looking up from the panels before him. "...I'm trusting you, Jonouchi..." Trusting him...
...Right. He knew what this was then. "...I got it," he responded, the white dragon he stood upon charging forward with a snarl as it leaped into the air. "But y' better hope tha' she comes back when we win..!"
Don't worry, his mind told him. She would. And Yugi seemed to nod at that, the Black king's faint 'Rook-D5' echoing in the distance as the bone 'tower' crawled forward. "Don't worry," he said seriously, fists clenched as he tapped a few more keys. "She will..! Now... Queen to G4," the boy called out, Shizuka again moving at a diagonal in her seemingly hovering form as she narrowed her 'eyes'. This game was getting uneasy...
The King had moved himself back further, to F8... But Yugi wasn't done with the Queen just yet, placing her in another place. "Queen to F5."
Pawn, F6, the opponent muttered in response, as though to goad Shizuka into an attack.
The Queen however, did nothing, and a second later Yugi's next order tore across the field. "Jonouchi," he shouted clearly, "Get ready to jump..!"
"W-What!" Oh shit, don't tell him...
...Actually, now was a really good time to take advantage of the impersonal-ness of being a computer. Who cared if he died, he could just... Re-boot himself... … Right? Yea just keep thinking that, he told himself. "KNIGHT TO D7," Yugi roared, the dragon rearing as it charged forward.
ROOK TO D7, the Black King countered, the dragon beneath Katsuya's feet barely landing to the ground before the Rook's eyes gleamed with light. ATTACK!
The jaw of the monster across from him snapped open in an instant as the blond kicked off of his dragon, dust and stone flying through the air as his hearing was momentarily destroyed in the face of the explosion. 'Rook to D7,' he thought he heard Yugi shout at that moment, Katsuya tilting his head back as two others 'waved' from an attacking tank. 'Hurry!' Those two...
"Hey! Blondie," Malik shouted, stepping back as the blond in question landed flat on his back with a grunt. "Nice landing." Ugh... Yeaaa...
"Thanks," he grunted, pulling himself up with a slight wince, "An' who th' hell 'r y' callin' 'blondie', blondie?"
"Psh, mine's at least more white than gold," the Egyptian 'bragged' with a nonchalant shrug. "It gives me a more 'exotic' look..."
"Exo- I'll show you exotic," he muttered, Honda rolling his eyes behind them.
"Are we seriously arguing about this-aru..?"
"YES."
"NO-"
"Can everyone hear me?"
All conversation ground to a halt with those words, those on the field looking upward with wide eyes. The sky hadn't cleared one bit... But even so it seemed to have almost been divided with those words, the others looking up in incredulity as 'Seraph' hovered above to act as a mouthpiece. "That voice..." Malik swallowed, clenching his fists as he looked up at the program. "But that's... Your voice-"
Katsuya instantly gained a look of rage as his own voice echoed through the air, face growing red despite the emotion not truly being there. "Gh... Noa..!"
"Ah- NOA," a number of the others shouted.
"Bastard," the shorter blond growled, looking up to the sky. "Gimme my body back y' prick!"
"And the others too while you're at it," Otogi added from the side, still positioned beside Yugi's King piece.
There was a short sound of exasperation, Noa evidently in a tight spot from wherever he was outside. "There's no time to deal with this," he said curtly, his voice echoing over the air. "You already know that I'm in Katsuya's body right now," the 'boy' continued seriously, his voice sounding rushed, "But I intend to return it... However, there are missiles aimed toward this fortress. They will fire in ten minutes," Noa shouted in near panic, "And I cannot stop them! It's one thing if your bodies are the only things destroyed," he went on with an audible swallow. "But if everything is destroyed that world goes with it; you'll all die," the teen continued, "And not even technology will save you at that point..!" Mi...
A flash came to mind, along with a burst of data as Katsuya slowly looked to the ground. Missiles. Aimed directly at their location, hovering thousands of kilometers above... This... "This... Tell me he's bluffing," Malik muttered with a swallow, slowly turning to the blond at his side. "...Now..." He wished he could... He really did, now that the computer itself was in danger but...
"He ain't bluffin," Katsuya muttered with wide eyes, shaking his head in 'fear'. Not at all... "We got abou' twelve minutes t' get out an' fly th' hell outta here," he swallowed, looking back to the sky and shaking his head.
"Twelve," Honda muttered from the side.
"...The time it takes for the missile to reach earth can be added on," Malik muttered, narrowing his eyes and continuing to grip the railing. "But why would there be missiles aimed at this place any ways?"
There was silence in response to that. Those below began to pale with realization and in the end it was Shizuka who spoke, the Queen piece looking up with wide lenses and hovering panels. "You... You were going to leave us here... Weren't you," she asked with a shuddering rumble, seeming to pull back with a choke as she clutched her 'chest'. "You were going to leave and destroy anything you left behind..!"
"This..."
"BASTARD," Honda hissed, Malik as well narrowing his eyes. "You were just going to kill us all?" Silence was their response, and the former hound continued to snarl. "You... Why the hell should we trust you-aru!"
Well... "...I trust 'm," Katsuya said shortly, arms crossed. The others turned at that, and the blond continued. "I mean... Y' came back f'r some reason righ'?" Because it wouldn't make sense for him to come back to deliver the message in a panic if he wasn't trying to help, the computer told him. "So y' can' be tha' bad f'r th' momen'... ...But I ain't gonna f'rgive y' if this really is a trick," he warned just as quickly, scowl deepening as he looked upward. "Got tha'?"
"...I understand," Noa said calmly, after holding his silence for a number of seconds more. "Alright... Now... For you to leave, you need to complete this fight," the 'boy' told them, those on the chesspieces looking toward the King in response as the demon snarled. "Bring the King into Checkmate and you'll be able to escape!"
Alright... That was easy enough! "But... What about Kaiba-han," Shizuka called up, large and 'faceless' metal head looking upward in apparent fear. "And Mokuba-kun?"
"They'll be fine," the 'boy' responded, almost too quickly for Katsuya's liking. "I can track their locations with this computer... I'll make sure they escape as well," he called out, "Trust me..!" Trust him...
Most would say otherwise but for the moment... Alright! They would do that! The Black Queen stood beside them already despite this confidence though, but while they spoke it had thankfully moved two 'spaces' south. It was now their turn... Their time to continue the game... "...Noa... You had better keep your word," Yugi warned, before making his move. "Queen to H7," he ordered, Shizuka doing so with a curt nod as she vanished behind a majority of the black pieces. "Let's go!"
And now... For the game to continue! Rook to C7...
"Queen to H8."
King to F7.
"Rook to D3."
The tank gave a loud and shuddering rumble with those words, Honda spinning the turret on its point as the many limbs began to spiderwalk their vehicle toward the designated area. Knight to C4, they heard in the distance, the black Knight in question storming toward the space that was only just one block from them. It was a little strange actually... How the Knight couldn't attack them at close range with a blade.
Not to say he wasn't appreciating that fact or anything (damn it computer brain...)... But the end result of this match was slowly revealing itself to him, a multitude of data-bursts forcing their way through the wall. "Otogi," Yugi called out as the move from their opponent was played. "D1."
"Got it," the teen responded as he moved his turret over, stopping just a space away from his allies. "Hey, Honda! Jonouchi," he called out, waving as Malik blinked.
"And me," he asked semi-hopefully, the teen merely giving a completely blank look in response.
"...I was ignoring you."
"Nice," the Egyptian growled. "Real nice..."
The black Knight behind them had moved to E5 while they spoke, but for the moment they were ignoring the fact that it was again a threat to their well being and again within the range of attack. "Happy t' finally move Otogi," Katsuya shouted from the Rook's rail, the teen snorting from where he was manning the turret.
"Depends on your definition of 'happy'," he shouted back, before Yugi's own call drowned him out.
"Queen to H7," the boy announced, Shizuka moving to put the Black King in check for the second time that battle as the demonic being gave a shudder.
King to E6...
"Oh come on," Malik groaned, "Stop running!"
"It's only natural-aru," the teen beside him muttered under his breath, "It doesn't want to lose-aru."
"Errrrggghhh... I don't care," the Egyptian growled, "I want it to stop..."
"Queen to G8," Yugi roared.
King to F5. Be nice to be a Bishop about now... ...But sadly they weren't.
"Pawn, G4!"
King, F4, the monster countered, those on the Rooks staring with narrowed eyes. The play was clearing up... The trap was making itself known, and slowly but surely the final moves were coming into view.
"Hang on," Otogi muttered, watching as the paths around them began to clear, and as the King continued to move. "Is it just me or..."
"Honda! D4," Yugi called out, the turret doing just that as the driver took aim toward the king.
"CHECK," the teen announced with a barking snarl, the gun locking and loading as he narrowed his eyes.
"You think it'll last," Malik muttered dryly from the railing, the blond beside him shrugging.
"Eh, don' ask me, I'm jus' th' computer," he answered 'smartly'.
"Helpful."
"Heh. Yea," the blond laughed, before a somewhat dark and detached smirk came over his face. "But take a look..."
The final move was here. King to F3, the monster called out, standing before one of the pawns as Yugi's chuckling came over the air. …Gh... Shit... Yea... He saw it now too, didn't he..!
"Hnhnhnhnhn... I win," the boy within their King Piece said clearly, those on the Rooks turning abruptly as Shizuka's Queen bolted around the backs of them to point an authoritative arm forward. "QUEEN TO B3!"
"B- B 3," Malik repeated, looking behind them with wide eyes. "But how is that-"
"There's a path," Honda muttered incredulously, turning to stare himself as Katsuya smirked darkly. "There's a perfectly diagonal..." A nice long path that had been cleared up since Shizuka came to that last square, waiting for the King to come within range...
"CHECKMATE," Yugi announced, the 'tower' he stood in opening with those words as he looked toward the sky with narrowed eyes. "Gozaburo," he continued loudly, the clouds above reeling in rage as the rain stopped, "You LOSE!"
Which meant it was time to leave. But how exactly would they do that he wondered, before freezing as an odd sensation of 'power' came over him.
-Begin Download-, a voice in his mind muttered.
"E... Eh..?" Katsuya blinked, before paling even more as the wall he'd erected began to whittle away, slowly but surely allowing a steady stream of data and programming to fill his mind. Ohhh hell, he thought, hurriedly attempting to keep hold of the memories that allowed him to act like himself, ohhh hell..!
"Hn? Jonouchi," Malik muttered, turning with a frown as he stared at the blond with narrowed eyes. "What's going on..?"
Damn it... Katsuya showed no visible sign of emotion as he looked to the Egyptian, eyes somewhat blank as the 'computer' took over. Hn... As if knowing things before they happened was bad enough, this... Well... The blond turned to the others, slowly raising his hand with the same expression of blankness that was so unlike him. "Sorry 'bout this," he said clearly, those on the field frowning as the field seemed to scatter and dissolve into dust from around them. "But you guys need t' wake up..."
"An' I ain't comin' with jus' yet."
That was the last thing he heard before the field vanished from sight, before his connection to the Millennium Puzzle was fully restored, and before his real eyes began to open to take in the scenery.
Well... His lighter half opened his eyes. He himself was more than content to scan his soul for any sign of that white ghost that had intruded upon it before, searching as many of the halls as he could without losing himself within them. It felt like there was something there... Something dark, albeit small but...
Nothing. There was nothing there, and in the end he settled for misting back to his partner's side to watch and listen to whatever was going on. In the real world after all, Yugi, the 'light' Yugi was slowly sitting up as the glass from his pod rose up, looking around with somewhat wide eyes as the others as well moved to awaken. "We... We're..."
"So these are the pods," Shizuka muttered, slowly climbing out as she looked around. "This..."
"We're back," Yugi whispered, stepping out of his own pod. "We're...
Honda was the next to speak beyond surprise and relief, hurriedly looking himself over with wide eyes as he choked on his words. "H-Hey... Do I still seem 'dog-ish'," he asked in panic, checking every possible part of himself with fear before looking toward the others. "I mean... I don't want to-"
"You're fine," Otogi said with a slight wave, leaning over the pod with a wince. "Just don't go looking for a tail and you're fine..."
"Perfectly fine," Mokuba added from his own pod, giving a stretch and a yawn as he moved to step out. "Hnng... Took a while for Noa to get me out though," he muttered, cracking his neck as the others stared. "I feel like I was out for half an hour..." Erm...
Close, Yugi thought with a somewhat nervous laugh. It'd have been fairly dangerous if it was really a half hour though... 'Still,' he muttered to his other self in the back of his mind, 'I can't believe we escaped by playing GUNDAM CHESS..!'
'Hnhnhnhn... It was quite fun actually,' the spirit chuckled, his partner mentally groaning.
'Yea, but I missed it..! How often would I have gotten the chance to play something like that!'
'Pray you never do,' his partner said honestly, the horrors of the game only dimly coming to mind despite how recent their escape had been. 'Now...'
Anzu held her head as she stood from the pod behind the group, the others turning with somewhat cautious eyes as the woman looked over to stare at them in response. "...Hn!" The woman snorted, shaking her head. "I don't see any difference between you and the dog," she said after a moment, stretching her arms as Honda growled in response.
"Gh- You..!"
"Wait," Otogi muttered, eyes widening. "Does that mean you're..."
The others paled, 'Anzu' crossing her arms as her eyes flashed gold from the side of the VR-Pod. "She's perfectly fine," Malik muttered, narrowing the body's eyes as the more masculine pattern of speech came through. "She's just tired; being 'killed' does that to you," he added dryly, Mokuba staring incredulously as the others merely frowned. "I really am fine though," the woman abruptly shouted out, a somewhat more feminine pattern of speech hitting the air as eyes went blue and brown again. "Just... Hwaaaah... Like he said," she muttered, before her expression again switched out completely. "...Tired." Golden... Her eyes were golden again, so then...
"Ahhhhh... This is so confusing," Otogi muttered under his breath, holding his head as 'Malik' made 'her' way over.
"And this is going to last how long again," the taller of the group muttered, Mokuba only just managing to snap himself from his frozen shock.
"Wait," he shouted, looking at the others, "MALIK is here!"
"He is," a clear, if not familiar voice stated from the side of the room, despite all traces of an accent vanishing to be replaced by more 'polite' and 'upperclass' terms. "...But he's your ally," the voice continued seriously, "No doubt about that..." That voice... The others turned to where it seemed 'Jonouchi' was typing rapidly on a keyboard, headset firmly placed upon his head as he stared to the screen. The blond's expression was just as foreign as the 'real one's had been within the computer, set in a severe gaze that was locked with the screen across him. "For now, you should be getting to the airship," he was telling them, still typing away as his eyes occasionally narrowed in focus. "I don't know how much longer I'll be... But if it comes to the worst I have two re-breathers in the building for emergencies," he added with a look back to the others, "And the explosion won't reach the exit tunnel."
"Exit tunnel," Mokuba repeated, before shaking his head as he recognized the speech patterns he was hearing. "Wait... You..!"
"Noa," Yugi said with a swallow, the blond in the seat nodding as he briefly paused to look back. "...But... What about..."
The others looked to the side at the single occupied pod, the unspoken question easily caught as the timer ticked down to 'six minutes remaining'. "Katsuya can't leave until I go back into the pod," he said plainly, typing as quickly as possible on the keyboard while he looked back to the screen. "He knows this," Noa continued seriously, "But the problem is Seto's location. My father forced her into a game," he explained, swallowing in unease and biting his lip. "And until it's complete, she's not getting out..." Trapped in a game..?
"Then... Jonouchi-kun is..." Yugi swallowed, before narrowing his eyes and stepping forward. "...Noa-kun," he said quickly, the others blinking as their former captor looked back. "Put me back in the machine!"
"E-EH!" Mokuba coughed, shaking his head and looking at the boy incredulously. "Y-Yugi..! We have to get out though," he shouted, "We don't have time to-"
"I need to help him," the boy said determinedly, the others staring as an oddly fierce look appeared on their friend's face. "No matter what, I have to-"
"I understand," Noa responded plainly, "But Mokuba is right- there's no time for something like that," he warned the boy, "And-"
Text began to flash across the screen, Noa pulling back with wide eyes as both he and the others turned to read it and choke.
"Ah..."
"This..."
'Daijyoubu-dayo,' the text read clearly. 'I'll be alright.'
'...Nigero,' it went on, the few characters staring forward one the screen. 'Run.' And again. 'Nigero.' And again. 'Nigero.' Again... Again... Again... 'Nigero... Nigero... NIGERO!'
"R-Run..." Noa's fingers weren't touching the keyboard... Noa looked just as frightened as they were... Yugi swallowed as he and his other self stared at the screen, the message repeating in an almost insane mantra before another line appeared.
'Mitte yo... Nigero!' What... 'See'..?
"He... He can see us," Malik hissed, the eyes he was sharing with Anzu widening considerably as he turned on Noa in horror. "He can SEE us..!"
"The cameras..." The others looked down at Noa, watching as the blond swallowed and continued to stare at the screen. "He's connected to everything in this building right now," the teen went on nervously, "He's using the cameras... But that means..." He shook his head, gritting his teeth and turning to the others with narrowed and serious eyes. "All of you, get out of here now, got it," he said quickly, the others staring a moment before he pointed to the clock. "We're wasting time- Go!"
"Right," the others agreed, turning to leave before Yugi paused and looked back. "...Jonouchi-kun," he called out, looking to the screen as it went blank, as though waiting for the boy in the room to speak. "If you can hear me... Make sure you get out," the boy went on, "And that you bring Kaiba-san with you, alright?" Yugi swallowed as he continued on, biting his lip. "We... We have a match right," he asked with a somewhat weak smile. "So... Make sure you get out... And..."
"...Why are you doing this," Mokuba asked, he as well staying behind as the others ran off, the scene behind him unknowingly hidden behind holograms as the one within the computer shielded the gruesome scene in the next room from the sight of those he knew would care. "Noa," he whispered, staring at the 'teen' in confusion. "You said you hate my sister... But you..."
The blond was silent for a few moments, not looking back. "There's something this body keeps telling me," Noa whispered, subconsciously grabbing at the dog-tags still hanging around his neck. "Something important... ...I don't want her to die," he continued, bowing his head as he shook. "...No matter what. I don't want her, or anyone here to die... I..."
"Noa..."
"...I... ...Noa," Mokuba said with a swallow. "...I'm sorry we didn't listen to you before," he said quietly, "I..."
"Hn!" The blond snorted, shaking his head. "It's only expected that you wouldn't believe me... But there's no time for that sort of thing now," he continued, gesturing to the clock that now read three minutes. "You need to run... Understand? Get back to the ship..!"
"Got it," Yugi shouted, running for the door.
"Make sure you escape too," Mokuba added, Noa merely smiling sadly as he turned back to the screen. It was all fine to say something like that after all...
But he couldn't simply 'compress himself' and email himself off. The mind was too complex for that, and who would be able to 're-open' him? Besides... He was already dead.
This was just his last act before going 'home'.
Many moments before the others had escaped and the Chess match ended there was another battle that had started in the middle of the empty space of the computer. The competitors were 'normal'-ish in appearance again... Seto still held her ghostly glow but her 'father' at least appeared as the man he had been when he died, not a single hair on his mustache out of place...
A fairly misleading form to take, to say the least. "Let's get this over with," Seto hissed as the cards around her vanished, the image of her deck appearing in her mind as a hand of cards appeared to spin around her like some orbital and planetary ring. "I plan on leaving this hell as far behind me as possible..."
"Hnhnhnhn... Don't be so hasty," Gozaburo sneered, eyes narrowed from across the dark field. "After all... This fight will decide on your life... I'll move first," he continued, snapping his fingers as a holographic card appeared behind him. "Any person in charge of a company," he explained, "No matter the size, must make a difficult decision at some point in their life." And the point..? "I play 'Painful Choice'," the man announced, "Which allows me to choose five cards from my deck and-" OH he had better not waste his time with THAT!
"If you plan on fighting seriously," Seto warned, wisps of smoke seeming to blow off her form as her anger grew, "You will end that sentence there, rather than taking me for a fool in the game that I excel at most..." Honestly... She knew full well what the card did..! Gozaburo would pick five cards from his deck... She would choose one to be added to his hand, while the rest were discarded, but-
"Here then," her 'father' chuckled darkly, five panels taking the place of the spell he'd activated as his opponent continued to hover in space. "You know so much... Make your move!" Gladl-
The woman paled as she looked toward the cards, each one pulling from her mind a horrifying memory she had long since attempted to push to the back of her thoughts. These cards...
The Left Arm. The Right Arm. The Left Leg, Right Leg, EXODIA..! He had all five of the cards there, and he'd now given her the option of discarding all but one but...
This monster... 'A moment of atonement,' she could hear in the back of her mind, heart beat racing as she stared the cards down. The other Yugi's hand was thrown forward and with the motion to 'squeeze'... 'MIND CRUSH-'
"Did you think I hadn't done my research," Gozaburo sneered, grin seeming far more inhuman than it should have been even in death. "I know what monsters defeated yours... And I know that the last time you fought with your 'rival'," he continued, "This was what defeated you..!"
That- Then... He was playing with a cookie-cutter deck? SERIOUSLY? "Heh..." That was just... So damn ridiculous... So... Ridiculous... "Hnhnhaha... HAHAHAHAHA! I don't believe it," she snarled, shaking her head and looking to her opponent in disbelief. "You think that by duplicating the strategy of my rival, that you'll defeat me? Think again," the woman spat, pointing her finger forward as her opponent remained silent. No choice. She didn't know why Gozaburo was throwing this chance away but she had no choice but to decide on a card. "I pick the Right Arm," Seto announced, each of the panels vanishing into a rain of light. "Now finish your turn..!"
"Hn! I set a card face down," her opponent stated, crossing his arms with a nod. "End turn." That...
That was it..? Seto frowned, still floating in space as she looked to the shimmering plane of light on the ground. For each of them, their hand floated about them like some sort of 'ring'. They couldn't see the image on the other's cards, but they could see somewhat through them to the opponent. She had no way of knowing, for that reason, if her opponent had been left with no choice but to use the arm but...
...There was no time to think. If it was the arm, then it was the arm. "Hn! I summon the Blood Vorse," she called out, swinging her arm forward as one of her cards scattered forward to form the monster. The Vorse raider swung his axe-like pole arm with a snarl, hovering in a manner not unlike his master. And to follow that..."Attack the face down card..!"
The monster did her bidding immediately with those words but rather than merely charging forward as the monster it was it stretched, faded into a sort of ghost before cutting through the panel before it. And as the panel was cut in two, the ghostly haze reforming at her side as she pulled somewhat away, a single arm could be seen reaching out...
"...Exodia's right arm," she muttered, narrowing her eyes. So it was the final piece... But why would he throw away all five pieces like that..?
"Hnhnhnhnhn... HnhnHAHAHA! Just as I planned," Gozaburo sneered, Seto continuing to frown from across the field. As planned? How the hell- "It's my turn now," he continued with a grin, "So how about you take a good look at what I'm about to do..! I activate Contract with Exodia," he roared, five pillars of flame erupting around him in the familiar symbol of a pentagram as his opponent paled. "Using the destroyed pieces of Exodia... And paying 2000 lifepoints to summon the demonic counterpart, EXODIA NECROSS!" Exodia...
Necross..? As in death..! Smoke wrapped around from the pillars of flame, and as Gozaburo grinned manically he soon became shrouded from view by the thick mantle of dust and ash. Limbs began to form... Arm, shackled with a broken chain... Arm, with joints that creaked like a puppet... Leg... Leg... Rotted and mouthless, eyeless head... Body... And in the place of its familiar gold hue this Exodia was completely black... And despite her confusion she felt a wave of relief come over her as the blackened monster stood before her. A number had appeared in her head after all; 1800.
That was his attack power. Yet the man before her seemed to care little for this. "Hnhnhnhnhn...Watch," her 'father' taunted, voice echoing through the enormous and mummified beast before her as he took a thundering step forward. "Watch... I have brought Exodia from the grave to the field," he cackled with a roar, "And with more power than you could ever hope for..!" More... More p...
"Hn! Bullshit," she muttered, clenching her fists at the 'insult'. "Complete bullshit! With a monster as weak as yours, do you honestly think you can defeat ME," the woman snarled, eyes wide and filled with rage.
"Hnhnhn... You obviously don't know as much about this game as you think then, do you," her opponent responded, opponent's brows furrowing in confusion. "I ATTACK!" A... Attack! But it was obvious that something like that wouldn't work she thought incredulously as the demon's fist shot forth a raging ball of flames, such a play was...
...Impossible...
Yet as the smoke cleared from Necross' flaming attack there was nothing on the ground but her crouching monster, even with a hundred of her opponent's lifepoints seeping away. Necross still stood across from her, and with a leering grin it continued to look down, power increasing along with its size as she stared. "Im... Possible... Why," she muttered to herself, shaking her head as she looked up at the demon. "Why did it..."
Chuckling rumbled through the air, along with clanking chains as the shackles on Necross' arms shifted. "Hnhnhnhnhn... Necross cannot be destroyed by battle," Gozaburo sneered, Seto swallowing as she looked up at the monster. "In addition," he laughed, the monster's rotted grin widening in response, "It gains 1000 attack points during the battle phase... More than enough to destroy yours in the next turn..." Gh...
Sh... Shit... That meant it had 2800 points. Eugh... Seto grimaced, stepping back somewhat to bite her lip. Shit... And if it wasn't able to be destroyed in battle... Well, the woman told herself, if she was going to destroy it, it would have to be through some other means... And in that case... "...My turn," she growled, hair 'floating' past her eyes as another panel of light appeared at her side for her draw. The card she'd just drawn... ...That would work. "I summon Spirit Ryu," she announced, throwing her hand forward as the next card in her hand shot forward to mist into the dragon's form, ethereal form slithering through the air. "And in addition," she called out, "I activate Burst Breath! Tributing the dragon to destroy any monsters with less defense than the dragon's attack!" And since Necross had '0' defense she thought to herself, the dragon's glow increasing to a blinding extent as she averted her gaze from the explosion, this card would have to...
Be...
Destroyed... The light cleared and in its place the dragon was gone, with a menacing cackle sounding from above her. "Hnhnhnhn... What did I tell you," Gozaburo snarled from above the woman, towering in the form of Necross as she again made to step back in slight horror. "You're not as SMART as you think..! Necross is invincible... You can NEVER defeat it," the monster continued to roar, laughing manically. "The Left Leg grants immunity from Spell cards... The Right from Traps... The Left arm protects it from monster's effects, and you already know what the right arm and the head does... You're going to die here," the monster chuckled, leering above the woman as she stepped back still more with an uneasy swallow. "You're going to DIE..." This... This...
Not if she could help it she thought, narrowing her eyes and steeling her resolve. Not if she had anything to say about it..!. "Set a card," she muttered, stepping back once again as the face-down panel of light glowed before her. "And switch Blood Vorse into defense mode... Make your move," she snarled, "You won't kill me here-"
"Can everyone hear me," a voice called out, those in the empty space tensing at the sound. W-What..? Seto turned her attentions upward, narrowing her eyes in confusion as she sought out the source. Where, she asked herself with a frown. That voice, the voice of a...
...Girl..? But she'd heard- "Kisara," Seto hissed, the girl appearing in a small pillar of light as her wings floated somewhat behind her. That stupid armadillo was still following her as she came forward in the darkness as well, like some guard dog... But for what reason was...
"Strange," the girl muttered, shaking her head as she looked to Seto with her usual blank stare. "Noa-sama's voice cannot reach you here..."
"N-Noa," the woman growled, widening her eyes. But that was Jonouchi's voice... Which meant- Seto steeled herself yet again, gritting her teeth. "And just what does he wan-"
"I will replay the message," Kisara stated, titling her head somewhat as those in the darkness stared. "So please, calm down." Calm down! How was she supposed to calm down when- "Repeating the message to 'Seto Kaiba-sama'," the girl continued dully, bowing her head as Seto in question stared. "Seto," the girl began, using the voice of Noa's 'normal' self. "Though you cannot likely tell from this recording, I am speaking to you from Katsuya's body," the girl's 'creator' admitted, Seto growing pale as her suspicions were confirmed. "I know for a fact that this knowledge will not sit well with you..." Hah... NO SHIT..! "But I intend to return it." ...What? The woman before Kisara blinked, listening as she continued. "There is no time to argue about this; I must deliver to you a warning." A warning..? "At this moment, there are missiles aimed toward this fortress. They will fire in ten minutes," Kisara explained through a monotone form of Noa's voice, "And I cannot stop them. It's one thing if your bodies are the only things destroyed," she went on, "But if everything is destroyed that world goes with it; you'll all die, and not even technology will save you at that point. You have limited time," the girl continued on. "And until you complete this fight, you cannot escape." What..!
She... She would... "...Noa," she said with narrowed eyes, Kisara blinking in response. "Is my brother alright..?" If Mokuba was safe... If he was safe and out of harms way... It wouldn't matter, she told herself. She needed to get out yes, but so long as he was alright...
"He is safe," Kisara responded in her normal voice, bowing her head politely. "His mind has been separated from the Virtual World; he will awaken shortly." Hah... Good, Seto thought with a small sigh of relief.
That was... "Noa... What have you DONE," Gozaburo roared, the 'Exodia' shuddering as eye-sockets seemed to 'widen' with rage, the monster turning to the program in horror. "To fire missiles at this base, to destroy everything... WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT," he cried almost panickedly.
There was a short span of silence, Kisara closing her eyes for a moment. In the end, she turned to the monster, looking up with seemingly calm and even pitiful eyes as she again spoke with Noa's voice. "...Father," Noa said sadly, Kisara shaking her head with a sigh. "I'm sorry... But you are beyond control," he said clearly. "You are beyond hope... So, to save these people..."
"You... You would BETRAY ME," the demon roared, slowly becoming more and more enflamed as the form of Necross seemed to crumple to ash beneath the fires. "DESTROY ME! You would KILL YOUR OWN FATHER!"
Again, Kisara bowed her head, a few tears appearing to run down her face as she bit her lip. "...I'm sorry, father... I..."
"You've made the right decision," Seto said plainly, looking down at the vessel for Noa's voice as she blinked, the armadillo at her side also nudging Kisara on the side. "You have no need to apologize..."
"...Right... ...Seto," Noa continued quickly, Kisara's expression becoming more severe than unnerved. "Time is of the essence; hurry, alright?"
The woman nodded, only for a thundering roar to come from before them as she jumped back. "You... YOU... NO," the monster roared, bursting into flames and charging toward Seto as the woman found herself locked in place. "NO! I'll just take your body as my own," the ghost snarled, mouth widening to reveal flaming teeth as it spiraled forward. "I'll take your body and escape with my life... And I'll leave you behind," he roared, his 'daughter' swallowing as she looked upward.
What..? Fires closed in toward her, filling her vision. Seto's eyes widened in slight surprise, but despite this she found herself unable to move, locked completely in place as the fires came near. Closer... Move... Closer... Move damn it..! Closer...
"NO," a fierce and screeching voice cried abruptly, white filling her vision. "YOU WILL NOT HARM ANOTHER CHILD..!" C-Child! Seto blinked, eyes widening as the flames were repelled by some unknown white light. The mask... The mask from before was sitting before her, as were the two programs, each facing the monster before them as the flaming demon snarled.
"This fight will continue," Seraph was shouting, showing more emotion in his voice than ever before as a light shined in his eyes.
"This fight must come to a fair end," Kisara continued, her own eyes wide with determination far unlike her own or even Jonouchi's as the white mist swirled angrily between them.
"And YOU," the shade snarled, pushing Gozaburo's flaming form backward as it evaporated and disintegrated back into the ashen form of the monster it had spawned from. "YOUR TIME IS LIMITED..!" That voice... Seto frowned, recognizing the tones from the staircase up to this place. She'd heard this voice but...
Who was that woman..? "Gh... RAAAAGHH.. GET OFF," the demonic being was snarling. "GET OFF..!"
"...You," Seto muttered quickly, turning to 'Seraph' as the boy blinked. "...How much time remains?"
"Eight minutes forty seconds," he responded plainly, Seto nodding in response.
"Alright then... GOZABURO," she shouted, looking forward with narrowed eyes as the programs stepped to the side, the white spirit of his late wife having vanished into nothingness. "We will continue this fight," the woman stated clearly, her opponent still growling from across her. "And should you 'win'," Seto continued, visibly grimacing at what she was about to say, "You'll get your 'wish'..." As disgusting a thought as that was...
Not that he would win anyways of course but the words nonetheless calmed the demon, and again the ashen form of 'Necross' stood before her to make his move. "You... Very well," Gozaburo snarled, the monster's fists clenching. "But I won't forget your words... It's my turn now," he snarled, throwing a punch forward, "And I ATTACK!"
Hn! "Not if I can help it..! Negate attack," she announced, kicking back from the empty space as a vortex appeared to absorb the flames before her. "And now its my turn..! I activate 'Shrink'," Seto shouted, throwing another hand forward as panels in her hand began to flip forward and vanish into dust. "Halving Necross' attack for this turn! I then tribute Blood Vorse to summon the Emerald Dragon," she continued, running forward as the monster appeared beneath her feet in a green mist, rising in the same shade of colour she was currently glowing with. Alright... "Now... ATTACK," she snarled, the dragon halting its run to charge a blast of flames in its mouth.
"RAAAAOOOOOOOOO!"
Fires blasted past Necross in an alarmingly wide-scale attack, the opposing monster snarling in rage as his lifepoints plummeted. "GH- You... Even if your spells still work, my POWER still surpasses yours... You haven't changed one bit," Gozaburo spat, his opponent merely glaring in response. "Always refusing to admit defeat in the face of even the invincible..."
"Nothing's 'really' invincible," Seto sneered, narrowing her eyes from the back of the dragon as she stared the demon down. "You shouldn't underestimate me... Your monster might gain '1000' points for each battle," she spat, "But you can't defend either..." And that was going to hurt him in the end. "You might be 'immortal'," the woman continued, "But you're certainly not 'undefeatable'!"
"WE WILL SOON SEE," her opponent retorted, the shadows released with his roar throwing his 'daughter' back as the dragon evaporated into a mist as a result. "I ATTACK," he snarled, mists surrounding the girl before him as she fell.
HNG- "HRAAAH-G!" Gh-! There was no wall or floor to land on in this place, but nonetheless it hurt for some reason when she finally came to a stop far in the distance. Necross' flames burned across the darkness, illuminating a single path to her opponent... And as she stood her hand returned to view, the holograms floating around her hovering form as she attempted to breath. There was a timer in her mind... Telling her how much time there was before the missile fired... Necross had 4800 attack points, and she had three minutes. He'd made his move...
It was her turn now.
A hand rose up to touch one of the cards at her side, eyes narrowed as she stared across the field. This latest draw... It was definitely one of those 'last minute' ones, that was for certain. "Activate Pot of Greed," she announced, the extra panels of drawn cards shifting into existence at her side as she skimmed the cards she'd drawn. "Next, set a monster face down," the woman continued, "And set a card..." And with this strategy...
If she made the right draw next turn... Flames blasted past her as the lamp she'd summoned to her defense was destroyed, Seto ducking under her arm as the resultant explosion shattered her card and threw molten gold in her face. Gh... 'Phase one' complete she hissed mentally, squinting over her arm. She just needed the right card now, and...
"Hnhnhnhnhn... Is that all," Gozaburo sneered, chuckling as he began to make his slow approach toward the woman. "I DARE you to find a monster more powerful than this... I DARE you to even STAND for another turn," he taunted, Seto merely holding a cold expression of hate and indifference on her face. "You... You don't stand a chance against this power..!"
They would soon see... Hn..! "Power, power, power," she muttered, narrowing her eyes as she looked upward. "You keep saying it as though the attack is the only thing that contributes to such a thing. ...Hn... You really are a pathetic fighter," Seto hissed, her next card appearing in her hand as she leered forward. This card... ...Gozaburo had 5800 attack points on his monster. But she'd at last gotten the card she needed. "You... I'll show you to rely on a monster like this," she muttered, narrowing her eyes.
"Show me," her 'father' taunted, before cackling almost madly from across the woman. "And again, your bluffs remain as strong as ever..!" Hn!
"They were never bluffs." One minute left. "WATCH, Gozaburo... I activate the Monster Reborn to bring the Mystical Lamp back from the graveyard," she announced, the clawed lamp appearing to the field and skittering before her in an almost ghost-like form. "I then activate its effect, special summoning La Jinn to the field... Your monster can't be destroyed, not physically," she continued, narrowing her eyes. "But then again, you don't have a body of your own, do you," Seto hissed. "You're DEAD... Nothing but ashes in a forgotten urn..! You think you can fight," the woman snarled, "Think again... In a battle like this, the soul is what's tested! So let me test yours before I show you mine! I activate the trap Soul Crush," she roared almost triumphantly, "Allowing me to remove monsters from either graveyard at the cost of 500 life points each... I have three," she continued with narrowed eyes. "But you... You have Five," Seto growled, pointing toward her opponent. "The Left Leg," she began, shadows evaporating as shining gold met the air and Gozaburo tensed. "The Right leg... The Left arm," the woman continued as the shadows continued to vanish and mist away to nothing, "The Right arm..." She had six hundred points left... Time to make this count..! "And finally... The Head!" Thirty seconds. "Your so called power is useless without those remains in the graveyard," she sneered, "So let me show you your 'reward'... I sacrifice my two monsters," Seto announced, her lifepoints depleted to a mere 100 with the trap card's effect depleted. "And I summon up the very monster of my soul... I summon BLUE-EYES WHITE DRAGON," the woman roared, white mist filling the air around her as the monster's enormous maw appeared above her to roar. "And now that your 'power' has been put in its place, I attack... This is it Gozaburo," Seto continued. "CHECKMATE; BURST STREAM!"
"GRAAAAAAOOOOOOOOO!"
White light tore forth as her 'father's' face seemed to appear over the Exodia, and even through the flames she could see the monster's burning form. "W-WHAT," he was snarling, arms raised in defense. "NO! NO, THAT ISN'T-" The shouts of her former father were cut short by the sounds of crackling flames, and in a moment her dragon settled to the ground to vanish to a mist at her side. The fires as well vanished just shortly thereafter... But as she stood there, looking toward the mere shade that remained of Gozaburo a cold feeling began to fill her. This wasn't the end, she thought to herself, even as the programming around the room began to shift around them. This was far from the end she realized as she stepped back and tensed, far from it...
Ten seconds until fire.
Seto walked forward in the darkness despite her mind telling her to do otherwise, stopping a number of feet away from where Gozaburo seemed to stand. He was as he appeared on his dying day yet again... Dressed in the suit that smelled of ash and looking toward her with eyes filled with hate, sneering from where he stood. And now...
"HOW," the man growled from across her, shaking with rage. "How could I LOSE! It was the perfect strategy," he roared, looking toward the girl he'd taken in those years ago as the 'ante' in a bet. "PERFECT! I calculated everything," Gozaburo snarled, "Everything..!"
Calculations..? Please. "You can't measure my strength using a computer," she scoffed, looking to the man in disgust. "You can burn in hell where you belong now..."
"You... I don't THINK SO," he roared, rising upward in a pillar of flames as a vision from nightmares only just passed came before the girl. An enormous and snake-like crocodile, made of nothing but flames... Nothing but... Seto froze in place as the monster towered over her, eyes naught but slits in the fire. "I WON'T FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS," Gozaburo was roaring, already coming from above to devour her completely. "I'LL TAKE YOU TO HELL WITH ME... YOU AND EVERYONE YOU KNOW..!" Five seconds...
"Grab my hand," someone whispered as she stared upward, the woman unable to move in the face of the demon. Who said that... "Grab my hand," the voice repeated, the flames coming closer, licking the sides of her face as Gozaburo's fires held her in place. Who...
"Damn it Seto-chan," Jonouchi roared, the woman above suddenly finding herself falling as the flaming monster's jaws closed over on nothing. "GRAB MY HAND!" She didn't know why she reached out as she fell... As the fires began to close in again from above, and as she turned around to look downward, but...
Lift off.
In an instant, the shadows were gone, as were the fires, Gozaburo... Everything. There was nothing but empty blank space, feeling almost 'grey' rather than black or white. They were still falling... And Jonouchi had pulled her close she realized after a moment of shocked silence, her eyes narrowing with annoyance. He'd pulled her right against her in some 'protective' embrace, her arms pinned against the blond's body and-! "Gh... Jonouchi," she growled, looking toward the blond as she moved her hands to push off him somewhat, "What are you-" The woman froze, looking down as her hands brushed against something 'rough'. Something underneath the blond's shirt, something... Some sort of 'impression', a mess of ruined and calloused flesh and- "...What the hell is this," she muttered, narrowing her eyes as an impression of a scar appeared in the shirt beneath her. "Where the hell did you get thi-"
Jonouchi merely smiled sadly as he let the woman go, Seto 'sinking' upwards in protest as the blond fell downward. What... What was he..! "Time t' wake up, Seto-chan..." What... What...
And he wasn't..! No, she screamed, only for nothing to come out as she reached back, eyes wide. NO, damn it, she wasn't leaving without-
"Hgh!" Seto's eyes flung open as the pod above her slowly began to click upward, allowing her the room to sit up. "Wh... This..." Slowly the woman stepped out of the pod, taking in the rest of the room. The opened capsules at the side... The flashing screen that read 'Missile Fired; Five Minutes to Impact'...
The bloodied room at the other end, where sparks still flew from some sort of battle that she hadn't seen. And more importantly, across from her own pod... "...Jonouchi," she muttered, walking toward it to stare at the glass shield. This idiot...
She could leave him here, a nasty side of her mind thought, but that thought was quickly squashed, the woman scowling momentarily as she did so. Mokuba would hardly enjoy it. But neither would she, no doubt about it. And besides that, he saved her life... Noa was the one who took his body, so...
Yes. That was the reason she would wait, she told herself. She was in this moron's debt; no other reason. She would wait to make sure the idiot made it out alive, rather than simply leaving and counting down until it was too late.
So with that in mind... She stood beside the pod, and waited for her friend to wake up.
The field was white again. It seemed to be a popular colour for these sorts of things but... At least he wasn't a computer any more, he thought to himself with relief. Heck...
That much was obvious when he tried to figure out how much time was left before 'impact' only to fail horribly. Katsuya looked around with somewhat dim eyes, hands stowed in the pockets of his jeans. Those last few moments... He'd almost lost himself, if not for a moment, but he'd come back somehow. Honestly, he wasn't really sure what held him steady in the end, what was allowing him to come back to being himself so easily. Maybe it was wanting to get out. Maybe his friends...
Maybe...
"Erf!" Katsuya turned as a small puppy sat before him, frowning somewhat as the cheerful dog wagged its tail in an almost predictable pattern. Round brown eyes sparkled as they looked upward, and again it barked, ears twitching cheerily as he stared back.
This dog... This was Noa's, right? "...You... You don' need tha' form anymore though, do y'," he asked, looking down at the dog as it continued to 'smile' and bark.
"No," another voice said almost plainly, Katsuya slowly turning around as Noa's smiling face met his gaze. "But then, he was my first friend in this place," he continued, the dog running past Katsuya to join his owner before being picked up into fabric covered arms. "I thought it would be appropriate to have him here when I say good-bye."
Of course... But... "...Yer clothes," Katsuya whispered, the boy continuing to smile as the long sleeved, white kimono hung over his form.
"I thought I should try it on," he 'explained', scratching his puppy's head. "What with me being... ..."
"...Dead," the blond offered almost sadly, Noa still smiling as he looked toward the blond.
"Yes... Dead." No other word for it... Was there? "...Katsuya... Before I go," Noa continued quietly, placing his dog on the ground to step forward, "I want to thank you... For what you did to me..."
For what he... Ah... "But... But I broke you," Katsuya whispered, face pale with the memory of his actions. "I-"
"No," Noa said with that same smile, shaking his head. "You saved me." ...Oh...
"...And th' others," he asked, eyes dimming as he recalled everything else that happened, recalled the 'memories' that had briefly flooded his mind only to be deleted from it just as quickly. "Did we save them from whatever happened here..?" He certainly hadn't bothered to try, despite the 'real him' wanting to have done that. Despite the real him wanting to erase everything that had been done, all the damage, all the trauma... It had always been passed off as useless though. Always...
"...I did what I could," the boy across from him said, still smiling sadly as Katsuya stared. "I've dulled the pain as much as I can... Lessened the clarity of images that shouldn't have occurred, so that all they will remember upon thinking back is that it hurt and that it'll never happen again. But no matter what I do the scars will always remain," he continued, his friend slowly nodding in understanding.
Yea... "...Th' memories..." What happened that was inflicted from their own minds, from their own thoughts...
That wouldn't leave, never leave, and they both knew that. Noa nodded, smile dimming as the words sunk in, the boy turning away. "For some, it'll be worse than others," he whispered, shaking his head. "And for some, the damage that's left behind will have a lasting and possibly dangerous effect... But I can't fix that," the boy continued sadly, shaking his head as he looked back. "I can't, and I..."
"...Tha's alrigh'," he told the boy, nodding his head. "Y' did what y' could righ'..?"
Another nod from Noa. "Yes... I suppose..." Another short span of silence, taking advantage of the altered timing the computer had placed them in. "...This... This is my last moment," Noa eventually said awkwardly, rubbing his shoulder as he turned somewhat away. "But in the end," the boy admitted, "I couldn't take anyone with me." Take...? "Your friend, 'Malik'," he continued, Katsuya staring in confusion. "He'd said..."
"'One Life' is everything," the blond finished, a slight vision coming to mind despite the continued digital barrier that prevented anything serious from getting into his mind. "Even one life is worth it if you can save them all..." And then... A little bit afterward... "...We are still th' same..."
"There are some people who didn't deserve to die," Noa whispered, smiling sadly as he wiped his eyes. "And others who have yet to truly live... I managed to create the first AI with real 'personalities'," he 'laughed', shaking his head as he continued to speak about the programs. "How is that even possible..?"
Katsuya could do nothing but shrug, still looking to the boy with a sad frown. "...Who knows," he whispered, eyes growing somewhat dull. "Yer a special guy, Noa..."
And still, his answers were nods. "Yes... I... I suppose so... But I still couldn't kill them," he told his friend, shaking his head and looking up at the blond across from him. "I couldn't... I've sent them somewhere safe," the boy continued, "With a 'parent' to guide them," he added with a small smile. "Someone to keep them safe, and raise them..." A parent...
But if Noa wasn't creating more programs then... "Th's 'parent'," he muttered, frowning somewhat. "Who..."
"You won't see him again," Noa assured him, shaking his head with a slight smile. "At least, I don't think so. I just wanted you to know... I... ...I'm still scared," the boy cried somewhat, looking down as he choked. "Of death... Of 'moving on', but I..." He sniffed, wiping his face with the long sleeves before facing Katsuya with a smile. "But I'm ready... So... Thank you, alright Katsuya? You're going to wake up now... In your real body but... Even though you still have three minutes," he explained, looking at him seriously, "My father... He's not fully bound to this world. Once its destroyed... Once his rage allows him to return," the boy trailed off, "I won't be able to..."
"Don' worry," the blond assured him, closing his eyes as the scene faded from around him. "We'll figure somethin' out..."
"...Okay."
Time to wake up...
'Jonouchi...' Someone was calling him...
His limbs were numb and feeling was only barely returning, and he thought he heard someone whisper his name.
'Jonouchi...' Someone was calling him, and they weren't stopping...
But there was a small rush of air around him, as though something had rushed out from wherever he was. And that voice... Where had he heard-
'Damn it MUTT,' the voice snarled, "WAKE UP!" Wait... Seto!
"Nyh!" The blond jolted from his seated position, eyes flying open as he rose toward the source of the clearly aggravated shout.
-CONK-
"ITAAIIII!" The glass of the pod hissed completely open as Katsuya rubbed his head, groaning in pain. "Ow ow ow... Damn it," he growled, clutching his head, "Why can't these things open fas'-"
"Not now mutt," Seto hissed, grabbing the blond by the arm and pulling him roughly from the pod as he choked. It really was Seto he told himself mentally, it was- "We need to leave..!" Leave?
"Ah-" Katsuya blinked, hurriedly recalling the time they had. He didn't have to look at the screen to know it was few. Didn't have to look back to know that the computers were already beginning to go haywire under the pressure of two opposing 'CPU' intelligences... His mind was back to its usual fore-warning self, and as the seconds ticked away his face grew pale. "S-Shit," he shouted quickly, running off with a stumble as he was half-dragged into a start off by the woman who had waited behind for him. "SHIT!"
He didn't really know how fast they ran. How long it took them to get through the blood-trailed hall, or onto the already prepared to leave airship, ignoring the shrapnel and the bloodied path that led inside the vehicle. It was already rising after all, and the others were shouting from the sides, gripping support poles as they held out their hands... "HURRY," they cried, eyes wide. Ryuzaki was missing, Katsuya noted. So was Shizuka, and Mokuba... "HURRY," the four teens on the steps shouted in panic, "It's almost here..!"
And indeed it was, given the flash of the furling clouds..!
Seto was first. She leaped onto the platform and grabbed at the bar, turning back as Katsuya himself scrambled to snatch at the rising support rail that was just out of reach. But while Seto had managed to jump onto the device he himself had barely caught onto the bottom, his fingers slipping in sweat as he choked. "Gh- Ngh... Shit," he hissed, fingers beginning to slide off as the ship took off, his only attachment to the door being that one hand. "Shit," he repeated, his other arm failing to catch hold of the door, "I'm sli-"
A strong hand snatched him by the wrist, pulling the shocked blond upward as its owner scowled. "I haven't fired you yet," Seto growled, the others staring with wide eyes as the ship continued to take off. "Don't even think of getting yourself killed until you give me a reason to do something like that," she added, pulling her 'friend' inside as the others stared.
"Ahhh..."
"S-Seto-sama..!" The others turned as they hurried in from the outside of the ship, Kyouko breathing raggedly as she stood at the top of the stairs before them. "Seto-sama," she repeated, those behind hurriedly closing the door behind them, "The ship is being blown off course... We might not make it out of missile range in time," she continued, "We-"
"Tch..." The woman charged forward, the others following behind as they headed for the bridge with nowhere else to go. "Direct all controls to the main wheel," she announced through the 'male' tones they were familiar with, heading for the very stand she'd hot-wired earlier that morning. "This ghost," she snarled to herself, barely keeping her voice down even with the controlled disguise as she took up the 'wheel'. "I won't be swallowed by him..!" A button on the side was slammed down as the missile struck the water and base behind them. As flames rose from the waters and snarled with crocodile's teeth, and as a firey maw opened up and screamed
"SETOOOOOOOOO!"
With a loud 'crack' the airship abandoned the balloon like structure it carried, jets blasting the plane forward as those at the back were thrown to the ground by the force. As the fires behind them were left with an empty shell to feed off of, before falling back to the seas. Soon enough however, the shockwaves had passed... And as the plane doubled back in the air they looked down, unable to see anything but smoke... There was nothing but the flames of a dying ghost, of a ruined shadow of the past... And then...
Though he wasn't completely sure if it wasn't just him...
There was a light.
A white mist, a light, blowing over the smoke to form a smiling woman with a child, the pair waving up from the seas with relieved smiles upon their faces. "Thank you," Rota called out. "Thank you...And goodbye," she continued on, holding her son close as she cried, her mask abandoned and her face repaired. "We're going home..." They were leaving...
They were finally going to get some rest... "...Sayounara, Noa," Katsuya found himself muttering, looking down at the wreckage as the others stared almost sadly at the sight outside the bridge window. And as the mist vanished, it was almost as though the others could hear him as well...
"Sayounara... Everyone..."
AN: *sniff* S-Sayounara Noa..! U-UAAAAAAHHH...!
We've reached the end! It's been a while, but it's over..!
Which means we go back to Battle City. Yea. Remember that, with the tournament, and the thing...
And the destruction obsessed psychopath who just put Ryuzaki in a coma despite getting shocked unconcious himself? (Dark Malik will be waking up soon... Unfortunately...) We'll be covering that next chapter, but before I get any panic, at least know what Ryuzaki lives.
Wait, Ryuzaki has to appear in the Doma arc, of COURSE he lives! But yea. Remember WAYYYY back, when I mentioned to a reviewer that Ryuzaki's traumatic incident hadn't happened yet?
It just happened.
In other news, there isn't much art for you since I spent most of my time editing; also because something recently came up back in BC, so I'm moving back. Now... In my family, that involves driving there. Which means one of two things.
One, there will be LOTS of chapters when I get back, since I'll have nothing to do. Or two, there will be lots of ART. It all depends on if I can save enough money from odd-jobs for a netbook before then, so here's hoping... Though either way, there will probably be piles of sketches by the time I'm done. I'm not leaving until the Sixteenth of May though, so there should be updates before then.
Heck, who knows, we might make it through Jou VS Malik... Which is as far as I'll estimate, since I have PLANS for what happens after THAT one.
Of course, since I'm going to BC, this means I'm NOT going to Anime North this year. Might make the next TsukinoCon though. Little early to tell though.
Now then, though there isn't much art (At least, not finished art), I have lots of songs below, as there were... LOTS of songs that I picked out while typing this all down. So here's to likely unnecessary music suggestions, and with that out of the way its time for reviews!
Anonymous Review Responses
We have A LOT today! And I mean A LOT.
So first!
...Hihhhhh... Yes... Good thing is putting it veeeeerrrry lightly I would think Iona...
I doubt you'd go over the limit of characters though; I get some pretty long reviews... Of course, my e-mail is on my profile, so if you ever need to say more than the limit there's always that; and I'll still respond to it as a review as well!
I'm glad you enjoyed Noa's take-down! As for spoilers, like I said; if you feel a burning need to speak, e-mail is always an option. (Can you tell I like to talk about these things? I'm a bit of an approval hound I'll admit, ahahahaha... -hides in a corner-)
As for the next chapter, YOU GET TWO! Bet you were wondering what took me so long eh?
Hey Taffy! Yea, I figured he was a troll... But hey, it was still fun responding to him!
And Anon Helper! Never seen you around... Glad to see everyone cares so much myself. I feel so loved, ahaha... *sniff*
OH! MaggieMay! It's been a while, hasn't it! I'm glad you enjoy it so far, and also glad you managed to catch up! As for a 'hug'... Well, if the 'I caught a falling body' wasn't enough (Which it likely wasn't, ahaha...), there's something in the chapter just above that should tide you over until what happens next...
Though it's not hentai, I will say that much. I'll keep working at it though!
Well, I re-read these to edit them, so… …Still… A head smack? …I don't know anymore Cynical Gamer! AHHHH…
AND OOOOOOHHHH YEA. Bad move! Heck, it looks like anything sets this ghost off looking at the finale…
At… Least she's moved on? In truth, I often write ghosts with 'black VS white' personalities, since that's supposedly what a 'real ghost' is stuck with. You'll see an example of this again in the Doma Arc actually; there's a reason why Yugi is 'the kid with the leash' when it comes to the Millennium Puzzle, and I'm pretty sure it's so that we don't end up with another Malik situation.
It really does put a new twist on things doesn't it..? Jou the Compy is probably the hardest thing I have EVER had to write. On the one hand, it's all logical and emotionless… But on the other, all his memories keep coming up in little files with handy points on how he 'should' act based on those memories. Recently, I wondered… 'Does this make Computer!Jou a Heartless?' Hnnnn…
And OHHHHH Shinato Jou… I LOVED how Shinato Jou came out, and it makes me wish that I had a reason to slap costumes like that on everyone in the rest of the series…
But I don't. Which is why the VR arcs are so heavily altered admittedly; in addition to my desire to write something more action oriented, I have this burning need to put everyone in 21st century inappropriate clothing.
Ohhhhh, you got your answer for Noa..! It's a very good thing Rota intervened… But yes; that handy memory-logic kicked in again and saved Yugi big time, hehehe.
Any ways. Millennium Psycho's aside (Which Noa would have ironically avoided…)… OHHHHH… THAT chapter. I completely understand your laughter then. And I suppose Honda does deserve some credit… Mostly for turning out to be fairly cool while stuck in the 'not-body', but yes. Yes he does.
And I know right? I was fairly surprised to find all this out; it's actually part of what cemented how Jonouchi acts when he gets depressed. Obviously most of it is based on Jonouchi's actions himself, but there was an entire arc in GX that pretty much put Judai's head in a depressive blender… Which is partially why my brain constantly brings up this frightening fact; Jou and Kaiba are actually more similar than one would think… And if just a few things went differently in the past, Jonouchi could have turned into one SCARY S.O.B. (Thankfully, he did not.)
And yessss… The Yu-Jyo card… If you have 'Unity' in your hand, that one loses its point completely, hehehehe… (Unity actually makes me a little sad; again, Bakura is gone… But Otogi isn't. Poor Bakura. )
AND NEVER! NEVER!~~~
I will take… ...Love?
And hnnnn… Good point… Ah! Thank you for the compliment! I'm glad she comes off as accurate! …
I thought we agreed that you'd give me love instead of hate!
And it really does, doesn't it. Ironically, all of this equates to exactly what Noa said; those two are the first 'real' AI programs with their own personalities. Granted, they're still logic driven (… Spock? -shot-), but hey.
And… *takes a bow* It was one of the most fun to type, next to these two for the finale! Harsh barely describes it though… Each time I got through a paragraph I'd look up and think 'Dear LORD, what am I PUTTING him through!'… And Ren… Oh Ren…
The question now is more what everyone else will do now that the pair are… Cooperating. Normally I would say that such cooperation is OOC, but right now they pretty much went through a full on mind-meld; they've got each others memories. Heck, Anzu can likely hold a conversation in Arabic now, so long as she focuses really carefully on the words. We'll be touching a lot more on that (the reaction to possession) in the next chapter though, seeing how Computer!Jou isn't holding it back now.
No… Now we'll just have poor Ryuzaki… (AHHHHHHH WHAT HAVE I DONE..!)
Well, I hope you enjoyed these next two chapters; they've put me through more unease than the last one really, since there was… A LOT of stuff here.
Mostly past lives and sword fights. Those are the big ones on my worry list, though Anzu's pretty high up there as well…
Any ways, until next time, enjoy!
Usagi's Manga And Japan Guide/Corner
The section that has a nice bunch on Germany today! And... It's over! THE NOA ARC... IT'S... ALL...
…
This section will just have to start gearing up for the next arc really.
The 'Final Gate'? Well it pretty much is. It's the last part of one arc, entering the final half of Battle City... And entering a number of 'final challenges', or at least, a number of 'final' ones for that year.
Originally, Seto barely knew Siegfried; in fact, he only remembered him after an intense show of hacking into his system during the KC Grand Prix arc. In the anime, Siegfried and his father were invited to a dinner party of Gozaburo's, rather than the fanfic version of the opposite. Moreover, Siegfried had set a program to work on the lights while he was talking to Seto beside the businessmen. (And yes, Herja was essentially created just because I didn't want another businessman. Quite frankly, it's not impossible by a longshot; heck, as I recall, Germany's Chancellor, or 'Head of Government', is a woman.)
Also for some reason, Seto looks pretty scared in that scene. I mean, I get that he's only about 12ish or something like that, but… Come on.
Any ways, Siegfried, or rather, young Siegfried, comes across as fairly smug, not to mention used to doing whatever the heck he wants regardless of what others say. And while I'm pretty sure he's a bit (A LOT) of an ass when he actually shows up like… Six years later, there's something one must remember; it's implied that Siegfried pretty much got all of the good points of rich life that Seto didn't, while Seto beat Siegfried out on all of the good business points…
Also, if you go by the anime, had Seto not been adopted it's quite likely they'd all be playing on duel disks made by Schrodiner Corp, as Seto very narrowly beat Siegfried to the punch when it came to clinching that deal with Pegasus. Ooooooh, no wonder Sieg was so pissed.
Any ways, seeing how none of that has happened yet, and how I'll be throwing in another, additional reason for the hate, he's a lot nicer as a kid. …Then again, so was Seto.
Herja, by the way, is pronounced 'Hair-yah'. 'J' in Germany is pronounced like a 'Y'. Herja's name actually spawned a Germanic Goddess of War by the name of 'Hariasa', but Herja itself is the name of another Valkyrie. Specifically, she's from the longer of two lists of Valkyries… Also, her name means 'Devastate'. Oooooh.
Also, Herja is officially the coolest mom EVER. She knows EVERYTHING.
EVERYTHING! That wasn't even intended! Damn you OC's, writing yourselves..!
Also, 'V' is pronounced more like 'F', whereas the 'W' sound is pronounced 'V'. In fact, Germany doesn't have a 'W' sound. We were out there once, and Judith, a friend of the family was talking with us… And while we joked around, we called her a 'wimp'. Later on, still joking around, she shouts 'VIMP!'. But not because she was taking advantage of the 'W'. It was actually because of the fact that she wasn't familiar enough with the sound.
This is what accents do to your brain.
'Frau' means 'Woman', and refers to adults specifically. However, it was originally only used for Married women. Now adays, it's used as a courtesy title for unmarried, adult women as well, in the place of Ms. or Mrs.
And of course, 'Fraulein' means 'Girl'…
No seriously, WHAT DID GOZABURO DO WITH MOKUBA? We're never told what they did with him, and the fact is, the only reason he was there was because Seto wouldn't come without him. Heck… I have a feeling he was pretty much just a 'ghost' in the house, or worse, locked away in his room, at least outside of likely tutoring given that Fanfic!Gozaburo did at one point intend to have Mokuba act as an actual sibling to Noa…
Seto's mental reminder refers to the common speech pattern differences between girls and guys in Japan. Girls for one, tend to be more polite about their speech, and will normally use 'watashi', or 'atashi'… In fact, those are just about the only way they can refer to themselves without seeming weird!
Boys on the other hand, have boku, and 'ore' and many others… The latter of which is VERY masculine and will NEVER be heard from a woman's mouth! …Which is exactly why little Seto is training herself to use that one in regards to herself. As it is, had she still been raised a woman, there's… Really little other option for her, as 'Boku' wouldn't sound at all professional or 'higher-than-thou. I suppose that as a stretch she might have used 'watakushi', as I'm fairly certain Gozaburo would have raised a woman to be more polite than 'battle ready' but…
Well, to put THAT in perspective, ISHIZU uses that one, so it's not likely… …Actually, non-crossdresssing Fem!Kaiba would possibly have used 'Jibun' as well; it's a fairly detached way to refer to oneself, and actually very militarized given the fact that it indicates a selfless devotion to duty but… It's also technically gender-neutral, making it very useful in that respect.
Speaking of this, there's an Osakan dialect specific one for ladies; Uchi. Shizuka quite likely uses this to refer to herself actually, seeing how Fanfic!Shizuka is Osakan herself.
Sad sad irony is that Siegfried took over his company the same time Kaiba did.
Which means Sieg's parents are dead too. Poor guy…
Dating is when you try and get to know that 'one' you like and hope to heck it works out, or that you get laid. We know this. Courting however, is done with the pure intent of marriage.
Thankfully, Siegfried was doing neither. Ohohoho…
In Germany, the summer holiday varies from state to state (the one Siegfried is in is Bavaria), but generally it's six weeks. In Japan however, it's only four… (Though Japan has a lot more holidays scattered elsewhere.)
Also, in Japanese, 'Kusine' sounds similar to 'kuji-ru', or at least an alternate pronunciation of the verb… Which means 'to pick'. As in picking at one's teeth. Ohohoho…
Yes, the computer is translating their memories.
No, this isn't always a good thing. Poor Kaiba…
WAIT. A. SECOND. Cousins! That's right! Noa and Siegfried, in the fanfic, are biologically related. Herja is Rota's sister; this is how she knows Gozaburo, and also how she has a slight bit of leverage… Key word being slight.
This is also why Herja spotted Seto as a woman (Siegfried actually DID keep his mouth shut.); rather than seeing Noa, as everyone else did, she saw her sister.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a town of about 25,000 people near the mountain 'Zugspitze', which is the tallest mountain in the Alps. It's a fairly nice town from what I can tell, but I've unfortunately never been there… (I say unfortunately because I actually have been to Germany; I just happened to be in the Manheim area instead. Mrr.)
I bet anyone mentally shipping SiegxKaiba right now is sort of tripping over the fact that Sieg likely sees her as a cousin. Because he was alive when Noa was after all, and he was probably very aware of what Noa looked like. You can bet that he's kept his mouth shut about how similar Seto looks.
Why did Seto miss 'Kusine'? First off, pronounced with the nice thick German accent, it sounds more like 'koo-zine' (possibly with an 'ih' at the end depending on accents) than cousin, so she sort of missed it… As she doesn't think in English. In Japanese, cousin is 'Itoko'.
If Seto seems OOC, it's for a good reason; she's being completely overwhelmed and affected by the emotions she had in the past. And mini-Seto really did enjoy those summers.
(As for how she got in those dresses, it was a mix of the excuse that the maids would spill the beans if dirt was found on her own clothing, along with the initial 'they'll be looking for two boys'. At the second summer, the clothing comment was enough, because she was subconsciously looking forward to it. On the third one, she was just putting up a front.)
And by the way, she turned fourteen that year. You can guess really quickly just how fast it went downhill from there... Though an additional reason will be brought up MUCH later.
OH HEY. GERMAN STUFF.
All of the German is accurate by the way, and not translated by means of a translator... Instead I asked my dad. Who actually used to teach it. And also speaks it. Huzzah! Granted, if I have a native speaker making complaints I'll be listening; native tops teacher after all.
AHHHHH. AHHHHHHHHHHH- You know what this means? It means Gozaburo knew, ALL ALONG.
AHHHHHHH-.
Now, I don't play chess, but that doesn't mean I can't cheat and find a recorded match online. This one is Garry Kasparov VS Lajos Portisch, from 1983; Garry was, ironically, using white. He also won with the Queen. Handy isn't it?
I skipped a number of moves in the middle for the sake of speed though. You can find the entire match here: http : / / www. chessgames. com/ perl/ chessgame? Gid= 1070074
And also yes, they are essentially playing GUNDAM CHESS. Normal Yugi is kind of having a spazz about it right now in his head while the Other Yugi gleans the rules from him and takes off. (They didn't play Chess in Egypt… Granted, it takes a split second for him to get the rules…)
The bird that Malik is using is an Egyptian Condor, and it's the second animal that represents Egypt; specifically the lower region. In other words, it's another Goddess from the double crown. I just thought it worked more here, since Nehkbet (The Vulture) was white, whereas Wadjet was… Well, green.
Something I forgot to mention, but 'Pr-ah' or 'Per-aa' as some spell it, is the Egyptian term for the Pharaoh. Hooray!
Interesting fact, but in the manga, the jet that the Kaiba siblings left in was actually just a fighter jet painted like Blue-Eyes. No really!
Oh Noa…
The sprits aren't dead, don't worry! As for that 'eagle', it's Mai's bird actually. Ryuzaki's raptor would be there, but his raptor is a little… Um, distracted at the moment.
You've probably noticed that the tauk isn't doing a good job of protecting Ryuzaki. That's partially because it's falling loose on the shoelace, and also because the Millennium Rod is REALLY POWERFUL and kinda actually meant for battle.
Baka yarou is a slightly more insulting form of 'Baka'. Now, normally, that would bring a moment of 'is that all he could think of' in terms of insult quality, what with baka normally being about as serious as 'moron!'
But then you remember the fact that in the Kansai region, the insult severity switches with 'ahou', giving it a level similar to 'asshole'. So add in another level of insult to it...
Oh, and he was trying to say 'bitch' the first time around.
When Ryuzaki say's gold is a 'super-conductor', think of it this way. A normal conductor has a low resistance as it is, and can conduct electricity with ease. Silver, by far, is one of the best conductors. On a chart, it has a conductivity of '6.30×107'.
Then there's gold. Gold is a good enough conductor that it's used for high-quality surface-to-surface contacts, and it's level is '4.52×107 Copper? It's at 5.80, which is why it's used in cables. So yea. You don't want to be connecting those two things, you'll electrocute yourself!
Castling is a move where the King and the Rook can, provided they haven't moved until that point, scoot together and switch places. It's pretty handy actually, since you have a nice rook there for protection…
For some reason, when Noa spoke through the virtual world and… Even in Mokuba's body, he used his normal voice. I mean… I suppose if there's only a slight difference in pitch it's possible but…
Needless to say, it's still a Jou voice.
Originally, Yugi had this line of 'I trust you', because it was the 'light' Yugi in control. But at the moment, it's still the other Yugi… So no.
Also, Jonouchi's brain is still a compy, so he knows that Noa at least came back and did all this stuff, which kind of says he's trying to help. Also, Mokuba's back in the system, sooooo…
Hey, re-breathers! A little older than you think, though it still needs a tank of oxygen to get going. As to why Noa thinks he can get away with using an oxygen tank that is THAT OLD, he doesn't; he's just hoping no one else catches on, and that they get the hell out of there.
'Daijyoubu' is a common phrase that essentially means 'it's alright'. It comes from 'dai', or 'big' and 'jyoubu', which means 'healthy', or 'strong'. The 'da' at the end of Jou's statement is a masculine (and outside of informal situations rude) form of 'desu' that boys tend to use (girls would ordinarily not), whereas 'yo' is a particle meant to 'convince'. In other words, the 'yo' is Jonouchi saying 'it'll be alright' in a situation where most wouldn't believe him.
As for the 'mitte' (Nigero is a form of the verb 'to run away' if you haven't guessed.) term, I've probably mentioned it before, but you very rarely refer to a person who's right there in a sentence. It's a given that if you're speaking, you're either talking about them or yourself. So if it's something like 'see', then it's obvious to the Japanese that you aren't talking about seeing yourself, you're talking about seeing them.
Of course, Jou still has to convince them. (And yes, his wall broke again. Poor guy. What this meant though was that he was actively able to use all that he was connected to though... Not to mention reach Seto INSTANTLY... )
Despite being divided over the course of two episodes, Gozaburo VS Seto was actually a fairly pathetic match. It only lasted five turns.
Remember those times where I said 'wait until I go into detail on Gozaburo'?
GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS. So we're going to work 'chronologically' here. We start at the beginning, with a Gozaburo that is drastically different from our current one. Maybe has a bit of a temper, a little high-strung, but for the sake of the fanfic he's otherwise a loving father and a good husband. (He just happens to be a really big jack ass when it comes to supplying weaponry to both sides of the war front.)
Noa, at this point, is his perfect child. He's brilliant, he's happy, he's more than a bit of a 'daddy's boy', and in addition to all of this shares (apparently) similar tastes with dear dad. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have seen them sailing if that wasn't the case.
Then Noa dies. Like any grieving father there's that moment of 'I would give anything to have him back'; and what do you know, he has an option. Noa is hooked up, but what he fails to realize is that his mind will deteriorate to a computerized state. Failing to realize this, Gozaburo continues as though he's got two lives; there's his wife, along with the possibility of a second child. Then there's Noa. But Noa wants back in that life, and doesn't have time to wait for Gozaburo to fix that for him. And because of what he does, he pushes Rota right to the edge…
So Gozaburo loses his second child before its born, along with his wife, leaving him with only Noa. This means all of his care goes into this boy; so when he sees Seto, who is identical in appearance and possibly just as intelligent, an idea hatches… He starts training Seto frantically to Noa's level, trying to 'replace' Noa, just in case those memories don't transfer. So we get the violence when Seto refuses, we get the distaste when Seto's interests don't match, and more importantly, Seto is viewed not as a son, but as a vessel. And then, shortly before Seto hits that 'twelve year mark', the deal is made with Noa.
But Noa does some research and spills the beans; Seto's a girl. Before Gozaburo can even react, Noa pulls his creepy side up. 'It doesn't matter anyways; a body is a body, right..? Or maybe I could take the little boy…' More creepy business happens, and in the end Gozaburo abandons the computer, refusing to acknowledge 'it' as his son.
By this point, Gozaburo is a very broken man. He's lost his wife, and, in his eyes, his son. The 'son' that would replace him is a daughter, and needless to say, that stings like hell. But, regardless, Seto resemble's Noa completely, and Gozaburo's twisted and shattered mind cannot handle the truth that his son is gone. Therefore, the negative treatment continues, with the reactions to even the slightest difference between the two filled with rage because of that refusal to accept the truth, the frustration that Seto is not and cannot be 'his son', and more or less a defensive reaction to the grief that fact likely causes. In the end, we get the Gozaburo we know… The heartless, war-focused man who constantly tried to push Seto into that same path. It's like TVTropes says; about the nicest thing you can call Gozaburo is a 'Knight Templar Father'.
As for Ghost Gozaburo… Basically, you take all of those negative traits and raise the bar to eleven, with no moderation. There's your ghost.
AND THAT IS HOW YOU MAKE A GOZABURO.
…Dang that was long. Sorry about that.
Fun fact; Contract With Exodia doesn't actually require a lifepoint cost. Another thing that's different is Necross' attack point gain; it's 500 points per standby phase.
Obviously Exodia wasn't the last thing for Yugi to win with against Kaiba, but the match at the Duelist Kingdom wasn't official, so Gozaburo can't tell.
Hey, you know the Luster Dragon? How there's TWO? One is actually called 'Emerald Dragon'. The translators just forgot they already had a luster dragon (Originally Sapphire Dragon I think.) so they ended up with a second one.
And yes some of the dialogue was still moved and or cut from the battle. A-durp-durp-durp…
If you look close, this last encounter with Noa was predicted as well; namely the part with the dog not being him in Jonouchi's last dream. (Remember that?)
And AHHHHHHH these scenes… So depressing… And sad…
But it had to be done; and look, Noa gets his eternal peace now! So happy endings…
Mostly. But we'll be covering that in the next chapter, when we return to Battle City.
FanArt and My Art Section
Remove spaces, paste links; easy!
Lots of sketches for this chapter, but there are a few in colour...
Sketch/Reference: Shizuka, Yugi, Katsuya – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ KatsuyaYugiShizuka. jpg - This is what these guys looked like after snapping out of the memory prison; Yugi basically got more leather (and his Puzzle!), Shizuka ended up with a weird mix of her actual clothes and the Ruin costume, and Jonouchi got half-and-half. Regardless of colour however, they were all wearing white during the chess match.
Sketch/Reference: Otogi, Anzu, Honda – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ HondaAnzuOtogi. jpg - Hey look! I finally figured out how to draw Otogi without making him look like a complete tool. (Seriously, every time I drew him it was like 'AWWWW Usagi, you screwed up his nose AGAIN.') Which is good, because I was beginning to wonder if people were noticing... Ahem. Any ways. Otogi as you can see is pretty much wearing his real clothes... Though he's missing his shoes. Anzu on the other hand, actually got a mix of her clothes and Malik's... And Ishizu's. Her memories are so muddled now that the computer couldn't get a hit on her outfit.
And of course, Honda's is a furred mix of his VR costume and his real clothes... … Woof.
Sketch/Concept: Ghosts – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ Ghosts1. jpg - In which we have a flaming alligator, Rota's mask, and Noa. Yaaaaay~
Spoilers!Sketch Sheet: Chess and Capmon – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ Sketch. jpg - There's a cast for the Capmon arc there! ...You can already tell how different it'll be. Any ways, here you go, each of the chess pieces; you can probably guess which one is which. As for the capmon crew...
No comment! Also, Ryuzaki's aunt. Yay~
Sketch: 'After the Battle' – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ Ryuzakihalfdead. jpg - Oh GOD Ryuzaki... I'll make it up to you I swear! -cries-
Summer Memories – http : / / i5. photobucket. com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ SiegKaiba. jpg - Look it's Seto! ...In... A... Dress. Times like this when I remember who Seto is, and then snicker inwardly. It's actually really weird drawing Seto in a dress; probably because I know that the canon one is a guy. Ohohoho~ (She doesn't look too bad in the middle one; which is good, as Sieg actually had that one made for her, not that she knows. The others were all last minute.)
Siegfried on the other hand... I have no problems drawing him in a dress, and frankly I am not surprised. (Though I think his head might be a little big...)
Musical Notes
So... Many... SONGS!
I added lots of songs during this chapter; most of my music wasn't suited for it so... Yea.
First off, from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is 'God Knows'... But not the original. Instead, it's this one, the 'slow' version... I have two links here though, for this reason. The slow version isn't subbed. BUT... Someone created a kareoke version for a dubbed version.
And quite frankly, I LOVE this translation. You can find the Kareoke here: http : / / www. youtube. com/ watch? v= efSgaC19VfQ
And the actual music here: http : / / www. youtube. com/ watch? v= v4uxniWcmj4
There's an even slower version as well; you can find it by searching 'God Knows Sad version'. (It'll be the one that's seven minutes.) I listened to this one as well... It's really good for the tearjerker scenes.
Other songs I listened to include 'Just Be Friends; Piano Version', specifically a cover by Yamai, along with The Last Revolver by Gumi...
And for the Battle scenes, something more peppy. They don't have ANYTHING to do with the fanfic, but 'Rhapsody of the Loup Garou' (Vocaloids Megurine Luka and Kamui Gakupo) and 'Harvest' (Kagamine Rin) are REALLY fast, really peppy, and thereby pretty awesome for fight scenes. Well, unless you're talking 'Ryuzaki VS Malik'. For that one, I pretty much stuck with siGrE, the 'Banana Cream' chorus version.
Because Banana Cream actually subtitles their covers. So you can still understand what they're saying if you search 'siGre Banana'. (Don't search 'cream'; that part is written in Katakana, so you'll screw the search.)
Next, 'Black Paper Moon', which most will know as the second Soul Eater opening... And...
Last of all there is 'Dancer in the Dark', which was used during the Seto scenes. The chorus version is really good... But the original is by Luka.
Well, that's all for my shameless (And for once, LONG!) music recommendations... The next chapter might be a bit, but it should be out before I take off.
Until then, enjoy this double post, and I'll see you next time!