Red Soul
It was incredible, the power that two words could have. 'Thank you.' That was all she'd said.
'Thank you.'
And yet it had Katsuya's heart racing. It had his face flushed red and his eyes wide with confused and even horrified hesitancy as a dream-like, fragmented figment of imaginative representation of Seto Kaiba continued to lean in toward him. Her eyes were closing over. His as well he realized, swallowing nervously as his breathing became audible. In, out... In, out, in, out in out in, and he could hear each one...
His heart was still racing.
-b-dmp-
Or was that her heart that he could hear coming closer?
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This was a dream, he tried to tell himself.
-b-dmp-
It was nothing but a dream, nothing good would come of this if his eyes stayed close.
-B-DMP-
Just a dream..!
-B-DMP-
A dream, where everything had apparently been sacrificed just to get this woman to respond to-
-B-DMP-
To...
-B-DMP-
His eyes were closed.
-B-DMP-
His breathing was slow and almost anticipatory, and he was beginning to lean in as well, face flushed red and heart pumping louder than a bass drum.
-B-DMP-
Just a dream.
-B-DMP-
Just a dream...
-B-DMP-
Nothing more.
-B-DMP-
Nothing less.
-B-DMP-
Wake up he told himself.
-B-DMP-
Wake up..!
-B-DMP-
WAKE...
-B-DMP-
UP..!
His heart was racing. So was hers.
But it was all just a dream (was it really, someone whispered), it was just a dream (maybe you were dreaming until now), this world was twisted (but she loves you here), it wasn't right, it wasn't...
It wasn't...
It WASN'T..!
-b-dmp. B-Dmp. B-Dmp. B-Dmp. B-DmpB-DMPB-DMPB-DMPB-DMPB-DMPB-
He wanted...
With a jolt, head still bowed he grabbed Seri's shoulders, pushing her back. His eyes flung open and he found himself staring at the ground, hair shadowing his face as he choked on his breaths. Just...
Just a dream... Nothing more nothing less he told himself as Seri tensed, just a dream... "Gh... What..!"
Katsuya grit his teeth, shaking his head. "It ain' right," he muttered, shaking as he gripped the woman's shoulders tight. "It ain' right..! This ain' you!"
"Not me..?" The woman continued to stare, shaking her head. "Jonouchi-kun," Seri muttered, half scowling and half confused as she looked at the bowed head before her. "What on earth are you talking about..?"
"It ain' righ'," he repeated, looking up with almost crazed eyes. "Everythin's wrong here; you aren't who you are, Yugi isn' who he oughta be... An' th' Other Yugi's nothin' but a shadow. It's wrong," the blond continued, getting to his feet to turn away and ramble on in apparent insanity. "I jus'... Damn it," he roared, voice echoing over the canal as he held his head, pulling at his hair and grinding his teeth. "I wanna WAKE UP damn it... I wanna wake UP!"
But he wasn't waking up... He wasn't, and as he breathed almost raggedly, hands falling back to the ground Seri stared at him in an obvious concern that was again 'not right' in his mind. "...What's wrong," she said calmly, standing up to look at him with a frown as her 'friend' remained silent. "I'm not 'me'? What are you talking about?"
Tch... Great. He wasn't waking up, so now the person he'd been about to kiss thought he was crazy. (There went his chances...) Then again...
This was just a dream; nothing more nothing less, so what the hell did it matter any more? He couldn't care about this... He couldn't, not unless he wanted to be stuck here! So he would say it again. "I'm talkin' abou' everything," he muttered, not looking back to the woman beside him. "Th' real you... She'd as soon deck me in th' face before ev'n thinkin' of a kiss. Heck, she already did! An' the real you," he continued, turning to the woman with a swallow, "Uses 'ore', and 'omae' and 'onore'... She wears suits an' coats an' pants, she stayed w' her brother, she didn' grow out her hair..! Th' real you has three Blue-Eyes White Dragons in 'er deck," he went on with a rising voice, "She wants t' beat Yugi above anythin' in Duel, the 'other Yugi' in a duel, an' she... She..."
She probably hated him, for what he'd done Katsuya realized. But in the end...
That didn't change what he thought. "I love 'Kaiba Seto-chan'," the blond whispered at an almost inaudible tone. "Not 'Souryuu Seri'... An' ev'n if she never feels th' same way... Ev'n if she hates me, an' never trusts me again," he forced out, Seri simply staring in silence, "That'll always be my answer... This world isn't real," Katsuya told her. "An' it ain' right. Dreams," he laughed, shaking his head. "They're dreams f'r a reason righ'? They have t' end... 'Cause the aren' real. So no matter what," he continued seriously. "No matter what it takes, I will never accept 'this' as reality. No matter how long it takes... I..."
Seri was still staring, and for a moment a flash of worry came into his mind. Even with what he said after all, he still had to live with it until that moment where he was finally able to 'wake up'. What if that moment wasn't until the time where he went up against Malik's dark half again in this world? Or even afterward? What if...
He never... Seri was chuckling he realized, looking back to the woman with a frown. A wind was passing through the air and she was chuckling, and as Katsuya stared the woman smiled with an almost cheshire-like grin. "And that, Black One," she told him, eyes narrowing as colours seemed to bleed out from herself and from the scene, "Is the correct choice." Wh...
What... The scene shattered and without warning an almost collapsing sensation fell over him. The canal, the street, the trees, all of them were gone, scattering into fragments on the wind and the woman before him seemed to shrink down as the colours continued to vanish to leave nothing but white.
The only thing remaining in the blinding light was a pair of blue eyes... And when the girl spoke again it sounded almost as though a dragon was singing at the back of her words, her form changing still as the wind blew his clothes in every direction. Hair lengthened and the face changed, the smile never altering. Colours continued to fade and soon enough there was nothing but white, white... White, on a familiar face...
"Kisara," he whispered in surprise, the name coming off his tongue before he even realized who or what he was talking about. "You're..." Why was she here though..?
The girl smiled, bowing somewhat as almost comical wings stretched out from her back. "Correct," she said with a smile. "You broke the illusion faster than I thought, 'Black One'." Black one..? What... "I underestimated you," she added, the blond coughing somewhat. Underest-
And hold on a second, this was 'Seri' a few seconds ago..! "Wait wait... So... Then... I was abou' t' kiss..." Kisara merely continued to smile as her guest sputtered, bringing a hand to his head as he groaned. "Auggggghhhh... What th' hell... What th' hell is this..." And 'black one'? What did that even mean...
Kisara chuckled, shaking her head. "Hah... You really don't know anything at all do you," she asked, smiling almost sadly. The blond looked up, frowning as the girl moved closer. "Really... If I look like this," she continued, gesturing to the white dress she wore with the almost 'monstrous' appearance she'd taken, "You can't possibly remember who I was..." Who she was...
Besides a name and a face he didn't know, and with that Katsuya bit his lip, turning away. "I don'... Sorry kid..." He really was... But the fact was there was nothing but a name and a distant memory. To think though; it'd been so clear in the Virtual World..! But in the end, the memories he recalled having while within that memory... He hadn't really recalled them. He hadn't seen what happened, or heard what he'd said. He'd just known that he'd shared 'his' name, that he'd traveled far throughout those ancient lands with those two kids on his side...
And nothing else. Because it was just a dream... But... Even so, he could have at least tried to remember who- "That's alright," Kisara told him, smiling almost sadly as she caught the look on her guest's face. "It's a given really... Memories like these become strained over the years... And you waited a long time for this you know..!" Had he now? The girl laughed somewhat, shaking her head. "You'll remember me someday," she decided with a confident nod. "And that's besides the point... You passed the test," the girl announced with a grin. "When offered life or death, heaven or reality," she continued, "You picked 'reality'... I could probably have done better on the illusion though," she admitted with a wince, Katsuya snorting in response.
"Hah! Jus' a little... Wasn' so much heaven as a nightmare," he muttered, crossing his arms with a slight scowl as the white girl scratched her 'ear'.
"True," Kisara admitted with a sigh. "But... ...You almost said 'yes', didn't you," she added, tone abruptly taking a far more chilling ring to it.
The blond froze, words caught in his throat as he looked back to the smiling girl. Almost... ...That was right, he had doubted himself for a moment in that dream. At the last minute, he'd been about to change his mind and give in, letting the illusion continue, but... Did that mean...
He would have died..? "CORRECT, young one of the ANICENT line..." Katsuya stiffened as still more light filled the air, dying the scene almost gold in colour as 'Ra's voice echoed about the air. 'Correct'..? As the blond turned, squinting in the light he found himself stepping back under the monster's presence, even when it had yet to appear in his sights. "You would INDEED have PASSED should the wrong choice have been MADE... HOWEVER," Ra continued, still failing to appear as he spoke, "You have PASSED nonetheless... If you are so WILLING to CORRECT the fallacies of REALITY... If you can SURPASS the ILLUSION of a better LIFE," he continued, gleaming eyes slowly appearing through the glare, "Then I will GRANT you THIS REWARD..." Re...
"R'ward," he repeated, choking somewhat. H-Hell... All he'd done was get fed up with the illusion, so how...
How did that come into 'you win a prize'..? "You who bear the FACE of the ANCIENTS," Ra commanded, his voice pounding through Katsuya's ears. "Do you UNDERSTAND the GRAVITY of this VISION you held..?" Vision? And the gravity of it..! It was a dream, a nightmare a...
There was a point..? … "...No," he admitted, bowing his head with a whisper. "I don'..." He... Tch. Watch. He'll have just failed like the idiot he was, rather than picking something he should have paid attention to from the mess... He'd die anyways...
Evidently however, that wasn't the case. "I did not think you would," the God said lowly, an almost ghostly vision of the monster appearing before him as Ra alighted on the 'ground'. "But in TIME," he whispered, "In TIME, when you need it MOST... You will REALIZE that this CHALLENGE is MORE than a matter of PREFERENCE, and of LIFE and DEATH! IT IS A MATTER OF YOUR VERY FUTURE," the god roared severely, "OF YOUR PAST... And as of NOW," he rumbled, the sounds of an explosion seeming to pass through the air as he spoke, "Of the very SOUL and MEMORY of those CLOSE..." The souls and memories...
Wait... WHAT! "Th's... Th's is abou' th' other's souls," he asked incredulously, eyes widening. "What... What th' hell do you mean by that," Katsuya roared. With something like this... "If it's somethin' like tha', it's important now isn' it!"
Ra did not answer this question, merely shaking his head and continuing to look down at the boy from far above. "Your TIME is SHORT," he said flatly, Katsuya's scowl slowly falling flat to replace itself with shock. "We can hold you here NO LONGER... HOWEVER," he continued, bowing his head.
"...Your body is not ready yet," Kisara finished bluntly, the teen across from her staring in confusion. Not... Not ready..? The girl nodded, as though having heard his thoughts before answering. "Your wounds still haven't healed... If we return you to your body," she warned, "You'll die." He... He'd die..?
"N... No way, jus' like tha'," he asked nervously, coughing as he took a step back. "I'd be dead..?" After all that... From his own damn sword..! "But... What th' hell..." They... Because he'd broken the illusion too soon, he was going to die..!
"SUCH is the COST of SHADOWS," Ra 'responded', wide and golden wings spread before him. The monster again shook his head however, standing on his hind legs to motion downward with one of his forelimbs. "Do not FEAR ANCIENT," the god commanded, Katsuya frowning as the monster went on. "Though we can no longer HOLD you within your MIND," he continued, "There is yet ANOTHER option..."
"And that," the white girl beneath him continued, "Is the option we will now take." Well, if it kept him alive he supposed, but...
Well. "...An' that option is..?"
"A GIFT," the God roared, pulling Katsuya's attention back upward. "You may SHARE your ABILITY, if only for a MOMENT in TIME... UNTIL YOU AWAKEN," he finished, wings closing over the blond to shroud his vision in darkness. "We will GRANT you this MUCH..." This much..?
But wait... "W-Wh-... Wait," he shouted, somehow finding his voice again. "What..!" What was 'this much!
There was no answer from the beings, the pair instead fading from sight with those words. And mere moments afterward, he found himself falling forward through the sky with only a short word in the back of his mind giving him any clarity on the situation that he'd abruptly been thrust into, the white vanishing to replace itself with the clouds of the atmosphere as he found himself screaming.
'Ghost.'
Hahaha. Ghost. Hah. (How was that any better than dead!) There was no answer, of course, save his own screams...
But in the end, even those had to stop, and with a light swallow he continued to watch as the ground came closer. Well, he thought with a pale and notably uneasy shudder. Wasn't this just pleasant.
It was taking just a bit of effort not to scream as the light filled the air around them. As the destruction wrought between Osiris and Obelisk exploded between the two, their words echoing in her mind while the entire arena collapsed from beneath her feet. But holograms didn't speak she tried to tell herself, eyes wide as she felt herself tumble forward through the air in the blinding light. They didn't speak, nor did they make things real or...
Or...
Yugi's puzzle was drawing her attention, the pair seemingly flying through darkness with no source of direction. It was emanating a blinding, golden light and throughout this the storm clouds began to spiral around them as they fell... Lightning struck the ground and from the center of the vortex they were seemingly thrown from was nothing but empty space, a void, a black hole from which nothing came and went. The amount of time that she had to ponder this however was minimal; just seconds later she slammed against the ground, a loud shout escaping her lungs as her face smacked against solid ground before she pushed herself up. Darkness met her vision. Nothing but darkness and shadows, and yet as she looked forward across the sanded and ruined scene her vision slowly began to adjust. This place...
"Where is this," she found herself muttering, eyes narrowed as a scene almost familiar to an age old dream came into view. Sand... There was nothing but sand around them, sand, fires, and the ruins of a kingdom long buried beneath the ground. And then a stone floor came to view from the blowing shadows in her eyes. The collapsed ruin of a temple, the roof long since destroyed in whatever catastrophe came over this place, with only half the pillars standing tall at the sides while the others lay in pieces. But the people standing on it... And the carvings on the walls, which bore inscriptions her mind could dimly recall reading...
"That... That's... Me," she heard Yugi whisper, the boy's eyes widening as three figures came into view across from them, the shortest barely identified by a familiar silhouette of hair. "And fighting him..."
"Hnhnhnhnhnhn... The Black Lands of the North have fallen into ruin, 'King'," she heard the tallest of the three taunt, a shadowed figure in flames behind 'him' as what looked to be a more tanned and regal form of her rival ground his teeth. Her vision cleared more... Gold and cloth came into view, and shadowed eyes wide with madness met her gaze, a grin on the one with a broken mask behind the figure. This person...
"Impossible," she hissed, eyes widening briefly as she looked upon the one who was not a man but a woman so familiarly in disguise. Impossible... The same as from her dream, the so-called 'Pharaoh' representing her rival, the 'Priest' with her face, the monstrous man whom the 'Priest' fought in the dreams but...
Why..? WHY!
"Set," the 'other Yugi', the 'Fake Yugi' rasped, puzzle hanging around a grime covered neck that matched the rest of the body in its coating of dust and blood. "Please... Open your eyes," he seemed to beg, both of those watching rendered silent with confusion and shock both as he reached out a hand. "You don't want to do this Set... You don't want to do this..!"
The Priest merely continued to grin. "Hn! Pathetic," she responded, voice well hidden as she fingered the blade in her hands. "You're nothing more than a broken King," the woman laughed, "Reduced to begging in the same manner of a mere 'dog'... The High Priest has taken your land," she chuckled, still running a finger along the side of the dagger, "Conquering the powers of Heaven and Earth combined... Your Millennium Items are gone, and your so-called 'Divine Right' is WORTHLESS... AND I," 'Set' cackled,continuing to grin as the others stared in horror and shock, "AM ALSO YOUR ENEMY... From now and FOREVER," she snarled, charging forward, "All I need is to defeat you with my hands... DIE, PHARAOH!"
"Gh..!" The King barely managed to dodge the blow, rolling away before gripping the cord around his puzzle. With one hand forward he looked to the priest with both fear and regret, before opening his mouth to shout. "MAHAAD!" Mahaad..?
But that name...
With a whirl of shadows a figure appeared, and through it she heard a voice; "BACK AWAY, CORRUPTED PRIEST!" From nothing but stone a monster appeared, garbed in the robes of the Dark Magician as he stood upon the stone. Wand held forward he blocked the next strike from the dagger their attacker held, throwing their attacking opponent back and against a tablet that stood far to the side. But on the image of the tablet...
"Set, PLEASE," the Pharaoh shouted, weak eyes narrowed in a mixture of rage and despair both as he gripped a broken pillar for support. "Please... You came to my aid against the king of thieves... You helped me in my battle against Akhnaden, so why do you side with him now..!"
At this the Priest seemed to freeze, a snarl coming over her face as she stood beside the tablet. "Side with... Him! AKHNADEN," she roared, pulling herself up to lean against the tablet for support. "I would rather DIE, 'KING'... But know THIS," the woman continued, "This will be our last fight..! And with the power of this dragon at my side, I will destroy you," the Priest announced. "And this darkness," she continued, running forward as a white smoke pulled forth from her side to form a mighty and dragonic beast, "Will be the next to follow..! NOW! WHITE DRAGON," Set commanded, running forward with the monster. "ATTACK!"
"Gh... Damn it.. ...'DARK MAGICIAN'," the Pharaoh countered, the magician in question biting his lip as the enormous and gleaming monster shot forth from her stone with a roar. "FIGHT..!" With a nod the monster charged, ducking around the first strike from the attacking Priest to again block with the staff. Set was thrown back but she charged again, and in response, so did he...
"HAAAAAAHHHHHHH..!"
And in the clashing light that filled the air as a result they could only see one last thing. The dragon as it gathered a blast of flames in its mouth. The magician as he pointed his staff forward, a cry of both rage and regret filling the air as he took aim at the priest that charged for a fatal blow. And then...
The tablet. That stupid, giant stone tablet haunting recent dreams and nightmares with the puzzle in the center and the monsters rising forth from stone... The hieroglyphs that she could read and yet not read, the carvings blurred in her mind as she began to loose sight of her surroundings, with words long forgotten remaining unclear. As darkness cloaked her vision, her body, her mind...
"Impossible," she repeated to herself, shaking her head as she gripped it tightly in her hands. "IMPOSSIBLE... This isn't..!" What did this mean? What was going on, what did it all mean..! She'd had enough of this... Enough of this business with Ancient Egypt, with 'Fate', with everything..! She wanted it to end, for it to at least make a fragment of sense..!
There was no answer though, as she continued to scream within her mind. Only darkness.
What was this scene he asked himself with wide eyes, unable to fully comprehend what he saw. Was it an illusion? Or a memory from his past? When the Dark Magician was summoned, he'd thought he heard a name... But in the end, though the 'King's mouth moved, nothing came out, not even a whisper. The monsters shot forth from ground and stone, acting as real as possible, moving as though made of flesh and bone rather than the shadows of another realm...
But the regret filling the air... The despair... Even from the attacking Priest, actions were twisted, her motives distorted by an invisible force. 'Her' eyes, assuming the Priest and Kaiba herself were the same in that respect, had been shadowed when he finally saw them. Though they widened and closed with rage and emotion the colour had dulled, and though the shadowed High Priest, the one named 'Akhnaden', seemed to growl at the mention of disloyalty he held for the most part a frightening and leering grin beneath the shattered mask he wore, watching the event with nothing but maddened glee.
This battle was supposed to repeat itself though, wasn't it he asked himself. A destined battle, waiting thousands of years to occur... And he was sure of it... He was sure it was real, sure that it had happened at one point..!
But why did he see nothing but darkness right now, instead of the answer to this battle, instead of the conclusion to the strike Blue-Eyes prepared to fire. Why did he see...
"Rrrrrrrnnnnnnn..." Red eyes. A pair of gleaming red eyes, opening and blinking in the darkness. Yugi's eyes widened as a dragon melted out from the shadows, seemingly wrapping the boy in waves of a liquid blackness to 'lift' him from the ground. "Rrrrrnnnnn... Nnnnnnn..." All it was doing at this moment was breathing, he noted with a swallow, the head materializing around the eyes to bow forward. But why...
Why was it...
'There's more you need to know,' he thought he heard someone whisper. 'Look again; there's more to this tale that you need to know.' ...What?
Shadows melted away and Blue-Eyes fired the blast of white flames with a snarl. But rather than strike the Magician, or even the past incarnation of his own self, they took aim at a different target, resulting in just as much shock from the one watching as those in the battle itself.
The Priest. "G-GGHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Screams filled the air... From both the shadow behind them and the woman to the front, and as the fires sank deep within the woman's body the dragon soon began to fade out of existence. The magician at his previous self's side stared with wide-eyed horror, and the Pharaoh himself merely gripped a small bleeding wound he'd sustained from the dagger 'Set' still carried in her hands, the dagger that was still held above the boy in an attempt to attack even as the priest gripped her head in the same mmoment. "HHHHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHGGGG!"
"S... Set," the Pharaoh cried in panic. "SE-"
At last the blade came down, but rather than striking the boy before her it sank deep into her own arm, the Priest breathing raggedly as blood trickled from the wound. She wouldn't be able to move it properly after this. Lift maybe, but if she tired anything else it would fail, likely for the rest of her life. That didn't matter right now however, as the colour returned to her eyes. It didn't matter, and as her now narrowed and severe gaze moved back to her King she grit her teeth. "Gh... Flee," she hissed, fires blazing around them as the shadowed figure collapsed into dust. "Khemet is lost... And we. Must. Flee...
Flee...
A whirl of shadows, and of darkness, Yugi closed his eyes for only a moment. Scraps of red flew along the sides within the blaze and suddenly there was nothing but light filling his vision as he looked again. Light, screams, roars and snarls, the sounds of dragons across the air... And amidst the chaos Yugi's eyes widened, a strong and clear voice pinpointed from the mess. "REMEMBER THESE WORDS," he heard 'himself' cry, his figure barely visible through the blazing light as he held his puzzle forward. "FOR THIS IS THE NAME OF THE ONE WHO SEALED YOU..! AND THE NAME OF THE ONE WHO DEFEATED YOU IS...
Is...
- - -..!" What was that..?
The light cleared and another vision came into being. The priest, arm still bleeding but recently bandaged running forward from the rubble of the sanded desert, cliffs that he could swear he'd seen before surrounding the pair. She stumbled... And looking forward both watched as the Pharaoh collapsed from ahead of them, the puzzle slowly crumbling into pieces around his neck. "Pharaoh... Pharaoh," she called out, running forward again with her limp arm gripped tight. "-..!" Again...
He missed the name again, so what... The woman came to the collapsed boy's side, eyes wide as she slowly rolled him onto his back. All of the ferocity he'd seen prior was gone, along with most of the emotion... These eyes... They were almost like Yugi's eyes even... And as the boy looked forward he frowned somewhat, speaking with barely more than a whisper. "...Who are you..."
The Priest stared with wide and almost incredulous eyes with those words, before bowing her head... She... She was crying, Yugi realized coldly. Not loudly, not hysterically, merely quietly, with no words to say as she shook. In the end however she merely continued to let the boy lay in her arms, biting her lip as she answered his question. "I am... The High Priest, Set," she whispered hoarsely, grip on the boy tightening. "Wielder of the Millennium Rod in the court of the Pharaoh..."
"...The Pharaoh," he asked, eyes closing over slightly with confusion.
Set seemed to stiffen, nonetheless nodding as her eyes became shadowed behind her hair. "You, remember," the woman asked. "You... You are the king of this land," she whispered, biting her lip until blood began to peek through the cuts that resulted. "A great... And powerful king..." ...She admitted this..? And moreover...
"..Really..?"
Why didn't his past self remember this anymore..? The priest seemed to know; she was looking to her king almost pitifully, as though she knew what would come next...
As though she knew he was dying... "It's true," she whispered to him, nodding slowly. "... Really... A 'king of games', some would call you... 'The King of Strategies, and of Battles'... You..." The woman shook herself, choking over her words as her face twisted into a frown. "You can't forget..! Understand..? You... ...There are many things you can't forget about yourself... You like onions," she rambled, "And beef, and turtles... Swimming in the nile... But all the Gods in the world wouldn't be able to convince you to drink milk," she continued with an almost growling tone, "Nor could they force even one seed of Mustard into your meal... And I... ...And I..." Why couldn't she speak... Why couldn't... "You can't die," she demanded, clutching the boy's shoulder as he stared up dimly, the 'ghost' at the side continuing to stare in confusion. "Understand me," she roared, tears flowing freely in a mix of rage and misery both. "You WON this battle, you CAN'T DIE, YOU..."
"...Were we friends then," the Pharaoh abruptly asked, Yugi's eyes dimming as the Priest froze.
The answer... Though the two were obviously close he had still seen these two as mirrors to himself and Kaiba, to himself and his 'rival'. Two endless rivals, fighting... With one raging at the other for daring to leave before they could finish. But the answer was hardly what he expected. For instead of continued rage it seemed that the Priest instead continued to crumble on herself, expression softening as tears continued to stain her cheeks. "Of course," she instead whispered, bowing her head further as the body grew cold. "No matter what I say... No matter what I do," the Priest continued, looking into the King's eyes with a swallow as the boy at the sidelines tilted his head in confusion. "I will always be your friend.
Remember that...
Remember...
Remem...
No matter what..!
Without warning he was on his knees in the cold storming air of the Battle City tower, gasping for breath while his opponent did the same. Staring at the ground with wide eyes, a hand brought to his throat as he attempted to calm himself, and as he attempted to regain his thoughts and comprehend just what he had seen and just what had happened. That vision... That scene...
Do you understand now, he thought he heard someone say, a low growl in the air behind it as someone laughed. Do you understand? Understand..? No... Of course he didn't, how could he..!
The Gods were gone, their words faded on the air as they left both of their summoners to their final challenge. And in their wake, the sky had almost cleared completely... The clouds were vanishing from the air, and the scene around and above the 'coliseum' was slowly reverting to the sun filled state that the battle started off in. Not at all befitting of the situation he noted dully, and as the two looked across the field at each other there was naught but silence. Both players pulled themselves to their feet, staring at each other with shadowed eyes, their thoughts kept to themselves and kept in silence.
Kaiba... She hadn't seen that part of the vision, had she, he realized with a swallow. Just the scene where she prepared to strike him down, for neither light nor darkness, with an expression nearly identical to what he could see now. The vision of the past life that fought for herself... Only herself, with only a fraction of motive breaking through the possession the Priest seemed to be under. It was a battle immortalized in stone. A battle that had been recorded by... ...By...
...Who had carved that stone he wondered, looking across the field with narrowed eyes. Who was it..? If 'he' had died that day, or come close to it... Then who carved that stone?
There was no way of knowing... But in the end, he told himself, there was still a battle to be had.
A battle that could do nothing other than continue on.
There was no such thing as magic she repeated in her mind, constantly and endlessly. No such thing as magic, the mantra continued, pounding against her skull with as much force as the lessons from years since past. Shadows did not become monsters, dragons did not exist, possession was impossible, and more importantly the switch between 'Yugi' and the 'Other Yugi' was just some bizarre case of DID that should have been looked at a fairly long time ago... It was not, and never was, the switch between two completely different souls.
But then how, her mind asked, do you explain the first time you fought him? How do you explain the shadowed realm that you disappeared within, the monsters that rose from the cards, the monsters who devoured your very flesh for every night following? How, her mind pressed, do you explain that coma you took to after your game, and the dreams that vanished from the moment you woke up? How do you explain the 'soul cards' Pegasus had, the Millennium Rod and its control over Katsuya, the storms that arose in God's presence, and the movements that Blue Eyes gave when summoned to the field?
How would she explain the vision she saw the other night, how would she explain the hieroglyphs, the voices of Obelisk and Osiris, the wounds that appeared on Katsuya's body as he...
As he...
Seto grit her teeth, leering across the field at her opponent. Screw it, she decided, clenching her fists. Screw the rules of reality and physics, screw everything she learned the damn 'illusion' was real! This Yugi was a 'ghost' and the other was his 'host', the stones depicted real events and this god forsaken duel had essentially been predicted by that moment in time. Like hell she would say it out loud... Like hell she would ever admit to it at all but it was real and it was there. But this battle... Regardless of past or future it was clear. This battle was meant to happen, no matter what the circumstances...
And regardless of how the 'vision' ended, she would WIN, and finish this match as it should have long ago! "Tch..." The gods were gone now... But this battle wouldn't need Gods..! She would fight with her own methods, her own reasons... Not for some stupid rock on display in a museum, not for some ghost of the past... She had to win; it was simple as that. And with that in mind, she broke the silence that now settled over herself and her opponent. "...We're right back to square one," she 'noted' aloud, narrowing her eyes as she looked stiffly toward her opponent. "I hope you haven't become too distracted by those illusions," Seto continued, holding her disk ready as she took a card from her hand. "Because regardless of useless visions," she warned, "I intend to bring you crushing defeat..! SO! It's still my turn," she announced, setting a card on the disk as a hologram appeared in response. No stone like texture to the image, no strange weight beneath it... 'Normal'. Normal, she told herself. "...The Gods might be gone," Seto muttered, smirking as she crossed her arms. "But I'm not done yet... I play one card face down... And I end my turn!" She needed nothing more after all...
Nothing more than the card in her hand right now. The one that would bring her victory... The monster treasured more than the gods, her dragon... "Hn! Alright," Yugi called out in response, drawing his next card with a curt nod. Briefly he appeared lost in thought as he stared over the field, but soon enough a card appeared before him and he made his move. "I summon Baphomet," the boy announced, multi-limbed and white winged demon rising in the light with a snarl before hovering through the air with a leering grin. "And then I atta-"
Heh. "Activate trap," she announced, tapping the disk with a laugh as her opponent frowned. "CLONE REPRODUCTION! Just try and attack," Seto continued with a smirk, the trap's image soon sending out an exact duplicate of the monster across her as both holograms flexed and sneered. "All you'll do is clear the field again after all..." And then it would be square one yet again...
"Gh..." Her rival tensed, nonetheless taking another card and setting it on the duel disk in response. "Baphomet enters defense mode," he called out, the monster crouching in midair as another card appeared beside it. "And in addition I play one face down card... End turn..!"
"A wise move," she 'responded', smirking darkly. "But now... I'm going to sacrifice this clone you see now. It's my turn again; and I draw," the woman continued, gesturing over the field before moving to grab her next card. "You've probably guessed that Blue-Eyes is in my hands," Seto chuckled, narrowing her eyes as her opponent did the same. "And you may believe that I can't summoner it this turn... But thanks to this spell," she continued, the card coming down on the disk as a hologram of its image came to the field, "I'll be doing just that! Cost Down," Seto roared, before putting her ultimate monster on the field and watching as the card shimmered into existence. "I offer the clone monster as sacrifice and with this spell even that is enough! LOOK CAREFULLY," she called out, smoke seemingly furling from the ground itself as the scent of stone and flames came over the air in the scattering light that was her cloned sacrifice, "Because THIS... IS NOT AN ILLUSION..! This is REALITY," Seto continued, white scales coming forth with an ear splitting roar as a dragon stood behind her upon its hind legs, "And this is the ULTIMATE BEING... I summon BLUE-EYES WHITE DRAGON," the woman cried, mirrored by a magnificent and almost song-like roar from a monster who barely stood beneath the height of her coliseum walls. "AND WITH THAT... IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO MEET YOUR END! HnhnHAHAHA! ATTACK," she ordered, the dragon raising its head from where it had leaned down beside her summoner with a nod. "Burn Baphomet to ash," she continued as the flames developed, heat burning behind and above her as a rush of energy began to fill her veins once more. "BURST STREAM OF DESTRUCTION..!"
The result of the battle was more than obvious. Almost a joke even. As fires that seemed to radiate a heat as powerful as the sun struck the ground before her she almost saw ashes appear on the ground... And she could see the hologram fade from sight, but only barely with the remaining smoke on the field clouding her vision and singeing the ground where it had once hovered in place. Yugi grimaced under the force behind the white flames, and yet despite the realism that shouldn't have been, and despite the reason they were there, and the dismissal of a reality she had so clung to until a few grudging moments before she couldn't help but continue to smirk. Perhaps it was the dragon. This was her monster after all. And now...
"My turn," her opponent hissed, pulling his next card free as he continued. "Kaiba... You saw what I did, didn't you," he asked, the woman showing little reaction toward the comment besides narrowed eyes. "Pharaoh or Priest... Enemies or even friends," the boy continued with a shout, "It doesn't matter who they were or how they came to that field," he announced clearly. "What was carved in that stone were their spirits as duelists and warriors, carrying with them the battle itself..! And that battle," he continued, setting the card on the field before taking another from the grave to do the same as it appeared in a blinding green light, "Has been passed through the years to us now! What we saw... Was NOT an illusion," the boy called out, shaking his head. "I know that... And so do you! SO NOW," he shouted across the field, "I activate this spell card... Monster Reborn! Awakening the soul of the mage that sleeps in my grave yard..." The 'mage'... Wait, that could only be-! "DARK MAGICIAN," Yugi roared. "ARISE!" Dark Magician..!
The card he'd lost from 'Life Shaver' she realized, eyes widening only briefly as the hologram appeared only to stand just as the dragon beside her now did. As the monsters seemed to bow their heads to the other in recognition, and as the Magician turned with a face she almost recognized from a dream she refused to acknowledge...
And...
"We meet again, Priestess," the magician stated calmly, nodding his head in recognition as she stared. "It has been many years." Wh... What... Wide eyes that opened briefly with shock quickly narrowed as she steadied her resolve, the Magician before her seeming to cross his arms and smirk from across the field in response to her stiffness. Speaking... The monster was speaking...
She must have been completely exhausted... To hear something like that..! Ghosts and repeating history was one thing, holograms becoming 'living beings' was entirely different..! But regardless... That tablet, that 'vision', never revealed the outcome of this battle she reminded herself curtly. And the end... Well... With '2500' against '3000' it was obvious! She had to win this match she told herself yet again, and no matter what occurred she would! With the aid of this dragon beside her. With the power of the dragon that now stood beside her and-
"Rrrrrnnn..." With those thoughts Blue-Eyes brought her head near to her side, opening its mouth just slightly to let out the near 'hum' that was a low growl. It brushed against her arm as a cat would when asking for attention, and then pulled its head back somewhat to wait for a reaction. "Nnnrrrrnnnnn..." How..?
How could any of this possibly be real, she asked herself, forcing herself not to attempt to touch the magnificent beast's head. She wanted it to not be real; reality was easier to deal with when there wasn't the nonsense of magic and dragons and wizards and shadows and yet...
With things such as this, how could she ask that? Blue Eyes gave a low rumble, far softer and kinder than the hologram left room for, calm blue eyes looking directly into her own as it continued to 'hum'. She could see... Every detail of its... Of her iris, of her eyes, her mind corrected for some reason. Every single scale in the thick armored hide, the tiny wisps of smoke slowly furling from its nostrils as it snorted and... The seamless reality of it all, the complete fluidity of each motion. How could it possibly be real, her mind wanted to know. How could any of it...
"My turn's not over yet," Yugi had said through these thoughts, his next words pulling her attentions back to the field as another hologram came from before her opponent. "I set a card face down," the boy continued, "And end my turn..!" Hn.
So that was it then, she thought with a small snort, staring at the cards with crossed arms. Well. So he did see that vision she thought to her self, smirking darkly. Another point that made it impossible to ignore the laws of reality this broke, but something that for some reason sat well enough in the back of her mind nonetheless.
A fact that, unlike the event itself, did not sit well with her mind in any way. "Hn... Alright then," she responded coldly, drawing her next card and narrowing her eyes. "Let's assume this 'vision' of yours is 'real'... Let me tell you what that would mean," she sneered, continuing to push the 'reality' of the carving in the museum from mind. "That carving of the 'Priest' and Pharaoh'... To me, those are nothing more than stress induced illusions thanks to subliminal suggestion... You think you're a 'King' from thousands of years ago? Don't make me laugh," the woman shouted her grin fading as her eyes widened in a desperate rage. "As far as I'm concerned you're just a prisoner, bound to he past! There's no light for people like you... No light for the people who turn their backs to wander through useless paths of nostalgia and memory! All there is for you and those like you is DEFEAT," Seto continued, shaking her head once again as she fought against the truths that a simultaneous vision granted, the truths that a living and breathing form of her great White Dragon threw in her sight. It couldn't be real and yet it was, it couldn't be real and yet if it was she needed to win more than anything... And so...
And so...
"That defeat," Seto spat, "Won't come soon enough for you! I play the spell Card of Demise," she announced, drawing until she had five cards in her hand as Yugi growled across from her. "I then play one face down card... And following that," Seto continued, a small smirk coming over her face as the thought of her opponent's usual strategies came to mind, "I summon this! The Lord of Dragon... Making Blue-Eyes invulnerable to magic," she added with an almost shark-like grin, holographic and bone covered monster contrasting the realism of her dragon completely as her opponent tensed. "Hnhnhnhnhn... End turn," she said with a sneer, again crossing her arms. Now...
This strategy... Yugi used spells and traps to bring down the opponent's power and protect his own, but against Blue-Eyes it was always the same thing. Spellbinding Circle and Magical Hats or cylinders, de-powering the dragon so the Magician could strike in retaliation. And if he thought he could think ahead of her... He had another thing coming. She'd fought him more than enough times to know his moves, to know his plans...
It was as though he was playing with a deck of glass... With all the cracks clearly visible from across the field, and ready to be shattered into irreparable fragments.
"Ngh... I summon Beta the Magnet Warrior in defense mode," her opponent decided in the end, the magnetic being appearing in the familiar light of the hologram to again contrast the other monsters on the field. "And then," he continued, tapping the disk again. And then..? Would he fall for this trap, she thought with an anticipatory grin. Would he perhaps... Attack..?
Yes. He would. 'BLACK MAGIC,' she thought she heard the Magician shout, the sound overlapping Yugi's own declaration of attack as the boy pointed his monster forward. But despite the speech from the monster across from her she merely grinned, laughing as she clicked the button on the duel disk.
"Hnhnhnhnhn... Activate Trap," she announced in retaliation, the card's image swinging up as a series of storm clouds abruptly began to develop. "Magical Trick Mirror..! Activating the Monster Reborn from your grave as a result," Seto continued with a grin. Storming winds and striking lightning, with clouds of dust and sea water rising into the air... "And the monster I choose to revive," she roared amid the sudden raging storm, "Is none other than this... THE GOD SOLDIER OF THE OBELISK..!" SUTEKH, her mind announced with a shout.
Thunder cracked to the ground and as shadowed magic rushed toward her it was blocked by a slamming armored fist. Her opponent's eyes widened considerably with the re-appearance of the 'god', and even the Magician's reaction was one of shock and partial fear as Blue-Eyes carefully moved back to avoid the God's hand. Her smirk widened even more, the power and drive to fight continuing to flood her being...
And as the Magician lowered his staff it became a grin, almost reminiscent of a time she should have long since overcome. "Hnhnhn... HAHAHAHA!" And despite this relapse in judgment that she'd missed, despite the drive and rage that fueled her almost insane need to simple win this fight, she continued to laugh. "A pity, isn't it," she laughed, gesturing to the great god around her with wide eyes. "Though he can't attack, and he's here for only one turn, Obelisk has become an unstoppable shield for this move..! Your attack rebounds on yourself," she continued, crossing her arms as her opponent seemed to buckle under the flames of shadow now wrapping around his form, "And you're left with NOTHING... This foolish belief you hold in so-called memories and illusions of the past," Seto sneered, Obelisk and the clouds both vanishing from around her in waves of sand and sea as Yugi grit his teeth and looked up with choking swallows. "All it does is make you weak..." Nothing more nothing less...
Simply weak... Unable to move on and put the past behind them... "Gh..." Yugi took a stumbling step forward, attempting to steady himself as the Dark Magician seemed to move to help him back to his feet. As almost deathly pale skinned hands gripped her rival's arm and lifted the boy carefully up, Yugi looking forward with narrowed eyes. "Tch..." Resisting defeat, was he..? Seto narrowed her eyes, her opponent breathing raggedly before straightening himself up. "Kaiba," Yugi hissed, taking a card from his hand and setting it on the field. "...I play a card face down... And end my turn." Hn. So that was all then...
In that case... "Hn! I'll crush you now," she hissed, almost frowning a moment before she drew her next card. "Along with all these visions of the past that crawled into this duel..! My future lies ahead of this," Seto announced, taking the card she'd drawn and continuing to rant to her opponent with grit teeth. "And this..." This turn... "This is the final turn! I play a spell card," she continued as her 'Lord of Dragon' stood, "The Flute of Dragon Summoning..! And no matter how deep within this deck they lie," the woman sneered, the Dragon Lord's hologram giving a loud blow on the 'horn' he now held in his grasp, "No matter where they are, my dragons will answer..! I summon the remaining two Blue-Eyes to my side of the field," she announced, more white dust filling the air as roars and snarls threatened those across her. "Giving me four monsters on my side..! And with nothing but your pathetic Dark Magician," she continued, ignoring the snarl that came from the monster in question as he took a defensive stance, "Your end comes now... YUGI," she laughed, the boy across from her growing paler and paler in the face of the trio of dragons before him, "THIS IS IT..! ALL THREE DRAGONS ATTACK," she called out with a laugh. "AND YOU CAN CARVE MY NAME AS THE WINNER INTO YOUR MEMORIES... NOW... BURST STREAM OF DESTRUCTION..!"
And as the blinding light seared across the field, her laughter almost leaving her with a hollowed and rage-filled emotion rather than the elation it should have brought...
She thought she heard someone sigh.
'Really,' someone seemed to whisper. 'Y' can't win if y' act like tha'...'
He wasn't foolish enough to believe that he could defend himself against this attack. Against the combined force of three immense white dragons with an immunity to spells and traps both. The Dark Magician at his side had no such hopes either, and stood at his side as an almost human being, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes. Earlier... He'd 'helped' him earlier somehow, despite having being nothing more than a 'ghost', a 'spirit' at the most those few times he saw him outside battle.
Even as holograms, the dragons across from him were beyond imposing. Enormous in size, with growls that seemed to shake the heavens themselves despite never reaching reality. But as 'real', enormous fire-breathing monsters, with shimmering scales and gleaming, fierce eyes? When nothing but holograms surrounded everything else..!
His eyes were beginning to close over with weakness from the last attack, from the strike that only one dragon made... And Kaiba's laughing voice began to almost fade amid this weakness. He was feeling tired... 'Dead' even... And now, as he stood here, about to lose...
His vision was fading...
He could hardly stand...
He thought he heard screaming in the distance but it was nothing.
He thought he heard something fall behind him, but it was nothing. It was...
Was...
The Dark Magician was gripping his arm, mouth open as though to shout something, but something made him stop. He wasn't sure what but...
'HEY,' a distant voice shouted, a mix of a whisper and a scream both. 'Don't tell me... Don' tell me you've given up..! YUGI!' Given... Given up...
Eyes flew open and he looked to the side, the faded voice all too clear to mistake for anything else as the words repeated over the air. Standing right beside him he realized almost coldly, eyes wide with both horror and confusion as the teen smirked... Standing right beside him as though nothing were the matter... "Jonouchi," he whispered, swallowing as the blond crossed his arms and smirked. Wearing the same things he wore in the airship... Hah... His shirt was gone, cut off by the doctors so they could treat him, gauze wrapped around where his wound would be, and what there was outside of that...
Was a large and twisted scar, directly where Ra had struck him down long before, a scar that had likely been present for a number of hours now. But there was nothing else there. There was a healing cut from the Millennium Rod on his arm... Perhaps a small bit of recovering bruises dotted around his body...
But there was nothing else he realized, the Dark Magician releasing him as he stood somewhat straighter. Nothing else... And this...
This... "Jonouchi," he repeated, time almost seeming to freeze as the white flames came toward him in a slow, blossoming fire from the mouths of the dragons before him. "You're..." A ghost... A ghost, standing beside him, he was...
"Heh- No worries," Jonouchi dismissively laughed, waving a hand with a grin as he seemed to guess what his friend was hesitant to say. "I ain' dead... Y' aren't getting' rid 'f me that easy..!" That... He could joke about something like that after all that happened..! When he was standing here in the same condition that his other half would ordinarily be when not in control of the body..! "C'mon Yug'," the blond 'whispered', voice still faded as he stowed his hands in his pockets. "Y' gotta hear me out here," he continued with a sad smile. "I gotta wake up soon, don't y' know? I gotta see th' others too... Can' leave 'm waiting..." That...
Of course he couldn't... Of course, but...
But... "How are you here," he finally forced out, ignoring the fact that time really had apparently stopped for the moment. That the fires before him had slowed to a nearly complete stop, freezing just meters away from his field. "How..."
Jonouchi snorted, a calm smile replacing the more depressed one as he shook his head. "Really... Y' didn' think I wouldn't come an' watch you fight..? Give it just a minute... I'll watch for real, in person," he told his friend with honest eyes. "But for now..." For now... There was something else..? "Look across the field," Jonouchi said seriously, eyes dimming somewhat as he turned to look toward his friend's opponent. "Look at who yer fightin'..." Who he was fighting? This... This couldn't be about his own feelings right? Jonouchi wouldn't do that, he wouldn't- At the look the blond received Jonouchi sighed, shaking his head and gesturing to Kaiba once more. "Damn it... That ain' it Yugi... Jus' hear me out," the blond pressed. "Look at her... I mean really look; look close," he repeated, Yugi frowning somewhat but nonetheless humoring his friend. Look close..? Now just what-
It took a moment before he saw what his friend meant... But she was shaking. Pale, breathing shallowly as sweat gathered across her brow. The moment he noticed this his eyes widened somewhat, the boy stiffening as he looked still closer at who he was fighting, at the time-frozen image of his rival. Though she laughed it seemed almost torn, as though it could go both ways. As though this battle was nothing more than a cruel joke, a mockery of all she'd worked for, as though there was a part of her that relished in this fight she fought and another that simply wanted it over. Because in the end... The winner would face Malik. The one whom even she had considered a threat that could defeat them both. The one behind him death followed, even for those who did not face him in a duel monster's match.
If she were to enter the battle with that in mind he realized. If she were to enter this fight believing that there was no hope, that it was life or death as she'd believed before in the past... Then... The 'Kaiba' he faced now... Torn between the slowly recovering woman he caught a mere glimpse at during the earlier holidays, between this and the deluded and self-sacrificing killer, who had been ready to sacrifice everything if she was proven unable to move on...
If she were to fight Malik now... Regardless of strength...
"She looks tired, doesn' she," Jonouchi whispered, his friend looking back with a small and wide eyed frown as the blond continued to stare at his crush with a worrisome gaze. "She's tired... An' y' know what," the blond asked, weakly turning back to his friend. "...I think she really expects t' die here," he continued, shaking his head. "She might not say it... She might not ev'n be tellin' herself tha'... But righ' now..." He bit his lip, bowing his head before continuing on with a swallow. "Th's battle..." He looked back up, jaw clenched. "This battle..! If you guys are gonna fight, it shouldn' be like th's, alright..? She ain' fightin' for th' right reasons any more," he cried, shaking his head almost in desperation. "Righ' now... Righ' now, she's not paying attention th' why," Katsuya whispered. "She's jus' payin' attention t' th' same reasonin' she had before... She's payin' attention t' beatin' you, not lookin' at what comes next... So jus' like b'fore," he told the boy. "Jus' like b'fore, you need t' get past this, righ'..? You need t' beat her... Alrigh'?" Both to defeat Malik and to 'help' her then? Well...
He said that now he thought to himself, looking back to the frozen field. But in the end, he was facing down three Blue-Eyes, with no hope of-
"Hey, hey, hey," Jonouchi interrupted, smirking somewhat as he lightly 'rapped' his friend's head. The boy jumped somewhat, bringing a hand up to rub the spot as his friend laughed lightly at the reaction. "Sheesh... Don' go thinkin' things like tha'..!" But... He didn't say- "You were gonna," the blond laughed, grinning at his friend's confusion. He wasn't going to..! Jonouchi merely shook his head again, still smirking as he gave the boy a wink. "C'mon... Didn' you always tell me tha' as long as you had cards in yer hand, there was always a chance?" A chance..? In his... Hand..?
Right now..?
"Rrrrrnnnn..." That sound... Yugi paled, eyes widening somewhat as he slowly looked toward the cards he held. That low growl, almost musical in tone... Hadn't... Hadn't he heard that sound before..?
On the airship..?
"Th' flute's taken effect," Jonouchi said seriously, hands removed from his pockets as he again crossed his arms. "But y' gotta put th' card there for him t' do anythin'. Don't give up Yugi," he continued, Yugi's eyes widening as he looked from his hand to the blond beside him. "A true 'duelist'... That kind of person never gives up right? You told me that," he went on slowly fading from sight. "An' now... For you," the blond shouted, an energy seeming to seep and melt from his form as the field itself began to change. As he seemed to smoke into the air itself, colour washing into one solid and golden hue over his body while he faced his friend and smirked. While stone seemed to crackle and form from beneath his feet, while monsters ordinarily hovering through the air seemed to vanish into stone... "Let me do at least this," his friend announced, hands held out to the field around them as his smirk became an almost frighteningly determined grin. "Cause this next fight... This battle y' have comin' up... Ra's waitin' for yah at th' end of it," the blond told him, his body fading from sight within the light he seemed to emanate. "He's got one more test, and you still gotta pass it... So I'm givin' you all my strength," he roared, eyes widening with the next surge of energy to hit the field as tablets began to rise from the ground and the sky seemingly clouded in a film of sorts. As he continued to fade into light and as the monsters took an even more 'alive' appearance to their forms, a shadow almost passing over their faces... "Yugi," he could hear Jonouchi roar. "LET ME OP'N YOUR EYES!" His eyes..!
As the spirit faded from sight and he looked back to the field Yugi's eyes widened with shock, the boy almost falling back at what was slowly creeping into his vision. What had formerly been already incredibly detailed and realistic dragons were now tall and proud in appearance to contrast a formerly frozen scene, standing on their haunches across the field in an almost protective position around their master. What had once been a series of holographic cards were stone tablets arranged in a semi-circle behind his opponent, and the hologram of the coliseum around them had become the ruins of some great stone structure that he could not recognize. Anything on the defensive had been sealed within stone... Anything face down was a tablet with no face, seemingly formed from the ground itself, and as he turned to look at what had been an already impossibly realistic magician, the man now holding out a hand for aid...
"My Pharaoh," the Dark Magician at his side asked, his summoner holding back a shocked sputter at the words. "...Are you... Are you alright..? Can you hear me," he added, his own expression almost as surprised as the 'summoner' nodded. This... The field he saw now...
Tablets of stone bore the carvings of the monsters both on and off the field, those with summoned monsters seeming to smoke with power, shadows, and light both. From the Dark Magician's stone he could see hieroglyphs carved on the sides, their meaning coming to his mind as the very description of the card itself while each of Blue-Eyes' tablets did the same. But more importantly was that just now, misting to existence from where Jonouchi had stood were ebony scales that radiated heat, with an almost skeletal frame taking form. Spiked armor and flaming red eyes, gleaming through the darkness around it as enormous black wings stretched into the air and a snarling growl followed. This sight... This sight before him...
The White Dragons were still charging their blast, and though the holograms may have fired he still had time..! And as he looked back to his hand at where the cards sat, and as the song of the summoning flute hovered through the air he understood. The rules... They didn't work like this, not ordinarily. He shouldn't have been able to do this, the card was only 'supposed' to work with the dragons of the one who played the card. But with Jonouchi's help... With the help of his power, which he had so hidden from him until now...
The card was set on the field and with a powerful roar the dragon announced its presence, joined in a chorus of snarls from the Blue-Eyes across it as they acknowledged his presence. A wave of energy filled the air, filled his being... This power... "What is this," he murmured, unable to even shake his head in disbelief. "This power..."
"The power of an 'Ancient'," the Magician said almost quietly, pulling Yugi's attention to the monster that could just now speak. "It's an old power," the man explained softly, "Long since lost to time... As to why your friend has it who knows," he admitted with a shrug, narrowing his eyes and staring across the field. "But the power allowing him to grant it to you for our fight... I think you know what that is, don't you," he asked, his summoner looking to him almost in confusion for a moment. The Dark Magician... Speaking...
The cards had souls. This was something he personally believed, he told himself in the back of his mind. But for the cards to have voices, with which they could speak...
And Jonouchi always experienced this? Always spoke with his monsters, always felt the pain on the field..? Another roar pierced the air and across from him Kaiba's eyes had widened with shock, the appearance of Red-Eyes finally meeting her gaze. "This... WHAT!"
Yes. That was right... He had a strategy now, and because of it he would not lose..! "No dragon can resist the Flute of Summoning," he said almost flatly, Red Eyes standing protectively behind its current master as he growled. "This doesn't just affect your dragons," the boy continued darkly. "It affects the dragons in my hand as well- The Red Eyes Black Dragon... The power that Jonouchi has lent me..!"
"GRAAAOOOOOOOOO!"
When Katsuya opened his eyes again after fading into darkness, the blond found himself both surprised and not at where he was. It was... Effectively what he'd found himself fading into after all. So really, to wake up to anything else was surprising. As it was, that was all that was there. Darkness.
"Well," he muttered, scratching his head, "Looks like I'm early..." Yes. Very early, thought the one watching him.
But at the same time, not really. There were mere minutes before he would wake up after all... This was merely his 'place', his 'slot' between life and death.
His 'place' between his realm and that of 'the others'. A fact that was what allowed him to come here. "Hnhnhn... You came early, true," he responded to Katsuya, the white spirit crossing his arms as he appeared behind the blond. "But not so much that it's dangerous; you need only wait a few moments more, and you will be able to wake up."
Katsuya turned, jumping as he looked to the white spirit before him. Shock, and a small bit of anger...
He still didn't remember him, the ghost thought idly. Then again, who knew what kind of reaction he'd get when he did... He almost didn't want to be there when he remembered because of it.
Almost. "Y-You," Katsuya shouted, before scowling as he took a step back from his 'guest'. "Sheesh... Don't y' have your own body t' haunt?" His own body? Well...
He did, he supposed, but at the moment it was probably being tormented by whatever things held it captive in the other realms. So no. Not really, unless he wanted to risk bringing that torment in here. Regardless of that however... "Hn! If I could return to m body 'Chabar', believe me when I say I would." It would get him out of here... Away from the mind that refused to remember him, only recalling those other pointless things from the past. And only that...
Nonetheless, it seemed his temporary host and 'mind-mate' was in a chatty mood. "So y' do have a body then," Katsuya was saying, the frown still set across his face as he stared at the ghost. "What's keepin' yah then? Or better yet," he decided, narrowing his eyes. "When d' you plan on tellin' me who y' are?"
Who he was..? He remembered it clearly, who he was. Down to the very last scar, he could remember every detail about what he looked like before he became tied to his current vessel. Yet all the same, the memory of how he came to this place, of how he came to this time... Of what happened during his death. That was still foggy. Blurred... And in the back of his mind, he already knew Katsuya couldn't help with that. "I already told you," he eventually decided to answer, shaking his head. "Someone you once knew." So if you would just remember, he snarled in the back of his mind, clenching his fists while the blond stared. If he would remember...
Even if just a little...
Katsuya merely snorted however, shaking his head as he turned away. "Tch... Yea... Tha's helpful," Helpful no...
But he wouldn't remember if he simply told him. He wouldn't... 'TheNwhy Do yoU BOTHER,' a chilling and haunting voice asked through the back of his mind. 'He woN't rEmemBer You, sO wHy do yOu BOTHER?' That voice...
A pounding headache struck him down the moment he acknowledged the sound, and dimly he could hear Katsuya muttering from far ahead of him. Was he still there, was he still watching... He'd turned around, he wasn't, he didn't care- The spirit gripped his head, 'eyes' narrowing as he clawed at his skull. 'Get out,' he hissed mentally, shaking himself. 'You don't belong here... Leave me you snake..!' He didn't know what this voice was, honestly. And there was nothing to tell him what it was either, nothing to tell him if this was an ally or an enemy. All he knew was that even now it was clouding his thoughts, twisting his memories, destroying his mind, the mind that had only just become clear enough to think, to remember-
'He's FORGOTTEN yOu,' the voice hissed, twisted and distorted as it pealed in his mind, 'AnD he'Ll NEVER rEmeMBeryoU..! He dOesN't evEn sIde WiTH you aNyMorE, jusT loOk at hIm,' the demon spat, the ghost breathing haggardly as he clutched his head. 'LoOKat hiM, pLayINg his gAmes wIth tHe PharaohanD Priest... He eVen knowS who thEy arE, and wHat doEs hedo..!' He lets them live. But...
But...
But he couldn't help that, he tried to tell himself, nails digging further into his scalp in an attempt to banish the words in his mind. He couldn't help but do that, he'd known them so long that he'd simply become... Accustomed to them, adapted to them, he'd befriended them, he didn't really remember them either, he...
He... "I'm sorry," the blond was muttering, unaware of the torment his guest was going through behind him. "About not r'memberin' you 'r anythin'... But y' should really stop trying t' make me figure it out myself," he continued quietly. "I mean... If I haven' gotten it yet," Katsuya muttered almost hopelessly, "I ain't gonna remember any time soon... An' by this point," he went on, "You should take a break in your own body, y' know..? Figure out how t' get back there an' get some rest..." Rest in his own... His own... Body...
How could he even ask that...! 'BecAuSehe dOesN't CARE aBoUT yOu anYmOrE,' the voice taunted, sliding through his ears like oil. 'NOt lIkE I do... AlL he carEs foR are hIs pReciOUs frIenDs, theroYalS you so desPise..!' The voice pounded these words into the very fabrics of his mind and in vain he continued to try and vice them out of his thoughts. Stop it, he hissed in his mind, almost crying with rage as his thoughts continued to twist against what he knew. Stop it, stop talking..! 'WhY wOulD hE nEed YOU,' the monster continued to roar. 'WhywOUld he hAvEany carE fOr a frAgmENt ofsoUl, sEaLed aWayto tHe depThS of tIme..! He dOesN't kNow yOu,' it hissed, taunting, encouraging. 'NoT lIke me... He'd bE beTteR oFf DEad aT thE rAtE wE'Re gOing nOw, so whYnOT jUSt kIlL hIm..?' Because he couldn't kill him... He could never kill him, he...
"I mean... ...If y' can' r'turn t' yer body... ...Doesn' tha' mean yer dead..?"
Something snapped in the back of his mind, and he shook himself, stumbling back with wide eyes. No, he snarled, fingers digging into his skull. No, he wasn't dead... No, he wouldn't kill him, he couldn't kill him, he couldn't..! 'KILL him,' the monster pressed, his voice becoming clearer and more embedded within his mind as he screamed in silence. 'DeStrOy hiM bEforE he cAn eVeN rEAcH hIs boDy, and iT'Ll aLl be yoUrS..!' His... All his... A body of his own...
A body of his... ...But it wouldn't be his..! 'I won't,' he snarled, the flat where a mouth should have been slowly hollowing inward as he ground his teeth, eyes curling in on themselves as he squeezed them shut to block out what he saw. 'I won't... I won't! Monster... DEMON! Get out of my head! LEAVE ME,' he screamed, the 'skin' over his mouth stretching with each movement of the jaw.
'LEAVE,' it asked, almost chuckling in response. 'BuT I'vE dOne nOthIng bUt heLp yoU,' the voice soothingly replied, almost wrapping around his mind in 'comfort'. 'I'm yOur alLy, aNd I'm oN yoUr sIdE... HE dOesN't evEn rEmeMbeR yoUr NAME!' He couldn't help that... 'WhAt yOu LOOK LIKE,' he couldn't help that, 'WHaT yoU SOUND LIKE,' he couldn't help that...
'YoU'Ve beEn hErE tHe eNtiRe tiMe anD he hAsn'T nOtiCed thE coNneCtiOns, mY deAr bOy, I tHinK it obVioUs wHat yOu nEed tO Do..!' Get out of his head... Get out, get out, he tried to scream, thrashing behind the blond as he continued to stare away in thought. Get out, he wept, get out... 'KiLl hIm,' the voice snarled. 'KIlL hiM, kIll Him, KILL HIM... It'Ll oNlY hUrt a mOmENt,' it continued, the silent screams almost ghosting into the air as Katsuya continued to stare in the opposite direction, 'So jUst gEt It ovEr wItH..!'
He didn't want to...
'Kill him...'
He didn't need to... (Please,don'tmakehimdothis)
'Kill him,'
He didn't have to...(Don'tdothis,hesavedyou,chabar,chabar,friend,FRIEND)
'Kill him, Kill Him, KILL HIM..!'
And as the shouts continued within his mind his mouth finally forced its way open, the skin tearing to shreds and flying deep into an endless hole. Blank white eyes sank inward to form naught but empty gaping sockets, and his mouth opened to an impossible width to bare long and dagger like teeth. Claws came through his fingers as they cut into his skin, white and feathered wings from his back, and as the orders to attack coursed through his veins he still continued to struggle, screaming in silence to the heavens above and to whatever hell would hear him cry. 'YoU aRe a SNAKE,' the voice snarled, the ghost's legs vanished for nothing but white scales and wings at his hips. 'A SNAKE, wIth eyEs oNlY fOr yoUr PREY... ThEy'Ve caLleD yOu suCh so wHy DENY IT?' Why... Why...
'They don't even call me 'Itja'.
Why... (What was his name?)
'Or Gannab...'
Why..! (WhatwashisNAME!)
'Or even Kleftis...'
Why, why, every reason he pulled to his mind was being devoured, eroded away into the darkness of his mind..! There was a reason... He knew there was a reason damn it, but why..! An armored helm appeared beneath his fingers, a horn above his brow, and his eyes were nothing but endless black holes. His hands were falling limp to his sides, and his mouth was opening still wider as he charged forward, jaw hanging in its socket as he took in his prey.
"Y'r probably still there," Katsuya was saying, the monster behind him ignoring his words in the one-shot attack to end the source of the voice's taunting, to simply banish this presence that refused to acknowledged his identity. "Waitin' f'r me t' wake up, or jus' figure you out..." He didn't care any more, the voice in his head provided. He didn't care, he didn't care just die...
Die...
"Your voice..."
DIE...
"I don' recognize it but..."
DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE!
". . ."
The mouth opened further and as they came just behind his victim's neck, teeth prepared to rip delicate flesh from bone to swallow it whole the blond's eyes shot open and he spoke once more.
"...Saraph." Sa...
That name..!
"Gh-!" Breathing hitched and the monster abruptly pulled back, mouth snapping shut as his eyes widened. His name... That was his name, that was his NAME! What had he been doing, he screamed to himself, grabbing his head and again struggling against the monstrous form he'd taken now. What had he been about to do! He...
He...
Snarling orders to kill pulsed through his mind, and with one last scream the ghost vanished from sight; he had to get out of here... He had to leave, before he did something... Something... Before he hurt him... Before he killed him, he would return to his 'body', to his 'punishment', to his 'cell', to...
"Saraph," Katsuya continued to mutter, slowly turning around with his eyes turned to the ground. "Tha's yer name... Isn' it," the blond asked, shaking his head. "I mean, yer voices 'r obviously diff'rent but-" He stopped, looking over the empty space around him with a frown. Gone... The ghost was...
Gone...
Nothing but dark, black empty space...
"What..."
And in the distance, suddenly he heard a roar. A familiar and air splitting roar, shaking the very foundations of where he stood. Felt a blast of flames, and heard his friend speak... 'Thank you Jonouchi,' he whispered honestly, the snarls of fighting dragons filling his ears. 'This strength of yours... I won't let it go to waste. Now... Wake up like you said you would...' Wake up...
With a nod and a small smile, he turned to do just that, closing his eyes and smirking. And around him, as the darkness crumbled away to light, he walked forward to whatever awaited him.
When the snarl hit the air she'd momentarily faltered in her attack, eyes widening as black scales appeared through the air. This card... Yugi had used Red Eyes against Katsuya when he was controlled by the Millennium Rod (a control she was only grudgingly admitting possible), as a piece to snap him from his stupor... But she hadn't realized this was still in his deck. She didn't think he'd keep that card in his deck. This card...
"That... Is NOT your CARD," she hissed, the fires releasing from her dragon's mouth as she snarled. It wasn't his to summon, his to play... It wasn't his! "You... I'll destroy you for even thinking you could bring it into our match," Seto roared, fists clenched tight as she continued her attack. "NOW! The first target is the Magician," the woman announced, pointing forward with wide eyes as the closest dragon nodded its head. "GO!" She had to win she told herself, white flames glowing brightly at her side as they increased in heat and size within the dragon's maw. She had to... She had to finally over come this obstacle before her, grind him into the ground, as she would to the one following..! She HAD TO... "DESTROY IT!"
"Not yet," Yugi countered swiftly, waving his hand across the field. Yet despite not even touching the disk the card swung upward, and above the Dark Magician came a pair of tall cylinders. Tall and familiar cylinders, the first absorbing the attack of the white dragon and sending it forward from a glowing bottom of the other. "Activate Trap," the boy announced. "Magic Cylinder..! TAKE AIM AND FIRE," he roared, the momentary tenseness Seto felt quickly evaporating. Why...
What was she worried about, she laughed to herself mentally. "Hn..!" Not bad to counter... But with Lord of Dragons on the field, there was no reason for her to-
What was she kidding..? Of course there was a reason..! "I know what you're thinking," her opponent chuckled, a smirk coming over his own face as Seto frowned and to some extent shook. "As long as Lord of Dragon's is on the field, nothing can touch your monsters... So I'll be taking care of that," he continued with a grin, the fires launching forth from the cylinder and blossoming forward. "I TARGET THE DRAGON LORD!" The dragon-
No! With a synthesized shout the hologram was destroyed on impact, Seto grimacing and pulling back under the heat of her dragon's attack. "Gh... No matter," she retorted, pointing her remaining monsters forward as the other two dragons snarled. "I still have two more dragons ready to attack..! That card," the woman continued stiffly, the heat of the flames leaving her breathing rough and quick. This card..! "Is not yours to control... PREPARE TO DIE RED-EYES," she continued, white flames blasting forward from the second Blue-Eyes as the black scaled opponent reared and snarled. "NOW-"
"ANOTHER TRAP," Yugi countered, again not touching the disk as the card swung upward. As the card revealed its face and as holograms shot around her monsters with no warning. "SPELL BINDING CIRCLE!" The spell- Shit, and she'd known that one was there..! And as the circle appeared around her monster, pinning her dragon in place on the ground where it struggled the woman paled.
"Gh..." Seven hundred attack points down with all of its limbs pinned to the points of the circle by sparks of black electricity... Unable to attack, unable to defend unable to do more than snort and growl behind its teeth as it leered forward...
"And with the monster weakened and unable to move, Red-Eyes will counter," her opponent announced almost coldly, Seto looking back to the field in rage as black and red flames grew from the holographic dragon's mouth. "GO," he roared. "BLACK FIRE BULLET..!"
"GRAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"GH-" Damn it..! The fires blew past with all the force of a raging firestorm, Seto ducking beneath her arm even as another of her dragons shielded her from the brunt of the attack and as sparks flew around her feet. From within the spell's circle she could hear her monster's cry. Hear the dragon's wail of death as it faded into ashes on the wind, white scales stained black with ashes beneath the strike... "You..." To lose... To this dragon, this 'ghost'...
"RAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Mark her words she thought, the third of her dragons blasting through Yugi's Magnet Warrior with ease. This meant nothing...
NOTHING!
That was what she said, at least.
-beep-
But as the monitor began to alter its single toned sound into steadily spaced 'blips' from the side, the others turned back to the bed.
-beep-
It was just a short heart beat. Just one sound... Just one small trace of a pulse, just enough to instil hope... Just enough to have them staring, waiting for the few seconds that felt like hours...
-beep-
-beep-
-beep-
-be-
"GH- K-h... KHKKKHH-"
Choking.
Without warning Katsuya's body jerked, eyes flying open as he attempted to breathe despite the tube-like device that had been forced down his formerly unmoving throat. Jerking and twitching as he stared wildly at the ceiling, fighting against the machine that had provided him air. "Calm yourself," the doctor was hurriedly telling him, pulling the machine and tube out as the blond continued to struggle. "Calm down, you're still recov-"
As Kuzushi froze with the finally removed tube in her hand the blond continued to cough, the absence of the device still leaving traces of the gag reflex in his throat. "Gkkh... Hkk... Hah... Hah... Ahhh..."
"N-Nihan," Shizuka whispered, staring as the blond looked over himself with a frown. "Nihan, you..."
"Katsuya-nii..."
"Stand back," the doctor hissed. "Listen to me Jonouchi; I need you to tell me how you feel," she pressed, reaching out to remove the 'auto pulse', "Understand? You were clinically dead for over half an hour, I need you to-"
"What th'..." Kuzushi paused as Katsuya sat up, beating her to the task she'd attempted to deal with. "Th' hell is this," The blond rasped, pulling the large and now non-functioning 'Auto Pulse' off his chest and carelessly tossing it to the side. The doctor beside him fumbled with the device, looking at her patient first with displeasure and then relief. He was awake now... And the others had realized by this point that he was more or less alright, but...
"J... Jonouchi," the others were shouting, pulling his attention back as the blond stared. "You're alive... You're..." Uh oh... That look in Honda's eyes was... "Come here damn it," Honda snarled, suddenly pulling the teen over by the shoulders to shake him roughly. "Asshole..! You know how worried about you we were," he growled, gripping his friend's shoulders tight as Katsuya stared. "How pissed I am now?"
"EH- Wha-" H-Hey, he just woke up, let him calm down... And...
And... Katsuya blinked, staring as Honda bit his lip. "If you... Even think of getting 'killed' like that again," he warned, dropping his friend as he held his head, "I swear to god I'm gonna drag you back to kill you again myself..." He looked back up, Katsuya continuing to stare almost blankly in response to the severe gaze he was receiving. "Don't EVER do that again, got it? You hear me..?"
"I..." He blinked, before nodding. "...Right." No matter what... While the others fell silent at those words Katsuya merely shook himself, holding his head and grimacing as a wave of pain rushed through it. "Achhh..." Headache... Headac- "Shit," he abruptly shouted, turning to look at the side as he cut the others off before they could speak. "What time..!" What time was it... The doctor said half an hour so...
So what time was it? Too late, that was what time it was he realized with a nervous swallow. Far too late. With little warning other than to look up with wide eyes he pulled at the sensors that had been attached to his body, the doctor and the others quickly panicking as he moved for the bandages as well. "AH- Hold on," Otogi shouted, the sensors clacking against the gurney and floor as he hopped off the side. "Jonouchi," he protested in panic, "Your wound hasn't-"
Healed? The bandages fell to the floor and in there place wasn't even a scar, the others staring in shock as he pulled off the rest of the gauze and tape. Yea... Somehow he knew that was happening. What with it being a duel cut and all... (Exodia... He was just being a prick far as he could tell...) "Forget about me for now," he said quickly, looking toward the window. "Like you guys said... Yugi's duelin' Seto-chan, this ain't th' time!" He looked back to the others for a moment, frowning. "Speakin' of... How come you aren't out there cheerin'?"
...Maybe he shouldn't have said that.
"C... CHEERING," Anzu snarled with a red face, eyes flashing between gold and blue/brown with no sign as to which one within the body was more ticked at the remark. "What were we supposed to do leave you alone? You just woke up from over half an hour of clinical death," 'they' retorted, Katsuya momentarily freezing at the reminder. "Did you really think we were going to stay on the field for that!" Eh... He coughed somewhat awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. Well they had a point but...
"ACK, f'rget it," he grumbled, grabbing his dogtags from the side table and bolting out of the room before the others could say a word. "Like hell I'm missing this, come on!"
"W- What," Honda sputtered, turning as the blond ran from the room, "'Come on'..!"
"Nihan," Shizuka protested from behind, "You don't have a shirt-"
"Katsuya-nii, your shoes..!"
As shouts filled the air behind him visions did the same, the blond swallowing as he skidded out of the airship to run on bare and likely to be scratched feet. The duel was happening his mind told him almost in whispers, Red-Eyes was attacking, Blue-Eyes was burning to naught but ash...
And while he still had yet to explain what happened during his own fight and what happened that allowed him to live, it would just have to wait a little longer..!
On the field they stood upon, it was hard to tell what anything meant any more. At the start of the tournament it had been clear what the point of all of this was. She fought to defeat Yugi, to surpass the darkness that she had succumbed to in the time of Gozaburo... And for the short bit of time after, as well her mind added bitterly. She fought not only to do this but to attain each of the God cards, and to weed out the Ghouls that chased them. To clear them from the streets like the filth they were...
Yugi didn't originally intend to enter however, from what her brother had told her. He entered only because of a stone tablet from a land long lost, a tablet that supposedly held the keys to his 'memories' and a tablet that she stubbornly refused to believe the authenticity of even with the white dragons at her side. The two dragons...
The third was a pile of ash now she reminded herself, jaw clenching as the dust to her side blew in the wind.
Her rival was fighting for apparently lost memories she repeated mentally, eyes narrowing as she looked across the field. Memories tied to the God cards, memories that didn't exist, she snarled in the back of her mind once more. Or did they? Well... It would certainly be easier if they didn't. And the fact was that all the rules of reality pointed to that being the answer.
So for now, she decided, she would stick with that opinion then. When this battle began, they were fighting to pass time. Fighting to decide who would hold Malik off and with luck defeat the monster and leave him at the tower. Yugi didn't know her plan. He didn't know that even with one single card, the chances of a win were still only 22%. He didn't know that once that final duel ended, regardless of who won, this tower would have limited time before exploding into flames.
When that happened... She would leave Malik there to die, and she would feel no remorse for it, she told herself. And if it came to it... She would die, so long as it meant her brother escaped with his life and the lives of the others.
As the fight progressed however it seemed pride and hate both rose to change the goal of the match, to change the intent behind those battling on the field The winner of this battle... If she didn't win this battle what did that make her, she asked herself with a mental snarl. If she couldn't be strong enough to defeat him this time... If she couldn't surpass everything that happened before, everything in the past..!
If she couldn't even do that... Then a mere 22% would become...
"It's still my turn," she finally said as the thoughts were cut short, a small smirk on her face as she fingered the other card in her hand. She wouldn't lose, she told herself confidently. She wouldn't lose... No matter what. "You have two monsters on the field," Seto began, confidence rising further in the face of thoughts deemed pathetic. "Two monsters," she repeated, "With my dragons power far superior to your own and leaving you with no other choice than defence..." And that choice, thanks to the cards in her hand... Thanks to this single card, she thought with a somewhat maddened grin, that choice wouldn't be a choice at all. "I play two face down cards," she announced 'calmly', setting the last cards of her hand down with narrowed eyes and watching as the holograms rose to her front. "End turn!"
"Then it's my turn," her opponent responded almost stiffly, drawing his next card with a swallow. Like she herself had moments before, there were only two cards in Yugi's hand... And like she had done following that moment the boy took both and set them on the field, the holograms arising even as he paid them no mind. "I also place two face down cards... Following that," he continued, gesturing to the dragon at his side, "Red Eyes enters defense mode and-"
There. "Hnhnhnhnhnhn..." Not any more..! "Activate permanent trap," Seto roared, a laugh coming through the air with the cry. "FINAL ATTACK ORDERS..! So long as this is here all monsters remain in attack mode... In addition," she chuckled, eyes narrowing with vicious mirth as the monsters across from her seemed to snarl at the spell she'd cast, "Both players must choose three cards to leave in their decks while the rest are sent to the grave!" An odd effect for a battle position trap...
But nonetheless one she would take advantage of, and one that had her opponent's eyes widening in momentary shock. Only three cards...
Three cards, and with those cards she would win this game despite anything that could possible occur in the next few turns! "I don't even need to wait three turns to defeat you," she said confidently, arms crossed as she looked across the field with shadowed eyes. "But I suppose you can place your pitiful hope in the three cards you choose... Right, Yugi..?" There was no answer and she continued to laugh, grin widening as her opponent shakily picked his cards and discarded the remaining chunk to the grave at the dueldisk's side. "Hnhnhnhn... HAHAHAHA..." She won... She won. "This time you're finished," she laughed, the dragons giving low growls and nods in response as they turned their heads toward the boy. "So... What will you do now..?"
"Gh..." The boy continued to remain silent, before eventually bowing his head. Of course he had no options remaining. What could there possibly be after all? In the end he looked up, fists clenched as the Dark Magician as well sent a glare across the field. "End turn," he bit out, narrowing his eyes still further as his opponent chuckled. Hnhnhnhnhn...
In that case, it was her move! "My turn then," she announced, taking the first of the three 'shuffled' cards. And if she was right... The first one in her hand would be... "Hnhnhahaha..." Just as expected she thought as she glanced over the card face, putting it on the disk with a grin. "I play the spell Monster Reborn," she announced with wide eyes, green light filling the air as the third monster of hers slowly formed from the ashes that had littered the ground. As wings beat the air and as snow white scales appeared and shimmered in the light, and her opponent's eyes widened still further as she grinned. "You can guess who I've brought back..! More over," the woman continued as she tapped the duel-disk, "I activate the spell I've kept face down, POLYMERIZATION! AND NOW... BEHOLD," Seto roared, a portal appearing behind her to pull the dragons far within as they cried. As the dragons behind her merged, twisting into the enormous and nigh-God-sized dragon that filled her side of the arena completely to snarl in anticipation. "The greatest of monsters... BLUE-EYES, ULTIMATE DRAGON..!" A monster more powerful than even Obelisk... A monster that could never be defeated, never..! A monster that stood at her side now, each head coming down to give her assuring growls despite her mind screaming not to acknowledge such an outlandish sight. What she was going to do to her opponent now... What she was going to do... "Yugi," she sneered. "When I defeat you I want you to realize completely that this was never simply revenge," the woman hissed, narrowing her eyes. The boy stared back, expression somewhat tense and confused as his opponent went on. "Why have I been so fixated with defeating you," she muttered, her gaze dimming somewhat with the words. "Why do I want to fight you... You want to know why that is," Seto asked, raising her voice with a snarl. "You want to know the answer? All you fight for are memories carved on a stone rock," the woman spat, "A past long since blown away... And in the end, what does it MATTER," she snarled, unaware that her words were falling on more than just her rival's ears, and on more than just the ears of those who knew this voice. "To me... The memory of the past is nothing more than a crumbling piece of rock," Seto hissed, bringing her arm back and shaking her head. "My past... Is nothing but hate, and anger... Not like your stupid fantasy of Egyptian myth..!" There was never more than anger and hate... Through Gozaburo's control she came to hate him, hate everything around her... Hate all those who couldn't see that man for who he was, hate those who couldn't see what she herself was turning into... And when she took control of that company, when that man died, the anger failed to dissipate... The rage of what occurred merely moved on to stronger and undying hatred for the next target and so she pushed forward. There was nothing to the past... Nothing at all, and for that reason... "I care only for the future," she hissed, clenching her fists as she swallowed a now choking breath. "And I spit on the past... And as a creature of the past Yugi, I'll destroy you along with it..! I will cast all of this darkness down," she roared, "And there will be nothing but light left..! NOTHING MORE!" Everything would be gone... Everything...
Everything...
And the light remaining...
In the crowd that they could not see beyond coliseum walls, there were questions. Was everything truly nothing but hate? Weren't there at least some happy times? Just a few..? The summers in Germany..? The times with Katsuya and Mokuba..? Hanami, Valentines, even a few choice moments between all of that? And long before Gozaburo, before 'Anne-bachan', before the truck accident..? With their father..?
If any of these thoughts came to mind she hadn't shown it. And the fact was, they didn't occur to her at all, not in the least.
Not when her opponent merely bowed his head and sighed, a small smile on his face as he shook his head. As he shook his head and laughed, at first quietly, and then slowly it became loud enough that those around the entire tower top would have heard. "...I'm surprised you can even smile, let alone laugh," she muttered, narrowing her eyes as a scowl came over her face. "Just what's so 'funny' about my words..?"
"Funny," Yugi repeated, opening his eyes as his laughter cut short. "Absolutely nothing. Kaiba," he began lowly, gaze dimming somewhat as he spoke. "You're one of the few people I recognize as a 'duelist', as someone I can truly fight with and enjoy fighting with. But quite frankly," he continued coldly, "I'm disappointed." What..? 'Disappointed'? He thought she cared about- "Let me put it bluntly," Yugi went on, still frowning. "Hate, anger... No matter how much of this you have, that won't be enough to defeat me, and it never will..! Your mind is just like this tower... Standing tall amid the hate, piling more anger and detest on top of it until you reach the top, but in the end you can't reach victory like this... All you'll do is continue looking for the next thing to hate," he stated coolly, "Searching for the next target to destroy... And all you'll do in the end is destroy yourself and those around them... I... I fight for those who I believe," the boy added with a determined scowl, Seto narrowing her eyes as he went on. "For my friends... For myself... Not just for 'memories' or 'fate'... But to realize exactly who I am, and to become the kind of person that the people I fight for can depend upon..! And I'll show you what I mean," he shouted, waving his hand yet again as a card swung upward. "I reveal my own spell... 'Double Spell'! Copying the spell combo you just pulled," he snarled, Seto's eyes widening in horror as the boy continued. "First, I summon Buster Blader with Monster Reborn... NEXT," Yugi roared, the hologram's green light heralding the seemingly spandex covered swordsman, "Using Polymerization, I fuse the Dark Magician with the Buster Blader...! And as a result," he announced, the hologram that came into view wrapping around 'Mahaad' to form an almost regal armor around the magician while he stared across the field, "I summon the Magic Swordsman, the 'DARK PALADIN'..!" Dark... Paladin...
"Prepare yourself Priestess," 'Mahaad' warned, gripping the spear-like blade he now held in your hand. "For we BOTH fight..."
"Hit me with all your hatred," the boy's summoner 'taunted', his words almost seeming to be more of a statement than a challenge. "I'll wipe it ALL out!"
He'd known, of course, that she would want all three of her Blue-Eyes on the field. More than that, he'd guessed that if she were to pick any card to save, it would have been Monster Reborn and Polymerization. She wouldn't need much else after all, to bring out her 'true' ultimate monster. To bring out her 'Queen' so to speak. (He'd have thought it as 'King', but for some reason his thoughts wouldn't let him and...)
...And in the end... Jonouchi was right. This battle... If Kaiba were to win this battle in this state, it would not be the kind of win that would 'help' in any way. It would simply pull her back down to the state she'd been so long before, detesting all in her path, all in her way...
The same path that she herself abhorred. "Tch... So you summoned your own 'ultimate monster'," his opponent snorted from across the field, the woman's eyes nonetheless somewhat wide with cautious fear. "The ultimate dragon has 4500 attack points, and yours has 2900... Even with the special effect," she continued, the Paladin at Yugi's side standing in indifference as they listened, "There are only two dragons here... 3900 attack points is still too few to challenge ME..!" For now, Yugi reminded himself. For now. And of course... "Of course, since my monster is a fusion summon," Kaiba added bitterly, "I can't attack... On that note," she finished, "It's your turn..."
"Yes," he responded almost flatly. "It is." He wouldn't deny that without the circumstances present he'd have still done all in his power to win. That would have been a completely ridiculous lie after all..! No matter what, that was the goal in a game; to win. He'd be foolish to claim that his own pride and enjoyment toward the event would allow something like that to be thrown away. But now more than ever, with all that was on the line, he looked across the field to the dragon that stood behind its master. The dragon whose mouths were closed, whose eyes were almost dulled with indecision and sadness as he pushed against his earlier thoughts of giving in. Even the monsters did not wish to fight... Even Blue-Eyes... Even she...
The face down card 'Magic Formula' wouldn't be enough to power-up the Paladin in the face of the Ultimate Dragon Yugi told himself almost grimly, but it would be foolish to think Kaiba wouldn't counter a spell like that regardless. After all; it would take one more turn to defeat him if that were to happen, and in the state she was in now there was no patience whatsoever. It was kill or be killed, destroy and move on, and for once this battle could not continue as the game it was. She wanted it over as fast as possible and to destroy a spell that would prevent that wouldn't matter on the last move. This battle...
There was not just facing Malik on the line to save those in the comas, not for this battle. There was not just pride and memory to deal with... Not this time. And as he drew the second of his 'three cards' he left his arms at the side, giving his opponent a short nod. "I set a card face down," he said clearly, swallowing somewhat nervously as his final 'trump card' was placed on the field in the form of a stone tablet with a blank face at his side. "It's your move."
"Hn!" Shadows hung on the air, but they were shadows not tied to a particular force... And the feeling that this battle brought with it... Making him nauseated, even weak... "I'll play a face down card as well," Kaiba decided after her own draw, the dust on the field rising to form a similarly blank faced tablet as a result. "And now Yugi, prepare yourself," she snarled with a grin. "I'll bury you hear along with the detestable past and you can make peace with yourself..!" Make peace? That...
That was something that she needed to do first..! "Kaiba," he said lowly, narrowing his eyes. "What do you think your hate and anger are leaving you with, if you have to rely on that to try and defeat me..? Power," he asked seriously, his opponent merely narrowing her eyes further as he continued. "Did that work before..! You'll never escape if you use it as fuel," Yugi cried, shaking his head. "It'll swallow you completely and it'll leave nothing left..." And as a rival, he didn't want that. He wanted a battle where they could fight for the sake of fighting, not caring who won or lost when it came to the end. A battle that wasn't so much a battle but a 'game', as it always was... But more importantly... He wanted to face her as both a rival...
And as a friend... "Say what you want," Kaiba hissed, white flames slowly developing in the back of the dragon head's throats as she snarled. "I'm still going to win..! And this is it! ULTIMATE DRAGON," she announced, the stones at Yugi's side seeming to shiver in anticipation for the move as the dragons gave a wailing cry, "ATTACK... ULTIMATE BURST!" The fires shot forward...
The plume of flames came closer and closer...
Now! "Reveal face down card," he announced, waving a hand toward the tablet that held the spell. The tablet carved an image across its face, crumbling to a string of runes and symbols that floated through the air... It was strange... Not using the duel disk he meant, but something told him the buttons wouldn't quite work properly if he tired it that way. So why not use his friend's strategy if he was using his friend's 'eyes'? Why not..? With that in mind... The smoke swirled through the air and a smirk came over his face. "Magic Formula!"
And with that cue, the next part of the plan came into being. "I knew it," Kaiba hissed, clicking the duel disk as the tablet on her side crumbled to dust and destroyed his own. "Absorb spell! Taking your spell card's effect," the woman began, the smoke pulled across to her field to stain her monster with its spells and carvings, "And adding it to my own!" Loud and snarling roars hit the air as Kaiba continued to laugh, the dragon's powerful attack becoming more heated even as it struck the second tablet shielding him. "HAHAHA..." Five hundred points of attack power... "HAHAHAHAAAA!" Added to its own... "YOUR SO CALLED SAVIOR THE PALADIN... AND THE GHOST OF A DEFENSE FROM YOUR DRAGON," Kaiba added, expression twisted with rage and anticipatory 'cheer' both, "ALL OF IT WILL BE SHATTERED..! I'VE WON," she snarled. "HEAR THAT?"
The woman's response was much quieter than her own shouts, and when those shouts died down it was almost difficult to hear from across the field. "We'll see about that," Yugi responded calmly, the flames already pushing down on the two monsters at his side with the tablet shield crumbling to a carved pillar of dust. "Kaiba... No matter how tall your tower of hate becomes it's still fragile," he announced. "My next face down card," Yugi called out, pointing forward as the smoky pile of dust moved to cloud the white dragon before him. "DE-FUSION..!" And as Kaiba's eyes widened in horror, and as the dragon slowly split from the necks down into a triad... And as all three dragons snarled from across him on the field, Red-Eyes snarling in response... "There are now four dragons on the field," he said clearly, narrowing his eyes as he continued his move. "Bringing the Dark Paladin's power up even more.. And last but not least," the boy continued, the Paladin in question bringing his spear up with a swift nod, "I play this final spell from my hand! Diffusion Wave Motion! It might cost 1000 life points," Yugi continued, the meter on his wrist dropping down as the Magician swung his weapon, "But to attack each of your monsters it'll be worth it! NOW DARK PALADIN," he roared, Kaiba continuing to pale and stare from across him as her game was turned on her once again, "STRIKE THEM DOWN... AND TEAR THROUGH THE DARKNESS! FIERCE SLASHING WAVE..!"
"HHHHAAAAH!" The blade swung forward... And though it never connected, the waves of darkness that shot forth from it did.
"RAAAOOOOOOOO!" The first one's neck was severed cleanly, and as arterial spray shot into the air Yugi's expression fell and his skin went pale.
"AOOOOOOOO!" The second one was cut through the middle, wings split clean in two and a mix of bone and organ falling to the ground amid the corpse left behind.
"ARAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOO..!" And the final one... Was reduced to just as much a mess as the two before him.
The blade that his monster swung forward released such a wave of darkness that for a moment he couldn't see anything beyond the attack until that moment. All he could hear were the pained screams of the White Dragon's, the monsters final cries hanging through the air as he stared. But for a moment after, with the gore remaining on the field, there was nothing...
And in the end, as the shadows cleared he was left to ponder these 'sights' that his friend was left to see during each battle. The sight of the dragon's torn literally to shreds as blood soaked the field, as eyes grew dead and chunks of muscle and bone littered the ground with organs following in the mess. As Kaiba's white coat was miraculously left clean in the aftermath of the red rain that stained the ground, and as she continued to stare in horror, unable to speak...
Because in the end, to surpass this madness and hate she held...
Her dragons were the sacrifice.
'We have a winner,' he dimly heard Isono shout at the side, the arena lowering as the vision cleared from sight. As tablets ground to dust to merge with the ground, as the remaining monsters on the field gave him a low nod and faded from sight in wisps of smoke on the wind... As stone crumbled back into hologram within his sights, the 'ability' fading until all that he saw finally vanished from the field completely. 'Mutou Yugi moves on to the Final Match,' Isono was announcing clearly. So he did...
So he did...
But for the moment, that was not what was on his mind. Rather, as he looked across the field to his rival he found himself staring almost expectantly at the woman. Hate... It was a dead end, there was no doubt about that.
Now however, the question was...
How persistent would that hate be... And would what happened today ever repeat itself as it apparently had all those years ago..?
Blood fell to the ground in torrents around her in the face of that move. It fell with such force that a waterfall would have felt no different, despite the downpour lasting only a second or so. The battle was lost... Her tournament that had held so much promise had reduced itself to mere ashes now and she stood atop the pile defeated...
A pile formed of the blood, bone, and flesh of deceased monsters. Her dragons had cried in that blast. The shadows had whipped forward and cut them to shreds, and as she found herself reaching a hand toward the dragons' falling form, toward the bloodied shreds as they fell through the air, it passed between her fingers as a pile of ash. Vanished to the wind.
Gone.
All she ever wanted... All she'd wanted...
Was to defeat this one person... This one boy... At the top of her tower where she would surpass him as the 'king'. Was that so much..?
Was that so much..? 'Well... That's just ridiculous,' a cruel voice in the back of her mind whispered, the remaining ashes from the dragon gathering in her open palm. 'You can't be the king. You're a woman; only men can be kings. You will always be 'second',' it continued to taunt, Seto's wide eyes staring almost glassily at the pile of dust she held. 'The closest thing you can do is be the Queen,' the voice hissed, 'And that's not an option at all for you now is it? You have nothing now... It's over for you. You have nothing... It's...'
Over.
It was all over, all of it, and as she looked at the ashes that were slowly blowing off her hand she continued to stand in shock and silence.
She lost.
She lost. Again...
At the side she could hear her brother calling out to her, despite the fact that she'd told him to stay on the ship... She could hear him shouting out with tear filled cries at her reaction to the battle, but she couldn't make out the words right now...
Her ultimate deck... Her ultimate monster, her greatest ally and asset in this battle, and it was destroyed. Rendered naught but shreds of flesh and dust on the ground. There was no flaw in her strategy. She'd tested every possible angle her opponent could have taken against her. Her deck was perfect in every way... Perfect... And yet... "I lost..."
"Yes," Yugi 'responded', taking a few steps forward as his opponent continued to stare at the ashes that had fallen to the ground. "I won; you lost," he repeated almost bluntly as he stood before her. "But we have no difference in skill," the boy finished. No difference..? Gh...
Hgh... Her eyes snapped back into focus and with a red face she looked back up to her opponent, fists curling in and jaw clenching tight. "You... Is that supposed to be PITY," she snarled, still not bothering to disguise her voice as a cold wind blew past her. To look down on her like this...
He dared... He dared to do such a thing..! "No," he said flatly, expression unchanged. "It's the truth; I'm acknowledging your skill as a duelist," the boy told her, "And I'm acknowledging your power. But let me tell you this," he continued, the woman grinding her teeth as her opponent went on with another of the 'morals' to match his 'end of story' as he always did. "What you lost to... Was the monster called 'Hatred' that dwells within you."
The monster called 'hatred'? Really? She was half tempted to ask if he was joking... To send back a snark-filled comment and brush it off as she did before. Yet instead she found herself momentarily staring at her rival in silence, allowing the boy to continue.
"The monsters on our cards are not the only monsters that exist," he began, the wind continuing to blow almost gently against them both. "The fact is," Yugi went on, "They pale in comparison to the demons that we ourselves can create. Despair, Jealousy, Rage... Our worst enemies know us from the inside out and lurk deep within," the boy half-whispered, "Lying in wait... And only when you defeat that," he continued, "Only when you've surpassed those obstacles within yourself, can you truly push this 'darkness' of yours behind and fight as you were meant to. Kaiba," he continued, pulling a card from his disk and holding it up, light gleaming across the shining black cover it held. "I would have lost if I didn't have this dragon in my deck... This card that Jonouchi lent me," Yugi 'explained' calmly. "It's his power that allowed me to defeat you. Not mine. Our 'friendship'... Our power..."
The power of... ...Tch! "The power of WHAT," she hissed, narrowing her eyes in rage as she regained the stubborn sense of rage that had clung to her side for the duel and a large portion of her life. A fool... Nothing but a fool..! "You're a complete moron," she spat, wind blasting about the field and stinging against whatever skin was left to the wind as it began to pick up speed. "I don't want to win if it means depending on others..! I don't need 'friends'- I don't need anyone," she snarled, palms cut once again by the nails of her fingers. "I win on my own terms," Seto growled, "And no one else's..! But I digress," she went on, a card slipped out from her graveyard as she spoke. She'd lost after all... What right did she have now? "Boasting is the privilege of those who win," the woman muttered, eyes not even sparing a glance to the blue-rimmed card she held. "For now I'll keep quiet and step down... And with the ante rule," she continued, tossing the card toward her rival without even looking toward him to see if her rival caught the 'reward', "That makes this card yours..!"
The soldier of the Obelisk, the God 'Sutekh'... "I accept your ante," the boy responded, Seto merely walking off the arena with grit teeth before briefly turning back. 'Accept'... Tch...
"Tch... Yugi," she began, fists slowly going 'flat' again as she spoke. "Now that you've beaten me I won't allow you to lose in the finals, understand," she spat. A curt nod from the boy was all she needed, and with that she walked back toward the stairs, coat furling in the wind behind her as the door opened wide. Even with two God cards... Even with that, he was no match for Ra, she told herself. But then again she always predicted his defeat, didn't she? She'd always predicted his loss against her. So... If he could possibly reverse his chances, then who knew what would occur. He couldn't lose... Not to anyone else..! He couldn't let anyone defeat him because that right was hers and hers alone but for now...
With the final match in ten minutes, there was a destruction sequence to begin for the tower. There was an explosion to time, to watch over. She had to make sure the jet was prepared for take off before the blast, that the blast wouldn't happen too early or too late...
There was lots to do...
But before she could head down the stairs...
It figured she would hear the 'others'. "WHOO! YEA! YUGI!" The woman turned from the stairway entrance, watching as a small crowd appeared from the second stair-well that the tower's top held. That voice... Briefly her eyes widened, the currently shoe-less and shirtless blond pumping a fist in the air with zeal as he shouted. "YUGI! Y' DID IT!"
"J-JONOUCHI!"
"Hahaha! What, y' thought I'd die," he laughed, shaking his head. Almost... She wasn't going to let him obviously but... (The wound was gone, where was the wound...!) "Great job man," Katsuya was laughing, clapping an arm around the boy's shoulders in celebration as he stared. "I knew y'd do it!" Of course he did... Did he have any faith in her at all? Any!
Moron. "...You should have stayed on the ship," she found herself muttering as she continued down the stairs, ignorant to the continued shouts on the field as Mokuba joined the crowd and ran toward that same stairwell. He should have never come back to this place... He should have remained on the gurney, ready for the helicopter when it arrived. But it seemed that despite that he was here now. And in the end...
It seemed the 'mutt' didn't need her anyways. Not when 'her' power was still defeated by someone a foot shorter than herself. Not when all her power couldn't stop an invisible blade from striking him down, or explain when the victim recovered. Not when 'his' power appeared atop the field in the form of black scales and burning red-eyes, acting against even the rules of the game to strike her down. He didn't need her. In fact...
It seemed like no one did. Not even 'him'. "Let's go Mokuba," she said flatly, the boy that had come up from behind stiffening from where he'd reached out to tell the woman he was there.
"N-Nee-sama," he muttered in surprise, "How did you- ...Ah, wait, don't you want to see Katsuya-nii," he continued in protest. "He's completely recovered, it's incredible..! You have to see-"
"...There's something I need to do," she said flatly, cutting her brother off as she walked down the stairs with the boy behind her. "We'll deal with him later." Later... Much later...
Her power might not have been enough to defeat Malik if this duel was any sign she thought to herself bitterly, face still burning red with the rage of her loss.
But that didn't mean she couldn't finish this tournament as 'planned' and salvage whatever pathetic ashes remained in this already long lost ruin.
AN: Nooooo, Kaiba~ Don't start beating yourself up over a loss again..! Think of your brother..!
The fact is guys, Kaiba's in a fairly self-depricating mood right now... With the combined trauma and stress of Malik, the tournament going to shit, all the psychological bulshit in the VR world, and her dragons being blown up the way they were (doesn't help that the Gods naturally super-charge her will to fight...), she ends up in a really... Really dark place.
Heck, for all the improvement she's shown, in real life, this sort of recovery has its ups and downs. In fact, there's generally a high chance of having a 'pit moment' where you feel worse than you had before the recovery even started. (And it really hurts more when I realize that I'm using a close relative of mine as an example with that fact.)
In any case, this is one of those moments; and it'll take time to get over it. Thankfully however, she will...
As to how... Well, she'll start to get out of that pit again in the next chapter. We'll also see Jonouchi's confrontation there, and then the start of Yugi VS Yami Malik if we're lucky enough. It all depends on how long the chapter gets with the confrontation and 'lead up' scenes first.
In other news, we have art again (for both this one, the last one, and the 100th chapter flat-colour surprise), and some more music to shamelessly flaunt. Lots of reviews to answer to, both anonymous and registered, and I received a few more 'story alerts/favorites' as well, which always makes me happy!
For now, THE CONTEST!
I'll be taking entries for the 'create a summary for Skin' contest (255 characters or less) until Canada Day; that's July First, though if I stop receiving entries for two updates and it's already two weeks into June, I might start voting then. The vote time itself will be announced when all the entries are in.
Remember; the prize is a flat coloured request of any kind, with as many as two characters involved.
Now then! There's not much time left for this arc... In fact, if I start the duel next chapter, it's likely that there will only be two chapters left, with one becoming a super chapter to cover the finale. There's a lot of material to cover there...
And after that, there's not much time before the next arc either!
Another news point! I might have a job! Not sure yet... Should hopefully find out within the next week though; if I get it before I update, the next update will likely be delayed by about... two or so days. It depends on when I end up working really.
So, with that in mind...
Review time!
Anonymous Review Responses
Quite a few; I really can't thank all of you who make this effort enough!
First, imadork! Thank you for the congratulations! I hope you enjoy this chapter and the next as well!
Next, Purpletrees! First, welcome to the fanfic, I hope you enjoy it! (And remember what your review was by the time you get here...) Also...
W-Wow... I never thought of it like that... I mean... I always thought of it as ridiculously long, but I never realized that it was as long as three of the LOTR trilogy..!
Wowwwwwww...
And emotional roller coaster just got started Iona! Though I suppose that after the above, the most fun we'll get is from the confrontations and then things should calm down somewhat. Actually, there'll be lots of foreshadowing to future events in this particular finale, so keep your eyes open in case I decide to forego splitting the duel in two and go 'mammoth' with the match.
Poor poor Kaiba... It's going to take a bit before things really solidify in terms of where those two are going, I can bet that a lot of people will be resiting the urge to strangle me as a result! As for what he gets...
He managed to avoid Kaiba amazingly enough, but ironically it's at her expense. She's actually too depressed and sore about the battle to even bother. (Also, she's not in the mood to push through everyone else... Which she would have to do.)
Of course, this doesn't spare him from everyone else as you can see...
Well, expect the next update soon enough, and with that, I'll see you soon!
Three chapters eh Maggiemay? -counts in head- Well... You won't really get anything after three chapters, but you'll definitely get a bit of fluff around the end of the next arc.
And 'Seri' was just Bakura's roommate; largely for the reason that in addition to cheaper rent payment, it helps to have someone keeping tabs on the Millennium Ring; 'Seri' would have been a part of the Monster World crew in the 'dream world'.
I hope you enjoy the next chapter as much as those before it!
Usagi's Manga & Japan Guide/Corner
The section that's getting stuck everywhere now that there's awkwardness to depict! BUT IT MUST BE DONE!
And in other news, title time! 'Red Soul' refers to one of the chapter titles in this particular stream of manga chapters; the Red Eyes Black Dragon was more or less considered Jonouchi's spirit (even though he woke up and the dragon was never destroyed... Though he did happen to wake up when it attacked.)... In fact, in the original, Kaiba is quite ticked about Blue-Eyes being defeated by a 'ghost'.
Oh, it's also the name of a fairly good song by 'AAA'. But that's irrelevant.
What, you thought he'd get the kiss? Nope. For more clarification on this 'illusion'... While it doesn't seem like Jou was going to fall for it, he really was coming close...
The fact is, if he'd taken that kiss, he'd have gotten himself stuck. That kiss would have been a sign of him being willing to essentially trade in his 'reality' for his 'dream', no matter how messed up it was.
...And by the way, Kisara's probably quite glad that this kiss never happened, and not just because of illusionary issues.
Why is Jou being called 'Black One'? You can probably guess by the end of this chapter. Also...
Funny thing; one of the major reasons behind why Ra can appear before Jou is similar to Selket's reason for being in Jonouchi's 'deck'; at the moment, though Ra 'belongs' to Malik, he's somewhat tied to Jou... This will actually help out with what happens next, keep an eye open.
And yes, Jonouchi got to fall from miles and miles above the tower before showing up behind Yugi. Whoops.
WOAAAH!
WOAAAAAAAHHH! What's this second dream doing here! And why did Blue Eyes attack Set! What's going on Usagi! Well... In the original, the 'duel' that the Priest and Pharaoh ended up having didn't really happen for the most part. Blue Eyes refused to attack; this is what led to the Priest regaining control of himself from Akhnaden.
However, originally, this scene in Battle City (in the manga, according to Takahashi) was supposed to hint at something else. Originally, the Priest was going to sever ties with the palace completely, but go after Akhnaden on his own, due to his hate over what happened to Kisara; he kinda blamed the Pharaoh.
Something tells me that in the end, he didn't blame the Pharaoh. But anyways; that entire storyline was cut thanks to edit pressure unfortunately.
Of course, what with me knowing exactly what's happening for Ancient Egypt in the fanfic, that means the memory is more accurate. The Pharaoh is visibly despairing over having to fight Set, Set isn't completely there, and Mahaad, who actually knew the priest obviously, is in a similar position to the King.
And of course, its this familiarity that has him speaking to Kaiba, despite it scaring the shit out of her. (You can totally hear his sarcastic emphasis on 'priest' though, hahaha.)
As for the rest of Yugi's dream... Yea. That was his death. And yea...
Now you know where his few scraps of subconcious memory come from. It's... ... I need to stop making myself weepy I do...
Bit of clarification on Seto's relapse. Basically, between Noa's VR World, the fact that almost every loss in this tournament has ended in coma (Not helping with the 'losing means death' deal that one), and finally the sheer pressure all of this puts on her while the presence of God Cards fuels everyone's drive to fight, she's reverted to her Death-T mindset.
Rather the opinion that if she loses, she's good as dead...
I should correct myself. It's not completely her Death-T mindset... More that it's caused by it. Essentially, if she loses, she isn't powerful enough to stop everything that's going on. She isn't powerful enough to protect her brother and everyone else from the maniac that is Malik, she isn't enough to keep anyone on that airship alive...
Moreover it proves Yugi 'right' when it comes to everything he's saying, something that is already holding neon signs in her face and forcing her mind to come kicking and screaming into realization of that fact. And all of this stress brings up anger at the fact, all the anger brings up hate, and the hate refuses to let any happy memory that she has (which is admittedly 'few' compared to negative ones at the moment) come forward in defense...
Which drives her still forward to simply abandon it and kick it to the curb. She wants, and needs, to get rid of this... But she feels that in order to do so, the best thing is to get as far away from it as possible, rather than confronting it directly and surpassing it that way. It's why she refuses to acknowledge the
'Egypt' and 'Supernatual' fun despite it being right in front of her, and it is, as Yugi says, what keeps her from overcoming this vice that is hate and anger. Until she can realize that not everything that happened before that point was bad, and that without all of that she wouldn't be the person she was (In a sense making the phrase 'Shit happened, but in the end I can learn and be better for it.'), that will continue to happen. She'll keep going after the next thing to hate, and in the end, everyone is miserable because of it.
In summary... She's in a dark place right now. A dark, and very self-deprecating place that is first preceded by an insane and endless need to surpass what lies ahead of her, lest that inability prove that she has a 'weakness'.
If that makes sense. Which I hope it does. Because really guys, Kaiba's actually quite insecure when it comes to this, or at least she and her canon counterpart are like this until a little later. (Recovery takes time neh?) You can all blame Gozaburo and his obsession with perfection for that.
At least she'll get better in the end. (And before the end, thankfully... Though it's obviously a gradual change.)
And on a scarier note; note that 'of destruction' returned to the end of 'burst stream'. That's pretty much your cue to do all you can to snap Kaiba the fuck out of her relapse.
OH MAHAAD. MANY YEARS DOES NOT COVER YOU AT ALL. (Though thankfully, he keeps his mouth shut more often than not in battle, so her mind should be spared a little in terms of 'WHAT, NOT REAL' business.)
Jonouchi's lines of course, were altered heavily to suit his feelings toward Kaiba... But most of his dialogue is still intact. If anything, most of the lines concerning Kaiba were added... And he's being deadly serious here; had Kaiba won, she wouldn't have been in any state to fight Malik, at least not in a shadow game... Her actions made it blatantly obvious that she was being driven by nothing but negativity, which would instantly act as a weakness against her in a shadow related match.
Because... That's kinda how they work.
Not to mention, in regards to the fanfic at least, it's more than apparent that she needs to catch a break from all this crap really fast before she snaps further. (And... Kaiba's not the type for 'depressive' relapses, if you haven't noticed from the battle. At least not when it comes to a 'snap'.)
How did Jonouchi know he could grant Yugi his 'duel' sight for the match? A mix of visionary fun and Ra. Mostly Ra; this 'ability' only lasts for the day, and is more of something to help Yugi out and give them (Jou and Yugi) both something to work with.
Oh hey! The white ghost's point of view! And...
Oh hey... It... Turned into a monster... (That font for the thing affecting its thoughts was hard to make, eck...) ...Said monster is below, but WARNING! Those are HUGE spoilers, and anyone who has seen the Egypt arc of the anime or manga both will likely 'ruin' the end for them as a result!
That or end up with an incredibly strained and sprained brain. Either one works.
Importance on names here; I think I've mentioned this before, but in Ancient Egypt, it was believed that your name was what gave you your memory. ...From what I recall at least...
Kaiba's line in regards to Red-Eyes is partially based off her own rage when someone brings back her Blue-Eyes as their monster. Reverse possessiveness? I suppose you could say its out of respect. Either way, canon Kaiba originally considered it Jonouchi's ghost, and even shouted 'DIE, GHOST OF JONOUCHI'.
Something tells me, not sure what... But the fanfic counterpart isn't about to say that when she just finished saying she'd make sure Jonouchi lived.
The tube-choking deal was inspired by NCIS... I can't actually tell if a complete tube is used for an AutoPulse, but given that the nose isn't covered, which is ordinarily required in CPR to make sure the air gets to the lungs, I'm assuming there is.
Also I checked with an actual nurse about the tube thing... Which is always good.
And yes, he gets to run around shirtless and shoeless until the end of the arc. Hehehe. The fact is, for them to have treated the wound, they'd have gotten it off as fast as possible.
This involves cutting it off.
As to how Jou knew where the dog tags are, that's another ability point that he pretty much just considers normal by this point.
But yea. ...So... Everyone gets a nice view of that huge scar on his chest now...
By the way, Kaiba's skepticism is REALLY hard to re-create; because even in the manga, there are moments where his thoughts are almost hypocritical in regards to how he takes the whole 'Ancient Egypt deal'. Oh well.
The percentage Kaiba mentions in her head comes from a later conversation with Ishizu; Kaiba mentions that there's one card that could potentially cause Malik's loss, but even with that card, the chances of defeating Ra remain at a mere 22%.
Blue-Eyes' horrific death certainly doesn't help Kaiba's state of mind by the way. But it does help to change the point of negativity it draws upon... ...Sadly, making Kaiba depressed about things just makes things worse in the end...
Oh; and on another note, dialogue! All manga, as per usual, with minor changes made relating to plot or making overall sense. I'd say it's a nice mix of both really.
Well, that's all for now... Some art and music below, but until then, expect the next update sometime next week...
Unless I get that job of course.
And don't worry..! She'll deal with Jonouchi... At some point... (She's really not in the mood, if you haven't guessed.)
FanArt and My Art
Take out spaces, paste link! Voila!
We have a few today; typically I do things in the style of one giant sketched upon canvas, which might take a while to load, but quite frankly saves my computer from running out of space believe it or not; I draw smaller with this sort of canvas, so... Yea.
Any ways! Concept art, concept scenes, along with reference... And since I never finished my 100 chapter celebration picture, I think I'll hold off until '2,000,000' words. ^
See, this gives me time to make a decent picture. Hohohoh...
SketchSheet: Dreams, Doctors, and Sisters – http : / / i5. Photobucket. Com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ Sketch4. jpg - We have Dream!Seto (AKA 'Seri'), and a chibi of Dream!Mokuba as well! Also a great big profile of Doctor Kuzushi... And the scene from Jonouchi's second dream. Hihhhh! Also, we have in the one corner both Sen (Haga's OC sister in case you forgot) and Shizuka with cards. Despite the fact that only one of them can actually duel, and probably won't really bother with much dueling outside of fun with Ryuzaki. And of course, there's the obligatory 'girls are weird' as a result, but whatever.
SPOILERS!SketchSheet: The monsters of the Soul/Dogs/Rao – http : / / i5. Photobucket. Com/ albums/ y153/ natasha_unos_1/ YGO% 20Fanfic% 20-% 20Skin/ Sketch5. jpg - Hey look it's Kisara! And... Saraph? But why does Saraph look like- ...Well, if you clicked it, and you recognize him, you've probably spoiled a good lot of things for yourself. Of course, to some, this chapter in general did that, so hopefully it won't matter much. ...Hopefully...
Mai's aforementioned dog is there too; its a rottweiler! I almost went with a Chow actually... But in the end, the image of someone going 'so cuuuuute' with a rottweiler was too much to pass up. Because as incredibly vicious as they can be when it comes to guard purposes...
So cuuuuuuute!
On the other hand, we have a Season Zero only character named 'Aileen Rao'. Apparently she's Canadian. Needless to say, what with the hockey game on, even though Rao doesn't appear in the fanfic I just had to draw her watching the game. I had to. (She's in episode 17 of the Toei series for anyone wondering.) ...For some reason, she took over the sheet. And Mai. Mostly the sheet though.
Musical Notes
In which I shamelessly give you music!
First off, from this channel here (The videos are all subbed..!): http : / / www. Youtube. Com/ user/ Turrent# p/ c/ E421E8A1A7A3E07A , we have the covers for 'Pierrot', 'BadBye', 'Love Lost Elegy', and 'Reflect'.
There's also (By vocaloids as usual...) Alluring Secret ~ Black Vow, Panda Hero, Alice, and finally 'From Y to Y'...
Also 'Lacrimosa', which a few of you likely recognise as one of the endings for 'Black Butler'.
Well, that's it for this update... With that in mind, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Until next time!