I do not own Yugioh, as that's Konami's business. I do own my wonderful OC however!
EDIT:7/20/21; I forgot how dark I made this one. Which is funny cause it was the one I hade the most fun writing.
Loud.
That's the only way one could describe the past few days since Carmines Duel against Kevin. Ever since his victory over the gang-leader and his subsequent interview with Carly, things have been getting increasingly busier, where he would normally have upwards of five or six customers daily, now he was getting that many every other hour. It hadn't even taken that long for it to happen, there was already a line waiting entry when he returned Leo and his friend Dexter to their respective homes through a taxi, and it had only gotten perpetually more so as the weeks dragged on.
But the weirdest part? Carmine couldn't tell whether the change was good, or bad. Silence had always been an acquaintance when concerning the shop, but now it was always gone, replaced by frequent questions and price haggling's. It was a new change, and only time would tell if it was a good one.
"CARMINE!" Shouted a little green haired child, who had just charged through the door and was making a beeline for me, excitement in their eyes. The sight brought a smile to Carmine's face, as did every other time Leo stopped by.
Carmine's relationship with the child was… surprising. Leo was loud and an attention hog, but was easily put down by others, while Carmine was more subdued and preferred to stay out of the spotlight, total opposites and yet the two had gotten along extremely well. Something that slightly worried Carmine. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the child's company, but that he felt that he was a bit too old and Leo too young to be so close of friends, Carmine being seventeen to Leo's nine. He felt that Leo should have had other friends besides Dexter to hang out with, but when had confronted Leo on the matter a week ago he had suddenly gotten extremely depressed and only said that he used to have someone else to play with, before beginning the process of shedding tears.
Thankfully, Carmine was an apprentice of misdirection and managed to distract Leo before the waterworks turned on, and consequently never brought it up again. He understood what it was to lose someone, and obviously Leo had, or was in the process of, something he had guessed since the night he had rescued the child. Carmine still believed that Leo should try to make more friends his age, but wouldn't, or couldn't, do anything about it, so he left the matter alone and tried to entertain the child as much as he could when he stopped by after he got out of duel classes. He didn't stay for too long of course, as he was mainly home schooled he always had to return home as soon as he could, especially since his parents had set a curfew since his accident, or so he told Carmine.
"Stop ignoring me!" Leo suddenly shouted, pulling Carmine from his thoughts.
"Oh, sorry about that. So Leo, how was your day?" Carmine asked while giving Leo his undivided attention, as today was a slower day then normal, he had no customers to deal with at the moment so, he could afford to for the time.
"Meh, it was ok I guess." Leo said while quickly turning around and scratching the back of his head.
"How many times did you lose today?" Carmine suddenly asked, causing Leo to suddenly spin around.
"What do you mean how many times did I lose? I'm the great Leo, I never lose!" Leo shouted out.
"Leo." Carmine said while giving him a knowing look.
"Alright, so maybe the great Leo lost three times, but I won't lose again!" Leo ended by pointing an accusing finger at Carmine.
Carmine ignored the fact that Leo had said these exact words everyday for a week, and instead gave a sigh in response.
"Don't worry Carmine, I'm getting better everyday thanks to your help, soon I'll be winning every game in no time!" Leo once again shouted. A week ago Leo had come to Carmine asking for help with his dueling because he kept on losing to his classmates, and Carmine had agreed instantly, but unfortunately for both of them Carmines help was quit limited, mostly because the deck Leo had constructed for himself was extremely confusing for the more old fashioned teen, and as such his advice was quite basic.
"Of course Leo, I have every confidence that you will one day become the greatest duelist the world has ever seen, it might just take a while is all." Carmine tried to assure the boy with mild success.
"You bet I will." Leo exclaimed.
"Hmm…" Carmine suddenly hummed while stroking his chin.
"Whatcha thinking about?" Leo curiously asked.
"Maybe there is a way I can help you out more than I have." Carmine finished, coming to a decision in the process.
"Really, how?" Leo exclaimed, interested in what Carmine had to say.
"Follow me and I'll show you" Carmine said while turning around and unlocking a door behind him before quickly entering inside, a place Leo had never entered before because Carmine had specifically told him not to.
And after entering the room Leo could understand why.
Cards. Thousands of cards, all on shelfs and in boxes, crammed together in a way to try and fit them all together.
"Woah." Leo exclaimed, inciting a chuckle from Carmine who was standing about halfway into the room.
"This, Leo, is where I keep all the REALLY rare cards, the ones that some would be willing to do anything to acquire." Carmine told a shocked Leo.
"There's so many…" Leo whispered.
"This shop's been in my family's possession for a long time, so you can imagine we've built ourselves quite a collection." Carmine explained. "Go ahead and take a look, you might find something that can help you out, after all a deck's structuring is just as important as the way you play it." Carmine finished.
"Alright!" Leo shouted before diving into the nearest shelf, looking at every card he could find, Something Carmine found extremely amusing.
*DING*
The sudden noise brought both Leo and Carmine back to reality, Before Carmine suddenly took off with a quick "Customer", leaving Leo alone.
Leo couldn't believe it, so many rare and cool cards in a single place! The only question was what cards would work for him…
But as Leo continued to look through card after card, he got a strange feeling, like he was being watched. At first he ignored it, far more interested in gazing at the collection before him, but then it only got worse until…
"Alright, who's there! Come out will ya?" Leo asked, trying to be confident but feeling extremely uncomfortable at the moment. It was during his look around the room that he noticed something he hadn't before, another door. Feeling curious, and slightly off put in the current room, he got up from his position in front of one of the many shelves, and went to check the door out. Once in front of it, he immediately noticed two things about it. One, it had a lock and two, it was unlocked. Feeling even more curious he touched the door, only for it to suddenly swing open, revealing a set of poorly lit stairs, descending downwards.
After taking a quick look around him, he decided to go down them and see what was at the bottom, the feeling of being watched increasing with every moment he was in the room. Leo quickly descended down the stairs, only to find a completely bitch black room at the bottom.
"Hello? Anyone here?" Leo whispered, feeling extremely creeped out, which only increased tenfold when he stepped into the room, which came to life as torches suddenly lit themselves down a long hallway, revealing what appeared to be a sarcophagus at the end.
Leo's curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to get a closer look. And when he was only a couple feet away, he noticed a couple of things he hadn't before. The first being the fact that the sarcophagus looked to have been broken at one point, and was even missing a few pieces here and there. The next was that the sarcophagus had many indentures in its design, and a few of them even had an item in them, like the sarcophagus left eye, witch had a golden eye, its neck, which had a golden necklace, and at its center was a golden ring, with that same goldeneye all the other items had in the rings middle. And the last thing he noticed was the three stands in front of the sarcophagus, each one holding a card.
Looking at the middle stand, he saw the card of a golden Dragon. And almost against his will, his hand began to move towards it, and just before he touched the card-
"AHHHHHHH!" Leo screamed like a girl, knocking away the hand that had just gripped his shoulder and spinning around to find… a not at all amused Carmine.
"Leo" Carmine said, not sounding very happy in the slightest.
"Ya?" Leo said, trying to ignore the look Carmine was giving him.
"What are you doing here?" Carmine asked, his voice devoid of emotion.
"Well you see, it's a pretty funny story…" Leo trailed off at seeing the stare Carmine was giving him.
"I think it's time you head home Leo." Carmine said.
"What? But-!" but once again Leo's cry was cut short when he looked once more at Carmine, and the look he was giving him.
"I mean, ya, that sounds like a good idea, I should probably be getting back now…" Leo said while scooting around Carmine, before making a beeline for the stairs, the feeling of being watched once again returning, and for some reason he knew it wasn't Carmine who was doing the watching.
After Leo disappeared, Carmine gave the sarcophagus and its contents one more, long look, before he too returned upstairs, the torches going out immediately after his appearance upstairs. And in doing so, no one was there to bear witness to the Ring inside the sarcophagus suddenly glowing a bright golden glow, before disappearing entirely, like it was never there to begin with.
After Leo had left, the day seemed to speed up until it was suddenly over, and closing time came without warning, something Carmine was grateful for. After looking up everything his key's would fit into, he began his walk home, ready to retire for the day. But something happened that he was not expecting. In order to get home as quickly as he could, he had decided to take a shortcut through the Daimon Area, an arena used for underground dueling. Normally it would be deserted during this time of night, but there was in fact a single individual, just standing there in the dark, making it very hard to tell who they were. It was like they were waiting for something. Or someone.
"Hello there." Carmine called out, hoping that HE wasn't the one being waited for.
"Greetings Carmine Fuhai, my name is Toby Lola, and I've been sent by the arcadia movement to defeat you!" The individual declared to a very confused Carmine.
"Wait, Arcadia? Who are they? And why exactly were you sent to defeat me?" Carmine asked, hoping to know why he wouldn't be getting home anytime soon now.
"The Arcadia movement." Toby said with some measure of fondness… and excitement?
"There a group of psychic duelists who can bring their cards to life! They are also like a family in a way, taking in those like them and giving them a place to call home in this cruel world, and I want to join them!" Toby explained enthusiastically.
"However." Toby continued, this time pointing an accusing finger at me. "In order to join, Sayer gave me a special mission, to defeat you! Only then can I join my brothers and the cause." He finished by taking out a dual disk and placing it on his arm. But instead of Carmine coping with him like he expected, he just simply stared at him like he was crazy.
"Psychic? There's no such thing as a psychic duelist. You're being scammed, boy." Carmine replied, annoyed that he was dealing with a gullible conspiracy theorist of all things.
"What, of course they're real, I would no because I am one!" Toby yelled back, sounding very off.
"Suuuuure, and I'm a Blue Eyes white dragon." Carmine replied mockingly.
"Why you! How dare you mock me!" Toby yelled, sounding very offended at the moment.
"I'll show you what's real!" He yelled, inserting a deck into his duel disk.
"You wont leave me alone, will you?" Carmine asked, already knowing the answer.
"This is my one chance to join the arcadia movement, of course I won't!." He declared.
"Fine, maybe when I beat you I can begin to talk some sense into you." Carmine reasoned, before pulling out his own duel disk and inserting it onto his arm, as well as quickly opening up his cloak and grabbing a deck.
"I'll be taking the first turn then." Carmine asked after inserting his deck and drawing his cards.
"Go ahead, it won't help you against my psychic powers!" Toby proclaimed, causing Carmine to simply roll his eyes.
"Whatever. All right, first I activate the spell card, Allure of Darkness, which lets me draw two cards, but I must banish a dark attribute monster from my hand or discard said hand." Carmine then drew his cards, before taking one out.
"I then remove from play my Predaplant Ophrys Scorpio." Carmine continued, sending the card from the game.
"Next, I activate the spell card Preparation of Rites, which lets me add a level seven or lower ritual monster card from my deck to my hand." Carmine then pulled out the card that suddenly popped out of his deck.
"Did you just say ritual monster?" Toby asked, sounding confused.
"Oh don't worry, you'll see soon enough, or more specifically on my next turn." Carmine said while placing a single monster card face down on his field.
"You make it sound like you have one!" Toby said while drawing his card.
"Alright, first I activate the spell card Emergency Teleport, which lets me special summon one level 3 or lower psychic-type monster from my hand or Deck. So come on out, Mind Master!" as he finished, what appeared to be a brain in a metal jar with hands coming out of said jar appeared.
"Don't worry about him though." Toby said while grabbing another card from his hand.
"Cause he's nothing compared to what's about to happen next! I now tribute my Mind Master in order to tribute summon, Psychic Emperor!" This time an old man wearing some kind of headset connected to hundreds of wires appeared.
"When Psychic Emperor is summoned, I gain 500 life points equal to the number of Psychic monster cards in my graveyard." Toby explained as his life points jumped to 4500.
"And now for the finishing touch, I activate the spell card Psychokinesis, which lets me destroy one card on your side of the field as long as I give up 1000 life points and control a psychic monster."
"What!?" Carmine exclaimed as his Thousand-Eye's Idol suddenly flipped itself over before being struck by lighting from nowhere, destroying it instantly.
"Now my Psychic Emperor, attack Carmine's life points directly!" Toby yelled while lightning gathered around his Psychic Emperor, before it exploded outwards.
"It's fine" Carmine thought while the attack came towards him.
"While I'll be losing a lot of life points, I should be able to easily come back from this-" Then the attack hit him.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Carmine cried out as Toby's attack hit him, shocking with thousands of volts of electricity. After the attack was complete, Carmine fell to his knees, parts of his body smoking as he took ragged, deep breaths.
"What… the hell was that!?" Carmine shouted, fear leaking into his voice.
"I warned you about my powers, didn't I? It's your own fault for not believing me." Toby explained, sounding almost apathetic.
"That's not possible, there's no such thing as a psychic duelist!" Carmine tried to argue, annoying Toby greatly.
"Oh ya? Then what just happened? Explain that." Toby said while crossing his arms.
"It-it must, I mean it has to be-." But then Carmine stopped, unable to think of another reason that he was suddenly just shocked by a hologram… or what should be a hologram.
"Don't you see, with my psychic abilities I'm unstoppable!" Toby bragged.
"He's… he's right! I can't fight him like this, he may just very well kill me at this rate!" Carmine though, panic beginning to take hold.
"I need to get out of here, I need to get away from this, this warlock, I need to RUN-!" But just as Carmine was thinking of running away, something happened, like a presence in the back of his mind decided to make its presence known.
"Don't worry" Said a malicious voice in Carmine's head.
"I'll take things over from here." And the moment the voice finished speaking, a light of pure darkness exploded outward from Carmine, engulfing the entire area.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Carmine screamed out again, this time from the feeling of having his mind burned away until something else replaced it, something far darker and far more evil.
As the darkness continued to shine, Toby used his arms to cover his eyes, and when the shine finally disappeared, he looked back to a now standing Carmine, to find something had changed.
"What just happened! And where did you get that ring?" Toby asked as he eyed the golden ring that had suddenly appeared around Carmine's neck, embedded with a golden Egyptian eye at its center.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Laughed Carmine, his voice becoming far deeper and more malevolent, his face taking the form of a cruel taskmaster.
"Foolish child, I think you have more important things to consider, observe!" Carmine shouted while throwing his hand out. The moment he did so, darkness creeped out from behind him, before covering the entire area in shadow.
"What's going on?" Toby said, a smidgen of fear seeping in.
"This, poor child, is the shadow world, and we are now playing a shadow game!" Carmine stated.
"A shadow game? I've never heard of that before!?" Toby stammered out, now far more worried about what he had started.
"It's quite simple really, you see during a shadow game the game cannot be interrupted or canceled until one player wins and the other loses." Carmine explained.
"Additionally, the loser of the game face's the ultimate punishment!" Carmine said with no small amount of glee.
"Punishment? What punishment?" Toby said, now truly afraid.
"Oh don't worry about that, cause you'll find out soon enough" Carmine said, a wicked smile appearing across his features. Toby, now very afraid, began to take deep breaths to steady himself.
"No… NO! I've come too far to lose now, I will join the Arcadia movement, and finally meet my idol as a brother in arms, and not as a stranger!" Toby said while thinking of a certain red headed psychic.
"Then by all means, end your turn so I can finish you off." Carmine said.
"Grrr, fine! I play two cards face down and end my turn!" Toby yelled as two face down cards appeared.
"Foolish child! I've already won, observe!" Carmine declared.
"First, I'll begin with the card of your destruction, the spell card known as Black Illusion Ritual!" Carmine explained as a golden jar with the same eye as Carmine's ring on its front appeared.
"Now, by offering up my Kinka-byo, I may ritual summon one of the most feared monsters in existence! Appear before me now, Relinquished!" And as Carmine spoke, the wolf made of darkness was suddenly sucked into the jar, before a red mist exploded out of the jar.
"What's going on-!" Toby asked before he saw the creature that had emerged, his eyes going wide. The creature was strange, its lower torso consisting only of a large hole with three giant spikes, each coming out of a different side. It had very big arms, and its head seemed to simply be a single eye that slithered its way out. And to top it all off is what could be seen as two massive wings on its back.
"Behold, the creature of your destruction!" Carmine bragged, shocking Toby until he noticed something strange…
"Wait, it has zero attack points?" Toby asked, confused on how a creature with zero attack could do anything.
"Huh, I guess so." Carmine said, seemingly confused himself, that is until his wicked smile returned.
"Let's change that." Carmine spoke while dramatically throwing his hand out.
"I activate Relinquished's special ability! You see, one per turn Relinquished can absorb one creature from your side of the field!" Carmine revealed.
"What!" Toby exclaimed in shock.
"Now my Relinquished, absorb his Psychic Emperor!" The hole in the Relinquished's center suddenly opened up, before beginning to pull in everything in front of it, including Toby's Psychic Emperor.
"No! My Psychic Emperor!" Toby yelled in shock.
"Oh don't worry, your Psychic Emperor won't be going to waste, that I assure you of."
"What do you mean?" Toby asked.
"You see, when my Relinquished absorbs a monster, he gets to add the monsters attack and defense to his own!" Carmine revealed, watching as his Relinquished's folded its wings down in front of its body, Psychic Emperor partially coming out of one of the wings while the Relinquished attack jumped to 2400.
"No way…" Toby whispered.
"And now, for the finishing touch I summon the monster known as Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands!" And then a statue with what appeared to be Ten-thousand hands appeared.
"When Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands is summoned, I get to add one ritual card from my deck to my hand." Carmine declared.
"I don't think so!" Toby suddenly declared.
"Hmm? What's this?" Carmine asked.
"This!" Toby said, revealing one of his face down cards.
"I activate the trap card known as Mind Over Matter, which lets me tribute one psychic type monster to counter the summoning of a monster card!"
"But you don't have a monster card, or any monster for that matter." Carmine pointed out.
"Maybe not, but you do!"
"Oh no!" Carmine exclaimed as both Toby's monster and Carmine's Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands were suddenly destroyed by freak lightning.
"And now your relinquished attack is no more!" Toby declared, regaining his hope.
"HAHAHAHAH!" And then watched it die as Carmine started laughing like a mad man.
"Fool! Did you really think I didn't know you had something planned? Now watch as your worst nightmare comes to life." Carmine stated while playing a card on his disk.
" I now play the spell card known as Relinquished Fusion! By playing this card, I can fuse together my Relinquished with a creature in my graveyard!"
"What!" Toby shockingly exclaimed.
"Now come forward my creature." Carmine said as his Relinquished started to melt into goo, before beginning to reform itself. When it was fully formed once more, what appeared was the Relinquished from before, this time with thousands of eye's covering its body, as well as the hole on its chest area resembling a mouth with two reds eye's above it, its head still the same single golden eye as well, with the final touch being its skin was now a dark brown.
"Thousand-Eyes Restrict!" Carmine finished. While still terrified, Toby noticed that this creature, like the one before it, had zero attack points.
"This is your final move child, make it count", Carmine revealed while playing one card face down.
"I'll show you!" Toby said while drawing his card.
"Perfect!" Toby thought with glee.
"First I play the magic card, Monster Reborn, which lets me bring back one card monster from any graveyard onto my side of the battlefield, so come on back, Psychic Emperor!" And in a blaze of light, Toby's Psychic Emperor returned to his field, while also increasing Toby's life by another 500, putting him back at 4000 life points.
"Next, I'll use the magic card Emergency Teleport once more, in order to summon another Mind Master in attack mode!" Once more another monster appeared, this time the brain in a jar from earlier.
"How interesting" Carmine mused.
"You bet it is! Now I tune together my level 6 Psychic Emperor and my level 1 Mind Master in order to synchro summon my Psychic Nightmare!" As Toby spoke, his Mind Master broke down into motes of light, before flying over to his emperor and forming together in a parallel vertical line inside his emperor, before a pillar of light exploded underneath Toby's emperor. And when the light dimmed, what was revealed was a massive fiend with four wings.
"Impressive… for a child." Carmine spoke in a mocking tone
"You won't be mocking me after this!" Toby yelled out.
"I now summon Psychic Snail in attack mode!" And then a creature with the upper body of a man and the lower body of a snail appeared.
"And finally I'll activate Psychic Nightmares ability, which lets me choose a card in your hand, and if I guess the card type, my fiends attack points increase by 1000!" Toby shouted.
"And?" Carmine sneered out.
"And I guess that the card on the right is a magic card!" Toby declared, drawing an angered look from Carmine.
"Lucky guess." Carmine said, drawing a smile from Toby.
"Yes! Now with 3400 attack, my Psychic Nightmare is finishing this! Go, Psychic mind blast!" Toby yelled out… only to find that nothing was happening.
"Simple child, as long as my Thousand-Eyes Restrict is on the field, no other monster may attack or change their position!" Carmine shouted out in triumph.
"Not for long! By sending my Effect Veiler from my hand to the graveyard, I can target one effect monster you control, and negate its effects until this turn end!" A sudden light then sprang up around Carmines Thousand-Eyes Restrict, forcing it to close its eyes.
"Not good enough. Revel face down card!" Carmine said while his face down card revealed itself to be another Relinquished Fusion.
"Not another one!" Toby cried.
"Yes, another one! I know fusion summon my Millennium-Eyes Restrict!" Once again the monster melted down to go, but this time when it reformed the creature looked almost exactly like its previous form, except it was golden and the eye for its head had some sort of Pharaoh, mummy mask on it, as well as a very long tail.
"Great, now what?" Toby asked.
"Oh, not much, though you'll be happy to know that you can attack again." Carmine causally revealed.
"In that case I'll activate Psychic Snail's special ability! By paying 800 life points, I can choose a psychic-type creature I control, and let it battle twice this turn!" Toby explained, his life points dropping to 3200.
"And in doing so giving me this game!" Carmine shouted out.
"When my opponent activates the effect of a monster, Millennium-Eyes Restrict can absorb one of your monsters!" Carmine revealed.
"NO!" Toby shouted in despair.
"Now go my Millennium-Eyes Restrict, devour his Psychic Nightmare!" And just like before, the mouth of the monster opened up, before pulling in Psychic Nightmare and devouring it hole, the monster then seemingly growing out of one of the creature's wings.
"But that's not all! By removing from play a Relinquished Fusion, my Millennium-Eyes Restrict can do it again!" Carmine yelled out while unleashing a maniacal laughter.
"Now my Millennium-Eyes Restrict, devour his Psychic Snail!" Once again Carmine's monster devours Toby's monsters, his last one in fact, the snail man growing out from the other wing, increasing the monster's total attack to 5300. The creature's power was so great, that toby began to back away in fear.
"5300 attack points?" Toby asked in disbelief.
"And with that, victory is mine! Now Millennium-Eyes Restrict, win me this duel!" The monster then aimed its eye at Toby, before firing a golden beam of light, which hit Toby directly.
"AAAHHHHHH" Toby screamed out as he was simultaneously burned from the light and blasted backwards, his life points dropping to zero in the process. As Toby laid on the ground, he heard footsteps coming his way, and looked up from his attempted snow angel.
"You lost fool, and now you pay the price." Carmine said, a wicked grin once more spreading across his face.
"Price?" Toby asked, terrified of what was coming.
"Your soul to be exact." And it was then that Toby realized something terrifying. The duel was over, right? So why hadn't Carmine's monster disappeared?
The Monster then looked at Toby with its thousand plus one eye's, before the one that made up its head began to glow, while simultaneously the golden eye that kept appearing everywhere suddenly appeared on Toby's head.
"What's going on!? Toby cried out, which soon turned into sounds of struggling as his body began to move of its own accord, first getting up from his position, before slowly walking towards Carmine monster, which was slowly opening up its mouth…
"No… NO NO NO, please help me!" Toby cried out, realizing what was going to happen. The blast from earlier had hurt him, which meant that this creature was real, and it looked at him with glutenous eyes.
"No please someone help me! Please, Misty help me! Help me Misty, HELP ME-" Toby's cries were suddenly cut off, replaced by an evil laughter, one that rejoiced in its victims suffering before his monster devoured their soul.
"Oh yes, I think we'll go far, you and I… far indeed." Carmine said to no one in particular… or at least to no one that could be seen as he began to walk back towards his home, a deep mist covering his way as the Shadow world disappeared around him.
However, unbeknownst to Carmine, his duel hadn't been as secret as he had assumed, as the man with red styled hair in a green vest and a brown trench coat could testify, heading back to wherever he had come from to begin planning for this new… development, or the hidden camera located inside the arena.
"Oh dear" Said a short fellow watching a security screen, his outfit many would associate with that of a clown.
"The Director is going to want to see this."
Not really much to say honestly, we're now starting to see the big reveal for this story at least, so ya. Other than that, if you have any questions, or just want to let me know how much you enjoy the story, or anything else that doesn't match the mentioned criteria, send me a review or PM me, and I'll respond as soon as I see the message! Other than that, Have a good rest of your day. Peace.