Jack Atlas stood next to the sole bed in a starkly-lit hospital room, holding the hand of the woman who lay there. Various machines beeped regularly as lights flashed, showing that the woman was still alive, her vital systems still functioning. The steady rise and fall of her chest was accompanied by the hiss of air through the tubes that ran from the oxygen supply to her nostrils.
She had long black hair, splayed out beneath her as she slept, and she may had once been beautiful, if not for the months she had spent sustained only by the IV drip. Jack's eyes traced the lines of her features, as he had done hundreds of times before, committing every curve and ridge to memory. She was a faint echo of the woman he had held against himself long ago, but she was still his Carly.
As Jack stood there and the night deepened, his eyes flitted about, hoping for any sign of movement, any flicker in her eyelids or twitch in her fingers. Yet the woman lay still, as she had done so for so many months. Her hand was warm, her pulse steady, but she was not truly alive.
The minutes dragged on, and Jack's mind turned inwards. He remembered how the two of them had first met, shortly after he had clawed his way out of the Commons and became the King. The people of the City were so interested in every aspect of him, from his exact height (six feet, one inch), to how he had found the cards for his deck (winning them in duels), to how he liked his coffee (black, with no sugar). They needed to know of every minute of his waking life, and much of his sleeping one as well. Thus a reporter had been assigned to shadow him, and that reporter was Caroline "Carly" Nagisa.
Carly was, in fact, not the first reporter that had been assigned to him. The first one was Melissa Claire, an overly-intrusive woman with nary an original thought in her head and far too little fabric covering her body. After an incident involving a cup of ramen noodles, several sheafs of paper, Tuning Magician, and defenestration, Carly took over the post.
In retrospect, it was obvious that Carly had a crush on him. Her constant stuttering in the first week, her oddly personal questions that never made their way into the news articles she wrote, and her willingness to answer Jack's own questions about her were all clear signs, yet it took Jack nearly three months to put everything together and ask her out.
Once he did, though, those were the happiest years of Jack's life. Their relationship had remained secret for quite some time, and their idea of 'dates' could be considered odd at best, yet the unconventional nature of their relationship worked for them. Carly became a permanent fixture in Jack's life long after the public's interest in him had faded, and after two years, they became engaged.
Life, it seemed to Jack, had a way of taking everything away from you just when you were happiest.
Only two days after Jack had proposed to her, Carly got a new project that took up most of her time—a feature article on the recently-promoted Director of the Public Safety Bureau, Jean-Michel Roget. The foreigner's quick rise to power had become the talk of the City, and Carly was determined to get the scoop before anyone else.
During her investigations, something had happened. Perhaps she had dug too deep and unearthed something she shouldn't have, or perhaps she had angered the wrong person. There were secrets of the city that even Jack, as the King, was not privy to. Regardless, the next time he had seen Carly after that fateful day was in the hospital bed that he now stood beside.
"Caroline," he whispered, using her proper name. "I know you'll wake up someday. Come back to me. Please."
"It is unlike a king to beg," a voice said from the shadows. Despite the stark lighting of the room, one of the four corners was covered in an unnatural darkness, the kind of inky blackness said to swallow souls.
"Who's there?" Jack demanded. "Come out where I can see you!"
A cloaked figure moved from the patch of shadow, and as they did so, the shadows receded, pooling at the figure's feet and slithering beneath them.
"My name is of little consequence," the figure said. "Address me as you wish. I am here to speak to you about her." The figure—it was a man, Jack guessed, from the timbre of the voice—gestured to Carly's sleeping form.
"Don't you dare touch her!" Jack hissed, his voice full of rage. "I won't let you hurt her!"
The cloaked man chuckled. "That is the proper voice of a king," he said. "I will not hurt Caroline Nagisa. I wish to help you, Jack Atlas. I can bring her back."
Jack's eyes grew wide. "What?" he breathed, his voice small.
"Indeed," the cloaked man said, pacing back and forth next to the bed. "I can rouse her from her sleep now, should I wish to."
"Then do it!" Jack demanded. "Give her back to me!"
The man shook his head. "No, I don't think so. I will require something in return."
"You think you're tough because you can wear a bathrobe and hide your face?" Jack yelled. "You wake her right now, Robe Guy, or I'll beat the shit out of you!"
"Oh?" the man said, laughing softly to himself. "You do realize that if I can wake her, I can also help her… pass on."
"No," Jack said, voice filled with fear. "I'll do anything. Anything. Just give me Carly back."
"Anything?" the man said. Though he couldn't see the man's face, Jack knew that he was smiling. "I do like the sound of that. Very well, Jack Atlas. From this day forth, you will be my servant. You will obey any and all commands I give you. I will wake her now, but you will only see her when I allow you to. When I am satisfied, I will let you two go."
"I agree," Jack said, barely registering the words that the man had said.
"Kneel," the man said, and Jack did so, despiste how much it hurt his pride. "Do you, Jack Atlas, swear absolute loyalty to me, Alexander?"
Jack nodded.
"Say it," the man commanded, looming over Jack as he knelt on the floor.
"I, Jack Atlas, do swear my absolute loyalty to you, Alexander," Jack said through gritted teeth.
"Do you agree to obey my every command, no matter how insane or impossible they may be?"
"Do you get off on this, you sick bastard?" Jack demanded, eyes blazing with defiance.
"Do you agree?" Alexander said, stepping towards Carly's bed and raising his hand.
"I agree!" Jack said. When Alexander motioned to go on, he spoke once more. "I promise to obey your commands, no matter how insane or impossible they are."
Alexander nodded, though it was difficult for Jack to tell through the hood of the other man's cloak. "So the shadows bind us," he concluded. "Very well, Jack Atlas. As promised, I shall bring her to the land of the living."
—| |—
"Something's off about Alexander," Yuzu said. She sat on an overly comfortable sofa in the room that Alexander had given her to share with Ruri and Rin, and while the room was indeed luxurious, outfitted with three large beds, a walk-in closet, and numerous other niceties, it felt like a gilded cage.
"You've been going on about it for the past hour," Ruri said from her seat across the room. "Give it a rest."
"What else is there to do in this damn cage?" Yuzu yelled. "Seriously, he could've let us wander through the place, or at least given us some books!"
"We could duel," Rin suggested. She was perched on the bed she had claimed for herself, sitting awkwardly on the soft mattress.
"We've already done that," Ruri pointed out. Indeed, Yuzu had dueled them both twice, and both games she had won easily, with neither of the other girls able to break through the defenses of her Rikka deck.
"Anyway, as I was saying before you interrupted, I know that Alexander isn't who he says he is. He doesn't duel like someone from this dimension."
"How do you know that?" Rin countered. "You've only been in Synchro for a day, and the only other City native you've dueled is me."
"Well, does he duel like anyone else from the City you've seen?" Yuzu asked.
"Well, no," Rin conceded. "But you don't either. Perhaps he's been to Standard at some point?"
Yuzu shook her head. "In Standard, we used to duel pretty much the same way you do until Joshua showed up. He brought in the controlling style of dueling, and we switched to keep up."
"So you think Joshua and Alexander come from the same place?" Ruri asked.
"Yes," Yuzu said. "A fifth dimension, 'disconnected from the other four'."
"Okay, let's say that you're right," Rin said. "It doesn't change the fact that he rescued us from Academia. We should be grateful to him for that."
"I'm not complaining that we were rescued," Yuzu said. "But it does mean that he lied to all of us, claiming he was from the Tops."
"No, he said he lived in the tops," Ruri said. "Not that he came from them. There's a difference."
Yuzu stood up, exasperated. "Why do you keep defending Alexander? Do you like him or something?"
"Not like that!" Rin said quickly. "There's already someone else I like. I just don't think that someone who got us out of Academia could be a bad person."
"He could," Yuzu said. "There is a second person from Joshua's dimension. Ruberum, the Herald of Supreme King. The same guy who took me to Academia in the first place."
"They can't be the same person," Rin argued. "Why would he take you to Academia just to get you out of there?"
"The thing is, I don't remember ever being held in Academia," Yuzu said. "For it to make sense, Alexander would've had to show up just after Ruberum dropped me off. In addition, Ruberum can teleport and cross the dimensions at will, so if he was using his powers, it would make more sense than the absurd chain of coincidences he told us."
"That's a good point," Ruri agreed. "If he just took you to Academia while going to retrieve us, then everything fits. What deck did Ruberum use?"
"He used multiple," Yuzu answered. "Everyone from that dimension does. From what I can tell, though, he had a style. Both the decks he played, Floowandreeze and Thunder Dragon, focused on searching out and summoning monsters that restrict the opponent's ability to play the game while supporting those monsters with trap cards."
"Just like when Alexander used Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine to summon Necroworld Banshee and activate Zombie World!" Ruri said excitedly. "Did you ever see Ruberum's face?"
"No, he always kept it hidden under a cloak," Yuzu said. "But the name 'Ruberum' is obviously fake. It's just Latin for 'red'."
"And Alexander has red hair," Rin pointed out. "It all fits."
"So what now?" Ruri asked. "If Alexander is this Herald guy, what do we do about it? Is that even a bad thing?"
"I did tell you about the Supreme King stuff, right?" Yuzu said. "He's trying to resurrect the Supreme King."
"He's trying to what!?" Rin shouted. "That makes no sense! You're saying he wants to destroy the world?"
"And he needs us here, safely out of the way," Yuzu concluded. "We need to escape. I'm getting out of this damn room tonight."
—| |—
Carly was falling. She knew she was falling by the pull in her gut, and she had been falling for quite some time, as the last time she had not been falling felt like a distant memory. Yet she fell in complete darkness, the air perfectly still, the ground obscured by shadow. It was a painful existence, eternally plummeting in this endless void.
"Carly," a voice sounded faintly, and she was sure she must have imagined it. There had been neither light nor sound in this endless void during the weeks? months? she had spent there.
"Caroline Nagisa!" the voice called again, more firmly this time. There was a flicker of light in the distance, and she could see the outline of a person. She hadn't been imagining it, there really was someone else in this endless void with her.
"Open your eyes," the figure said as it strode towards her. That made no sense, her eyes were already open. She could see the figure more clearly now; it was a young man, around seventeen years old by her guess, with a thin face that was framed by bright red hair. He wore a dark hooded cloak with the hood down, and a warm smile adorned his face.
"You are not awake," the man said. "Open your eyes." He stepped forwards, close enough to touch her now.
"Who are you?" Carly asked. The words sounded odd on her tongue after not using her voice for so long.
"I am Alexander," the man responded. He raised his hand, reaching out to touch her, and Carly flinched back instinctively.
"Stand firmly," Alexander commanded. "I'm trying to help you."
"I'm falling," Carly argued. The feeling in the pit of her stomach confirmed that.
"You're not," Alexander said. "If you're falling, then what am I walking on?" He gestured to his firmly planted feet and walked around her falling body, as if to prove his point.
"I…" Carly began, before realizing he was right. "There's ground beneath us—umph!" As ground materialized before her, she face-planted into something cold and hard that she couldn't tell what it was.
"Where are we?" Carly asked, slowly picking herself off of the ground.
"Where do you want to be?" Alexander said, grinning. He spread his arms. "We could be anywhere right now, if we could see."
"We're in the City," Carly said. "We have to be in the City, right?"
"If you want it to be so," Alexander said, nodding. The darkness vanished as the shining high-rises of the downtown Tops came into view, skyscrapers towering over the pair. The pair stood at a crossroads between two oddly empty streets, the signs designating the streets' names a blur.
"Why is it like this?" Carly asked. "It's like the City, but it feels off, somehow."
"You haven't figured it out yet?" Alexander asked. When Carly shook her head, he continued on. "We're in your mind. This is the City as you perceive it as a setting. If you were to imagine the City as you walked through it at noon, it would be busy, but full of nondescript simulacra of people."
"In my mind?" Carly echoed. "Am I dreaming or something?"
"In a sense," Alexander said. "You're in a coma, Miss Nagisa. I'm here to wake you up."
"I'm in a coma?" Carly said. "The last thing I remember is finding out that Roget is from another dimension, then security came, and—" She shook her head. "Then I was here."
"Yes," Alexander said. "Stand still. I will wake you, but there will be a cost."
"I'll pay it," Carly said. "I need to be with Jack again."
"Excellent," Alexander hissed, and his once-warm smile twisted into a cruel smirk.
Something was off. Her instincts were screaming at her to run as Alexander reached towards her forehead, and as his fingers touched, she gave in.
"Don't touch me!" she yelled, reaching out to grasp Alexander's wrist.
"Ah, but you already agreed, didn't you?" Alexander said, laughing softly. "Now relax. This'll be more painful if you struggle."
Carly hissed as Alexander batted her hand aside as if swatting aside before placing his hand to her forehead. He held it there for a few seconds, and her forehead seemed to burn with a splitting pain, before Alexander withdrew his arm, making a grasping motion with his hand. A shadow followed his receding arm, and when she tried to reach for it, chains of shadow appeared around her, binding her arms and legs as the red-haired man drew out more of the thing he had taken from her.
As Alexander stepped away from her, Carly screamed, a high-pitched, piercing sound that brought down the walls of the skyscrapers around them. The copy of the City collapsed, steel bending and breaking, glass shattering, and concrete crumbling. Debris rained down, yet none of it landed close to the red-haired man, no matter how much she willed it.
A weapon. She needed a weapon. This was her mind, right? It would bend to her will.
In a blaze of red light, a duel disk appeared over her arm. Carly did not consider herself a strong duelist, but Jack had taught her the basics, and she had been able to hold her own against the King himself several times. Of course, she suspected that he was going easy on her, but it still counted.
"So it's a duel you want, hm?" Alexander said, stepping back and smirking. "Well, why didn't you say so?" A duel disk appeared over his arm as the chains of shadow restraining her limbs dissolved, and he raised his arm in challenge. "Let us duel!"
"I'll take the first move!" Carly yelled as she drew her opening hand. The first move is important, Jack had told her. You must prepare for your opponent's onslaught while setting up a winning combo. The important part is balance—too much focus on your own combo will lead to you getting overwhelmed.
"I summon Fortune Lady Water and set two cards face-down. Turn end," she declared. The blue-haired woman appeared in front of her two set cards, twirling in place as she was summoned.
"Pathetic," Alexander spat. "I thought the King would have taught you to duel better, not that anyone here can duel well. At the end of your main phase, I activate the effect of Snopios, Shade of the Ghoti. By banishing two other fish-type monsters from my hand, I can Special Summon it. Then, since Zep, Ruby of the Ghoti was banished, I can special summon it back to my field and perform a synchro summon!"
"A Synchro summon before you get a turn?" Carly questioned. Jack had never done that. Nobody had ever been able to do that.
"Synchro for eight," Alexander continued. "Summon Askaan, the Bicorned Ghoti. Askaan effect, targeting both itself and Fortune Lady Water to banish them."
Carly watched as her only monster was dragged below the waves by Askaan. Both her trap cards required her to control a Fortune Lady monster, which meant that she was effectively defenseless now. At least Alexander's side of the field was clear once more.
"Askaan's effect when banished," Alexander said. "I banish Snopios from the graveyard to bring it back to my field. Snopios effect, banishing Zep to return it to my hand."
Of course his cards had three effects each. Now her field was effectively empty, and she was facing down a powerful Synchro monster. She'd been backed into this kind of corner multiple times before when dueling Jack, but never before the end of her first turn.
"Draw for turn, standby phase," Alexander droned, as if this was all routine to him. "Paces effect when banished, special itself back. Main phase one. Normal Lifeless Leaffish, Leaffish effect to send Shif. Shif effect, banish itself to boost Askaan by 500 points." The monster's twin horns glowed and grew longer as it absorbed the spectral image of Shif.
I've lost, Carly realized. It was only the second turn, and she'd already lost.
"Since a fish was banished, I can special Ixeep from hand," Alexander said. "Synchro for six with Paces and Ixeep, make Stardust Charge Warrior, effect to draw a card."
The bioluminescent fish disappeared just as quickly as it was summoned, transforming into stars of light that coalesced into the form of a mechanical knight with a multitude of protruding blades.
"Banish Paces and Ixeep from grave to special Snpoios." The strange bioluminescent kraken appeared once more, tentacles writhing. "Battle phase, Leaffish attacks directly."
The half-dead fish twisted before shooting a barrage of spines at Carly, making pin-sized holes in her arms.
[Carly: 8000 - 6500]
"Askaan attacks directly," Alexander continued. The fish rushed forward at his command, impaling his opponent on its twin spears.
[Carly: 6500 - 3300]
"Stardust Charge and Snopios attack for lethal," Alexander concluded.
[Carly: 3300 - 0]
[Alexander: WIN]
"Pathetic," Alexander spat, kicking at Carly's prone form. "I was hoping for more of a challenge. Why is everyone in this damn world such a terrible duelist? Tch. Even when I use a bad deck, it's still too goddamn easy."
That was a bad deck? Carly wondered. If so, what would a strong deck be?
The red-haired man sighed. "Let's just finish this." With a flick of his wrist he bound Carly once more in chains of shadow. He twisted his wrist, and the dark form emerged from her forehead, twisting and spinning in the air, a miasma that radiated malevolence. The cloud coalesced into a solid object, gaining color and form, and in a burst of blood red light, it transformed.
Carly gasped. It was as if she was looking in a mirror. The thing had become almost an exact mirror of her, though the clothes the thing wore were different—they were far more daring than anything Carly would normally wear, dark clothes that bared the midriff and exposed the legs—and it had a cruel grin on its face.
"Is that…" Carly began, not wanting to say it out loud.
"It is indeed," Alexander confirmed. "Your darker half. All your cruelty, your darkness, your will to inflict pain."
"Why?" It made no sense. Why would someone need her evil side?
"Why indeed." Alexander chuckled darkly. "You will understand in time. But now, Caroline Nagisa, it is time to awaken." With a slash of his arm, he cut a line of blackness, and then a sweep of his hand expanded that line to a portal. A flick of his wrist sent Carly and her darker self through the portal, with Alexander following closely behind.
Carly's eyes fluttered open. She was in a hospital bed somewhere, tubes running into her arm, her nose, her chest. Her muscles felt weak after months of disuse, while her skin hung off of her bones like a loosely-coated skeleton. She moved to rise, but her body would not respond.
Then, against her will, her body rose and embraced Jack while a man in a dark cloak watched. She tried to tell Jack what had happened, to yell, but her traitorous mouth wouldn't move. As she attempted to tug her arms out of the embrace, her body still not responding to her will, Carly realized what had happened.
Carly was a prisoner within her own body, forced to watch as something that wasn't her wore her skin. She had no mouth with which to scream.
—| |—
Yuzu slammed her foot into the door, causing a loud bang to echo across the bedroom. Despite the fact that she had been kicking at the door for the past half hour, there was nary a dent in its wooden surface. Her foot stung, but she had to get out of this room.
"I don't think it's going to break," Ruri said from across the room. "We should just sleep on it and escape at breakfast tomorrow."
"You think he'll let us just run off while he's watching us?" Yuzu called back. "He's been pretty cautious so far, and if he realizes that we've realized who he is, then he'll be even more careful."
"I doubt he would follow us to the bathroom," Ruri said. "We excuse ourselves and escape. Simple as that."
Yuzu shook her head. "First off, that's the oldest trick in the book. I tried that several times at school to get out of math class, and it never worked. Second, well…" Yuzu gestured to the door of the en-suite restroom.
"Good point," Ruri agreed. "Well, perhaps you could duel him again and Rin and I will find a way out while you're dueling?"
"He'll know exactly what's up if you walk off in the middle of a duel," Yuzu countered. "It could work, but we'd have to escape right there and then."
"And you wouldn't really have a way out," Ruri finished.
"Have you tried removing the hinges?" Rin asked, getting up and walking over to the door. She ran her hand along the doorframe, feeling the hinges. "Yep, these look pretty easy to get rid of. I should be able to get this door down in a few minutes."
"You couldn't have brought this up earlier?" Yuzu snapped, rubbing her stinging foot.
"It was entertaining watching you try to kick down a solid oak door," Rin admitted. "Sorry."
"Where'd you learn about that sort of thing anyway?" Ruri asked.
"Yugo and I have been working with machines since we were little kids," Rin said proudly. "We would work on our D-Wheelers together as well as doing repairs in the orphanage and later our apartment. Anyway, do either of you guys have something blunt like a hammer?"
Yuzu held up her duel disk. "This could work."
Rin took the disk from her and turned it over a few times before activating the dueling feature and tapping the tip of the blade against the bottom of the door pin. "This'll work," she said. With a deft motion, she removed a hair pin and worked it under the door hinge, separating the pin. Gently, she pressed the blade of the duel disk into the hinge and twisted it around, slowly dislodging the pin.
"Gotcha," she whispered, and with her other hand, she twirled the pin out of the hinge.
"Two left," Rin said, turning back to the other two girls. "This'll only take a minute."
And indeed, not more than one minute later, Rin tossed aside the final nail, which clattered to the ground with a satisfying thunk. The door itself dropped softly to the ground surprisingly quietly.
Yuzu leapt from her position on one of the chairs, kicking down the door before running out into the hall. "All right! Let's get out of this place!" she yelled triumphantly.
"What, no 'thank you very much, Rin, you're the best mechanic ever'?" Rin teased. "But yeah, let's go."
—| |—
Alexander knew something was off when he walked back into his mansion. The door was unlocked, despite the fact that he knew he'd locked when he left. Had someone broken in? Unlikely, there was little crime in this part of the City, and nothing else seemed out of place. Cautiously, Alexander made his way inside, slowly walking through the grand entrance hall.
Nothing had changed here. Why, then, was the door unlocked? The only people who could unlock the door were the three bracelet girls, but they were safely locked in the room he'd given them.
Alexander quickened his pace to a sprint, tearing through the halls of the mansion to the girls' room. Twice he nearly slipped on the well-polished tile, and once he nearly face planted into the edge of an alcove, but he made it to his destination within two minutes.
"God-fucking-dammit!" he swore as he surveyed the scene. The heavy oaken door lay on the ground, separated from the hinges, with the pins strewn haphazardly across the floor of the room. What in the world had inspired them to escape? He had given no indication that he was Ruberum, and he was nothing but kind to the three girls—in fact, Ruri and Rin seemed to have been charmed by him.
"I'm too fucking tired to deal with this shit," he groaned, walking down the hall to his own bedroom. There was no point in searching for the girls now, as they could be literally anywhere in the City. Better to sleep on it and come up with a plan in the morning.
But as he lay back on his large, soft bed, wrapped in silken sheets, sleep did not come. His mind worked furiously, attempting to figure out some strategy. Alexander hated leaving things to chance; better to not allow his opponents to play the game at all. His plans were falling apart around him, and there was nothing he could do. Soon, he would succumb to the curse—
Think logically and stop catastrophizing, he told himself. The girls would want to return to their home dimensions, something which they had no way of doing. They would seek the help of someone in a position of power in order to try to find dimensional transport technology. Since Rin was from the commons, she would be distrustful of the City's authorities, thus she would go to the King.
In which case he had to do nothing to find the girls—they would come back to him.
—| |—
I blinked rapidly as I emerged on the dusty streets of the Commons. Interdimensional travel was not a particularly pleasant experience, what with all the warping and twisting, and I lay a hand against a nearby wall as I regained my balance. Glancing around, I saw that Serena, Yugo, and Shun looked to be doing much better than I was. Presumably, this sort of thing got easier with experience.
"Okay, here's the plan," I said between heavy breaths. "We have two missions here in Synchro—first, retrieving Yuzu and defeating the Herald of the Supreme King. Second, securing allies for the fight against Academia. We'll tackle the second one first."
"Why the second one?" Yugo asked. "The longer we let that bastard scheme, the worse it'll get!"
"Searching for him is like finding a needle in a haystack," I responded. The nausea was starting to wear off, and I pushed myself off the wall. "Not to mention he'll be expecting us. Better to be prepared than to rush into a trap."
Serena nodded. "Joshua is right. Besides, if we have more people on our side, it'll be easier to take down the Herald."
"Thank you," I said. "Now, as for our method of recruiting allies, we're going to enter the Friendship Cup."
"That's perfect!" Yugo exclaimed. "If we can get the King on our side, we'll have no trouble finding allies!"
"That's all very good," Shun began, "but I have no idea what the two of you are talking about."
Yugo explained the concept of the Friendship Cup, as well as the identity and power of the King (with some remarks from me) as we walked through the poorly-kept streets of the Commons. Brutalist concrete apartment buildings reminiscent of the Soviet Bloc lined the streets, their walls cracked and crumbling. The streets themselves weren't much better, the asphalt filled with potholes and cracks while cans and cigarette butts lay around haphazardly.
"So where exactly are we going right now?" Serena asked after a period of time. "We seem to just be wandering around."
"I was walking with Yugo," Shun answered.
"I was following Joshua," Yugo said. The other three members of my group turned to face me.
"We're looking for someone," I said. "We'll need a place to stay before we head off to the Friendship Cup, after all."
"We could stay at my place," Yugo said. "We'd have to share beds, but there should be enough room for all of us."
"Too predictable," I said. "Ruberum knows what I know, so he'll probably be monitoring your place."
"That's a bit paranoid," Yugo countered. "He can't monitor my apartment all hours of the day."
"It's not paranoid at all," Shun said. "During the first few months after the invasion, Academia would routinely perform raids on the residential district of Heartland. Anyone who tried to hide in their home was carded. All it takes is for him to find us one time while we're sleeping, and we're gone."
"Then where are we staying?" Serena said. "I'm not sleeping on the streets."
"Hey, there's this mechanic guy I know!" Yugo suggested enthusiastically. "He's got a place pretty close to here and usually has people over. Trust me, he's super nice, he taught me everything I know about building D-Wheels!"
Interesting. This wasn't an element in canon that I was aware of, and despite the fact that I wanted to find Crow as soon as possible, my curiosity overwhelmed me. "Lead the way," I said.
Yugo briefly glanced around to get his bearings before walking off at a swift pace, his strides long. We turned through street after street, squeezing through a few dilapidated alleyways, before arriving at a surprisingly well-kept garage/house. Unlike the rest of the areas we'd passed, it seemed almost pristine, the metal shining brightly, and it appeared that a fresh coat of paint had been applied not long ago.
"Is this the place?" I asked. Yugo nodded before confidently striding forward and knocking on the door. A few moments later, footsteps sounded, and a man opened the door.
The man was tall and broad-shouldered, dressed in a sleeveless black shirt and black jeans that defined his muscular frame. His hair was black and gold, with spikes that resembled a crab. The look was far too familiar, but it couldn't be.
"Hey, Yusei," Yugo said. "Long time, no see."
What the hell. Why was Yusei here? He hadn't appeared in the Arc-V anime at all, and there was absolutely no indication that he existed whatsoever.
Then again, he had no reason to be involved in the plot. If his backstory here was different, if he had never met Jack, then he had probably spent (would have spent?) canon living as a mechanic in the Commons, not involved in the war against Academia at all.
"Joshua? You spaced out," Serena said. "Yusei's asking to duel you."
"Hm?" I said. This was honestly quite annoying. "Oh, yeah. What for?"
"I need to be sure I can trust you guys," Yusei said. "Yugo vouches for you, but I duel everyone I let into my home. Dueling is the best way to get to know a person, after all."
"I suppose you're right," I said, my hand gliding over my various decks. Tears would be far too strong for this, thus Swordsoul would have to do. It was probably still a bit strong for pre-Speeder Synchrons, but Yusei was an anime protagonist. If anyone had bullshit plot-armor cards, it would be him. I slotted the deck into my duel disk and stepped away from the door. "Shall we?"
Yusei nodded, stepping out into the street and activating his own duel disk. "Whenever you're ready."
"Go ahead," I said as I drew my opening five. Imperm, Triple Tactics Talents, Ecclesia, Taia, and Vishudda made for a pretty strong opener regardless of whether I was going first or second, and besides, I was curious as to what Yusei could pull off.
"Didn't you say that you shouldn't give your opponent a chance to combo?" Shun asked.
I shrugged. I had indeed said something to that effect. "If you're playing to win, sure. But this is a low-stakes duel where it doesn't matter if I lose."
"Interesting," Yusei said. "You're deliberately holding yourself back?"
"You could say that," I responded. "I kind of want to see what your deck does."
"Then I'll start off by activating the effect of Junk Converter in my hand, discarding it and Jet Synchron in order to add Junk Synchron from my deck to my hand!" Yusei proclaimed. This was the standard Synchron opener.
"I summon Junk Synchron and activate its effect to special summon Junk Converter from my graveyard!" Yusei called. "Junk Synchron tunes Junk Converter! The stars converge to bring forth a new power! Bonds of the past, gain form once more! Synchro Summon! Level five! T.G. Hyper Librarian!"
That was odd. Sure, it was a synchro staple, but Yusei had never used any T.G. cards in the 5Ds anime. "Where did you get that card?" I blurted.
A wistful look crossed Yusei's face. "It was a gift from a close friend," he said. Thus Bruno did exist in this world. Interesting.
"I activate the effect of Junk Converter in my graveyard! Since it was used as Synchro material, I can Special Summon a Tuner Monster from my graveyard. Return to the field, Junk Synchron! In addition, since a monster was special summoned from the graveyard, I can summon Doppelwarrior from my hand!"
The orange gremlin thing rose from a pile of scrap as Yusei declared the effect, and was quickly joined by a black-clad soldier and said soldier's spectral clone.
"Junk Synchron tunes Doppelwarrior. The stars converge to bring forth a new power!" Yusei chanted. "Become the path that lights the way. Synchro Summon! Level five! Junk Warrior!"
The named monster shadow-boxed as it appeared in a pillar of light, its scarf flapping in some unseen wind. T.G. Hyper Librarian's book glowed, signifying that its draw effect had triggered.
"And every time I Synchro Summon, thanks to T.G. Hyper Librarian I get to draw a card, while Doppelwarrior summons two Doppel Tokens to my field!" Yusei said.
"Imperm the Hyper Lib," I responded. At the blank look Yusei gave me, I elaborated. "Since I control no cards, I can activate the trap card Infinite Impermanence from my hand to negate the effects of Hyper Librarian until the end of the turn."
"Interesting," Yusei said. "I've never heard of trap cards that can be activated on the first turn. Regardless, I activate the effect of the Jet Synchron in my graveyard! By discarding one card, I can summon it, but it's banished when it leaves the field. Jet Synchron tunes a Doppel Token! Gathering wishes will call out a new speed's horizon! Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Summon! Level two! The power of hope, Synchro Tuner, Formula Synchron! And when this monster is summoned, I can draw a card."
As the armed car spun through the air, I couldn't help but be hyped for what was coming next. I wasn't normally one to get excited over anime moments, but Limit Over Accel Synchro Summons were rare, even in real-life paper play, and the one and only time they had appeared in the anime was one of the most awesome moments out of any Yugioh anime.
"Formula Synchron tunes Junk Warrior and T.G. Hyper Librarian! Gathering stars and bonds that connect together, join our prayers and run toward the future!" Yusei chanted, and a smile spread across my face. "Become the path its light shines upon! Limit Over Accel Synchro Summon! Level twelve! Cosmic Blazar Dragon!"
"Wow," Yugo said. "That's amazing!"
"It's beautiful," Serena added.
"It's pretty impressive," Shun conceded.
Indeed, Cosmic Blazar Dragon was absolutely majestic. Its white wings were spread regally, its back arched in a way that made it seem almost serpentine, like a graceful Eastern dragon. Its spines gave off an image of power, not brutal, overwhelming power, but a protective sort of power, a force for good.
"I… wow," I said. There weren't any good words to express the sheer sense of wonder that the dragon gave.
"It really is wonderful," Yusei agreed. "I end my turn."
"Draw for turn," I said. Just one negate wouldn't be too hard to beat, and the topdecked copy of Sacred Summit might help. "Standby phase, main phase one. Since you control more monsters than I do, I can special Ecclesia from my hand."
The blond ex-Dogmatika twirled her hammer as she gazed up at Cosmic Blazar Dragon, her face showing no fear. "Ecclesia effect, tributing herself to special Mo Ye from deck. Mo Ye effect, revealing Taia to make a tuner token."
"I activate the effect of Effect Veiler in my hand!" Yusei declared. "By discarding this card, I can target one monster you control and negate its effects until the end of the turn!"
I was not expecting that. Then again, Yusei had used Veiler in the anime, and for its intended purpose, more or less. "Impressive," I said. "It's not often I see someone who understands the value of handtraps—unless I taught them, of course."
"So there's an entire class of cards like Effect Veiler," Yusei said. "I suppose your Infinite Impermanence would be one as well."
"Exactly," I said, grinning. I couldn't help myself, Yusei was a genuinely good duelist.
Speaking of which, the current board state was quite tricky. I didn't have any names in the grave to banish for Taia, and using Talents here would just get negated. There was only one line forward, and I didn't like it.
"Battle phase," I declared. Yugo and Serena yelled at me, asking me what I was doing, while Shun's eyes widened. He must have remembered the time I hit him with Evenly.
"Mo Ye attacks Cosmic Blazar Dragon," I declared. The swordswoman leapt forward at my command, though she didn't look particularly pleased about it.
"Sending your monsters on a suicide attack?" Yusei questioned. "Do you value your cards that little?"
"Sometimes the only way forward is to take the pain," I responded as Blazar Dragon shattered Mo Ye into a cloud of pixels with its breath weapon.
[Joshua: 4000 - 1700]
"Second main," I breathed, gasping from the force of the counterattack. "Activate Triple Tactics Talents. Since you activated a monster effect during my main phase this turn, I can choose one of three effects, including taking control of one of your monsters until the end phase."
"But I didn't—the Effect Veiler!" Yusei realized. "I activate the effect of Cosmic Blazar Dragon, banishing it until the end phase to negate your spell!"
Blazar Dragon vanished in a burst of white fire, which transformed into a beam that shattered apart Triple Tac, which meant that I was now free to combo unless that card in his hand was another Veiler.
"Normal summon Taia!" I yelled. "Activate Sacred Summit to bring back Mo Ye from the grave!" The swordswoman glared at me, effectively saying 'you made me battle that dragon just to bring me back?'
"Taia effect!" I continued. "By banishing one Swordsoul card from my graveyard, I can create a Swordsoul tuner token!"
"So that's why you did that attack!" Yusei realized. "You needed a Swordsoul in your graveyard for the effect of Taia!"
"Correct! Now, I'll synchro for eight with the token and Mo Ye to make Chixiao! Chixiao effect to search as chain link one, Mo Ye effect to draw as chain link two." I ripped a copy of Forbidden Droplet off the top and used my Chixiao search to grab Longyuan. "Longyuan effect, discarding Vishudda to special itself and make another tuner token. Synchro for ten into Baronne, Longyuan effect in grave to burn for 1200."
[Yusei: 4000 - 2800]
"I'll use Baronne's effect to pop the remaining Doppel Token and set a backrow. Pass turn."
"During the end phase, Cosmic Blazar Dragon returns to my field," Yusei declared. "My turn, draw!" He surveyed the board for a few moments before making his decision. "Battle phase! Your trick with Mo Ye was clever, but it cost you too many life points. Cosmic Blazar Dragon! Attack Swordsoul of Taia!"
The dragon reared back its head and shot a burst of white flames towards the swordsman, who raised his sword to block. I watched as the white flames drew closer, almost touching the blade, before I made my next move.
The damage step worked a bit differently in anime-land. Instead of declaring it when priority had been passed, the damage step started when the monster's attack was about to connect. It was utterly stupid, but it did make the duels more exciting to watch.
"Damage step, activate quick-play spell Forbidden Droplet!" I yelled over Blazar Dragon's roar. "By sending any number of cards from my hand or field to the graveyard, I can negate the effects of any number of your monsters and halve their attack until the end of the turn, and in addition, you cannot respond using cards or effects of the type I send! I'll send Swordsoul of Taia as the cost and halve Blazar Dragon's attack points!"
It all happened in an instant. One moment, Blazar Dragon's flames were overwhelming Taia's meager defense, and the next moment, he was not there, Blazar Dragon's now-diminished flames shooting through empty space and off inti the sky. Blazar Dragon itself screeched as it was enveloped in a dark, oily liquid that seemed to seep into its skin.
"Main phase two!" Yusei yelled. "I normal summon Junk Synchron and activate its effect to revive Junk Converter!"
"Chain Chixiao!" I declared, hand raised forward dramatically. My heart was beating quickly, and I couldn't stop smiling. "By banishing Longyan from my graveyard, I can negate your Junk Synchron's effects until the end of the turn."
"Since I control a dark-attribute monster, I can special summon Caliga Claw Crow from my hand," Yusei began. Last card gone. "Junk Synchron tunes Caliga Claw Crow. The stars converge to bring forth a new power! Emerge, path of speed that guides us to victory! Synchro Summon! Level five! Junk Speeder!"
What the hell. Yusei was absolutely full of surprises, but Junk Speeder absolutely took the cake.
"Junk Speeder's effect activates! When it's synchro summoned, I can special summon any number of Synchron monsters from my deck!"
"Chain Baronne!" I called hurriedly. "Negate and destroy Junk Speeder!" The knight sliced apart the other synchro monster as it revved its engines, leaving Yusei's field clear and his hand empty.
"I end my turn, and Cosmic Blazar Dragon returns to normal." Yusei said. The oily sludge evaporated from Blazar Dragon's body as it gave off a triumphant roar, and Yusei's face brightened.
"Draw for turn, standby phase. Baronne's effect triggers, allowing me to return it to the extra deck to bring back a level nine or lower monster from my graveyard."
"I activate the effect of Cosmic Blazar Dragon, banishing it from my field to negate and destroy Baronne!" Yusei declared. Once more, the dragon vanished in a flash of white fire that easily blasted apart Baronne, the knight's sword unable to block the rush of flames.
"Then your field is empty!" I yelled. "Chixiao attacks you directly for game!"
[Yusei: 2800 - 0]
[Joshua: WIN]
"Well played," I said as I strode forwards to shake Yusei's hand. "That was a fun duel!"
Yusei nodded, accepting my handshake. "It was," he said, smiling. Then his expression grew darker. "But I don't think you care about your monsters at all."
Author's Note: Okay, I lied a little bit last chapter. Jack/Carly is also featured in this fic, I kind of forgot about it. Whoops.
In response to the review I got about Joshua's Tear deck, I don't have an exact list, but generally it's not that different from early Ishizu Tear lists in the OCG, only it has a small Bysstial package and it's not running Elf. This does decrease the power of its end boards somewhat, but it does not impact consistency, and Redoer + Rulkallos + Sulliek is more than enough.
Ninja edit: There was a mistake in the duel carried over from an earlier draft. It is now fixed.
