A/N: Well everyone...here it is. The penultimate chapter of this story. I can't tell you how crazy it is for me to type that. I have been working on this story since 2012. Like...this is a moment that I'm not going to drag out. Also, as you guys may have noticed, I have changed the title of the previous chapter to better match this one. You'll see why I did this, after reading the content below. I hope you guys enjoy it. Best wishes and God bless you all.
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh, Sailor Moon, and Code Geass do not belong to me. This is merely a Fanfiction. A Fanfiction that means a great deal to me. I only own my original characters. Thank you.
Warnings: Let's see. Drug use. Mentions of abuse. References to past instances of extreme blood/gore. Mild sexual content. Depictions of long-lasting trauma. Basically, this chapter has a lot of heavy material. Proceed with caution. This story is rated M for a reason. Also, this chapter is a little over 9,000 words, so it's long to boot. Enjoy!
Chapter 64
The Golden Strands Part 2
Joey Wheeler returned to Domino City with Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba on December 30th, 2017.
The town was the same as ever. Activity buzzed through the streets as people young and old prepared for the new year.
Kaiba ventures off almost immediately upon arrival, stating he had business to attend to without his usual antagonistic jibes, a welcome change as far as Joey was concerned.
Yugi's presence was much harder to shake, especially since the shorter teen knew what his friend would be going home to, and realizing that, Joey didn't make any attempt to argue when Yugi suggested spending the night at the Kame Game Shop.
After checking his dad's car out of the airport parking lot, Joey went through the motions of driving back toward the shop with Yugi in the passenger seat and cheerful Christmas music playing through the speakers.
Under different circumstances, this would have been a wholesome scene of two best friends traveling together.
What would have been a relaxing, fun atmosphere became solemn and depressing, even with Joey's efforts to hum along with the music to distract himself from the reality playing out along every street he happens to glance at.
Nothing significant changed in the city while they were in Japan…
Nothing Joey went through held any importance to the strangers going about their lives.
Not a single soul in this city would ever know the depths of horror and sorrow he'd become well acquainted with in just a few weeks.
Everything went on as normal…
Except him.
And Mina.
They'd been permanently altered by their choices in a foreign land, so much so that home didn't even feel like home anymore.
It's a sobering thought that threatens to crush the blonde.
For the rest of the drive, he sings.
Yugi doesn't say a word.
Upon their arrival at the game shop, Yugi's grandfather, Solomon Muto, greets them warmly, same as ever, then rambles about some new discovery his old friend and colleague, Arthur Hawkins, made.
Joey doesn't hear much of it, but he nods his head and acts as enthusiastically as he can in response to the old man's excitement. Solomon eventually asks them about Japan since Yugi had disappeared without a word to collect his friend.
Yugi answers by saying it was a trip to remember, not wanting to worry his grandpa with the gritty details.
He doesn't notice the bitter smile that stretches across Joey's face.
Food was prepared in the small kitchen upstairs after that. Everyone ate together, watched one of those old, animated Christmas specials playing on the living room TV, and then, when it got late enough, Yugi set up a spot for Joey to sleep in his room like he'd done a million times before.
They didn't talk about Mina. They didn't talk about anything.
Joey was fine with that. There was nothing more he could say anyway.
And yet, regardless of the exhaustion screaming through his body, the blonde duelist remains wide awake. For several hours he stares at the ceiling of Yugi's room with thought after thought roiling through his brain in an endless feedback loop.
With each passing second, Joey finds himself enraptured in a long, desperate war to make sense of how he feels now that his journey with Mina is well and truly over.
He wonders if every night will be like this from now on.
Spurned on by a lack of sleep, he leaves the game shop around 4 a.m. He knows if he stayed, Yugi would ask him to spend another night there since it was New Years Eve, and he wouldn't have had the willpower to say no.
Besides that, he's tired of running.
This time when Joey drives, he keeps the radio off and cracks both windows open because the car feels uncomfortably warm.
Within minutes he's in the parking garage near the apartment he shares with his father.
He rolls up the windows and shuts off the car but can't seem to move after that. For almost an hour he sits in the vehicle, staring at the steering wheel while the thoughts in his mind transform from static noise to a maddening crescendo of questions he can't silence any longer.
Am I being punished for something?
Why is everything good and pure in my life ripped away from me?
How could I have been so wrong about her…about everything?
Closing his eyes, Joey leans his head back against the headrest and waits out the rage boiling through his blood.
Am I just the world's punching bag? Is that it!?
I can't take this anymore!
Why can't I run from any of this?
He takes a deep breath and tries to remind himself that he doesn't want to run from anything anymore, but it's a moot point when her face comes to mind.
I had to run away from her… I had to!
But did he? Was leaving Mina behind really the only option?
I can't stop thinking that I've made another mistake.
He thinks of the tears streaming down her face in the hospital room.
I hurt her.
Mina's mother appears in his mind's eye.
Everything I do is wrong! Even my existence is…
He cuts that thought short and opens his eyes to the early signs of sunrise.
Not willing to put off the inevitable confrontation ahead of him any longer than necessary, Joey finally opens the door, grabs his backpack, and makes his way to the apartment.
His father isn't there when he enters.
Joey grits his teeth in aggravation while examining the collection of beer cans stacked along the coffee table, then makes his way to the kitchen. As expected, there's water all over the floor from the overflowing pan he left beneath the leaky pipe of the sink.
With a deepening frown he mops up the water with the few clean towels he can get his hands on.
He hadn't done the laundry before leaving for Japan either.
And so, Joey spends most of his New Years Eve cleaning the apartment from top to bottom, something he had only done maybe one other time in his life, but the chores had to get done for the sake of his own sanity if nothing else.
Evening arrives by the time he finishes everything.
His stomach growls.
He ignores its wailing, choosing instead to sit down on the couch and watch TV until his father returns.
Predictably, though he doesn't appear until almost midnight, the man's drunken fury manifests as if he never left.
Joey can't bring himself to fight back. Why defend himself from anything anymore?
Ironically, apathy becomes his saving grace. The drunkard goes easy on the blonde, delivering a few quick but powerful punches against his chest before depositing himself on the couch.
Wheezing on the floor, Joey hears his father scream, "Happy New Year" along with an announcer on TV.
He falls asleep there, unwilling to pick himself up from this round of abuse.
Several hours later, Joey awakens to his father's absence and slowly picks himself up from the ground.
His stomach and chest ache.
His skull feels like it'll explode any second.
On the way to the bathroom he notices a note waiting for him on the kitchen counter. He grabs it, crumples it, then tosses it into the garbage without reading a single word.
He knows what these notes say by heart.
Stumbling, Joey flicks on the light and shuts the bathroom door behind him before lifting his shirt to examine the new bruises developing over his torso.
A tiny smirk lifts the corner of his mouth.
This is pain he knows.
This is pain he understands.
This pain…is the only form of love he knew growing up.
It must be a punishment for something he's at fault for. Why else would he have to endure it or carry on as if his life hadn't been so irrevocably screwed up from the beginning thanks to choices he had no control over?
Maybe he had to deal with it because it had always been his destiny to screw up Mina's life. After all, her descent into madness was the direct result of his decision to stay by her side no matter the cost.
How naive of him to think he could do anything for her.
Joey Wheeler never breaks a promise to a friend.
With his own hands he dismantled what little peace remained within his heart after years of abuse and abandonment...all for the sake of a promise that simply shouldn't have been made.
And realizing that…soft chuckles escape past his lips. The low chortles of laughter build in volume and intensity until his body shakes from it.
How can he do anything else?
Like it or not, life moves on, right?
Joey watches it happen, this inevitably of time marching forward without his consent. The people around him carry on about their lives without any inkling of the scars barely hidden beneath the surface of a cotton t-shirt and a school blazer.
The mental wounds are even harder to find…and no one is looking for them anyway so what does it matter?
He recovers from his minor injuries just as school starts up for the next semester.
Mina returns a few days later.
When she doesn't broach the topic of Japan, Joey plays along, welcoming the opportunity to transform into a caricature of who he'd been before her world tore his asunder.
The flirting...
The touch of her hand against his…
The light brush of her lips on his cheek…
At no point do they break character at school, not even for a second. It became an unspoken agreement between them, a secret pleasure they indulged each other in because the fantasies of what their lives could have been are all they have left.
But Joey knows it's not enough, could never be enough to eliminate the truth or satiate the longing he feels every time he looks at her face.
He loves her.
Except he doesn't. He doesn't love the monster she became.
He walked away from the beast in her heart.
That was supposed to be the end of it, regardless of how much it killed him to say goodbye.
But at school…she's everything he ever wanted.
Outside of that…she's a beautiful ghost haunting him with terrors he desperately wants to forget.
Indignation and lust burn in his chest whenever she kisses him, and sometimes he's certain he hates her because she saved his life and destroyed it all at the same time.
But then he remembers it was his choice. He can't hate her for that.
Kaiba arranged for him to see a therapist around the time Mina returned. Joey humored him since the sessions didn't cost him anything and had the potential to help him understand his mangled feelings.
Unfortunately, the two sessions he attended weren't productive simply because he couldn't bring himself to express anything he'd gone through in Japan. It was still too fresh, too raw, too…complicated.
An empty journal on his nightstand is the only relic from those appointments.
The C.E.O. didn't pester him to continue with it, so he didn't. Instead he allows classes and homework to occupy most of his time, although a whim coerces him to visit Mina's father in the hospital one day.
Mina's dad is a kind man. Patient. He's easy for Joey to talk to even if he still can't bring himself to share anything that happened in Japan.
It only takes one visit for him to make up his mind to leave his own father behind once and for all.
As thanks for jump starting the process of his personal freedom, Joey sends updates to Mina about Toshido Aino's health through text messages whenever he visits.
She doesn't respond to any of them.
Their performances at school continue, but while wearing the mask of his old self, his focus sharpens, allowing him to take notice of things he hadn't before, like the amount of residue on the dusty classroom windows, the soft whispers of his classmates, and the faint scents of pencil lead and the chemical odors of highlighter pens.
His grades gradually improve day by day, but his heart feels heavier.
The Knight of Seven, Suzaku Kururugi, had given Joey a number to call if he ever needed to talk about anything before he'd left Japan behind for good. He'd programmed the number into his phone but doesn't think to use it until after he spots Mina smoking a cigarette on his way to school.
Suzaku tells him he already has people keeping watch over her - that he shouldn't burden himself with the task of keeping tabs on her.
Joey watches anyway.
Little by little he sees the evidence of her mental decay.
First it was the thick make-up covering the dark circles beneath her eyes.
Wrapping an arm around her in the halls reveals the weight loss.
In one of his classes he stopped jotting notes to glance at her and sees faint tremors shaking through her hands as she writes.
But at no point does he bring these things up to her or anyone else.
The final straw is on the 18th when he catches her ingesting several pills a few blocks away from school after the final bell rings.
He sends a message to Suzaku about it before following her to the hospital.
While she's inside visiting her father, he sits beneath a tree across the street and eats the extra sandwich he bought at lunch.
Forty-five minutes later, the golden strands of her hair flash in his line of sight as she recklessly sprints into the street without a care for the surrounding people or incoming traffic.
Once more, Joey follows from the opposite side of the street, keeping just enough distance as to not be seen.
He watches her sit down outside of an alley and knowing the types of nefarious characters that like to hide in such places, the blonde duelist approaches the crosswalk but stops upon noticing Mina shift her focus to something inside the alley.
Gritting his teeth, he mentally prepares himself for a mad dash across the street.
"What are you doing…oof!"
Caught up as he was watching Mina, he didn't realize he was walking again until after he collided with another person.
"Ack! Sorry…"
"Idiot! Watch where…"
The voice trails off and it's only then that Joey really sees who he's bumped into.
"Mai?"
"Joey?"
Sure enough, Mai Valentine, dressed in a deep plum-colored sweater, a lavender trench coat, dark-wash skinny jeans, and black boots, stands before him with a startled expression that quickly shifts into her usual smug smirk.
"What a pleasant surprise," she says, a teasing note in her voice. "Didn't think I'd run into you today. Last time I saw you, you were on the floor weeping like a toddler."
Happy as he is to see an old friend, those few fleeting seconds of distraction cause him to lose track of Mina in the crowd.
"Joey? Hello? Are you that shocked to see me or have you gone brain-dead?"
He doesn't answer at first, his attention fixated on the alleyway. He finally spots Mina walking down the street with a man in his mid-twenties.
His gaze narrows when he realizes he recognizes the man.
"Hey…is everything okay?"
Returning his attention to Mai, he smiles. "Yeah, sorry about that. Just…distracted."
"I'll say," the Harpy enthusiast agrees, raising an eyebrow in clear suspicion as she scans the street he'd just been staring at. Spotting Mina, she sighs.
"Didn't peg you for the jealous type."
"JEALOUS!?" he screeches, shaking his head profusely. "No, it's not…I mean Mina and I…we are kinda dating but…it's complicated and…"
The older woman silences him by pressing an index finger against his lips. "You're babbling. Try talking with some degree of intelligence, Joseph."
Releasing an angry huff of breath, Joey pivots on his heel and reaches for the cell-phone in his pocket.
"What are you doing?"
"Get out your phone," he orders without answering her question. Mai starts to make a retort, but upon noticing the stern expression on his face when he starts typing, she relents and takes the device out of her coat pocket.
"Joseph...are you sure you're okay?"
Preoccupied with typing a message, Joey responds with a nod that doesn't look all that convincing to the woman in front of him.
"Your number?"
"359-887-4545."
He taps a few more keys on his phone then slaps the thing in his pants pocket. "Meet me at the place listed in the text in an hour."
Her screen flashes with his message just as he sprints across the crosswalk.
Mai frowns, her previous plans forgotten as she watches the duelist commonly referred to as the Barking Chihuahua. He certainly looked hyperactive enough to fit the part in her mind at the moment.
She wasn't aware of the panic rising in Joey's chest as his eyes darted about the crowd, searching for the former guardian of love.
Despite his best efforts, he can't find her. She's gone.
Gritting his teeth, he pivots on his heel in the opposite direction of where he thought he'd seen Mina going. The guy she was with is someone he knows from his gang days. Though not necessarily a dangerous person, the guy is known for always being strung out on something, and on the rare occasion that he isn't completely wasted, he makes ends meat by selling whatever narcotic he doesn't take a liking to.
Having already seen Mina smoking cigarettes and swallowing pills, it dawns on Joey how outstanding her performances at school had been.
Biting down on his tongue, the teen inwardly berates himself for getting lost in the illusion.
The beautiful, vibrant girl he met six months ago died in Japan…
But Minako Aino still lives. She may not be the same, but regardless of everything…she's still important to him, will always be important to him.
Someone needs to stop her from destroying herself completely.
Joey knows he isn't capable of that…not anymore.
With no other options, he sends one last message to Suzaku.
January 25th, 2018
Domino Park
4:00pm
"I'll start my turn by activating Monster Reborn."
Mina: 3400
Joey: 1500
"Let me guess," Mina drones, her sapphire gaze narrowing. "Bringing back Red-Eyes?"
"You know it," I answer, removing the card from my graveyard pile to place the dragon in the center of my monster zone. "I'll also activate the face-down Dragon Nails card to boost my dragon's power by six hundred points.
Red-Eyes Black Dragon ATK: 3000
Masked Hero – Black V ATK: 2500
Sailor Mars ATK: 1500
Hesitating, I glace at Mina's Black V card. Nothing would make me happier than to get rid of it now, but the smarter move is to target Sailor Mars first. Doing so might force Mina to use her face-down, but regardless of what it is, Red-Eyes can't be destroyed by card effects thanks to Dragon Nails.
"Red-Eyes destroys Sailor Mars."
Mina chuckles as she withdraws the card from her field. "Fine by me. I don't mind sending Rei to the graveyard again."
Her choice of words makes me cringe.
Mina: 1900
Joey: 1500
"That ends my turn."
Mina draws wordlessly, her smirk disappearing as she studies the new card in her hand.
"First I'll summon Sailor Mercury to the field in attack mode."
Sailor Mercury ATK: 1400
Sailor Mercury DEF: 1700
"Next I activate Card of Sanctity," she continues, her hand stretching toward her deck. "This allows us both to draw until we're holding six cards."
"She's planning something big," I think, gritting my teeth while drawing five cards. Her hand was entirely empty by the time she played Card of Sanctity, so she drew six.
My new hand consists of Time Wizard, Baby Dragon, Grave Robber, Battle Warrior, Legendary Sword, and Polymerization. Scapegoat is active on the field alongside my Red-Eyes that has Dragon Nails equipped. On my next turn I can fuse my Battle Warrior with Red-Eyes to summon Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, but that plan depends entirely on what Mina pulls in this turn.
She's always had a knack for turning the tables on me in one form or another.
"Now I play Spell Reproduction," she whispers, her tone shifting from impassive to something more forlorn. "By discarding two magic cards from my hand, I can bring back one from my graveyard pile."
Nodding, I watch her place Sailor Teleport and Sailor Planet Attack next to her graveyard pile first.
"You used those two cards a lot in Duelist Kingdom," I mutter, nostalgia distracting me from the actual move she's making. "The Sailor Planet Attack was especially brutal."
Smiling softly, she shuffles through her graveyard and extracts the magic card she wants. "Getting lost in the past, are we?"
"Yeah, maybe a little bit."
She sets Stance Change on the field again.
I grit my teeth.
"As you know, this card allows me to special summon a Masked Hero monster from my hand or deck so long as a Sailor Monster is tributed."
The symbolism of the move isn't lost on me. For the second time in the duel, Mina discards what once stood for love and justice and replaces it with a hollow imitation of a "hero."
"With Sailor Mercury sacrificed, say hello to Masked Hero – Virgo."
Masked Hero – Virgo ATK: 2200
Masked Hero – Virgo DEF: 3000
Mina places Virgo in the defense position, making the card art more difficult to make sense of. A monument stands behind the masked soldier holding ice daggers in her gloved hands. The daggers gleam with a crimson glow.
"Pegasus should reign in his imagination, don't you think?" I ask, glaring at the card.
"These cards are part of an expansion for the Sailor Scout Archetype," Mina explains, looking annoyed at the interruption of her turn.
"And here I thought they were one-of-a-kind cards made just for you."
Shrugging, Mina picks up her deck. "When Virgo is special summoned, I can add one magic card from my deck to my hand." Shuffling through the cards, she plucks one. "I'll be activating it immediately."
"Figured as much. Can we get a move on here?"
Her smirk returns. "You said a good move takes time."
"Not this much time."
Laughing she shows me the magic card she drew from her deck. It's another new card I've never seen before. The art showcases Sailor Venus falling down an abyss with one hand raised toward the blue sky above her while thorns wrapped around her legs pull her toward the darkness.
The image captures the girl I love caught somewhere between hope and despair.
"Fitting, isn't it?"
"Just play it, Mina."
She nods and gently places it on her field. "This card is called Mask of Death. With it, I can Special Summon as many Masked Hero Monsters that match the attributes of the Sailor Scout Monsters in my graveyard…at a price."
"Which is?"
"Well, first it costs one thousand life-points to even activate the card. Additionally, any monsters in my hand immediately go to the graveyard." She pauses to show me the Sailor Moon card in her hand. "As you recall, when Sailor Moon is sent to the graveyard thanks to a card effect, we both lose 300 life-points."
Joey: 1200
Mina: 600
"Since there are now three Sailor Scout monsters in my graveyard that meet the requirements, I will be special summoning three Masked Heroes."
Groaning, I watch Mina flip over three monsters from her graveyard: Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mars, and Sailor Moon.
"Now I play Masked Hero – Verde, Masked Hero – Zera, and Masked Hero – Mirage to represent these three cards."
"Mina…"
Masked Hero – Verde ATK: 2600
Masked Hero – Verde DEF: 2100
Masked Hero – Zera ATK: 2500
Masked Hero – Zera DEF: 2000
Masked Hero – Mirage ATK: 3000
Masked Hero – Mirage DEF: 2500
She summons all three in defense mode, so I twist the angle of my head a bit to better see the art.
Verde represents Sailor Jupiter. Like the other cards before it, she stands in a snowy landscape. Lightning flashes in the sky within the dark sky of the card. On her hands are large gauntlets with long claws emitting the same electricity.
Zera is the most reminiscent of the vigilante these cards were based on, Zero. Her card art is also different from the ones preceding it in that the landscape isn't one of snow but of an island. Her arms are crossed in an X formation in front of her chest and chainsaws surrounded by flames stretch out from her clenched fists. She represents Sailor Mars.
Mirage is the most unique of all the cards. She isn't in a battle stance. Instead, she's sitting on a throne made of crystal with her legs crossed at the ankle. In her right hand she holds a glimmering, crystal scepter stained in blood. In her left palm is a crystal ball imbued with a black and violet aura. The tapestries behind her throne are a mix of violet and gold, and a golden crown sits on top of the mask covering most of her face.
One section of the mask is broken, allowing me a small glimpse of the left side of Sailor Moon's face along with tiny tendrils of the golden strands of her hair.
Her left eye looks glassy, almost as if she's about to cry…
"Impressive, aren't they? Pegasus captured our transformations well."
Painful would have been a better way for me to describe the feelings I got from these cards.
"That ends my turn. Your move."
Drawing, I quickly place my Grave Robber trap face-down. Mina either forgot to switch Black V to defense mode or left her in the attack position on purpose in preparation for some other strategy she has. I haven't forgotten about the face-down card she put on the field earlier either. More than likely she's baiting me into attacking, but there's not much else I can do in response to her move. None of the monsters in my hand are strong enough to breach her defenses, and using my Time Wizard is too risky with my buffed up Red-Eyes on the field. If the Time Wizard's scepter lands on the wrong number…I'll lose immediately.
Before now I wouldn't have given the risk and reward ratio another thought. I would have played Time Wizard anyway just hoping the result would work out in my favor. I even expected it to.
But now…playing Time Wizard, even if it went well, isn't the right way to finish this duel.
Though playing defensively right now, the way Mina stares at me tells me that it doesn't matter which strategy I go with. She'll defeat me regardless.
I'm not going to hide behind the card Yugi gave me in this duel.
I don't deserve to win against Mina if it isn't with my own strength.
"Red-Eyes attacks Black V!"
Her response is to flip over her face-down like I expected.
What I didn't expect was the actual card itself.
"Quaking Mirror Force!?" I exclaim, taken aback by the unfamiliar card. "What does dat do!?"
"Well, for one it ends the battle phase," Mina explains, stretching her arms above her head for a few seconds. "It also changes the battle position of your monster to face-down defense. Monsters changed to this position by the effect of this card cannot change their battle positions. Period."
"SAY WHAAAAAAAAAT!"
Mina cringes at the volume of my voice while lowering her arms back down from above her head. "Do you…need to read the text on the card?"
I wipe the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand. "No. I believe you, I'm just…"
"Caught off guard by my excellent play?"
My silence is the only answer I'm willing to give.
Mina giggles, her shoulders shaking with mirth. "There's no need to pout, Joseph."
"Just make your move."
"Gladly," she replies, smiling in the way she used to for a moment before the light disappears from her eyes, revealing the truth beneath her bravado. This duel isn't an exercise of fun for her, even in the small hints of enjoyment she gets from surprising me with her new strategies.
This duel is just a distraction from the mess in her head.
And for me…this duel is a way to understand what she's become. All-out attack strategies are nothing new for Mina, but in tossing her Sailor Scout monsters out of the game like meaningless trash, she's shown me how detached she's become from that piece of her identity. She doesn't see herself as a heroine of justice, but a soldier driven by desperation and hatred.
What little love remains inside of her is twisted, torn in pieces by the monster she let loose in her heart.
Drawing from her deck, she starts her move by switching her defense position monsters into attack mode.
Mirage makes the first attack. With three thousand attack points, Red-Eyes in his defensive position is easily taken out of the game. I place him and the Dragon Nails card in my graveyard.
Thankfully, I still have three Scapegoat tokens to use.
Verde attacks the first one.
Zera the second.
Virgo the third.
With my field empty of the tokens, Mina's smirk shifts into something almost sinister.
"Black V attacks for game…"
"I activate my face-down Grave Robber to steal and activate your Mirror Force card, removing all your monsters from the field.
And just like that…Mina and I are on the same page again.
Her field is empty. Mine has a final face-down I've yet to use.
Another laugh slips past her lips, but it's a hollow, almost broken sound.
"That was…an excellent play, Joey."
I watch her hands remove all the Masked Hero Monsters from the field. She's gentler in placing each card in the graveyard pile.
"It's your move," she murmurs, and her voice beckons me to look toward her face.
No longer smiling, Mina stares at me with an expression laced in all the pain she's felt since returning to Domino.
Laying the cards I have in my hand face down in the space between our field and my lap, I reach toward her face with my hands to wipe away the soft, warm tears that steadily roll down her cheeks.
She sets her cards down, then places one of her hands along my chest…near my heart.
"No matter how much I try to hide myself away…you always see me in the end, Joey."
I can't respond with words.
For a few fleeting seconds it's Duelist Kingdom all over again as I carefully draw her closer to me. Her breath hitches slightly, her hand gripping at the fabric of my shirt when I stop moving to look into her eyes.
Pure and blue, they shine with the tears she's shed.
My lips find hers as I close my eyes.
The sensation sends a chill through me and though Mina returns the kiss, neither of us try to deepen it.
Whatever fire was between us in the past isn't there anymore. There's something cold and sad about this moment.
When she pulls away, it's with the kind smile I remember from the girl I loved.
I smile back at her and draw my hands away from her face.
And somehow…I know I'll never touch her like this again.
"Ready?" she asks, motioning to the field between us.
"Yeah."
Without another word to each other, we pick up our cards and resume the duel.
Joey: 1200
Mina: 600
My hand is graced with the strongest monster I have in my deck with this draw.
"I summon Gilford the Lightning to the field in attack mode."
Gilford the Lightning ATK: 2800
Gilford the Lightning DEF: 1400
I glance up at Mina, hoping to see her face, but she's looking down at her field, her eyes obstructed by her bangs.
My stomach churns.
"I attack you directly for…"
"No," she interrupts, her voice so soft now that I barely hear her. "You don't. Black V has a graveyard effect that prevents it."
With slow, methodical movements, she removes Black V from her graveyard pile, sets it in front of me face-up and points at the second paragraph of text on the card.
Blinking, I squint at the letters printed before picking up the card to get a closer look.
"Read it out loud, please," Mina orders, her hand moving to her deck now.
Sneaking a peek at her again, I watch her look through her deck before reading.
"After Black V is destroyed, if you have no monsters on the field and your opponent declares an attack, Special Summon Black V Alternative from your deck…"
Trailing off, I watch Mina place the new card on the field. At first I think I'm looking at the Sailor Venus card again, but there are distinct differences between that card and this one that jump out at me almost immediately. In the card art, Mina's golden blonde hair is wavier, tied up by a black ribbon rather than red. Her sailor uniform is roughly the same along her torso until the waist point, where an orange, belted corset with a black and gold zipper in the center of it. Three gold chains hang in three tiers from the belt loops on either side of the zipper. The slimming corset flows into the orange mini-skirt that's pleated at the end. Rather than white elbow-length gloves, she wears black gloves that go up to her forearms, only leaving her shoulders exposed. Her orange choker has small gold spikes adorning it, and a gold heart pendant hangs from the center of the choker. The one earring visible in the picture is also a gold heart.
Other differences are more confusing to me, like the faint tattoos of a white and black koi fish on her right arm and a cross made of arrows on her left. That same cross tattoo is present on the left side of her face just beneath her eye, which is a brilliant, blood-red.
Her right eye is, in contrast, a striking gold rather than blue.
Black lipstick covers her lips.
The background art is sparse but effective in communicating what this version of Sailor Venus is all about.
The world around this woman is painted in blood, and a thin halo of golden light shimmers above her head, casting her in an eerily warm glow.
This card…represents what she is now.
This…is Black V.
Black V Alternative ATK: 3000
Black V Alternative DEF: 1500
"Black V Alternative can only be special summoned," Mina states simply, quoting the card text at me without reading it. "On the battle phase she is summoned, sacrifice five hundred life-points to banish all Masked Hero Monsters, except Masked Hero – Black V, from your graveyard."
She pauses to lift her gaze toward mine.
Her eyes are a deep hue of crimson.
"This card will gain three-hundred points for each monster banished until the end phase."
Inhaling slowly, Mina banishes each card one by one.
Masked Hero – Verde is the first to go.
Black V Alternative ATK: 3300
She places Virgo on the pile next.
Black V Alternative ATK: 3600
Followed closely by Zera.
Black V Alternative ATK: 3900
She smiles a little after placing the Zera card on the banish pile, but when she adds Mirage, the card representing Serena's masked persona, that small expression of joy transforms into a truly menacing grin.
The girl I love slips away right before my eyes, leaving only the monster behind.
Black V Alternative ATK: 4200
The battle phase resumes, and I activate the Sword and Shield card I've had on the field for most of the duel as a last-ditch effort to stay in the game, but in the end…
Black V Alternative ATK: 1500
Gilford the Lightning ATK: 1400
Gilford the Lightning is wiped from the field, and there's not a card in my hand that can save me once Mina's turn begins.
Joey: 1100
Mina: 100
She draws a final card from her deck. "The effect of Sword and Shield is over, Joseph. Remove it from the field."
"Even if it were in effect…"
Black V Alternative ATK: 3000
Without letting me finish my sentence, she motions with her hand to indicate her attack on me for game. My field is empty and nothing in my hand can save me either.
It's…over…
Mina: 100
Joey: 0
In more ways than one…
The narcotic known as Refrain was created within labs of the Holy Britannian Empire for the sole purpose of perpetuating the slow genocide of the rebellious Japanese people shortly after the nation's takeover in 2010. Over the years, this psychotropic drug has seen distribution in other Area colonies, in surrounding independent nations, and even in cities within the Chinese Federation's borders.
Though most popular in the slums of Area 11, the immediate effect of the drug is pleasant for anyone looking for a powerful dose of nostalgia.
This is not what Minako Aino sought upon injecting the substance into her veins.
The street seller she bought the Refrain from merely told her it would give her a high like no other. He never explained what the effects of the substance were.
One Week Earlier
January 18th, 2018
5:27pm
I feel sick to my stomach as Mai waves at me from the back of the 50's style pizza parlor I'd picked for us to meet at. The intense smell of garlic and onion makes me want to gag but my mouth twists into a practiced, false smile I'd been forced to perfect in the last two weeks.
Derrick Sanders.
He's a blast from a past I keep to myself. Though not the worst person from those days of beating kids senseless for money or whatever else the leader of our gang wanted, he was absolutely the worst person for Mina to encounter right now.
And Mai…running into her when I did was more of a curse than a blessing, but I can't show that to her right now. She doesn't know what's happened between Mina and I. She doesn't know the horrors I've seen.
All she knows is the amateur duelist looking to save his sister from going blind.
Her memories contain a different me.
Back then, my feelings for Mina were surface level. I didn't know what it meant to feel love or hatred with the intensity I do now.
Suzaku didn't respond to my message. That's put me on edge too.
Mina could be anywhere right now. Anything could happen to her if she decides to get mixed up in whatever hard drugs Derrick has on hand. He typically carries weed, but from time to time…
"Hey! Are you going to join me or what?" Mai bellows again, interrupting my thoughts. "It's rude to keep a lady waiting."
My feet force me forward. I don't want to be here right now, but I know how Mai operates. Standing her up would only create more problems, especially since meeting like this was my idea.
"I'm not late, am I?" I ask once I'm closer to the table. A few people glance over at us, annoyed by all the noise Mai made upon my arrival, but soon enough they're back to minding their own business as if we didn't exist at all.
How lovely it must be to be so unaware, so wired in their own lives to not notice the suffering of others.
I was like that once. It was easier then.
"No," Mai murmurs, her expression of annoyance transforming into one of concern. "You're right on time, actually. Wasn't expecting that."
"I'm full of surprises," I answer, finally taking a seat across from her. "Sorry about earlier…"
"Yes, about that…"
"It was nothing, really."
"You're not fooling anyone, kid." Mai smirks, but the mischievous attitude doesn't reach her violet eyes. "You were running around like a puppy that lost its owner."
Groaning, I pick up a menu from behind the napkin dispenser on our table. "Very funny. The dog comparison never gets old. Please keep using it."
Her smirk brightens into a smile. "Certainly, Joseph. If that is your wish."
"You know I was being sarcastic," I grumble, glancing at the topping options.
"Makes no difference to me."
"Figures."
A waiter comes over to the table then, asking us what we want to drink while making googly eyes at Mai. She orders an iced tea while I ask for a coke. The waiter leaves grinning like an idiot after she winks at him.
"What brings you to Domino City anyway, Mai?"
"I was invited to participate in an exhibition tournament," she begins, folding her hands beneath her chin. "Pegasus finally recovered from whatever illness he had after Duelist Kingdom. He's celebrating by arranging these exhibition tournaments to showcase new cards he's designed. There's a few new support cards for my Harpy Ladies and Domino City is the epicenter of the Duel Monster's scene with Yugi and Kaiba here."
"You'd think I would have heard about it," I mutter. "I was second place at Duelist Kingdom."
Mai shrugs. "Exhibition tournaments hold no real sway in a duelist's overall ranking. They're just performances to further promote the game. Duelists in the big leagues rarely participate."
I raise an eyebrow at the explanation. "Then why are you participating? You're a big leagues duelist."
"My pocketbook is in a drought," she explains, winking again. "Agreeing to the exhibition tournament gives me free publicity, a paycheck, and free cards to strengthen my deck."
The waiter returns, depositing our drinks while asking us if we've had a chance to look over the menu.
Mai quickly orders a Caesar salad and bread sticks. Having been here multiple times, I ask for a large meat lovers pizza.
"What about you, Joseph?" she questions after the waiter leaves. "What's going on in your world lately?"
She didn't know how loaded of a question that was.
"It's...a bit of a long story."
"I canceled my plans for the evening," Mai states simply, taking a sip of her iced tea. "Feel free to spill your guts if you need to."
The idiom makes my stomach churn as images of actual guts fill my head.
She seems to notice my discomfort immediately. "Joey?"
My hands tremble along the table...and somehow I just...
"Mai...I don't...know how to answer t-that..."
Trailing off, I close my eyes and discover really quickly how much of a mistake it was to shroud myself in darkness. The shadows only make the memories of the corpses all the more potent.
And it isn't long until I see Mina drenched in the blood of her victims.
I hear Rei's strangled breathing and Serena's screams...
"It's too much. I can't... I can't..."
Something touches the top of my hand, disrupting the memories.
Opening my eyes, I find myself back in the restaurant with Mai sitting across from me.
Her violet gaze is penetrating, and I know from the expression on her face that she won't push me to say anything more if it's too much. We could easily go back to having a normal conversation about dueling or about life in general.
But that isn't who I am now.
I can't keep carrying this.
"I want to tell you," I whisper when she withdraws her hand. "I just...don't know how to say what I need to say."
She offers a kind smile.
"I'm happy to wait until you figure it out."
Refrain, by nature, induces hallucinations in its victims. Typically speaking, those addicted to it seek solace in a past long gone.
Twenty minutes after injecting herself, Mina lays back in bed surrounded by the crumbs of the chocolate chip cookies she ate. The ceiling starts to spin the more she stares up at it, her heart racing in tandem with the images and sensations that follow.
She realizes very quickly that the drug is a way to escape to better days, and that realization makes the first few minutes of the high blissful.
The hallucination she experiences takes her back to a day at the beach with her friends.
She speaks with the phantoms of her past, laughs, makes up bad proverbs, and smiles. She feels the sun bearing down on her back, the hot sand beneath her toes, and cool water against the palms of her hands.
But then, quite abruptly, the noise of her friends and the surrounding crowd disappear into silence.
The seagulls continue wailing overhead. The water laps around her ankles.
Wading into the water until it's at her waist, Mina stares over the horizon and sighs.
The tragedies she lived through feel like a nightmare she's finally free of. Even the memory of her sins fade the more she rests in the serenity of that beautiful summer day.
When the water rises to her neck, she lays back and floats without a care in the world.
However, while suspended in the waves she hears something…a soothing voice.
Somewhere in the corner of her mind…
"KILL…"
She feels a change in the water. It's thicker. There's…a metallic stench she recognizes.
The moon slowly eclipses the light of the sun, casting the ocean in darkness.
"KILL…"
A wave crashes over her head, pulling her beneath the surface.
She tastes blood on her tongue.
"KILL…"
The waves gently carry her to the shoreline as the minutes tick on. More blood pools into her mouth at several instances, but she doesn't fight against it.
If anything, her smile widens each time it happens.
"KILL…"
Once back on the shore, Mina stares up at the black sun without a care for the sudden drop of temperature. The sand beneath her…it's snow…
"KILL…"
Her swimsuit and limbs bear crimson stains in harsh splatters.
"KILL…"
Joey enters her field of vision from above after another minute or so, his expression bright and cheerful.
"KILL…"
He kneels beside her with affection shinning in his chocolate brown eyes.
She raises herself up into a sitting position.
Neither of them speak.
"KILL…"
Cupping her face in his hands, Joey leans in and presses his lips flush against hers.
"KILL…"
The kiss is a heated exchange, much like the one they shared in the hallways of Pegasus' castle in Duelist Kingdom.
Within seconds his hands get tangled in the golden strands of her hair and her mouth parts beneath his in anticipation.
"KILL..."
Tasting something deliciously sweet along his tongue, she slides her hands along his chest.
His heartbeat pounds through her palms.
"KILL…"
Moaning against his lips, Mina carefully guides her beloved's body down against the ice beneath them.
"KILL…"
He breaks away to whisper her name, and it sounds like Heaven.
"KILL…"
By slow degrees, her hands drift to cradle his neck.
"KILL..."
She doesn't notice how her grip tightens, nor does she does she stop when panic settles over Joey's expression.
"KILL..."
His muffled whimpers and attempts to break away don't sway her either.
She keeps squeezing with an expression of pure, unrepentant glee.
"KILL… KILL… KILL…"
A laugh bubbles out of her mouth at how his chocolate eyes convey his pain.
"KILL… KILL… KILL… KILL… KILL… KILL… KILL…"
An abrupt snap of bones cuts off the pleasant voice in her head.
Joey's hand falls limp against the crimson-stained snow.
His breathing stops and the sudden silence destroys the ecstasy she felt mere seconds ago.
She says his name.
There's no response. His eyes are open, but there's no life inside of them.
Suddenly unsure of what to feel, Mina lifts her hands and examines the splotches of blood on her palms.
"YOU DID IT… YOU FINALLY KILLED HIM…"
The voice is no longer soothing. It's a grotesque, guttural screech that serves as an instant reminder of what she's become.
The magic of the hallucination begins to strip itself away from Mina's eyes, eliminating the haze of euphoria and replacing it with an even deeper sense of anguish.
Without moving an inch, she watches the corpse of the boy she loves fade into the image of a mattress and a single pillow leaking feathers.
"I WANT HIM… KILL HIM… KILL HIM… KILL HIM… PLEASE KILL HIM…"
Covered in a cold sweat, Mina scrambles to her feet, her breathing erratic.
"KILL HIM… KILL HIM… KILL HIM… KILL HIM… KILL HIM… KILL HIM…"
"What was that…?"
Those words are the summation of her astonishment, of her horror as she glances over the remaining Refrain vials littering the floor.
"GO TO HIM… LET ME TAKE HIM… LET ME KILL HIM FOR YOU…"
The monster is louder than it's ever been before. Mina can barely hear her own thoughts amidst its demands for Joey's blood.
What's worse is that her own thoughts mirror the desires of the voice.
At some point she watches herself pull on Joey's old coat over her t-shirt and a pair of jeans, but she remains in the apartment for several minutes longer, her mind and heart caught between two different lines of thought as the voice continues wailing over and over.
She spots her cell phone on the kitchen counter and grabs it before making her way outside.
January 25th, 2018
Domino Park
4:50 pm
"I want to kill you."
Minako Aino says this while collecting her cards, her voice calm and serene.
Joey Wheeler, though he instantly tenses, doesn't move from his position across from her on the bench.
Flinging her backpack over her shoulder, the ribbon-wearing blonde rises to her feet carefully, her crimson eyes never leaving his as she moves to stand directly in front of him.
He knows he's in danger. He knows he should try to escape.
He doesn't move an inch. He keeps his gaze on hers.
"Are you going to?"
She holds her Duel Monster's deck out to him.
"What do you think?"
He stares at her for another few seconds, a soft smile lifting the corners of his mouth.
"No," he answers, taking hold of the deck she offers to him. "You still love me, right?"
"Always."
Releasing the deck from her grip, Mina walks away from the boy she loves.
The monster protests with each step she takes, but she keeps moving forward in spite of it.
Joey watches the former guardian of love until she disappears from sight, his heart breaking with every intake of breath.
Golden strands of sunlight slowly peek through the clouds, shrouding them both as they take separate paths toward an unknown future.
A/N: I could literally end the story right here, but there's a few things left to tie up for Mina that needs its own chapter. We'll call it an epilogue. So my friends, stay tuned for the next chapter. The final chapter of The Golden Strands. (I seriously can't believe I'm saying this. I'm not emotionally prepared for this guys.) To all of you reading, thank you so much for sticking this journey out with me, especially those who have kept up with this story since the beginning. You guys are the best. I love you all! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Best wishes and God bless you all.