"Pshhhh" Slumped arms reached across the table like an infant grasping for baubles. "Gimmie." A burning cup was placed in her palms and Musume had never been so thankful for the mystical lines embedded throughout her body. In addition to bodily transformations, enough strength to punch through walls and unending screaming in her head, they also enabled her to chug coffee before the precious elixir had even stopped swirling.
Luna. More mugs were already being pulled from the cupboard as the other leading lady joined them. Good morning.
"Nice top." Grinding an eye beneath the heel of her palm did nothing but exacerbate the bloodshot nature. "New?"
"It's something I had tucked away." Luna smoothed the hem down nervously as a glassy stare gazed through caffeine-infused steam. Musume had one of those faces which seemed angry at the best of times. Running low on sleep and pre-coffee put an unconscious enraged slant on it that was making Luna nervous.
Coffee? Phantom noted how Luna tucked her hair back as she accepted the swirling liquid. Turning as Jaden followed down the stairs, she resisted the urge to kneel again. Act casual, that was the key. Good morning. How do you take your coffee? Too casual, abort, abort!
"Milk and a sugar would be great." Stretching in the early hour, Jaden shuffled blearily across the floor before slumping onto one of the raised stools around the island table. "Urgh. I'm still not sleeping well here. Can you get 'time lag'? Like jet lag with time travel?"
"Trust me, you got off easy." Musume still found herself looking at the calendar to figure out the month. Decades back in time followed by years forward in a coma forced her to take events one day at a time. "Give it a few days and your sleep will adjust."
A tired 'mmm' was the primary response as Jaden's tried to wring the stiffness from his neck. "Nice top." He gave a tired smile to one side as his head rolled past Luna. "Future fashion looks good." It was obvious that Musume hadn't dressed yet and Phantom had been in the same escapee outfit since he had arrived. It made Luna the only viable candidate to judge how the people of the future appeared.
"Thanks." Few people genuinely believed in potions yet Luna was watching a pair of magic people return to life with only a handful of beans and a cup of hot water. Poured, of course, by a discorporate blue light with a distracted frown.
There is a matter I would like to discuss... before Leo... joins us. Nobody had to voice exactly why. They all knew Leo could divert a conversation more effectively than spontaneously catching fire. Jaden, whilst in this time, you may encounter... societal... differences from what you know. I would ask, if she is willing,
"Not happening. I have other stuff going on." Not having washed by mid-morning, piles of scattered books and random pieces of paper everywhere and giving off every signal that she was in no hurry to change any of these items. It was obvious that Musume was far too busy to babysit another nuisance.
That you allow Luna to... accompany you to... mitigate any misunderstandings. She looked between them in the growing silence. If that is... acceptable for you both.
"Better you than me." If Leo was more distracting than an active fire, Musume was the person to set that fire. She tolerated people about as well as being prodded with a pointed stick. (There were times when Luna privately wondered if the only obstacle to mass slaughter was Musume's laziness.) "Oh, fuck yeah!" An unexpected pocket of caffeine sent a ripple of pleasure through her and both wings sprang out the back of her vest.
Trying to accept the dragon lady on one side of the table and the living shadow on the other would take a lot more than a cup of coffee. Although – and Jaden glanced at the cup – it was damn good. "Are there a lot of people like you two in the future?" Humanity could evolve at an incredible pace. Maybe this time had more 'strange' people than 'normal' ones.
A strained glance echoed around the table. "Not exactly."
Musume carries within her a pair of powerful spirits and wields the mystical blade known as Yawarakai-Te - the Tender Hands.
"And she's an autistic ghost I accidentally stabbed out her body and got stuck in a suit of invisible armour."
That much information took a minute to sink in and then Jaden had the obvious question. "How'd that happen?"
"Kinda like this." Drawing the blade as if from nowhere, she impaled Phantom once again. The shock of seeing someone stabbed right in front of him was more than enough to wake Jaden all the way up. If he hadn't seen it before, he would have been more scared.
Fifty-seven. A casual shrug brushed away Jaden's horror. Your daily count is dropping. Are you feelinFifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty.
"Damn thing doesn't seem to work more than once. But it can do this." Sliding the blade back and forth let it pass through the tabletop without a single mark left on the surface. "Legend says that it only works on evil. Passes right through everything else."
"And how did that make you get stuck to a suit of armour?" Instead of questioning the explanations as they came, Jaden was accepting them at face value and moving on to the next issue as rapidly as possible.
Oh, I am not attached to it. I simply inhabit it.
"What's the difference?" He instinctively looked to Musume for a better answer.
"Don't look at me, it's not my problem." Dragging herself and the sword over to the couch, she crashed onto it and flopped both feet onto the low coffee table before flicking the news on. There had to be someone in the world more miserable than she was and the news would tell her who and where.
The design of the armour does not... tries not to let non-corporeal entities pass through.
"Oooh... I don't get it." The distinction was too ethereal for him to quickly understand. Or possibly at all.
"It means that beings like me can't get in or out and she can move it even without a physical form." Yubel appeared above one shoulder with a curious look. "Stop that." Phantom had once more dropped to a dogeza as the figure appeared. Despite their requests to be treated normally, she had struck the Duel Spirit the first time they met. That sort of meeting took a lot of making up.
"The physical material is indestructible and she added some sigils to keep anything else out." Even though it had been overshadowed by Yusei's departure, Luna had paid attention to how anyone was capable of physically assaulting a Duel Spirit. She didn't want her friends at risk to anyone who could draw the right patterns.
"Cool." He paused for a moment to mentally assimilate the information. "And what's Leo's deal?"
Bisexual and unavailable. Social nuances were tricky yet this one was clearly established. And, despite her open admiration for both Jaden and Leo, letting both men get involved with each other would be messy.
"Jaden was asking what abilities Leo has." If she had to deal with two other people as thick-headed as Jaden, Yubel might have to insist on being taken to their own time and face Yliaster alone.
"He's not like you and me." Reassuring Jaden of reality, Luna omitted that raw cheerfulness that could grate on anyone's nerves. "But he's still a really good Duellist."
"Then he's normal?" At last, somebody Jaden could get along with.
Frost curled off the armour despite the tone remaining level. Most others would be dealing with broken bones by this point. Leo has an uncanny ability to raise the morale of anyone who spends more than five minutes talking to him and a work ethic to make an obsessive envious. I would hardly quantify him as 'normal'.
A scaly hand entered her field of view. "You can get up." Maybe it was suffering all her own mistakes which allowed Yubel to understand accept others trying to make amends. "He's just trying to figure out who everyone is. This is a big adjustment for everyone."
… I can understand. Being pulled upright by a hand that didn't exist for everyone was a very strange experience. But none of that tingling. Possibly a more powerful spirit (or two) was needed. Leo is... has been defensive... over his lack of abilities in the past. I... request that you... keep quiet about it.
"Goood moooorning!" What tiny nugget of genetic coding in the Y chromosome caused men to have such awful timing? Sliding down the bannister, Leo stumbled and rolled to a shapeless pile. "I'll get it next time." Leaping to his feet took the same amount of time for a three-way glance between the others to mark that they were on the same page about his abilities. Acrobatics: slim. Intelligence: below average. Enthusiasm: triple normal human limits.
Mentally quashing her concern, Phantom stepped away from the table and into the main living area. Leo has requested that I train him how to fight. I have been teaching him a few basic movements. Stretching before exercise is useless without a body but she was used to the custom after years of doing it. It helped remind her of the limits of her reach each time. You are welcome to join us.
"What are you going to learn today? Karate chops? Nerve pinches? Are you gonna teach me how to throw a guy with one hand?!" No matter how often she tried reminding Leo that he wasn't as insanely strong as Musume, he continued to dream beyond his skills.
Kicks. An invisible ankle slipped from the end of her trouser leg as Phantom clutched one knee to her chest. Now that Leo paid attention, he realised that she didn't wear any shoes to cover the armoured footwear.
"Spinning kicks? Flying kicks? Roundhouse kicks!" Rallying from despair is a rare skill that Leo had in abundance.
Basic side-kicks.
"But that's bor" A slight breeze ruffled his hair as her foot stopped an inch from his ear. "Whoa!"
"Hey, cool!" Trying to take down the Rare Hunters had resulted in more than one scuffle. Jaden wasn't as skilled as his successor but he knew a few moves.
"I'm going to take a shower before you make it smell like guy sweat in here." Nobody was stupid enough to point out that Musume was currently causing the most smell. "Leo, don't pay too much attention to what she's teaching you. It's useless crap." Stretching in the growing light, she rolled over the back of the sofa and headed off to the spare room on the next floor.
I have not felt... this betrayed since yesterday.
"What happened yesterday?" The patient figure was increasingly becoming a source of concern to Jaden as much as the departing one was becoming a source of fear.
She said exactly the same thing and stabbed me in the back. Phantom looked down at the handle jutting from her chest. At least she said it to my face today.
"Do you want me to take that out or..." He lapsed into an uncomfortable silence while Leo continued to act as if nothing was amiss.
Leave it for now. Both hands folded behind her back to avoid any accidental encounters. It would be... awkward to explain were I accidentally killed. Lower your heel slightly to prevent loss of control. She had been paying attention to Leo's practice even while conversing with Jaden. As usual, his enthusiasm gave him a stuttered start before paying off with an accelerated growth born from a desire to learn.
"Is everything going to be as weird as this?" Picking the future instead of the past was starting to seem like the losing option. A disembodied ghost was talking about being accidentally murdered by a mythical weapon while teaching self-defence. It was too strange, even for him.
"Nah, Phantom's alright." Leo was already starting to fall into a regular pattern and switched legs to keep the experience level. "If she's the worst you're expecting, the rest will be easy."
Leo is quite correct. Musume and I are the most extreme... oddities you should encounter here. She watched as Leo went through another cycle of passable forms. Leo has also earned himself five sets of push-ups. Ten reps each. A vicious smile grew beneath the helmet. With an extra set each time he fails. He knew that she wasn't kidding. It wasn't that Phantom was actually mean to him but he sometimes felt she was pushing his boundaries more than they should really be pushed. Especially when he passed comment.
That's it for now. We've got all three Kings of Games shuffled off to different eras and settling in nicely. New chapters should be along soon, reviews should be along sooner.