Hajime set his muted phone down and went to pull down the curtains. There was no way anyone would interrupt his important meeting. On the opposite side of the room, Sayo shuffled uncomfortably while Shishima remained still as a statue.
"Now that we're all set," Hajime began, "I'll start off by saying that I hate both of you! You, Shishima, for turning my life into a living nightmare, and you, Sayo, for deceiving me and toying with my emotions! Just who the hell do you think you are to just come to my world and pull all the crap you did?!"
"Technically we've been on Earth for way over a thousand years," Shishima snidely corrected him.
"Hajime, please try to understand, we didn't have much of a choice after what happened in the Twilight Kingdom," Sayo attempted to explain.
"I don't care about your excuses! Your mere presence has caused far more suffering than good. As a matter of fact, things would've been much better without the two of you festering my world," Hajime said, sheer hatred and venom seeping out of his voice.
Sayo bit her lip and lowered her head in a display of shame, ever the humble one. Shishima on the other hand remained tall and proud as he responded:
"Need I remind you that without us, you'd have remained just a rich nobody? And as a duelist, you'd have forever been in your grandmother's shadow."
"I never cared about fame or laurels, Shishima!" Hajime snapped back at him.
"Keh, while that's true, you were indeed one mundane and bored kid when I first discovered you. But now with me in your life, you can't deny that we've both been killing boredom these past few years. So I'd be more grateful if I were you."
Hajime stared at Shishima, sheer contempt in his icy blue eyes. "I'll never thank you for all the atrocities you've committed. If you think I'm that sick as to stoop down to your level-"
"No, I don't think that, I dread that," Shishima interrupted him. "I've been by your side in your latest detective missions and I can't help but notice that you're growing all the more unhinged with the people you're arresting. You can't deny you're giving in to those primal violent instincts that are genetically hardwired into your species."
"And what if I am? Why do you even care? Didn't you promote violence and bloodshed?"
"This isn't you, Hajime! You're making the exact same mistakes I did prior to my banishment from the Twilight Kingdom, and you have no reason to! I've conceded victory to you and am sparing mankind as per our blood oath. Why do you feel the need to become a monster?" Shishima earnestly asked, taking Sayo by surprise.
"You've pushed me into this point, the both of you!"
"Hajime, I'm sorry for what I did back then to you, I really am," Sayo finally spoke. "You're right, it was really selfish of me to trick you into believing we were a couple and I fully own up to what I did. But know this, there was another reason I gave you my love, besides strengthening your resolve to defeat Shishima."
Hajime turned his attention to her. "What do you mean?"
"On some level, a part of me did love you," Sayo confessed, her words piercing his heart. Both longing and hatred began to build up in his mind, Shishima could taste them, but Hajime did his best to keep his composure. "Twilight Kingdom youkai are both bisexual and polyamorous by nature, so it's not at all far-fetched!"
"Nekohana's also had previous human lovers in her past lives," Shishima casually added.
With a clenched fist, Hajime replied, "Sayo, be honest with me, if you were to choose between Shishima and I, who would you choose?"
Much to the surprise of both males, Sayo stared back at him with no sign of her previous meek attitude. There was only so much she could take, and she had reached the limit of her patience. "I knew it would come to this. The answer is Shishima, my first love, the very reason I pulled all of my schemes," she spoke in a surprisingly straightforward manner.
Hajime unclenched his fist, the flurry of negative emotions beginning to leave his mind. "In the end, I could never compete with Shishima when it comes to your heart," he remarked with a bittersweet tone. "I guess I'll have to let you go."
She gasped in surprise. "What does that mean?"
"I no longer hate you, Sayo. I'm sorry for putting you through this," Hajime confessed. "Now, both of you, you're free to go."
What words were left to be said? Silence had fallen between the three of them. Sayo bowed down to show her gratitude to Hajime, but the latter turned his back at both of them. Not knowing what else to do, she opened the door and disappeared in the corridor. Shishima regarded the mortal one more time before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Downstairs, just as Sayo was about to open the mansion's entrance doors, she was stopped by Ben, who called from behind:
"Sayo, wait, where are you going?"
"Oh, Ben, I almost forgot you're still here," she replied while turning to face him. "Seeing how our reunion was cut short by Jack's boss calling him, I think I should head back to Tokyo. Shrine duties are waiting for me, you know."
"Before you go, would you fancy helping me with my new deck?"
"Your new deck?"
"Yes, I just checked my suitcase and found these Water RexStars cards, so I want to build a new deck as well. Can't let Hajime hog all the glory with this new race, can we?" Ben suggested with a sneaky grin.
Sayo giggled to herself. "You've got a point." And thus she joined him in the living room.
A calm snowfall had started on that late afternoon as the sky above Sagakin began to darken with thick clouds. The snowflakes passed by the glow of streetlights and gave off the illusion of fireflies. Truly it was a sight to behold, perhaps best suited to fairy tales. As Hajime wandered the empty city streets with his beige winter jacket, black leather gloves and favorite red scarf to keep him warm, a part of him wished he could just blend in with the landscape and get lost in the beauty, stripped of all cares, never to be found again. Unwillingly, his mind went to a poem Sayo had recited to him back at his family's Tokyo mansion.
Silence in my soul…
My plea on paper is laid with passion,
For my thoughts all lead back to you
And I Wish they would all go through.
I'm incapable of breaking the abyss lying between us,
The slow days pass without you and I'm helpless thus.
In this life I only know how to be strong for the world
And this side of pain I have only for you I keep curled.
Yes, it exists deep inside and I want you to read it one day;
In eternity I will follow you for I wish no other destiny.
And if I'm smitten again deep into my soul's clay,
I will bend down to no devilry,
I will fight back eternally!
I sit here alone without you,
That's why my pain's tears fall,
Every memory brings me blue.
My plea on paper is laid with passion,
For my thoughts only you they call
And to your mind I Wish they would fall.
The first snow has fallen on my crimson poppy flowers,
So I knelt down to their rest and prayed to it for hours.
Yes, there is much more you must see deep into my garden;
In eternity I will make sure they never wither again.
And if from then on my soul's weights will only harden,
Before you my eyes I will drain,
Before you I'll become the rain!
I sit here alone without you,
That's why my pain's tears fall,
Every memory brings me blue.
My plea on paper is laid with passion,
For my thoughts only you they call
And to your mind I Wish they would fall.
Throughout the world I will scream
So that you will finally hear my call
And then I will achieve my dream.
Believe it…
Hajime folded the piece of paper and hid it back in his wallet. It was the only poem he had asked Sayo to gift him, precisely because he felt it resonated with him the most back then. Oh how infatuated he had been with the beautiful lie that was their love. And little did he know that five years later his heart would still be longing for that accursed feeling of love, no matter how many heartbreaks he suffered, no matter how certain he was that the likes of him deserved loneliness.
Snapping back to reality, he entered the warm university hallway and began unbuttoning his jacket. The time had come for his best known façade: Hajime Shirayama, the polite and amiable public figure who always shook hands and smiled. Then the same old tired routines would ensue: greetings and small talk with classmates as they waited for the professor to arrive. It came as no surprise that many of them flocked around him as soon as he set foot in the course room, given the recent success of his winter clothing line.
While socializing, he could not help but notice Audra sitting all alone in her bench by the window, staring at her papers and looking unusually gloomy. Breaking away from the crowd, he walked up to her and casually greeted:
"Hey, long time no talk!"
She looked up. "Oh, Hajime, it's you..."
"Is something wrong? I've never seen you like this before." His concern was both comforting and disarming.
Audra swallowed a sob and avoided eye contact, making no effort to hide her shame. In an attempt to keep her dignity, she responded placidly, "I've failed the midterms, each and every one of them."
Hajime's eyes widened at the revelation. "How can that be? The courses weren't that hard this semester!"
"I don't know. You, as someone who's busier than this country's entire police force, still managed to pass them with ease. Meanwhile I, who's got all the time in the world, still can't get through a single course without everything going in one ear and out the other," Audra bitterly stated, looking down at her papers once more. "I'm not good at this. I'm not good at anything. I wasn't even good enough for you to want to stay with me."
Although shocked by those revelations, Hajime's expression softened upon witnessing her plea. Looking around, he noticed that eyes were on them and he would not be able to properly convey his message. Like all good spies, he needed a diversion.
"Would you mind if you joined me outside for a walk?" She looked back at him, surprised by the proposal. "Don't worry, the course will start in fifteen minutes, we've got plenty of time."
"Okay..." Audra obliged and got up to fetch her own winter coat.
Soon the two of them were on a slow walk in the calm snowfall, away from the crowded university halls. Now that they had their desired privacy, Hajime began:
"Listen, Audra, these past weeks have been hard on all of us. What with the Spawns being dealt with, the government trying to pass that stupid law which basically legalizes espionage on everyday citizens under the pretense of preventing future murder cults, and of course our own professors using this new status quo to double down on their lectures and homework assignments. It's understandable if you feel overwhelmed."
"Hajime, I know what you're trying to do, but I don't think it'll work," Audra replied, sadness lingering in her voice. "I'm not like you. My family doesn't have as many resources and I definitely don't have your training or smarts. I'm just an average idiot who at most can pretend to understand what's going on in the world."
"Do you know why I never opened up about what Shishima did to me?" Hajime asked, catching her full attention. "It's because I was at one of the lowest points in my entire life, in a position I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies. It left me scarred, you noticed this since our very first date. And yet you still put up with me and all my awful quirks. Audra, you're a strong woman, perhaps the strongest I've ever met. Even after we broke up, you keep sending me daily messages, encouraging me to get out of bed and keep fighting. This kind of patience and concern have more power to change a man than anything Shishima could ever pull."
Internally, Hajime was dumbfounded by the words coming out of his mouth. What was he doing? Just a few hours ago he had accepted that Sayo would never truly love him and that he was better off alone. Now there he was, going out of his way to comfort his ex-girlfriend. Why? They were through. From a rational point of view, her lack of confidence was no concern of his.
"Gee, I don't know what to say now," Audra admitted, her cheeks beginning to blush. "Even though we're still friends, I can't help but feel concerned for you, Hajime. You're on a very self-destructive path and I don't know if I can help you." She clenched her fist which began to shake. "I just hate myself for being so utterly useless!"
Said fist ended up in the gentle grip of Hajime's gloved hands. She looked him in the eye, rendered speechless.
"You don't need to talk down on yourself. Everything you've done for me so far has been enough," he earnestly said without a second thought.
Tears began to form in Audra's eyes. Her voice beginning to crack, she asked, "Hajime, why did you have to break up with me? All I ever wanted was to be there to comfort you!"
"I admit, I was scared. Scared of becoming a monster, one that would hurt others, even his loved ones, just to defeat another monster. Even now, with Shishima gone, I still fear that monster is inside of me, waiting to crawl out. I don't want to risk hurting you, Audra. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I ever-"
Hajime was silenced as Audra took him by surprise and kissed him. Although shocked at first, he accepted her and kissed her back, their moment of tenderness gently sheltered by the abundant snow which fell from the sky.
Once they finished building his deck, Ben decided to test it against Sayo in the living room. Having set up their cards on the dueling tables in the mansion's living room, five rectangular blue shields materialized above them both, thus beginning their duel.
"I summon Helcopta's Memory." A translucent helicopter holding a sketchbook with a drawing of itself appeared by Ben's side. "This is a tamaseed, not a creature, so it can't attack or be attacked. However, it does have a civilization and races, so it can be an evolution bait due to its Shinkarise effect."
"Helcopta's Memory has the Nature civilization and the races Jokers and RexStars," Sayo remarked. "It seems these RexStars keep bringing more and more surprises."
"With Helcopta's Memory's effect, I check the top four cards of my deck, add an evolution creature from among them to my hand and send the rest to the bottom of my deck in any order," Ben explained and revealed "Adam" Ogre MAX. "I'll take this."
"I cast I'm going to Afro!" Sayo tossed Gigandydanos, Big Tree King in her graveyard and drew two cards.
"I summon Onikamas, Strange Flow." A blue barracuda warrior wielding a trident and a golden shovel arose by Ben's side.
"I cast Beginning of the End," Sayo said and the top three cards of her deck went into her graveyard: Dandy Nasuo, Smapon and Aple, Young Great Elder. "I'll recover Katsuraderansu / I'm going to Afro."
"I summon Charisma Manifest!" A blue lion with a flowing green mane and sharp red claws appeared and joined the barracuda.
"Team Wave's leader..."
"His RexStars form, to be precise. When he's put into the battle zone, I draw three cards and discard two. In this case, I'll let go of Jasmine's Rune and Kiyuri, Coral Faerie. Now go, Onikamas, break her shield!" At Ben's behest, the creature rushed ahead and hacked an opposing shield with its trident. "Your turn."
"I summon Rymer Druid." A green-skinned humanoid appeared in the battle zone, wearing an orange loincloth, a necklace with painted eyes, golden bracelets and earrings and a witch hat, and wielding a wooden staff with a skull on its top. Sayo checked the top four cards of her deck and placed Smapon in her mana zone, letting the others fall into her graveyard, those being: Brachiodrange, Fernando Sesseur / Primal Scream and Uragiridamus, Great Demon King. "Since I played him from my hand, Rymer Druid gets destroyed." The humanoid then vanished in a small explosion.
"I evolve Charisma Manifest into Manifest (Marco Star)!" The lion got engulfed in a blue aura and when it dissipated, six tentacles were sticking out of the sides of his body, each ending in a transparent blue globe. "Since Charisma Manifest evolved, I activate his Shinkapower which renders him unblockable and unchoosable until the start of my next turn! Marco Star, attack, and with his effect, I draw three cards and discard one!" As Ben threw away another Helcopta's Memory, the lion gave a battle roar and rushed ahead, using his tentacles to tear down two shields. "Onikamas, shield break!" The barracuda followed suit and used his shovel to smash yet another shield.
"Shield trigger, I cast Primal Scream!" Sayo said and sent the top four cards of her deck into her graveyard, those being Aple, Young Great Elder, Domanmodrange, Gourmet Giant and 5000GT, Riot, the latter being recovered.
"That's all I've got for now," Ben passed.
"My turn then, since I have more than eleven cards in my graveyard, I summon 5000GT, Riot with one mana and destroy all creatures which have 5000 power or less!" A winged red-skinned humanoid with dragon features, donning a formal black suit with a blue tie and its left arm replaced with a giant buzz saw and a sharp blade appeared and quickly hacked the barracuda into pieces. "Fushigiverse, I send 5000GT to my mana zone and revive Gigandydanos, Big Tree King for 2 mana!" The creature got enveloped in a green aura and vanished, its place being taken by a giant tree creature with moose features, a glowing halo above its head and toxic purple fumes coming outs of its skull face. "With his effect, you must send all the cards from your hand to your mana zone!" Sayo watched her opponent reluctantly place Jasmine's Rune, Onikamas, Strange Flow, "Adam" Ogre MAX, Code: Ikouze (Adam Star) and Joe Star of Hope from his hand into his mana zone. "Lastly, I summon Aple, Young Great Elder." A small anthropomorphic tree with a smiling face depicted on its trunk appeared by her side as well. "While Aple is in the battle zone, you can't play creatures or spells from your mana zone or graveyard. And while Gigandydanos is in the battle zone, your creatures weaker than his 50000 power can't attack me."
"Those bloody lockdowns of yours are as persistent as ever," Ben sourly remarked as he drew his next card, but then his disposition quickly changed. "I evolve Helcopta's Memory into another Manifest (Marco Star)!" The translucent helicopter holding a sketchbook got enveloped by a blue aura and transformed into another green-maned blue lion with tentacles sticking out of his body.
"But how? Helcopta's Memory lacks the Water civilization!"
"Right you are, Sayo, but it has the RexStars race, which my Marco Star can also evolve from. Now, when he's put in the battle zone, I can return one of your creatures back to your hand, so let's get rid of that pesky Gigandydanos, shall we?" The lion roared and fired a large wave of bubbles from his mouth which engulfed the giant tree creature, causing it to ultimately vanish. "Now I'm free to attack you as I please, so go, Marco Star, break her final shield!" Ben ordered as he drew three more cards and tossed another Charisma Manifest in his graveyard.
"No shield triggers, I'm afraid," his opponent announced after checking her last shield.
"My other Marco Star, todomeda!"
The second lion rushed ahead and hit Sayo with one of the globes from his tentacles, knocking her right into the sofa and sealing his owner's victory. As the creatures and shields disappeared and Ben started packing up his cards, she walked up to him and said:
"Congratulations, I do believe this deck we've built is a success!"
"I must admit, Hajime was right, these RexStars are indeed powerful. Which reminds me, didn't Gigandydanos get a RexStars form too?" he wondered.
"It's true, I have it right here." She searched her hakama's pockets and pulled out Dydanos (Deathphoeni Star). "He's not as strong and has traded the attack lockdown for a mere shield lockdown. Sure, it would be great against Hajime's Judgment Emblem and Galaxyshield decks, but that's about it. So, to be honest, I'm not sure yet what I'll do with him."
"Why don't you build a RexStars deck as well?"
"From what I've seen, they're a bit more focused on rushing with evolution creatures, which I guess is not really my style. Still, I'll see in the future if Deathphoeni Star is worth it."
"Thanks for all your help, Sayo. I won't be keeping you much longer."
The priestess politely bowed down to him and thus was on her way. Left all alone, Ben could not help but feel giddy both at the prospect of his victory and the fact that he could still keep up with Hajime's decks. It seemed the more the game advanced, the more strategies they got in common. Perhaps he could use this as a way of getting closer to him, and before he knew it, Hajime would be head over heels for him.
Students flocked out of the university campus as the course hours came to an end. Once the crowd had dissipated, Hajime and Audra walked out of the college holding hands. It was so strange, that warm fuzzy feeling had returned. It soothed his aching heart, it comforted his tortured mind, it gave him that small hope and certainty that things would get better no matter how many obstacles life kept throwing at him. Did he deserve to love and be loved? Hajime still had doubts. But what he knew was that there was a woman out there who always was concerned for him no matter what, and he would never let her fall in the same pit of despair he had been lost in for the past five years. As long as they were together, he would ensure she was the happiest woman on Earth.
"Well, seems like we must part ways here," Hajime said as they reached the bus station. "See you tomorrow."
"Good night!" she wished him back and then he leaned and kissed her on the lips once more before taking his leave.
As she watched him disappear in the snowy twilight, Audra smiled warmly. At last, the man she had fallen in love with three years ago was back. And this time she would be by his side even at his lowest points and during his darkest nightmares, to prove he was not alone, to prove he also deserved a chance at happiness. It was the least she could do for him.
All of a sudden, she suppressed the urge to vomit. It was the third time that week when nausea took her by surprise...