With both legs drawn up and the arms encircling them, the resulting figure was surprisingly small in the chair. To avoid another unfortunate incident, Musume had carefully shunted Jack to the back of their little group and handed Crow another knuckleduster should his brother step out of line.
"Is there anything that you need?" Taking Musume's advice as her guidance, Akiza was wondering how her medical skills would apply to someone who talked straight into her head. Smiling uneasily, she watched those eyes turn in her direction. "I'm Akiza."
Director Izinski? Rocking in place, an unsettling laugh came from beneath that mask. No, that was later, not now. Conferring a quick look with her mother, it was clear that she had no recognition of the title.
"Maybe you just sit there and we'll start things off." Both shoulders shrugging was easily seen from where she sat. Taking it as an assent, she tried to think about how to begin a conversation with someone she had almost killed. "Let's start with names. I'm Musume, that's Crow and Akiza." She had positioned the group nearby but still with enough space to prevent their guest from feeling crowded. Large groups of people crowding in on her had already ended poorly once that evening. "Try not to pay any attention to Yusei or Jack – they're about as brainless as you can get." If it made answers come any quicker, the Signers would have hired a squad of professional comedians to insult Yusei. Not that they would have needed them with both brothers in the room. "And that's Luna and Leo." Tiny flickers of blue deep inside that mask watched names be attached to people but said nothing.
"Why are we last?" Neither as shallow or slow as her brother, Luna just stepped on his toes until he stopped speaking and they could hear Musume again.
"Can you say something? I mean, you wouldn't stop talking earlier." Mimicking the posture across the table, she cracked a comforting smile. At least, that was what she was aiming for. It was not even vaguely clear how her guest was taking it. Something she was doing must have worked because tight fingers slowly began to peel away from knees until they were only holding the joints and not almost crushing them.
Hello. It was a timid tone but they all heard it take time. Luna fumbled at nothing as she tried to reconcile the voice she was hearing as something like a Duel Spirit but fundamentally not one as Leo failed to notice anything out of the ordinary. Jack had borne the screaming weight of Red Nova for only a few months but understood the ethereal nature of spirits better than most researchers while Crow had an unpleasant flashback to his short stint in the Netherworld. Only Akiza had no real comparison to draw on but decided to just go with it.
"Let's answer some real questions." For his unwanted contribution, Jack would later receive a few bruised ribs. "Like why can't we see her?" Crow instantly wrapped his brother in a tight hold and grappled him to the floor as the figure on the chair wrapped itself back up in a tight shell again.
"As much as I hate to agree with the taller idiot," Looking around at the group, their guest noticed how nobody seemed particularly alarmed that Jack and Crow were brawling in the middle of the floor. "He makes a good point once a month. Can you tell us a bit more about your outfit? Maybe give us a name?"
Although they were clearly making an effort to answer her question, what came across was more in abstract meanings than literal or physical ones. "Ideas? Shadows? Shades?" Musume switched to the same ancient Quechua dialect that her companion had used earlier in hopes that it might work better. "Llanthu? Nuna?" Two dark palms were held apart a fraction of an inch on the table. "Phantom?" A single nod was her reply before the hands wrapped back around the legs. "Phantom, can you tell us more about yourself? Maybe take off that helmet?" With all the speed of a wary snail, the freshly named 'Phantom' slowly began raising her fingers through the air. Turning around in her seat, Musume gave her best glower to the room.
"Everybody, this is Phantom. Let's all be nice to her, got it?" This last part was directed more at Jack than anybody else. Rotating back around, she was just in time to see nervous fingertips fiddling about each other. "It's okay. We're all friends here. You can show us. It can't be more horrifying than seeing Crow in the morning." A shifty look of support from Yusei kept Crow from passing comment. Crow might be many things but he was not a natural beauty after getting up.
Carefully, as careful as she had been when stepping between Luna and a Shadow Duel, Phantom lowered her head and placed a hand on either side of the black helmet. Blue lights in her eyes died down as she gently shifted fingers and thumbs around the curves. Carefully pinching in just the right places, there came the tiniest sound of hidden latches and locks undoing themselves. Levering the plate forward, Phantom gently lowered it to the table.
For some reason, all the Signers had stopped breathing in suspense. To say her appearance caused mixed reactions was a slight understatement. Leo gasped at exactly the wrong time and began choking on nothing, Crow gave a startled yell and tripped over the coffee table as Jack buried into the couch in shock. Akiza lost feeling to three fingers as Yusei grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight. Maybe the most bizarre was Musume. She just quietly leant forward and stared at the huddled being before her as the curved material rocked quietly on the table. Another hand reached up and removed what remained of the helmet until what lay inside was unencumbered.
What was looking back at them wasn't quite a face. It was more a vague outline, composed of rolling blue light that shifted tones as it turned this way and that. A very primal thing deep inside Jack whispered remembrances of the familiar he had met deep beneath the Incan geoglyphs. For some reason, nobody was screaming in fear or immediately thinking of ways to destroy the floating being. There was just a sense of quiet puzzlement as if they somehow knew this was nothing dangerous but still lacked any idea of how to deal with it.
Eventually, as with all inexplicable things, Musume spoke first. "Nice colours." It was not her strongest moment. Passing the baton of inarticulate wordcraft, Crow stepped up to bat.
"I like how the bits... um... do that thing." Unfortunately, his contribution was about as daring as the one before. He was a bit unsettled by the burning lights that floated where eyes should have been.
"Is she a ghost?" Before her twin could start the inevitable screaming, Luna slapped a hand across his mouth. Phantom had possibly saved her life once already, it would be rude to let her brother start screaming at her now.
"Are you a Duel Spirit?" The blob shook from side to side in smooth ripples of movement with confusion permeating the air. "Oh." She had seen many different appearances of Duel Spirits over the years but this being not belonging to the Spirit World was an unforeseen twist. Suddenly – and for the first time ever – her brother's instinctive reaction didn't seem too excessive.
An awkward silence descended as they tried to think of how to continue a polite conversation without mentioning the lack of body. "How do you use the bathroom?" All eyes – physical and otherwise – turned to Jack. "What? We were all thinking it." Including the medical professional, no, nobody else had been thinking it and – judging by the stares Jack was getting – they were mildly repulsed by the question.
"If there was a mute button for you, it'd have saved me so many headaches." Crow could feel one building now. Or maybe that was the intensely focused stare he was getting from the ethereal being. "I meant for him." Pointing a literal finger of blame at his brother did nothing to divert the gaze. With the silence slowly stretching out in his nervousness, nobody wanted to be the first to speak.
"Maybe it's best if you put the helmet back on." Averting her penetrating gaze, Phantom carefully picked up the parts of her helmet and began securing them into place. First the back, then the sides and, finally, the tinted visor. As soon as the outfit was fully replaced, the shimmering light was captured within and the calming spell was broken. "Neat armour. Where'd you get it?" Even though Musume was trying to keep herself controlled, she was finding herself slowly starting to want a set for herself. Not for any particular reason but because she didn't have one of her own.
Stolen from the minds of tomorrow and ghosts of yesterday. Forged in the bowels of the planet with the material of life. Blinking several times, Musume squinted at the odd pattern of words. It was like Phantom had thought up a logical response, run it through a cheap online translator in several unrelated languages and then read the result while drunk.
"Okay." Accepting the crazy response at face-value, Crow moved onto a better question. "Can you tell us how you managed to interrupt the Shadow Duel earlier?" If she could break into one, maybe she could help him with rescuing Pearson. But he should have known not to raise his expectations so early.
By moving unseen through the shadows to pierce through that which separates. As much as they were trying to remain cautious, the group was starting to see a pattern whenever Phantom answered a question directly.
"What do you think about my jacket?" Wearing his azure Runner jacket, Leo looked ready for a Turbo Duel on the top half and ready for bed with his pyjama bottoms left on in the original hurry to reach his sister. Not in the mood for more gibberish, Musume interrupted before a response could come.
"Is there someone you would like us to call?" Reaching for the longest odds that the bizarre creature had a translator they could use, she tried for one last effort. "Maybe there's a friend we could speak to?" Grateful that Phantom didn't try for more nonsense speak, she was still disheartened when the head shook a negative. "Okay. You wait there for a minute, we just need to discuss this a little bit." Edging her chair backwards, she didn't let the armour out of her sight for a second as she backed towards her family.
"I think that it goes without saying – we tell nobody." Causing problems might be inevitable to Musume but increasing them seemed to be fun for her.
"I dunno." Slipping the illegal knuckleduster back into his pocket, Crow pretended to think it over. "I think a straitjacket would suit Jack fairly well." Without a strong advantage to be wary of, Jack was swift to kidney-punch his younger sibling. Eager to avoid an all-out brawl – which Crow might have even won – the wiser brother turned to the smartest. "What should we do with her for the meantime?" Between the rambling, violence and supernatural weirdness, they had little idea what to do with her.
"She can stay with us." It would be a dark day before Yusei ever invoked his powers as master of the house but tone left no room for discussion in his voice. Even if this was another Antiomy-Trojan-horse scenario, the former Signers would always be ready to take another lost cause under their wings. Especially since she had tried to help Luna and despite the cautious voice in his head warning him of the 'knight in shining armour' gambit.
"Yeah, she can take Crow's room." Attention slipped from the pair as they fell into an inevitable squabble.
"Leo and I should get going. Taxis are going to be hard to get soon." Midnight had given way to the grim area of time that existed between 'the night before' and 'the morning after'. Practically all business would shut down to amend any errors and prepare for the morning shoppers. Drivers would likely pull over and squeeze in a few hours stolen sleep off the clock. Even trains would stop running to rest their wheels.
"I'll call you one." Of course, many drivers would go a few days without sleep for the mere chance of meeting the great Yusei Fudo. With his recent win being screamed around the world, taxies would line up for miles just to offer him a ride. "Jack, Crow. I want you to go with them." Once more, the authority that Yusei never wielded forced his brothers into quietly accepting their fate. After what Luna had been through, it would be best that she have someone there for her for a while. Also, Jack's assertive nature around Phantom's fragile state was like tying up a bull in a pottery studio and hoping it stayed still.
Once the twins had safely departed with an awe-struck fan, Akiza and Yusei simply vanished away before Musume could even reach the second floor again. It was a cheap trick that dropped the bundle of supernatural responsibility solely in the lap of the only person who was both capable of dealing with and lacking the necessary motivation to deal with the mess. By the time she managed to reach the living room, it was empty but for the outline of darkness huddled quietly on a chair.
"I can't believe," Considering the stories she had grown up with, Musume realised very quickly that she could believe her extended family would drop her with a problem nobody wanted. "Okay, they're all a load of," There is something disconcerting about a moving shape of utter void suddenly listening a bit harder than it did a moment before. "What are you looking at?" It was supposedly impossible to tell which way the head moved but Musume had the faintest suggestion that it dropped again. "Just stay where I can keep an eye on you." Throwing herself with unnecessary force onto the sofa, she lounged against the furthest part from the part in the kitchen and put the television on several bars louder than was strictly needed. It being late at night, there were only reruns of once-famous shows, films that had fallen from the shelves years ago, channels trying to sell stuff nobody needed or should be buying from their television anyway and the news.
"Kids, it was the middle of winter and your uncle" Family dramas have nothing on Signer problems. Next.
"y secret. I'm always angry." Try living with an ancient spirit in your head that wants to eradicate your entire family genetic ancestry. Next.
"This stunning piece can be yours for only" Tacky jewellery, fake gems. Next.
"We still don't have all the reports but it appears that the New Domino Police Department was involved in an altercation earlier this evening." Pictures from the warehouse district momentarily appeared on the screen as Musume flipped past a news report before hurriedly switching back. "...cials have declined to give comment at this time but witnesses have reported that many officers were injured in the attempt to apprehended an intruder at the dock long-term storage warehouses." Lights were flashing in the background that had not been present earlier. Ambulances had arrived to take away the many, many wounded. "At this point, it is unclear how many people were involved but it is apparent that the group inflicted heavy damage to the police who attended the call. A security guard who gave comment claimed that only one person infiltrated the warehouses and is presumed to have let others in." Nobody sane would think that the lone intruder could have held off so many police officers. It was hard to imagine that the same person was now huddled in the corner and barely able to string a sentence together.
"Looks like you're famous." Indicating the television, she quietly rubbed at one eye. Whatever else had happened to her in Paris had let her see things like Duel Spirits and the dark energy of a Shadow Duel much easier yet – for all the straining she had been trying to sneak in – all that went to waste against the silent armour. "Seriously, where did you get that outfit? You know what." Holding up a single finger, she stopped the doubtless infuriating reply before it could come. "Don't worry about it. I don't need the headache." But one was already starting to blossom behind her eyes.
No matter how hard she tried, everything in her life seemed destined to turn into crap. Saving her family from their previous fates had been the one goal that seemed to have worked out so far. But the more she thought about it – and she tried not to think about it – literally everything else had fallen apart. Leaving to try and have a tiny slice of life for herself had only let her meet her family coming from the other direction. Duelling in the Pegasus Trinidad had resulted in Crow going to the Underworld and her biggest secrets being revealed. Which had then led to everything in Paris and the fact that she now sometimes woke up with different or more appendages than she had gone to sleep with. And now she was stuck babysitting a blue thing in a suit of armour with aching eyes. She had aching eyes. Not Phantom. Did Phantom even have eyes?
Three things that Musume had forgotten to account for that day: that she hadn't slept since the morning of the day before, the unnatural (or did she mean supernatural?) draining effect of being in a Dark Duel for even the few seconds she had been in and that staring at the television late at night has a moderately hypnotic effect. Only a few minutes after closing her tired eyes – just to rest them, of course – she was dead to the world.
As her quiet snores filled the room, Phantom slowly looked up and realised that she had not exactly been forgotten but designated as being unimportant and unthreatening. She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that. She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about a lot of things recently. Everything had been strange since the incident on the rooftop. Looking out across the room, she realised she knew how she felt about at least one thing.
Anybody who had spent more than a minute in Poppo Time could tell of the creaking floorboards and loose stones that littered respective floors. Uncurled from her stiff position on the chair, she placed her feet in peculiar exact positions and carefully slipped across the open space without making any noise at her passing. Looking down at the sofa, one hand silently reached out with excruciating intent.
It's a lot shorter than yesterday's but the tone is (hopefully) a lot different so I thought it would make a standalone chapter. (Also, nobody wants to read 12k words at once.) Since it's shorter (and kind bland) feel free to do the same when you leave a review.