Previously on TLA: Following the separation of soul from body, Phantom has begun exhibiting signs of new abilities - ones that she has no control or understanding of. Meanwhile, Musume and Jaden arranged for Blister to create fake IDs for their use in the foreign era.
For some time now, a strange woman has been keeping tabs on the Signers and was last seen taking Luna's old friend Patty Ortiz into her care.
Luna tried her level best not to believe in stereotypes but there were occasions when she had to admit that they existed for a reason. Whenever she ended up living with her brother, the shared areas could get a little messy. Which wasn't to say they were untidy, Leo would swear, it was just that men were used to a more sprawling approach to organisation. But he had nothing on the heaving piles of chaos that Musume left in her wake. Whatever books she was using each day tended to get shuffle themselves around at will and any dirty dishes (even if they were meant to represent the position of subatomic particles in quantum states) took up the remaining empty surfaces with tactical precision.
With Leo trying to demonstrate his latest technique to an enthusiastic Jaden while his teacher underwent her afternoon soaking and Musume finally went for a shower, Luna was trying to track down the insistent trilling of a phone somewhere in the rubble. She located it beneath a physics book in the midst of making papery love to a treatise on beekeeping. What was more bizarre was the lack of recognition. It was a modern phone but neither hers, Leo's, or Musume's.
"Hello?" Where the phone came from and who could be listening were two very good questions that Luna could only get answers to by picking up the phone.
"Luna?" Two answers jumped to the forefront of Luna's attention: this phone belonged to Musume and Blister was on the other end. "What are you doing with this phone?"
"Answering it." She responded guardedly. "What are you doing calling it?" If Blister was being evasive, it meant that these were matters on the far side of legality.
"Looking for someone." Each phone received a quiet glare from across the city. Neither wanted to be more involved than necessary and it was difficult to tell who knew what. "Guy and scary girl. Weird eyes, nasty temper, got a... strange friend that looks good in black." Of course Musume would use Phantom for intimidation. "Anyway, they left their wallets here. Got IDs and everything."
"Oh? Oooh. Right, we've been looking for that." She'd forgotten that any ID in Jaden's wallet was at least three generations out of date. That little excursion they had taken together had been far from voluntary and – like all strolls involving Musume – nobody was eager to recount the details. "Tell you what, how about I come over and pick them up? It's been ages since we've seen each other and I can save her the trip."
Relief washed down the line as Blister released a breath he didn't know that he'd been holding. "That'd be great. Bring the other guy though – I want to make sure to deliver at least one of them in person."
"Of course." Like herself, Blister had clear lines between his professional and personal affairs. Handing illegal papers which cost more than most people made in a year to a friend who wasn't involved probably went on the professional sides of things more than he liked but the alternative was more Musume in his life and... yeah, he could bend the rules if Luna brought the other customer along. "See you in a bit." Putting the phone down, she tucked it into a pocket. "Jaden."
"Yeah?" Leo looked away in time to intercept Jaden's fist with his face. "Sorry man, are you okay?"
"Yeah." Leaning against the wall, he gingerly touched his lip to check for blood. "It doesn't count though."
"Your ID's ready." Ignoring the overdramatisations of her brother, Luna grabbed a jacket from by the door and started putting her shoes on. "Blister wants me to come and collect Musume's for her."
"..." Jaden stared before his brain engaged. Yes, he could probably wait until Musume was out of the shower and then she could collect them herself but that would involve more Musume in his life and her last visit to Blister had ended with Jaden getting zapped several times. His leg still twitched slightly went he used the toilet. It was nearly possible to hear her temper rising as self-preservation forced Jaden to lunge for his shoes.
"Don't you want a thicker coat?" Even with the warmth of the city, a chill wind threatened to strip anyone venturing into the elements down to the bone.
"Nope," Cramming on one boot, he was eternally grateful for the optional buckles at the top. They'd hold long enough to get to freedom outside. "Mines plenty warm enough." Cold as normal winters could be, Academy Island lacked any of the insulating landmass needed to keep a stable temperature. If the wind was cold, the island was cold and damn any of the inhabitants. KaibaCorp had seen the mere possibility of a lawsuit and made the uniforms out of some smart fabric to keep the students warm in winter and cool in summer. "C'mon." Grabbing Luna's hand, he practically dragged her out the front door as the faintest sound of water flowing through pipes stopped. "Can't keep him waiting."
For someone so intent on arriving early, Jaden certainly felt no regrets about walking instead of getting any of the various taxis or buses that went trundling past. Luna was grateful to stumble into the dingy atrium of Blister's apartment building. "How can you not be cold?" True enough, Jaden hadn't even felt the need to close his jacket and was only wearing a tatty old shirt beneath it.
"It's just not that cold." He shrugged as the elevator clanked them to their floor.
"Yeah, to you." Both her hands were thrust deep in each pocket and her turned-up collar had done little to abate the pink flush building in her face from the chill. At least she could count on the illegal workshop to be toasty warm as Jaden knocked politely on the door.
"Who is it?" From the tone of voice, Blister had spent his spare time getting ready for a fatal brawl with Musume.
"Guess." There was a brief interlude as several locks were thrown back and the door ripped open.
"Luna!" People were usually pleased to see someone as kind as she was but (when he'd been expecting a bloodthirsty pair of demons) Luna was practically glowing with a saintly light.
"Blister!" Luna wrapped both arms around her grizzled hacker friend as he swung her around into the apartment.
"It's been too long." Kissing her on both cheeks, he winked cheerfully at the angel over her shoulder. "Who is this boytoy you've got caught up in the family mess? If he hadn't shown up with our angry friend, I might even assume he was innocent." A hearty handful of the people who came pounding on his door were running from forces more nefarious than the cops but few survived long enough to reach the sturdy oak.
"Stop playing with him." Smacking him on the chest, Luna smiled at the faux flirting. Blister was incorrigible for as long as he was sure of being kept at arm's length. Ever since the single time she'd invited him to one of Misty's studios (and lost two models to his gritty earnestness), Luna had been careful to keep an eye on his manners. "Blister, this is"
"Sota." Blister held a commanding hand up and walked over to a desk against the wall. "Mr Sota Tanaka from the Iya Valley on Shikoku Island. Type AB+ blood, blind adoption 26 years ago. Sadly orphaned when a lovely couple passed away a couple of years ago." Rummaging through a drawer, he took out a thick leather wallet and tossed it across to his guest. "Even managed to tweak you into a couple of reports about off-books paying jobs and a misspelt mention in a charity newsletter in case anyone wonders how you've been getting by. You might be some of my best work yet."
Jaden opened the reams of assorted ID cards and flicked through them as Blister wiped away an imaginary tear of pride. Even to his untrained eye, the work looked professional – holographic logo, good picture clarity, that scratchy feel of an official card backed by a government body and the hard plastic feel of a mass-produced item with less weight than a drunk ant on the moon. "Universal recipient, right?" Luna peered in over a shoulder. "But why the Iya Valley?"
"Most isolated place you can come from in Japan." Picking up another leather holder, he tucked it into his folded arms. "Between that jacket and your usual types of crazy, I felt remote was better. Nothing in that packet tracks back to anything the cops can disprove. Short of buying a house, you can probably do anything." Then a thought seemed to occur to him. "Except a bank account – I need a couple of months to get that sort of background established. Nothing I can do about the timeline."
"Are those Musume's set?" Luna nodded to the wallet still held in his arms.
"Can we have a word?" He glanced at the awkward third party. "Privately?"
"I'll wait outside." Not keen to remain within reach of the man with enough stun guns to sate a crooked cop, Jaden retreated to the hallway.
"Look, I'm not one to pry." Said the man who had a professional career of prying into systems. "But... you okay?" Luna waved away his concern over her coughing fit. Right over her shoulder to the invisible figure still hovering midway through the door until it begrudgingly retreated. "There's something about Musume that I don't like. You have to be good at recognising bad guys in my line of work but I can't put my finger on what's up with her."
"Blister." Luna placed a gentle hand atop his on the envelope. "I promise, we've got it under control."
"Like last time?" Reluctantly letting her take the new identity, he tried not to sound bitter. "When a city nearly fell on us? Or when Yusei was nearly made a slave in a mountain? Where is he these days?" Reaching out to his old criminal accomplice had been the first action after Musume left the apartment. Every number he had for Yusei rang through and none of the numerous internet sightings had been able to lead to anything real. It was as if he had vanished from the face of the planet. "Or did a giant spider swallow him whole?"
"Honest talk? Between the pair of us?" An infinitesimal crack appeared in her facade. "I really don't know what we're doing this time. Yusei's got all those lawyers going after him, something weird's going on with Duel Monsters, and there's far scarier things out there than Musume." Even though Phantom was a gentle ghost, her unnatural presence was an affront to nature and another sign that reality was twisting away from normal. Dark Duels and Shadow Games were making a terrifying return and history was being rewritten by someone powerful enough to slay even the King of Games and the Supreme King.
"But these," She steeled herself up again and tapped Blister with the leather pouch. "These are going to help Musume a lot. I'll be sure to send her by to thank you in person."
"That won't be necessary." He hurriedly excused the masterpiece of work in her hands. "Satisfaction in a job well done, I'm happy as long as she's happy, etc. Give her my best, tell her I'm on holiday in Barbados and will be unreachable for the next fifty years." Ushering Luna out the door, he knew damn well that she was giving him an out and he was taking it with both hands. "Let me know if I can help at all later on." Waving his farewells to the confounded Jaden, Blister slammed the heavy wood home and leaned on it with a sigh of relief.
How whatever the former Signers were facing was worse than Musume, he couldn't imagine. At least Yliaster didn't come breaking down his door to get what they wanted. And that was the least that Musume seemed capable of – he was still surprised to have all limbs intact. A knock on said door disturbed his thoughts and Blister shook himself back to reality. "What's the matter?" Reaching for the handle, his gaze swept around the room behind him for anything out of place. "Did you forget something?"
A heavy body slammed the door open and sent Blister stumbling backwards as muscled suits flooded into his workspace. Rolling to his feet, he neglected the traditional banter and sprinted to the windowsill with a narrow enough gap to the neighbour's roof to leap to safety. He nearly made it too but one of his pursers snagged the back of his waistcoat and he instantly knew that the tiny drop in speed was enough to rob him of escape. One hand brushed past a workbench as he stumbled to the ground and the attacker reached down to collect their target.
Blister came up swinging, a Shock Baton in hand and a precise punch drastically reducing any chance this guy had of continuing the fight or his lineage. Swiping the next brute straight in the face, he could see at least another five figures crowding the path between him and the front door. "Come on then." Grabbing a partner weapon from the umbrella stand holding a collection of useful wooden parts, he pushed the power settings to the highest levels possible – ones born as a result of his customisations. Rushing the nearest body, he jammed one crackling stub into their midriff and watched as they collapsed in a spasming pile.
Grunt the Third took advantage of the falling comrade to punch Blister hard enough that he saw stars even as his trailing arm made contact and electrocuted the muscles into flinching away. Regaining his senses first, Blister returned the favour and clubbed the shaven head until it stopped moving. In the two seconds it had taken him to do that, Number Four had strode up behind him in the assuredness that his approach would be inaudible beneath the sounds of battle.
Turning on the spot with a savage scream, Blister drove weapons downwards into the collarbones of his attacker and watched nature take hold as all orifices chose that moment to evacuate at extreme speeds. With blood and vomit dripping down his face, he turned to the remaining forces as his strength began to flag. No matter how strong he could have been, catching a chair with both hands full would have been impossible at the best of times and he toppled to the ground.
"It was the floorboard, wasn't it?" Spindles and stretches formed an instant prison as the heavy furniture forced him back to the floor. Taking a seat atop it, the woman stared down at her prey. "C flat?" If she didn't know better, she might have believed he'd managed to tune the wooden panels.
"Get fucked." Pinned with his face to the floor, he could barely see her much less attack.
"Your work is truly impressive." Putting a pointed heel on his wrist, she slowly applied pressure until he released the Shock Baton. It didn't happen until the blood was flowing freely. "We'd never be able to track your latest set if we didn't have the name – Sota Tanaka."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Beneath it all, Blister's mind raced through the possibilities. He knew he was done for but at least this bitch only knew one of the identities he'd handed Luna. What it didn't explain was the aggressiveness of the entry – he'd been dealing in little more than a few counterfeit train cards for the last few years and his legal jobs were clean. Oh shit. Oh shit, shit shit, shit. "Are you with Yliaster?"
"We have a close relationship." The ice queen admitted. Blister instantly knew he was dead. Worse, he'd dismantled his safeguards and backups when he went straight. His old failsafe of automatically sending everything to Trudge if he didn't stop it each week was long dead and he'd soon be joining it in the digital afterlife. "How would you feel about a job?"
"Look, lady." That pointed heel twisted back into the hole it had already made but Blister gritted his teeth and ignored the pain. "No offence but I'd sooner dip my balls in boiling honey and get covered in fire ants while my ex plays her fucking panpipes. How about you shove your head up your arse and get the fuck out of my place instead?"
"I'm sure that we can change your mind, in time." Standing from the chair, she let her last remaining sentient mountain twist Blister's arm up until he either let go of his last baton or it broke and they moved onto his fingers. "I understand that you consider Yusei Fudo a good friend. Tell me." With his arm twisted up like this, it was difficult to throw a decent punch. Difficult, but not impossible. "Do you happen to know where he is?"
"Right now?" Come on, take a step closer. If he could get one solid punch in, she'd go down and he'd only have to worry about beating the guy behind him with only one working arm.
"Poor choice of words." She closed the distance. "Because Yusei Fudo is not 'right now'. To be more accurate, he's back in 2004."
"What?" Blister was so thrown by the casual declaration that he forgot the plan and remained suspended on his toes in utter bewilderment. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"Yusei Fudo is in Domino City, the year 2004." Each word slipped out past a smile of ice as piercing eyes saw straight to the truth inside his head. "They didn't tell you? He's exactly where he needs to be. And we're going to help make sure that he stays that way." Trying to do thinking in the already delicate situation was made impossible by the needle in his neck and whatever special concoction that was making him flutter contrarily for a map with two slotted spoons.
Blister's arm twisted awkwardly as he collapsed to a drooling pile on the floor to join his earlier victims. "Get him in the van." Even with only one personal guard left, there was too much pride to carry the unconscious body herself. Stepping out into the hallway, she glared at the second group of workers. They'd been shuffling into the building all morning and waited in the other apartment until the life doors had closed on Luna and Jaden. "I want everything. Pack it all up, take it through the building across the alley and have it brought to his new facilities by the morning. Send the cleaners in once you're done – make it like he was never here." Anyone else might have asked but she spoke in certainties: either what she said happened or there would be severe consequences.
Left alone to his own devices, Leo had instantly launched a raid with his eternal foe and couldn't have accurately said how many hours had passed since Luna left. At least enough for her to settle her affairs and return, judging by the message on his phone. "Call it a day for now?" Looking at the screen to where Abi's avatar was doing a chicken dance around his slain corpse, he resisted the urge to pay for a forced revival. "I've got something else to do."
"Bwark, bwark bwark bwark?" A supposedly advanced AI capable of attacking the global digital infrastructure and she couldn't even be bothered to use the clucking of real chickens. That somehow made the taunting more aggravating.
"Yeah? Let's see how that works out next time." Sending a thumbs up through the chat, he terminated the program and turned off his computer for good measure. "I hate her." It wasn't even as if she was using some radical computer trickery to best him, Abi just wound Leo up until he made mistakes. At one point, she'd even messed up her casting time and been roasted by a new wave of minions and Leo had spent so much time trying to rescue her that he'd missed the big boss creeping up behind them both.
Walking down the stairs, Leo's usually unburdened brain operated more heavily on autopilot than usual as he read the extensive list on his phone. It was only as he glanced up to extend an offer to anyone else that gears started turning again. "What're you guys up to?" In the ever curious case of Leo's grasp on reality, he was casually trying to edge around what was best described as a sacrificial altar being presided over by a dragon priestess.
"Trying to figure out how Chuckles here can use her powers." Matches had required too much interaction for Musume's taste and her more safety-oriented patient had pointed out the dangers of lit candles splayed around the carpeted floor. "You getting anything yet?" Lying on the kitchen dining island and surrounded by enough candles to light a vigil, Phantom was resting gently in the middle of the ring of tiny flames with both hands folded across her stomach and a growing certainty that she would either start showing results or getting stabbed.
"She's got powers?" Leo turned to his captive teacher. "You've got powers?" It shouldn't have been a shock that the disembodied soul could do more than a few card tricks but he sounded like the sun had risen in the west.
I lit one candle. Musume had a wooden splint she was using to gradually reignite each candle that Phantom failed to kindle. And now I have to sit here until I can do it again. I do not even know how I did it the first time.
"Which is exactly why we need to figure out what's going on in that shell of a head you have up there." Knocking the side of her head pointedly, Musume snuffed out another candle. "Run it again."
"Well," Leo had his arms loaded up with enough snacks to survive the apocalypse. "Looks like you've got a de-light-ful evening planned."
"Don't encourage him!" Despite the ring of fire and perilous risk to piles of snacks, Phantom had immediately reached out a hand to slap. "I swear, the only thing saving you right now is that you make good coffee."
That might be the nicest... compliment you have given me yet. She lifted her helmet to look down at where the sword was embedded in her chest.
Up on the landing, Leo was starting to question his choice of teacher. True, Phantom fulfilled both necessary qualifications (being both better than and willing to teach him) but most other people had an instinctive fear of Musume that she seemed unable to replicate. Maybe he should switch to a more prudent instructor going forward. Clutching his snacks up higher, he awkwardly reached out and tapped Jaden's door with his foot.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." Jaden muttered to himself as he struggled to buckle his belt and properly wash his hands before the knocker could vanish. "Yeah?" Opening the outer door onto the hallway, he was too late for whoever it had been. Stepping out, he automatically went to see if anyone had been looking for his help when the view stopped him dead.
Certain people are said to be the living embodiment of virtues. If nothing else, Jaden certainly embodied boundless optimism in other people. It had led to more than one ongoing misunderstanding and many more awkward encounters when he overestimated the good in people. But even boundless optimism had limits and one of them was seeing what looked disturbingly like an ongoing human sacrifice on the kitchen table being presided over by a shining draconic figure wielding a darkly gleaming blade.
Carefully inching beyond the stairs, he gently tapped on the only door which contained sanity. "Sup?" Right. Not sanity.
"Sorry," He automatically apologised. "I thought this was Luna's room."
"Yeah?" Leaning forward on her bed, the smarter twin leaned into view with a baggy shirt and shorts on.
"I... Is that normal?" There wasn't any frame of reference for what he was seeing in the kitchen outside of horror films. Then again, the same could be said for Musume. Bumshuffling off the bed, Luna personally appraised the sight for the first time. The three amigos' combined stares were enough to gently prickle the back of that glowing neck and it turned with more imperious might than a dozen emperors and more deadly intent than a senate of corrupt politicians.
"Leo and I are having a movie night." Two glowing eyes were enough to spear either man while she was carefully spared from the violent eyeballing. "Want to join us?" Grabbing them both by an arm, she dragged the pair behind the safety barrier of her bedroom door.
If the outside was crazy, the inside was merely weird. A complicated array of blankets and pillows was piled across the bed and spilling out onto the floor. Rolling into the middle of the pile, Luna threw herself back against the cushioned headboard and pulled several of the blankets atop her bare legs before grabbing a veritable bucket of junk food. Pausing on the periphery of the chaos, Jaden's eyes were drawn to man's universal dream.
"Your room has a TV?" Plastered across half the far wall was a screen of such precision that he would have mistaken it for a window if he didn't know there was a utility room on the other side. Even for all the futuristic sci-fi he'd seen in his own era, the clarity was terrifyingly lifelike.
"All the rooms do." Leo shuffled onto the spare side of the bed with a confused look on his face (maybe, it could easily have been his usual face). "Didn't you find the remote?"
"Yeah, but I couldn't miss this." Both hands spread out to encompass the magnitude before them.
"Oooh." Ignoring the frozen drama on the television, Luna rolled her eyes and popped a raisin in her mouth as Leo clicked the power button. Like all his revelations, it was about ten seconds after its due arrival time.
"Whoa!" Unable to help himself, Jaden reached out and gently touched the wall. It was indistinguishable in colour from all the rest. Even the slightly hard surface was nearly identical to whatever plaster-type material surrounded it. "What's it made of?"
"Erm, television stuff?" At least they had the excuse of protecting history but neither twin knew enough about the internal workings beyond normal selling information. "It keeps whatever the last image is. Give it a good picture of the wallpaper for the standby screen and it blends right in."
"Cool." Skipping around the rest of the clutter, he nearly tripped in amazement as the picture resumed. "What are we watching?" With a picture this good, he nearly didn't care what genre was playing.
"My favourite dumb soap opera." Luna said guiltily. While there was no damage to the timeline, her secret pleasure was about to deliver a severe hit to her self-esteem. "Kendall married Ethan's father to get back at him by inheriting the casinos but he changed his will at the last minute. Now, Ethan's lawyer told him that he shouldn't bank on getting his inheritance back but hinted that there might still be a way to get the casinos before his father dies."
"I'm betting that he has a baby with Kendall." Leo muttered darkly. "Then his father gives it to the kid and he takes control of the accounts." Reaching across the room, he conspiratorially passed a packet of breadsticks over to Jaden as the drama started back up again.
"Kendall is conniving and unworthy of their affections." Regulus growled from his place curled up alongside Luna's legs. "Likewise, Ethan should resolve his feelings of abandonment by confronting his father over his drive to work instead of spending his time raising his son."
"You watch this show?" There was a tense stalemate between Yubel and Regulus since Musume had pulled rank. She might not be able to bring out the full power of the creatures inside her but a mountain was a speck to a planet while more than plenty to crush the occasional dissenter.
"Luna watches it, I watch over Luna." Regulus had the inconvenient need to adjust his pose in such a way that he couldn't see that sadistic grin.
"Sure, that's why you're invested in seeing Ethan reconcile with his father." A deep growl filled the room as Regulus' tail curled aggressively.
"Can't you two get along?" Luna couldn't drag her eyes away from the screen to settle the argument – Ethan's father had just been confronted by Kendall's uncle who was an amateur lawyer and had some very probing questions.
"Not likely." As the only person in the room limited to typical human perceptions, Leo mistook her question for the show. "I reckon he'll try to extort a cushy job but have an 'accident' before he can tell anything to Kendall."
"Well, duh." His sister broke gaze to roll both eyes. "I meant Regulus and Yubel."
"Oh." Leo tried not to feel foolish about not noticing the invisible figures. "Your imaginary friends fighting again?" It was an old joke between the siblings. As Luna had been young enough for their parents to dismiss the massive lion only she could see as an 'imaginary friend', the twins had grown up thinking everyone had invisible friends only they could see. It had been quite a shock for Luna to slowly learn her imaginary friends were more persistent than most.
"At least they're not stuck downstairs with Musume." Jaden sobered the mood in a hurry. Regulus was a lion and could do considerable harm if the need arose but he was more a big cat than the title implied. Musume was as temperamental as the weather and twice as likely to turn nasty. "Does anyone know what they're doing?" Please don't say ritual sacrifice, please don't say ritual sacrifice.
"They think Phantom has powers because she might have lit a candle." It was difficult to be jealous of his mentor. Everyone else in the penthouse had some form of supernatural ability but lighting candles was hardly the stuff of legend if it had even happened at all.
"Shut your mouth!" Luna lurched forward so fast that her snack bucket went flying.
"No, really, she" A pillow to the face interrupted the rest of his sentence.
"I will never feel the same way about anyone else." On the screen, Kendall was drawing closer to Ethan with tears growing in her eyes. "You're the only person I've ever met who understands what it's like to be like me."
"Booo!" Jaden hissed from the side as she pulled him in to suck half his face off. Even with minimal background, he knew that the pair were irrevocably unsuitable for one another.
"Maybe, in a different time, it could have worked." Ethan rested their foreheads together with a tearful expression of his own. "But you and I can't be together and it was cruel of fate to even suggest that we could."
"How can you say that after everything!" Leo grabbed his head in both hands as Regulus growled his frustration at the heartfelt moment on display. Everything after that was a discordant cacophony of screamed emotion and disbelieving objections.
Maybe we should check on them? Even from downstairs, the noise filled the room and Phantom welcomed the distraction.
Musume considered the likelihood that the three most innocent creatures since the capybara were in actual distress and not that Luna's soap opera had delivered another emotional blow. "They'll be fine." Growing up as the only real conduit between her godmother and dramatic television had taught her how bad the revelations could be. "Let's start again, from the top." Reaching past the blade keeping her sacrifice pinned to the table, she extinguished another candle.
Seasons greetings to all and to all, leave a review.