Spirit Caller

Chapter Fifteen

15

A Peek On The Flip Side

"...I surrender, Jaden."

The brunette stared blankly.

He was simply appalled.

"WHAT!? he gasped, "Surrender!? What gives!?" he huffed as he ruffled up his hands into his hair,"You're ahead in life points! Surely you're not running away just because I gained a slight advantage!?"

"I'm sorry Jaden." Connar chuckled waving her hand apologeticly,"But that's not the reason, I'm not scared or anything like that!" she stated, "I can take a loss as well as the next person it's just that..." she sighed as she tried to think of the words to explain,"Something else is bothering me..."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Jaden sighed before gracing her with a softer smile, "Don't worry, you seem to be having a hard time trying to explain it, so I'm not gonna make you." he stated,"Instead, let me get a look at your hand, maybe I can put something together with that." he held his hand out to her and she blinked carefully approaching him and placing what remained in her hand, into his.

"Let's see...Vindictive Magician, Magician's circle, and...Dark Magician Girl!?" Jaden blinked." How the heck did you get a card that awesome!?" He beamed in excitement," Didn't Yugi have one!?"

Connar blinked and giggled

"Sooo...you like Yugi?"

"You bet I do!" Jaden grinned.

"I see...that's nice to hear." she chuckled,"Well...Let's just say Dark Magician Girl was a gift, but...That's a story for another time."

"Fiiiiiiiiiine~" He pouted playfully and continued analyzing her hand. "With Vindictive Magician, you could have used its flip effect to destroy my Thunder Giant." he explained," Then with your trap card Magician's Circle...That would have been able to help you out later on into possibly even bringing out Dark Magician Girl."

"Not exactly." Connar stated,"With Magician's Circle I would have to summon a spellcaster from My deck...not my hand."

"True, but with the way you have built your deck, I wouldn't be surprised if you had ways of manipulating your strategy into putting her back in it." he stated,"Besides, I have seen your cards Connie, Dark Magician Girl is definitely not the only spell caster you have that meets the requirements!" he nudged her teasingly,"On second thought, for my sake, I'm kinda glad you didn't go a few more rounds, after Thunder Giant's destruction I would have had to normal summon a weaker monster and I wouldn't have been able to fight something like Dark Magician Girl right away, My life points would have probably taken a huge hit!" he laughed. She gave a slight blush and shy smile.

His smile...it's so much like-

"She's your favorite...isn't she?"

Connar gasped softly.

Well that pulled her out of La-La Land.

"How did you know that?"

"I can just tell just by holding it." he said softly, "You have a really strong bond with this card." he smiled and locked eyes with her, and she blushed like a child who got caught hiding her candy under her pillow. Seeing this expression on Connar's face proved Jaden's theory right, and he burst out laughing.

"No need to feel guilty, Connie!" Jaden teased poking her red puffed out cheek,"Everybody's got a favorite!" he grinned,"And Dark Magician Girl is an awesome favorite to have!" he leaned back onto his hands and continued, "And besides, even if it wasn't her you would summon, with the way you built up your life points in the first couple of turns, it's not like you wouldn't have been able to survive a couple of rounds until more pieces fell into place, in fact, I bet that's why you built up your life points in the first place!"

"Haha. wow, that's really impressive, Jaden !" Connar giggled.

She was floored by how much information Jaden gathered in just a couple rounds of a duel.

Now if only he would apply that knowledge into his school work...

I bet he could really make something of himself here in no time!

she chuckled.

"I like this one~" the sing song voice of her Dark Magician Girl card teetered and giggled startling Connar, causing her to reactively hush her.

"Haha, thank you!" Jaden beamed in response.

But it wasn't too Connar-

No...

It was to the disembodied compliment, which took Connar by surprise.

"Wait...You heard that!?" she asked.

The boy's gaze met hers and he smiled, but his eyes were focused and serious.

"And judgeging by your reaction..." he stated, "So did you."

"Ah..."

She was caught.

"I can tell just by the way you played, that you're definitely running away!" he pointed out, "But it's not the fear of losing you're running from... or your fear of failing..." he blinked, "Whatever it is you think you are failing at...no." He shook his head, "Those are factors but really...more than anything else..." he paused, "...It's yourself."

Connar twitched as he made this claim.

Inside, she knew he was right.

"...You can hear Duel Spirits...can't you, Connar?"

Connar froze. She didn't know how to respond.

"I knew it." said Jaden, "Listen to me Connie, what you have is a gift." he said softly while shaking his head, "It's not a curse." he placed a firm hand on her shoulder,"You shouldn't run away from it. Instead, you should embrace it."

"It's not exactly that easy, Jaden..." she sighed.

"Can't say I agree with that." he stated," It's who you are Connar, and yeah, it's pretty much that easy!" he grinned and gave her a playful nudge."There's something else I noticed." he stated, as he went on to continue his annalysis," While I didn't gather the Pikeru and Curran cards, I came across other spell casters as well... and with cards like Trial Of The Princesses, I get the feeling you have Princess Pikeru and Princess Curran stashed away in your deck too." he stated.

She blushed.

"I bet that was one of the pieces you were setting up for when you activated Trial of the Princesses in the first place." he smiled, "I noticed another name..." he gave a sly smile,"Allure Queen..." he snickered as he stood,"Princesses...Queens...it occurs to me, Connie..." he stated softly before stopping in front of her and leaning down, glancing up at her from below,"Either you just really like fairy tales...or...you're some kind of 'Pampered Princess'~!" he teased.

"Wh-That's-" she blushed deeply, struggling with her next words.

There's no way he could have figured out who I am...could he!?

There were very few people who were aware.

Chazz of course being the main one for the obvious reasons.

Alexis too...along with Mindy and Jasmine, from back at Duel Prep School-

Connar figured Alexis probably convinced it to keep it to themselves...

Of course there was Zane...which surprisingly enough hid the fact so well, that not even Syrus knows...

So how coulf Jaden have figured it out so easily?

"Haha. Well That's not important." he snickered and took a seat back on her bed.

...Okay so maybe he didn't know...much to Connar's relief.

"Something else has been bothering me."

"O-Oh really?" she blinked still blushing as she tried to recover from her mini heart attack,"What?
"What was that card you drew earlier, but never played?" he asked.

Connar stopped for a moment as she tried to pin point what moment he was talking about.

Could he mean the Kaibaman card?

She asked herself.

The Card I put back on the deck...?

"You drew a card earlier...but you never played it." he explained as he took her deck into his hands,"And when you did, your game was suddenly way off." He stated, "You kept freezing up, and zoning out on it... and instead you decided to put it back on your deck and surrender." he stated,"Let's see what that card was~"

"No, Jaden, wait!-"

It was too late. He had already drawn the card she had placed back and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Kaibaman?" he blinked, "But...your deck is built around Spell Casters... isn't it?" he blinked and turned his gaze back onto her,"So why the heck do you have a warrior wedged in here?" he asked,"It kinda throws your deck off balance..." he pondered for a moment as he held the card in his hands and darted his eyes between it and the blushing pink haired girl who seemed lost in thought. "Hmm..." he smiled as he held the two cards Kaibaman and Dark Magician Girl together side by side,"I see...so that's how it is."

"That's how what is?" Connar blinked.

"It's true, Dark Magician Girl is your favorite, and you have a really strong bond with it." he stated,"But she's not your partner at all...she's more like your spirit guide." he explained,"You know, kind of like your babysitter or your fairy god mother, watching over you..." he poked at her teasingly, "Your bond with this Kaibaman Card, despite it not being of the type you use, it's so much stronger than the one you share with her..." he stood holding out the warrior,"Your relationship with this card is on a whole different level beyond being favorites...you have a true bond to this card." he stated, "You're tied to it...now the question is...why?" he blinked and gave her a smile as he got down to her level and carefully handed the card back to her," Why this card, specificly?" he asked," That's what's really interesting~"

But there was something else Jaden sensed about this card...

Despite being well-loved and so important to Connar...it was warn and faded...yet felt so...empty.

Something about that card seems...odd...

He blinked.

No wonder her game was off...This card is the soul of her deck...

Her deck is missing its heart.

To play without heart..her cards may as well be blank...

Connar stared at the boy in silence for a while. In just a few rounds of a short duel and a matter of moments with her cards in his hands, this boy was able to read her entire character. She couldn't begin to describe how impressed she was by this. More than that...he stated everything word for word, without a hint of criticism or judgement in his eyes.

This guy...there's something special about him...

she thought to herself.

...I feel like I can really trust him.

she smiled and sighed, giving in.

"Very well Jaden." she said softly," I'll tell you everything."

To be Continued