XXII
The dream had gone quiet. No one spoke, no one moved. Dr. Grimm's fisheye projection still hovered between her and Akaba Leo, showing Reiji half crawling for the door of the ballroom, away from the Duel that had left him such a wreck.
"Persistent." The sphere of light faded away, and so did the glow from the Psychic Duelist's eye. "I wonder if he gets it more from her … or from you?"
She did not seem to care that one Duelist had taken out an entire team of Duel Hunters—even if that Duelist was Akaba Reiji. Leo wondered if perhaps she'd even been counting on it. But that meant too little to him now. All he had heard of what the Ædonai had in store for the Dimensions weighed far too much on his brain and his heart.
He looked at Dr. Grimm, and was saddened to discover how much effort it suddenly took for him to care about her. Something had broken between them. Whatever Kagemaru had filled her head with—between the last time they'd spoken and their reunion tonight—it had poisoned her mind more thoroughly than she had many others.
And yet … for all that the depths of the schemes with which Kagemaru had ensnared them both had horrified him, for all that he despised the man for the damage he had done to his former scion, it was becoming clearer and clearer that his protégée had suffered far more appalling injuries to her psyche. He had a strong suspicion of how those had come about.
But what unsettled him more than even that was this talk of another Dimension … a whole other space, beyond even the four known to exist. Dr. Grimm couldn't be talking about the Original Dimension, could she? And if she was …
" … I trained you too well."
His voice was a murmur. But the ambient noise of the dream had become such a non-entity that the Psychic Duelist still whirled on him as though the words had stung her. "Excuse me?"
"I taught you to use Fusion Summoning as more than just a method," Leo told her, "but as an entire idea. I watched you take to it as if it was second nature to you—I watched as you grew stronger with every new Fusion Summon, all because I had taught you an idea that it would make you better … make you feel invincible."
He bowed his head. "But I see now that that idea has done more harm than good to you. It's got far more of a hold on you than I could ever have thought was possible. And it's poisoned you—consumed you."
"That seems rather a strong word, coming from you," Dr. Grimm quipped. But she was not smiling. "You're not entertaining regrets, I hope?"
"I won't ever say I should never have let you into Academia," Leo spoke—perhaps too quickly, he chided himself. "That was no mistake. You served us far too well for that. But joining forces with Kagemaru and his master was folly." He saw her head jerk upwards. "Oh, yes. I know your powers better than anyone, Wendy. Where you can make windows into my mind, our bond as teacher and student can make doors into yours. And even if it couldn't, I never thought for one second that that bastard might be acting under his own power."
He saw the Psychic Duelist's head tilt the tiniest fraction. " … I begin to wish I'd dealt with them differently."
"Them?" Dr. Grimm frowned. "You have never crossed paths with the Wise Man. They have no quarrel with you."
"Is that what he calls himself now?" He could not prove it, of course—but there was too much coincidence for it to be true. "It doesn't matter. If Kagemaru really is working under the Wise Man … then it's clear to me just who the Wise Man is. Or I should say, perhaps," he amended, "what he became because of me."
He curled his hand into a fist. "He should never have gone on that damnable mission … "
"You're assigning too much blame to yourself, Leo," soothed Dr. Grimm. She took a step closer to him. "Please—stop beating yourself up about things that happened far in the past. It won't bring those kids back any more than it will make the Wise Man cease to exist, and Kagemaru with him."
"I assigned them to that mission," Leo growled. "I ordered them. I as good as killed them all."
But Dr. Grimm, again, did not seem to care. "If it means anything," she murmured, "they don't hold it against you for what happened to them because of you. They would never have learned what they did if you hadn't given the order. So you can rest easy, knowing that their reasons for singling you out are no more personal than mine."
Leo exhaled—a long, slow sound that seemed years in the making. "Well, if that isn't just the oldest excuse in the book," he grunted. "Just—following—orders." He pronounced every word with deliberate scorn.
He stood up straight. The time, it seemed, had come to make his decision. He had seen it coming for a long time—now the hard part was, quite literally, staring him right in the face.
"I cannot let you start this again, Wendy," the former headmaster of Academia said heavily. "I say this not merely as your teacher, but also as your friend: what you and the Ædonai are doing, and intend to do, will devastate all of existence—and in ways even Z-ARC could never have dreamed."
He raised his left arm, and was pleased to see a Duel Disk on his forearm where there had been none. "Unless you are stopped … right here. Right now."
Leo clenched his fist, and his old violet, gold-trimmed shield of Academia produced an equally violet blade. This he leveled at Dr. Grimm, who only now seemed to realize that her former teacher might just mean what he said.
"And what is it," she mused, her gaze traveling to the empty Deck slot of the device on Leo's arm, "that you intend to stop me with?" Her tone was not mocking—she knew Leo would conjure up some Deck or another in this dream. He knew her too well to think otherwise. The only question was what that Deck might be.
Leo forced a smile over his thin lips. "They may have confiscated the Spirits I used at Academia, but I still retain a memory of every card inside that Deck," he said … and then his smile widened.
"Actually … thinking about it," he laughed, surprisingly gently under the circumstances, "you know the thing about being a headmaster, Wendy? You remember everything about every pupil that goes to your school. Including the Decks they used, past and present … and every single card inside them."
He brought his Duel Disk to his breast, showing Dr. Grimm the forty-odd cards that had just materialized inside its Deck slot. And for reasons no one else but the two of them could fathom, those forty-odd cards caused Dr. Grimm to actually take a step backwards. Her good eye was wide as could be, livid with a mixture of fury and terror.
When the Psychic Duelist next spoke, it was with a shaky, stricken whisper that did not suit her. " … I have been nothing but a loyal servant of the Fusion Dimension for twenty years," she hissed. "I've beaten and bloodied; I've been beaten and bloodied. I've been wounded … I've been mutilated … I've been humiliated … "
She hiked up a sleeve, and raised her arm to display her own Duel Disk. "But never like this."
The arrowhead of the Ædonai gleamed with a mirror-shine along her left arm, still the same navy-trimmed violet as her old Duel Disk at Academia. Barely an instant passed before dark blue energy coruscated over its body and along the forearm beneath, finally crystallizing into a glowing sword that she aimed straight at Leo.
"How dare you," she spat. "How dare you use that Deck against me!"
Leo shrugged. "I'm an old man, Wendy," he could only say. "People my age make a habit of thinking about better times. Happier times. I hope you live long enough to reach that point yourself."
"Leo." Dr. Grimm shook her head fretfully. He realized, deep down, that his old student was pleading. "Kagemaru gave me a direct order. I knew from the very beginning that it would be the hardest thing I'd ever have to do for our Dimension. Please … for the sake of the ties that bound us then and bind us now, don't make it any harder for me!"
But Leo was resolute. "I don't want to do this. I don't even want to see you doing this to yourself. But for the sake of the human race—no matter what dimension they live in—I have to."
He hefted his arm, and drew his cards. "Duel."
The halls of the Château blurred past Nakajima as he sprinted through them at breakneck speed. Doors were shoved open with barely any regard for their construction—more than once the aide had heard splintering wood as he bulled his way past each obstacle.
It was after the fourth such door that he finally found his employer, sprawled on the marble tile of the ballroom near an adjoining door. The hologram of Angel-IQ hovered next to him, her virtual hands inches from his body.
"Reiji-san!"
Angel-IQ whirled on Nakajima right as he held out a hand to scoop him up. "Nakajima-san, please be careful. His injuries are serious—we cannot risk moving Reiji-sama so suddenly."
The aide only needed a cursory glance at Reiji to see she had a point. Half his face was bruised and bloodied, his nose looked like it had been broken and reset, and his red scarf had been wrapped around his neck and left forearm like a sling. Reiji was not wearing his glasses, either—it took a second glance around the empty ballroom before Nakajima saw their shattered remains.
No—not empty, he belatedly realized; he'd had so much of his attention focused on Reiji that only just now had he noticed the five unconscious women slumped against the wall. One of them, he saw, wore the mangled remains of a Duel Disk—and all of them were dressed much like the woman he'd tangled with just now. His eyes narrowed as he put two and two together.
"Naka … jima … "
For a moment the aide wasn't sure who had spoken. Even though he knew the answer, he refused to believe Reiji could sound that weak. And yet, he still had to suppress a swallow as he watched his employer reach out with his hand, clawing himself inch by inch towards the door.
The boy's got some on him, Nakajima thought—but the state of his body had finally caught up with him, it seemed.
"Don't try to move, Reiji-san," he told him. "I wouldn't risk talking too much, either. You're in no shape to be exerting yourself at all."
"Father … Grimm … have to … Father … "
The aide bit his lip, his soldier's brain thinking. If Reiji had been Dueling in a mansion that was supposed to have as little technology as possible, then he could only assume there had to be a satellite to transmit the Solid Vision signals to make that Duel possible. And that might just mean—
"Angel-IQ."
"Sir?"
Nakajima's voice was gruff. "If these"—he gestured to the five would-be maids with no small amount of distaste—"should regain consciousness, please see they do not gain it for very long."
"Understood." And with a wave of her digital hand, the supercomputer brought each woman's hands together at the wrists, encasing every pair inside a glowing sphere of hard light. Their feet and ankles followed suit moments later.
By then, Nakajima had hauled Reiji to his feet, and draped his body over him like a cloak. The aide could tell from how limply some of the joints were dangling that he wouldn't be able to move with the urgency of before.
"Just hold on," he told his charge gently. "I'll get us there." He did not wait for an answer. Without another word, he set off at a brisk trot—the fastest he felt comfortable with going with Reiji in the condition he was.
Leo knew at a glance that he'd made the right choice to pick this Deck—even if he could see only half of the results.
The moment his Duel with Dr. Grimm had commenced, the imagery of the dreamscape had shifted—crystallized into a single, long facet that split the room straight down the middle. Only the moonbeams shining from the window gave it away, so clean was the cleft; it passed through him and his former student as if they hadn't even been there, reaching off into infinity—but the light of the moon bounced off the invisible surface, casting new shadows where there had once been none.
But just as this was no ordinary dream, Leo knew, the mirror that divided them was no ordinary mirror. He had only to look at Dr. Grimm to know that … and he suspected she had an inkling of what he'd done, too. Her left eye—the unblemished one, reflected by the mirror that split her in half—was round as a coin, and shining with a single tear.
And the face … the half-face around that eye was far younger, the hair that framed it green as ever—but far less full and kempt than Leo knew it to be in the present. No verdant ponytail draped to her waist, only a loosely kept curtain of green, rife with split ends; she might have just risen from a sleepless night.
There had been many of those in the early days, he knew—the first days … the painful days.
"You never were a man to let go, Leo," Dr. Grimm said, smiling knowingly as she adjusted something on her Duel Disk. "If that's how it is to be, then. Battle Royale rules, two against one; none of us can draw or attack on our first turn—and twice the Life Points for twice the opponents, correct?"
"And if one of us reaches zero, you pay 4000 of yours to make them fight for you." Leo watched her LP gauge set itself to 8000, very much mindful that she would try to use every secret weapon in her employ the first chance she had, even against him. Not that he minded in the slightest—he'd taught her from a young age to pick her battles. "But you know we won't give you the chance."
He knew the Psychic Duelist had heard the "we"—and indeed might have expected it—as soon as he saw her tense where she stood. At that he took a deep breath … and stepped to the left. Just a few paces, at first—but even one was enough for Dr. Grimm to see the full effect of what he'd done.
Without an inkling of either shock or surprise, he noted his reflection in the corner of his eye—the mirror image that wasn't quite of him taking the exact opposite path. Leo's eyes drifted across the purple cape, swishing silently about his legs with every step he took. The golden epaulettes on his shoulders, perched either side of the jacket's spade-shaped collar, glinted dully in the dim light of the study. Even the lenses and instrumentation that covered half of his hairless scalp had been faithfully reproduced. Leo wondered how functional they might be here.
Briefly, he turned his gaze back to Dr. Grimm, and was not surprised to see her shaking where she stood—or at least the left half of her, still submerged within the infinite mirror that carved time, space, and dream alike in twain.
"You do not wish to let me see her again, Wendy?" Leo asked calmly, nodding at the image. "It's been such a long time; I've almost forgotten what that face looked like."
"She was me," whispered the Psychic Duelist. "She still is me. She always will be. And for that reason … she will always be mine."
There was nothing more to be said after that. An instant later, she made the first move of the Duel. "I Set a monster and two cards," she said, far more clearly, as a glowing skull materialized in front of her, flanked by a pair of Traps.
Or so Leo assumed. At a young age, Wendy had always been a cautious Duelist when he'd trained her, never one to tip her hand or show off—until and unless the outcome of the battle to come had already been assured. He had seen her perform the first turn of a Duel this way a hundred times. Nine times out of then, they had ended with Traps.
She'll use them the moment she's able, Leo thought as he watched Dr. Grimm end her turn. He scanned the cards in his hand, and saw possibility. "First," he began, "I Summon Demon Beast of the Dream Magic Mirror – Phantos in Attack Position!" He had to take a hasty step backward an instant later; the animal that had lumbered onto the field just now was rather bigger than he'd remembered. Heavy claws scored the floor, red-black fur strained beneath cords of muscle, and four yellow eyes—right between a pair of long striped horns and a slavering maw of a mouth—glinted with bestial intent at the Psychic Duelist right in front of it (Level 4: ATK 1900/DEF 900).
"Now, I activate the Continuous Spell: Phantasmagorical Dream Magic Mirror," Leo went on, sliding the card in question onto his Duel Disk—and just then, in the corner of his eye, he saw his mirror image perform the exact same movement, at the exact same time—and with the exact same card. "By activating this card, I"—we, he decided against amending—"can add a Dream Magic Mirror monster from my Deck to my hand."
But he and his doppelgänger had scarcely touched their cards of choice before Dr. Grimm had sprung the first of her snares. "Trap, activate: Squirming of Fallen Shadows!" she cried. "By sending a Shaddoll card from my Deck to my Graveyard, I can switch any Set Shaddoll monsters I control to face-up Defense Position! So I'll send my Shaddoll Lizard—and reveal my Reverse monster, Shaddoll Hedgehog!"
Leo bit his lip. What worried him wasn't so much the blue-black, spiky puppet that had risen before him on half a dozen threads of glowing violet (Level 2: ATK 800/DEF 200), but more the shadowy form of the reptile he'd seen diving from Wendy's Duel Disk and into a swirling portal of nothingness—and more than that, the shadows he'd seen creeping around the study they were Dueling in, lurking just beyond every book, every nook and cranny the moonlight wasn't touching.
"You remember my Shaddoll Lizard's effect, of course," the Psychic Duelist smiled, ejecting a second card out of her Duel Disk. "If it's sent to the Graveyard by a card effect, I can send another Shaddoll card from my Deck to the Graveyard. I'll send my Shaddoll Falcon"—Leo remembered that monster's effect, too, even as Dr. Grimm reeled it off almost exactly as he'd worded it in his head, even as he watched that same Falcon Special Summon itself face-down onto her field, concealed by a second floating skull—"and then, because my Hedgehog was flipped face-up, I activate its Reverse effect, and add a Shaddoll Spell/Trap Card from my Deck to my hand."
And three guesses on which one it is. Leo could almost see the flowchart his student had perfected over the years; her most infamous Fusion Monster would not be long in coming now. He (and the Professor, he thought—for what more deserving name could he give his mirror image?) would have to take care to limit how they built up their field.
He found it ironic that even in dreams, where one had all the time in the world, Wendy never liked to waste it.
"Next, the Spell Card: One for One," both he and the Professor now spoke in tandem, mimicking each other's words and actions in near-perfect synchronicity. "By sending a monster from my hand to my Graveyard, I can then Special Summon a Level 1 monster from my hand or Deck." He wasted no time in sliding the very monster he'd added into his Graveyard slot—as did the Professor—knowing it wouldn't stay there for long. "Together, we Special Summon the Succubus and Maiden of the Dream Magic Mirror – Ikelos!"
But it was no monster that appeared in their midst—at least, not immediately. The mirror that split world, field, and Duelist had given birth to something large and vaguely ovoid in shape. Along its boundaries, the surface splintered and crystallized, scattering into shards of onyx and gold, yet reforming just as quickly: a mirror inside of a mirror.
From within this new mirror stepped a pair of young women—one for each side of the reflection—just tall enough that they hadn't had to stoop to appear. Though each of them bore the same face, and moved in mirror-perfect step with the other, from here all similarity ended. The girl to Leo's left was dark of skin, white and wild of hair, and swathed herself in a wine-red tunic beneath the night-black slivers of silk that covered her limbs—and from which the staff in her hands seemed to grow, sprouting a curved, yellowing blade that glittered like the wing of some giant insect (Level 1: ATK 500 » 300/DEF 0).
Leo, however, barely registered the pair of shadows that spread outward from the Succubus' legs—the result of the ATK-draining Spellstone Counters lurking inside Dr. Grimm's Field Spell: Curse of the Shadow Prison—that same terrain program that let her play it at the start of any Duel she wished to use it. That much he'd expected. But at the moment, he only had eyes for the girl on his right … or, perhaps more accurately, the Professor's right.
Ankle-length green hair had been tamed into twin braids, and the wide eyes that shone between them were just as verdant. A loose green cloak and a white blouse were all that covered her ivory skin—save for the silver armor around her hips, and the boiled brown leather that protected her chest, arms and neck (Level 1: ATK 0/DEF 500). No blade sliced out from her staff, even as she brought it to her breast—only a sphere of blue crystal that lit up the dream more brightly than any moon could hope.
Dr. Grimm, he now saw, was also riveted to the sight of the Maiden his mirror image had Summoned—more so than he, if that were possible. Neither her good eye nor her damaged one seemed willing to stray even an inch from the Duel Monster's face.
"Beautiful, isn't she?" Leo couldn't resist asking, nodding to the Maiden. "I remember a little girl like her showing up on the school docks one day. So excited … and yet so scared of being so far from the safety of her home—so far away from that tiny, tumbledown slice of the world she'd felt blessed every day to behold with her own eyes.
"And it was every day, wasn't it?" With no small amount of difficulty, he tore his gaze from the monster, and fixed on the Psychic Duelist. "It was the one thing that kept you going in your early life."
Dr. Grimm gave no sign of whether or not her former teacher was telling the truth. "I remember how much I hated it," was all she said, hardly daring to look at him.
Leo sniffed. "Wendy, you and I both know what you hated as a child—and it wasn't that drafty old farmhouse your mother reared you in." He shook his head, as if recalling an old memory. "Ah, your mother … poor and struggling to make ends meet selling the tea leaves she grew in her garden—even before the unpleasant truth hit her that she'd have to pull double duty in raising a family."
His front teeth sunk a millimeter into his lip. " … Misgarth never did track down who your father was, did they?"
He knew he'd struck a nerve by how quickly his erstwhile student had torn her gaze away from the Maiden. "I had no father," she spat, in a hiss of a whisper. "She said nothing of any father. As far as she was concerned, the world was better off without her ever finding out. Perhaps she was telling the whole truth—or perhaps she wasn't, for my sake—but I don't think she cared either way. All she wanted in life … was for me to make her proud."
She threw out a hand. "Continuous Trap, open: Shaddoll Roots! By activating this card, I can Special Summon it to my field as an Effect Monster!" And no sooner had her card revealed itself that its image gave way to a formless mass of swirling shadows, roiling necks, and fanged maws (Level 9: ATK 1450/DEF 1950)—each one baying and shrieking a feral, cacophonous dirge that threatened to shatter the entire dreamscape around them.
Leo, however, felt a moment of vindication in predicting his student's moves so far. And so he persevered—even though he needed to raise his voice to be heard over the howls and snarls of Roots.
"And every breath you took was reason enough for her to be proud, wasn't it?" he asked. "Every second you lived, and survived, making and remaking yourself every step of the way, until you became who you are today."
With that, Leo emptied his hand. "Two cards face-down," he finished, as the Professor mimicked his movements yet again, and as a brace of cards materialized either side of each of them. "I end my turn with that."
Several long moments had passed before Leo realized Dr. Grimm had yet to make any sort of response. Her good eye wasn't even looking at the cards on her hand, or even those already on the field. Something was on her mind, that much he knew.
"How is your mother, Wendy?" he ventured to ask. "Do you still keep in touch with her?" He had to bite his lip to keep himself from adding Does she know what you've been doing?
But the Psychic Duelist seemed to notice the hint all the same. "I don't tell her the details," she muttered, and Leo suspected she wasn't talking about just her eye. "I put her through enough stress for two lifetimes. She looked in the mirror, the day before the last letter she wrote me. She told me she looked fifty, going on a century."
She looked away—an uncharacteristic moment of vulnerability from such a redoubtable woman. "What do you say to that?" she asked. Leo suspected the question wasn't meant for him. "What can you say to that, but gentle lies?"
Her lips were a thin line. "I made her proud," she said softly. "But before all that, Leo … you made me a weapon."
She punctuated the last word by drawing her card as if unsheathing a dagger. Leo was so taken aback by the bite to her voice that he almost missed his Succubus' ATK returning to normal—and what this meant for the Duel at hand. Fortunately for him, the nature of the dream meant that his mirror image was able to react to his old student beginning her turn where he himself could not.
"Trap Card, open: Dream Magic Mirror of Hypnagogia!" the Professor rumbled—and Leo saw Dr. Grimm take a step backwards. Her good eye was wide with shock. Why this was became apparent almost at once.
"When I activate this card," the Professor went on, ejecting a pair of cards from his Duel Disk, "I can take the Field Spells Dream Magic Mirror of Holy Light and Dream Magic Mirror of Darkness, and activate each one on mine and my opponent's fields! I place Dream Magic Mirror of Darkness in my own Field Zone—and Dream Magic Mirror of Holy Light in Leo's Field Zone!"
The effect was immediate: Leo saw the half of the study in which he stood brighten as though night had become day in the space of seconds. And a beautiful day it was, too—Leo could see the edges of flower petals, and blooms on the trees that stood either side of the window of his study. If he concentrated, he could hear a hint of birdsong in the sky—and he thought he could even smell the growing grass outside.
It was the most entrancing spring he'd ever felt in his life, in any dimension—and for a moment, he wished it didn't have to be a dream. But a dream it was—and the notion that it might be the closest he'd ever get to such a beautiful day again brought him back down to earth far too quickly for his liking. And that was before he'd mustered enough courage to look at the other half of the field.
Before, it had been merely nighttime that shrouded the Duel site, and even though the mirror had split enough of it that it was noticeable, the divide had never been more clear here. The half of the study where the Professor stood was as good as lightless now; the shadows had become so oppressive that Leo could almost feel them trying to squirm their way through the mirror—like they were trying to infect the very concept of light itself.
The Professor himself was in the thick of it all, just barely visible in the midst of that hungry darkness—or perhaps even the source of it. The veins of his bald head pulsed with sickening regularity, as if they were somehow churning out this black miasma—and the red lenses that covered parts of his scalp gleamed with what little light was left in all that shadow, looking for all the world like a spidery mass of eyes that had grown from the Professor's skull. All the while, more wispy shadows hissed silently from his body, distorting his face and pulling it into a nightmarish mask.
Distorted, too, were the monsters they had Summoned. Leo could not see the faces of the Succubus and the Demon Beast on his field—but he could tell from their way they'd shifted in their posture that they were beginning to feel the indirect effects of both Field Spells already. Even the Professor's Maiden—so much like Wendy that Leo still found it near impossible to tear his gaze from her face—looked distinctly more menacing, though none of their point gauges had budged even a millimeter.
As the Professor explained, this wasn't for lack of trying. "Phantasmagorical Dream Magic Mirror's second effect grants every monster I control 500 ATK and DEF while Dream Magic Mirror of Holy Light is in a Field Zone." He nodded to Leo. "Conversely, this same effect causes each of my opponent's monsters to lose 500 ATK and DEF while Dream Magic Mirror of Darkness is in a Field Zone."
"Since I have my own Phantasmagorical Dream Magic Mirror," Leo added, "and since this Duel is a Battle Royale, this means our Continuous Spells cancel each other out—none of our monsters will gain the ATK and DEF that they might have otherwise. But," he smiled, seeing the Shaddoll Roots next to Wendy shrink to the size of a man as its gauge plummeted to 450/950—while her Hedgehog, completely sapped of its strength, lay as limp as any puppet—"since you have no such Spell on your field, Wendy, it means your monsters lose twice as much ATK and DEF!
"And we're not finished, either!" He and the Professor threw out their hands in unison. "First, the Continuous Trap: Dreamtelling of the Dream Magic Mirror! Activate!" An instant later: "Then, we activate the effects of our Ikelos! By Releasing them while we control Holy Light and Darkness in our Field Zones, each of us can Special Summon another Succubus and Maiden to the other's fields—and because of Dreamtelling's effect, any Dream Magic Mirror monsters we Release by their own effects are shuffled back into the Deck instead! Oneiric Shift!"
In that instant, Succubus and Maiden moved in unison, but moved strangely: they leapt into the air … but as though gravity had suddenly decided to reassert itself elsewhere, their bodies twisted and fell sideways, not down—pulled into the border of the world-splitting mirror that separated them, like the surface of a perfectly still lake. They met in midair—but the mirror did not shatter or ripple, nor did either monster disappear into one another; there was a flash of light, a burst of shadow—and one more instant later, it was as if they had both simply traded places with each other (Level 1: ATK 500/DEF 0, Level 1: ATK 0/DEF 500).
Leo could tell at a glance that both monsters felt more at home here than before: his Maiden's skin glowed radiantly with the light of his Field Spell; Succubus, on the other hand, looked even more demonic than before with the way the shadows of Darkness swirled around her lithe limbs, elongating her teeth into fangs, her nails into claws, and the blade of her scythe into a truly wicked collection of jagged edges, like fire frozen into cold steel.
"Dream Magic Mirror of Darkness' effect," smirked the Professor from the other side of the mirror. "Each time a monster not my own is Special Summoned, I can inflict 300 damage to my opponent! And because this Duel is a Battle Royale"—his smirk widened—"it matters not who that opponent is … or which opponent takes that damage!"
"What?!" But Dr. Grimm got no further: scarcely had Leo's reflection let the last word pass his lips than Leo's new Maiden sprang for her, staff in hand. The blue crystal flashed once—only once—and the Psychic Duelist stumbled backwards. Though she recovered quickly enough—not once did she yowl or even hiss in pain, Leo noted—the damage was done; a deep, if bloodless cut had gouged her cheek, and her LP gauge had trickled downwards to 7700.
Leo, however, was in no mood to let up. "Maiden's second effect!" he announced. "If she is Special Summoned by a Dream Magic Mirror monster's effect, I can add a Dream Magic Mirror card from my Deck to my hand!" He did so. "Likewise, if Succubus is Special Summoned by a Dream Magic Mirror monster's effect—"
"—her second effect," finished the Professor, "allows me to Special Summon 1 other Dream Magic Mirror monster from my hand. I Special Summon Holy Beast of the Dream Magic Mirror – Phantas in Defense Position!"
Again, the mirror-within-a-mirror grew between Leo and the Professor. In the corner of his eye, he saw his Demon Beast reflected within this time—but as with Maiden and Succubus, the animal taking shape within this growing mirror looked every inch the opposite of his slavering hound. Creamy white fur and sea-green feathers rippled over the body of the dog-like creature that bounded forth onto the Professor's field (Level 4: ATK 900/DEF 1900).
Leo was half tempted to cross the mirror himself, simply to scratch the back of its head and see if that would make its tail wag—but the Professor was already speaking once more. "Holy Beast's effect activates if it is Special Summoned by a Dream Magic Mirror monster's effect," he explained, "and allows me to target a Dream Magic Mirror monster in my Graveyard, and Special Summon it! I Special Summon the monster I sent to activate One for One—my White Knight of the Dream Magic Mirror – Rpheus!"
Several things happened at that point, and so nearly in unison that it was hard to tell which happened first: right as the Professor swiped his chosen monster onto the blade of his Duel Disk, a young blonde woman in splendid silver armor rose before him, with a gleaming sword in her hands to match (Level 8: ATK 1000/DEF 2800).
But even before the first glint of this new monster's armor had showed itself, Leo and the Professor were moving in lockstep once more. "Demon Beast's effect!" Leo cried. "Since Holy Light is in my Field Zone, I can Release it to Special Summon a Holy Beast of the Dream Magic Mirror – Phantas of my own! Come out!"
He didn't even need to look at his mirror image to know that the Professor was doing the opposite with the Holy Beast he controlled. Not that he could; the mirror-within-a-mirror had appeared between them once more, blocking all sight of his doppelgänger. His black-and-crimson Demon Beast leapt inside it with a final snarl as Leo returned its card back into his Deck—and was almost immediately replaced by that same Holy Beast. Each of them plodded to their new masters' sides in pitch-perfect step (Level 4: ATK 1900/DEF 900; Level 4: ATK 900/DEF 1900).
"And since my opponent Special Summoned a monster," the Professor spoke, "that means another 300 damage from my Darkness Field Spell!"
THUD.
Dr. Grimm had no time to react—Holy Beast was already halfway across the field, a living missile of off-white fur and feathers. That missile struck home an instant later, striking the Psychic Duelist in her stomach hard enough to bend her double—and to make Leo wince as well.
But he did not allow himself to grow too sympathetic—there was still more to be done. "Since my Holy Beast was Special Summoned by a Dream Magic Mirror monster's effect," he continued—before Dr. Grimm's LP gauge had even finished dropping to 7400—"I target a Dream Magic Mirror monster in my Graveyard, and Special Summon it! I'll revive the monster I sent to activate One for One—my Black Knight of the Dream Magic Mirror – Rpheus!"
The portal that distorted the mirror this time was larger than its brethren, a full head taller than either Duelist. Inside its depths glowed a pair of red eyes—then a woman's face, so dark of skin as to look sculpted from obsidian; a body encased in equally black, pristine armor. Dark red cloth swirled and snapped about her legs as she stepped onto the field, and the sword she carried over her shoulders—a monstrosity of a blade that glowed blood-red, like so many veins in the human body—rippled with wicked edges that caught the moonlight (Level 8: ATK 2800/DEF 1000)—
—and aligned themselves right at her opponent's neck as the Professor cried, "Darkness' effect!"
Leo didn't hear the words this time—the Black Knight's armor made far too much noise as she rushed right for Dr. Grimm. Again the Psychic Duelist crumpled; the flat of the blade had struck her in the side, sending her sprawling against Leo's Desk. Her life gauge had dropped to 7100 by the time she'd gotten to her feet, clutching at her ribs—and what Leo suspected would have been a nasty bruise indeed, if anything about this Duel had been real.
"Rpheus' effect!" he bellowed—and heard himself bellow, as the Professor mimicked his words and actions. "By Releasing them while we control Holy Light and Darkness in our Field Zones, each of us can Special Summon their counterparts to the other's fields! Go—Oneiric Shift!"
For an instant, both Knights seemed to dance, between one side of the mirror and the other, as they traded positions with a single leap. Which was reflection and which was real, Leo could not say—nor did it matter, he knew. Inside of two seconds, two completely different Knights stood on two completely different fields (Level 8: ATK 2800/DEF 1000; Level 8: ATK 1000/DEF 2800), and both flashed their blades at Dr. Grimm in gestures of defiance.
Leo's new White Knight did more than that, as it happened: as Darkness' effect triggered yet again, a wave of light radiated outwards from the point of her blade, striking his former student full in the face—but this time, it was not enough to send her to the floor. She bent, but did not break, and even as her LP dwindled to 6800, she was standing up to her full height, sporting a thin line of blood that divided her face down the middle—right where the mirror still divided her, along with the world that had become their battlefield.
It occurred to Leo then that Black Knight's second effect could have been used here—to target and destroy any card on the field the moment it was Summoned by another of its brethren's card effects. But what could it have targeted for destruction? More to the point, what could it have targeted that wouldn't have struck right back? Leo knew his student well—and her Deck. He'd created it himself, as a reward for her perseverance and dedication in fostering the abilities he'd helped her to unlock. No doubt the Professor knew this just as well as he did—for he was him, after all … and sometimes, mirror images didn't mirror just an image.
Perhaps Dr. Grimm herself suspected the same thing. "You've … gone soft on me, Leo," she muttered, forcing him out of his thoughts with a bump. "All those times you beat me … humbled me … when you were making me your perfect Duelist. Is that all that this Duel is to you—an attempt to relive the past? Is it that impossible for you to see that the little girl you took under your wing has changed?"
"You were never a little girl, Wendy," Leo replied. "Not even when you were born. Your condition made sure of that." His lips thinned in thought for a moment. "What did the doctors call it again? Hyper … hypo … "
"Chronic diurnal hyperallodynia."
He'd known the answer, of course. The speed and tone with which she'd spoken the three words told him she hadn't forgotten, either—and that was before the mirror that split the world rippled where she stood. For a moment, the darkened study it reflected had shifted into images upon images of something else entirely: the rude wooden floor of a ramshackle house, echoing with the endless squalling of an infant girl; the sleek ward of a hospital, where a decade of screams hit Leo in an instant, like a kick to the gut; the dusk-shrouded practice yards of Academia, and an endless tide of monsters falling upon the shadow of the defenseless woman who faced them—
"I read my medical file before Misgarth had it censored, and carted off the remains as 'top secret'," Dr. Grimm said amidst the torrent of color and sound. "No one had ever seen a case like mine before my time or since. The school doctors told me to my face that I shouldn't have been able to stand."
The visions faded, and the Psychic Duelist grit her teeth. "Yet here I stand. All thanks to you."
As Dr. Grimm made her move at last, Leo felt time slow to a crawl. "I activate the Spell Card: Shaddoll F—"
"Too slow!" both Leos spoke in unison as the Professor revealed his other card. "Counter Trap: Oneiromancy of the Dream Magic Mirror! If my opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card while Dream Magic Mirror of Holy Light is in a Field Zone, I can negate its activation, and destroy it!"
He didn't see the lightning bolt that did it—it happened too fast to process. But he heard the whip-crack of thunder that followed, and in that instant Dr. Grimm had dropped the very card she'd hoped to use against her own mentor as if it had been shot right out of her fingers. Leo caught the green edge of Shaddoll Fusion before the Psychic Duelist slipped it into her Graveyard slot with a scowl. He couldn't resist a smile as silence fell once more.
"'All thanks to me'," he repeated. "I know you and your tricks too well, Wendy. I taught you half of them, after all. And I gave you the tools you needed to create the rest yourself." He tapped at his temple knowingly.
The Psychic Duelist did not seem shocked at this. "The bond between teacher and student," she whispered, half to herself. "You may not have the powers over dreams that I possess. But you played such a large part in helping me use them that here, in this space, you know their ins and outs just as well as I do.
"For instance … your Dream Magic Mirror of Holy Light's effect," Dr. Grimm added, nodding Leo's way. "While you control a LIGHT-Attribute Dream Magic Mirror monster, I cannot target Dream Magic Mirror monsters for attacks or with card effects, save those with the highest Level." Her green eye briefly flicked to Rpheus. "And I can't help but note your convenient failure to mention your White Knight's second effect—for the turn it's Special Summoned by a Dream Magic Mirror monster's effect, it can't be destroyed by battle or card effects. Add that to your twin Continuous Spells, and my Roots is too weak to destroy even your weakest monster."
She smiled. "You've created a near-perfect defense." But the smile grew wider—and thinner. "Just like you did a thousand times in training."
And with that, Dr. Grimm swiped a pair of cards on her Duel Disk, and they appeared face-down in front of her. "I Set one monster," she declared, "and one more card. Turn end."
Leo barely heard the words before he moved like lightning—and even here, the Professor echoed him. "The second effect of our Field Spells: Holy Light and Darkness!" they spoke in perfect tandem. "Once per turn, during each End Phase, we can banish them from our fields, and activate copies of their counterparts from our hands or Decks!"
They threw out their free hands, making fists with each one—and as if the gesture commanded some unimaginable power, the infinite mirror of the dream shifted—slowly and silently revolving in the center of the Duel, shifting the entire world of illusion it had captured. Night became day; shadows became sunlight—and in a matter of seconds, both images of Leo had become their polar opposite.
"Now do you see how pointless it was to Duel me, Wendy?" Leo told her. His voice felt deeper, more stentorian, in a way that he didn't think his new outfit—old outfit? he wondered—was capable of coaxing out of him in real life. "Now do you see why Kagemaru sent you on a fool's errand? Why he was better off leaving me in peace?"
"Can we stop pretending Kagemaru has anything to do with why I sought you out at all?!" snapped Dr. Grimm. "I cannot let you do this to yourself, Leo! I cannot watch you betray me by simply giving up right here, right now!"
"You think Kagemaru will simply let us become teacher and student once more?" Leo shot back. "He knows all too well what I was like as a teacher. He may wish to recruit me—but he cannot have Akaba Leo. Not without having Professor Akaba Leo as well. Nor can you have the man I used to be without the man I am now, Wendy. However ruthless you think I was in those days—however formidable I was to my enemies and to you—I have already made peace with the Leo of before."
And indeed, Leo knew there was a reason to the way this Duel was going as it did; why the dream shifted as it was commanded, why he and the Professor moved as more than mirror images of each other—and perhaps even why Dr. Grimm appeared the way she did, her very being split in two by the same mirror that split her entire universe. Even as the dreamscape had changed, all it had done was flip the halves of the woman and the scared little girl. Now it was the grown woman whose half-face was lost in Darkness, her damaged eye leaking an endless trickle of shadow-matter—and the gentle sun of Holy Light that bathed the slice of the terrified girl in its brilliance.
Wendy was on the precipice, Leo knew at once. With Academia gone, she'd had nowhere to go but into the arms of Kagemaru—and that, he now saw, was only the beginning of her troubles. Where he had come to terms with the future that awaited him, Dr. Grimm was fighting tooth and nail for her own future. Where he had conquered his older self—his darker self—the Psychic Duelist was still fighting that battle, even as she fought this one.
How small this Duel must feel for her, he lamented. Wendy has no business Dueling me, the way she is now.
And yet, he knew, she'd spent half her life defying the odds. To expect her to give in tonight would be folly as well.
A/N: Gott im himmel, I had to grapple with this one. Have a look at the end notes in my most recent chapter of duel de c(œ)urs, if you don't yet know why I had such a hard time writing anything at all these past few months. A lot of those reasons applied to this chapter, too—and the next one by extension.
But what I had a problem with most of all was how this whole entire Duel played out. I like a visual element to my fight scenes, and trying to assign anything like that to the Dream Mirrors was a lot harder than it looked on paper when I first got the idea to use them. I ended up having to split the chapter involving the battle in two—and more than once, I had to revise the whole thing and start near from scratch just because I'd gotten lost in my own Duel recap.
Good news is, part two of that battle is pretty much complete. I'm gonna release that with my final c(œ)urs entry—which, if everything pans out, should be in just a couple weeks. A good chunk of this got written over the span of a few days, and so I like to think I finally got back in my writing groove again. Fingers crossed I stay there this time.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy! – K